1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



621 



is not a dead bee in thf cage, and the queen is 

 lively, and they have. I think, about three days' 

 rations, whicli I hope will be enough to land 

 ht^r safely at the Hnine of the Honey-bees. 

 This queen and bees were placed, when first 

 caged, ill a bureau drawer, and have been there 

 ever since. They have been in fine condition. 

 Of cours(>. I don't expect you to keep the queen. 

 a-^ I don't consider her of any vahie. but she 

 will answer for the experiment: and if you find 

 that she anives all o. k.. and you dei-m it 

 wortiiy (tf trial, you may renew liie caiidy and 

 mail her back, and I will ivpoi"t wliat coudition 

 she arrives in. Would it not be a good idea for 

 us to take a qneen. as in this case, and mail her 

 back and forth, and report the condition she 

 arrives in each time, and see how long they will 

 last in the improved cage? If you deem it 

 worth a trial we can start on this one after 

 having been caged 18 days. J. D. Fooshe. 

 Coronaca. S. C.. July IS. 



[There is no doubt, friend F.. but this cage is 

 a big step in advance. Costellow's penny-post- 

 age featun>. and our method of making it a 

 succe.>;sfui introducing-cage. are two of its dis- 

 tinctive features. The cage containing queen 

 and bees arrived in I'xcellent condition. We 

 put in fresh candy, and return theih to you to- 

 day (20th). and no doubt they will arrive to you 

 in "good order, even after being confined over 

 three weeks. Since we adopted the new cage, 

 by mistake a quei'u was sent to the wrong man: 

 but he very indignantly returned it. saying he 

 had not ordered any queen. It so happened 

 that the queen had originally come from you, 

 anfl had been lying on the table for some five or 

 six days. The total length of time that it had 

 been out was something like three weeks, and 

 she was still in good order, and was successfully 

 inti-oiiuced into oui- apiary. How many more 

 weeks" journey she would have stood, we do 

 not know. As she was a good queen, we did not 

 like to put her to any further test. Of the hun- 

 dreds of queens we have sent out in these new 

 cages, the number that we have had to replace 

 has been remarkably small — I think it is about 

 one in a hundred: aiid (>ven this hundredth one 

 might be eliminated if we could (ilirays make 

 the candy just right. Candy that will do for 

 cooler weather is not as good for real hot 

 weather: and sometimes sudden changes of 

 weather so affect the candy as to cause the one 

 in a hundred to die. Mr. Fooshe uses, with ex- 

 cellent results, granulati'd sugar and the best 

 quality of extracted honey kneaded into a stiff' 

 dough, the honey having been first warmed 

 until it is of about the consistency of milk. We 

 also wai'ni the honey, but use instead pulverized 

 sugar. We are not sure it is any better, al- 

 though we have excellent results. The Good 

 candy, or. more properly, the Scholtz. as de- 

 scribed in the earlier editions of ■■ Langstroth 

 on the Honey-bee." is one of the elements in the 

 successful mailing of queens.] E. R. 



THE KEENEY -WIRING. 



C. A. HATCir explains; HOW TO WIRE FOtTX- 



DATION HORIZOXTAI-LY AXD NOT HAVE 



IT KULGE. 



Friend Root: — I want to say a word about 

 the Keeney method of wiring frames, or, rather, 

 say what I should have said last year at the 

 time I made my experiments in wiring, that 

 were reported in Gleanings. It was rather 

 cool weather, and the report was made as the 

 facts then stood; but I found, later on in the 

 season, when the weather got warmer, that I 

 had the same trouble that Ernest speaks of. 



and ask pardon of the brethren for not report- 

 ing the subsequent failure as well as the suc- 

 cess. However, there is one point that is not 

 explained: i. e.. how the foundation is kept 

 fi'om lopping over between the top wire and 

 the top-bar: there is where I had trouble with 

 that method. May be Ernest has explained all 

 this: but if so. I have forgotten. The only way 

 we could obviate this trouble was by rubbing it 

 down to the top-bar, which made so much 

 bother it wa^ all given up in disgust. The 

 foundation we used wa.^ part of our own make 

 and part of Dadant's. and it ran about six 

 sheets, L. size, to the pound. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



I did not expect to come out anywhere but 

 second best in my argument on the Hoft'man 

 frame: for who could expect to prevail against 

 two such able advocates as the junior editor 

 and Dr. Miller? In fact. "■ thou almost per- 

 suadest me." But to Dr. Miller's ideas about 



SPKING DWINDLING, 



I must cry out. "Shan't either'."" In the first 

 place. I am sure that brood-rearing in the cel- 

 lar ha-J nothing to do with it. I would have in- 

 dorsed every word Dr. Miller had said about it 

 previous to this spring: but my experience this 

 year has knocked all my preconceived notions 

 endwise. First. I never set bees out with as 

 little brood as this year, none having more 

 than two patches the size of one's hand, and 

 some alnH)st none; and yet I never had as bad 

 a case of spring dwindling, and nothing seemed 

 to check it — chaff packing, warmth, feeding, 

 nor even new pollen. There was no stop, ap- 

 parently, until all the old bees were gone. Col- 

 onies tiiat were apparently in good condition 

 when Set out. all went " where the woodbine 

 twininh."" I thought, when my bees were set 

 out. that I had a pretty fair lot: but there was 

 no let-up until fully 50 per cent were dead. 

 What was the cai;se? Don't know. I know 

 they had more or less honey-dew, and perhaps 

 it is as well to lay it to that as to anything 

 else. But the worst cases were fed on Good 

 candy in the cellar. Would leaving in the cel- 

 lar until dwindling time was over have saved 

 them? I do not think it would have been over 

 until all had gone just the same. The weather 

 was not bad: on the contrary, unusually favor- 

 able I thought. This experience has put me all 

 at sea in regard to spring dwindling, and I am 

 sure of only what I don"t know. 

 Ithaca, Wis.. July 9. C. A. Hatch. 



[Your experiment, friend H.. being made in 

 cool weather, would make quite a difference; 

 and I do not wonder that you decided on wir- 

 ing by the plan as you originally gave it in 

 Gleanings, for I too encountered the same 

 difficulty in fastening the foundation to the 

 top-bar.' and decided as you did. This j-ear, a 

 mere accident showed me conclusively that the 

 other side up was much better. The top of the 

 foundation we fastened on to the comb-guide, 

 and we had no trouble. But perhaps I should 

 say that a common knife will not answer. We 

 use in our binding department what we call 

 "bones "for folding papers. They are some- 

 thing the shape of a strong heavy paper-knife, 

 about six inches long, no handle, and blunt at 

 both the ends. They are nicely polished, and 

 the edges and ends are beveled, the ends also 

 being slightly rounded instead of square. I 

 tried rubbing foundation on to the comb-guide 

 with a knife, and gave it up in disgust. Then 

 it occurred to me that one of these bones that 

 they use in the paper-room would be just the 

 thing. I at first did not succeed: but finally I 

 got the knack of it by dipping the bone fre- 



