1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



889 



Gleanincs in Bee Ccltdre. 



PublLshfd Sftiii- Monthly. 



EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 

 MEDINA, O. 



TERMS; $1.00 PER YEAR, POSTPAID. 



For Clutting Bates, Seo First Page of Eeaiing Matter. 



on. The printed matter takes up about one-fourth 

 of a sheet, and on a dozen sheets the waste of paper 

 would be very considerable. It is all the same to us, 

 however, for it takes no longer to print reading-mat- 

 ter than it does ruled lines. We have the sheets 

 already ruled, put up in packages of 1000 sheets 

 each, at 75 cts. per 1000. 



CAUTION. 



Ik locust and clover are not out yet, be sure that 

 your bees are fed a little until the yield opens. 



Friend Foster, of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, writes, aft- 

 er his advertisemt on page 363 was printed, desiring 

 us to change the price of two-pound colonies with 

 tested queen from $4.V5 to *3.50. 



HONEY FROM THE ENGLISH HAWTHORN. 



This comes in blossom just as apple-bloom is gone; 

 and from the number of bees we have seen work- 

 ing on it, I should infer that the hedge-hawthorn 

 plants might do considerable toward filling the in- 

 terim. 



HONEY FROM APPLE-BLOOM. 



The yield this year has been much greater than 

 usual, and so many colonies sent out swarms that a 

 great many of the friends got excited and hurried 

 on their section bo.xes, supposing that the honey- 

 yield was upon us. 



THE BOOM FOR SUPPLIES. 



We are now running our factory day and night; 

 and although each 24 hours turns out from 40,000 to 

 50,000 sections, still they are grasped and whirled on 

 to the train about as fast as they are packed up, and 

 yet the call is for more and more. 



UNTESTED QUEENS. 



Untested queens are now worth, at retail, $1.25, 

 postage paid. We pay for them at wholesale, f 75.00 

 per hundred. During the past month the demand 

 has been so far bej'ond the supply that some of the 

 friends began to scold a little ; but, luckily for us, 

 by the time their complaints reached us all or- 

 ders .were filled, and we are now prepared to send 

 any kind of a queen by return mail. 



ORDERS FOR ODD-SIZED SECTIONS. 



I AM sorry to say it, but I fear the friends who 

 order these will have to wait until orders for regu- 

 lar sizes are filled. If they can not wait, saj^ so, and 

 the money will go back instantly. Odd-sized frames 

 are not nearly so difficult, for we have machinery 

 all ready arranged for making them on short notice. 

 We might be prepared in the same way on sections, 

 but it would take still another factory; and, dear 

 friends, another factoi-y is now under considera- 

 tion. 



A SUGGESTION TO THOSE ORDERING LETTER-HEADS. 



As it is desirable to have your business card on 

 the first page of your letter only, we would recom- 

 mend to those who order printed letter-heads, that 

 they have no more than one-third with the heading 



THE OTHER (?) SIDE OF BEE CULTURE. 



A FEW weeks ago, in reply to friend Hutchinson, 

 I said I did not know of many successful bee-keep- 

 ers in Medina County or vicinity. It is because I 

 was not sufficiently well posted so as to know what 

 is going on. At the present writing, the number of 

 friends who come every pleasant day for Simplicity 

 hives and one-pound sections indicates quite a dif- 

 ferent story; and when they take dinner with me, 

 and tell over how they have been prospered by fol- 

 lowing the teachings of the ABC book, I feel as 

 though I really did them a wrong. Although we 

 have about 130 hands as busy as bees, there has been 

 quite a little complaint that theycould not get orders 

 ofl" because these friends who come in with teams 

 (and often with their wives and families) carry off 

 every thing as fast as they can make it and pack it 

 up. I do not know how it is with you, friends; but 

 the bee business is certainly not a failure in our 

 vicinity. This locality has been growing steadily 

 year after year, until now these visits to our factory 

 for loads of goods seem to be a soi-t of yearly pil- 

 grimage. 



"NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN;" THE GOOD 

 CANDY. 



I HAVE once or twice before called attention to 

 the fact, that after a lot of us were getting enthusi- 

 astic over a new discovery, somebody would say, 

 " Why, the whole thing is given (or suggested) in 

 Langstroth on the Honey-Bee." And so it has hap- 

 pened over and over again. Well, you know how 

 pleased we have all been about friend Good's dis- 

 covery of the candy that is now used for all our 

 queen-cages. After experimenting with it for sev- 

 eral months, I made the wonderful discovery (!) 

 that powdered sugar, such as is used by confec- 

 tioners, was away ahead of granulated sugar, and 

 now here comes friend Phin in his new book, " Dic- 

 tionary of Practical Apiculture," calling it the 

 Good candy, or the Scholtz candy, and says the recipe 

 for preparing it is in Langstroth's book. Did you 

 ever! On turning to page 274 of the book that has 

 been lying on our tables for almost twenty years, 

 we find: 



" Rev. M. 

 the follow 



honey and tour pounds of powdered lump sugar; heat the 

 honey, without aUdinf; water, and mix it witn the sugar, work- 

 ing them together to a stiff doughy mass. When thus thor- 

 oughly incorporated, cut it into slices, or form it into cakes 

 or luiijps, and wrap them in a piece of coarse linen and place 

 them in the frames. Thin shoes, inclosed in linen, may be 

 pushed down between the combs. The plasticity of the mass 

 enables the apiarist to apply the food in any manner be may 

 desire." 



It is true, our good old friend Langstroth did not 

 say it was the best thing in the world to put in 

 cages for mailing queens, for the very good reason 

 that nobody knew any thing about mailing queens 

 when he wrote it. Now, then, shall we call it by the 

 name of the " Scholtz candy," or " Good candy," or 

 simply the " sugar-aud-honey candy"? Speaking of 

 friend Langstroth reminds me that I have just 

 received to-day from him a postal with the follow- 

 ing as concluding words: 



I am still suffering much from severe head trouble. 



O.xford, o., May 21. 1881. L. L. Langstroth. 



