1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



485 



ev(Mi a drop of waiter in the liives. We observ- 

 ♦■d that capillary attraction plays a very strong 

 part in keeping water from entering the hives. 

 It will seejj in near tli*^ outside edges, and there 

 remain; but as we paint the top edges as well 

 as the under side of all of our covers (and every 

 bee-keeper should do so), no rotting will take 

 place — at least, not for a good many years to 

 come. 



Wk want ri^JOits of the automatic sdf-hiver. 

 We do not doubt that it will work in the major- 

 ity of cases; but the question that comes up is 

 tins: Will not tiie expense attendant upon the 

 paraphei'iialia more than compensate for the 

 convenience of the automatic feature of it? or. 

 in othei- words, will not bee-keepei's. instead of 

 going to the expense of automatic self-hivers 

 on a third or a half of their colonies, pi'cfer to 

 hive thein in the old way. in and out of season? 

 Observe, that we do not claim they arc expen- 

 sive, but w<! only raise the question, and, like 

 others, ai'e seeking for information. 



BUYING BEKS VS. FEEDING TO STIMULATE. 



We have been obliged to buy up a good many 

 colonies of bees this spring, on account of the 

 rush of oi'ders for b(^es and queens. While we 

 bought some vei'y nice lots, there were a good 

 many other lots that were on crooked combs, 

 and on frames of home-made construction. All 

 this necessitated their transferring, oi', better, 

 letting brood hatch out ovei- queen-excluders, 

 and causing the bees to build out foundation in 

 Hoffman frames in the brood-nest below. All 

 of this Is expensive, to say nothing of the first 

 cost of the bees. Granulated-sugar syrup is 

 now down so low that sugar syrup can be made 

 for about 3 cents per pound. At this very low 

 price of sugar we can raise bees cheaper than 

 we can buy them. By the way. is not this low 

 price of sugar going to be a boon to bee-keepers 

 rather than a detriment? We have already re- 

 ceived advices that new dark honey placed on 

 the market is selling at the old figures: and 

 this despite the fact that it was jn-edicted that 

 d(irh honey would be affected by the low price 

 of sugar, if any thing. In a poor year, and if 

 the bees are short of stores, it is going to be 

 quite a boon to bee-keepers to be able to get the 

 nicest kind of syi'up for about 3 cts. for feeding 

 Tbees. 



adui>teration of honey. 

 The last Bee-keepers^ Review discusses the 

 matter of adulteration. The correspondents do 

 not all agree as to the best method of fighting 

 the evil. Some, with the editor, recommend 

 cheaper honey, so as to make adultei'ation un- 

 profitable, while others contend, with a good 

 show of reason, that this is impracticable. Oth- 

 ers, again, intimate that the actual evils aris- 

 ing from adulteration in the way of competition 

 are very small in comparison with those arising 

 from the continual talk about it. It is no doubt 

 true, that there has been too much talk and too 

 much vilifying of adulterators, and too little 

 doing. We believe that the adulterators can 

 be prosecuted: and while it may not be possible 

 to tell the adulterated article, the mixers may 

 be watched by detectives employed by the Bee- 

 keepers' Union or any other association of bee- 

 keepers, and. upon proper conviction, be fined 

 or imprisoned in accordance with the law. Now 

 that sugar has come down so that granulated 

 syrup can be had for about three cents a pound, 

 there will be some temptation to put a little of 

 the cane product into honey: but dishonesty is 

 always unprofitable. It is suggested in the Re- 

 viero. that consumers shun all kinds of honey 

 not properly labeled — a good point; and it 

 •would be well to buy from reliable dealers, and. 



as far as possible, honey bearing bi'and and la- 

 bel of producer. 



imported queens riiOHIBITED BY MAIL. 



We learn by the Ainericaji Bee Joumnl. page 

 (?()3, by a letter from the Custom-house officers 

 in New York, under date of May 11, that the 

 •'importation through the mailsof any dutiable 

 mei'chandise (except books and printed mattej-) 

 is a violation of the law. and subjects the article 

 so imported to forfeiture." This, according to 

 the new law, includes queens, and makes it a 

 little bad for those who have already ordered 

 queens by mail. It is a great convenience 

 many times to the individual bee-keeper to or- 

 der three or four queens for himself direct from 

 Italy: l>ut now no one but the extensive breed- 

 er of bees and queens can afford to order queens, 

 and those in lai'ge shipments by e.rpresfi. Three 

 or four queens by express, enough for the indi- 

 vidual needs of the bee-keepei', would make the 

 express charges per queen, to say nothing of the 

 ad valoiem duty, excessively high. But there 

 is one fact somewhat to the encouragement of 

 those who have already oi'dered queens from 

 Italy by mail, and we would advise them to ap- 

 ply foi' a similar ruling in their behalf. It is 

 this, quoting from the American BeeJour)iid: 



The Customs ColIect(jr of New York is authoiized 

 t)y the Customs Department to order tlie release, on 

 tlic exju'cted arrival there, of ;i sliipnient of Italian 

 queL'ii-lH'fs. sfiit tliroug'li the mails from Italy, to a 

 citizt'ii of lowii, upon payment of a flne f(iual "to the 

 duty tliereoii. These bees are liable to duty at 30 per 

 pel- cent ad valorem. 



It is evident from this that the Custom-house 

 officers, recognizing that there was an injustice, 

 and that queen -bees were not anticipated by 

 the framers of the law, have decided to let 

 queens, already ordered by one party, come, 

 with virtually "the simple payment of a duty of 

 20 per cent. Perhaps some of our readers liiay 

 not understand what a 20 per cent ad valorem 

 duty means. It is 30 per cent on the value of 

 the goods with express charges added: that is, 

 if the invoice value of an article is $3.00, includ- 

 ing the express charges, the duty will be one- 

 fifth of that, or 40 cents. See Charles Biancon- 

 cini's article elsewhere. 



the HOUSE-APIARY" and THE BEE-ESCAPE. 



The editor of the Bee -Keepers' Review, 

 readily catches on to the possibilities of the 

 bee-escape for the house apiary. At the con- 

 vention of the Ohio State Bee-keepers' Associ- 

 ation at Toledo he suggested that the escape 

 might do away with the most serious objection 

 — that is, of disposing of and getting the bees 

 out of the supers, without getting them all over 

 the floor and in the room. The senior editor, 

 quite independently, saw the same idea later 

 on, without any knowledge of what W. Z. H. 

 had said at Toledo, and gave expression to it in 

 answer to Mr. Dibbern's article, both of which 

 are copied in the Review. W. Z. H. wants to 

 know if it is not another example of how " great 

 minds run in the same channel." Yes, that's 

 about it. Who knows but the bee-escape is go- 

 ing to make the house-apiary a practical suc- 

 cess — that is, revive its use where it has been 

 abandoned ? We ti'ust that some of our house- 

 apiary people will test the escape at an early 

 date— Mr. V^andervort, of Laceyville, Pa., for 

 instance, who still uses it. There are decided 

 advantages in keeping bees under lock and key, 

 especially where there are thieves who make 

 depredations; or, where land is limited, as in a 

 city — too limited, indeed, to set out any kind of 

 apiary — the house-apiary scheme is about the 

 only feasible one for accommodating 3.5 or .50 

 colonies. We wonder if friend Muth. of Cincin- 

 nati, can not revive his apiary on the roof, in 



