(W 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jak. 1.>. 



think that apiaries must be pretty thick along 

 that seven-mile route in York State, or else 

 that we were greatly given to exaggei'ation. 

 It's too bad it is not true, for here would have 

 been a grand chance for the advocates of bee- 

 legislation, or priority of location. The report- 

 er had doubtless heard us use the word "' thou- 

 sand" as referring to colonies, and. as nearly as 

 he could recollect, it was tltousdnds of apiaries. 

 Whew! This is worse than Alley's version of 

 the North American. We would suggest the 

 propriety of each one, who pi'epares an essay or 

 paper for convention, writing out a brief digest 

 of it — yes, two or three of them, to hand to re- 

 porters. They will appreciate the favor, and 

 will be glad to give a correct version. It is the 

 fault of bee-keepers, not of the reporters, that 

 such garbled notes app^^ar in the daily press. 

 Bee-keepers should avail themselves of the free 

 notices in regard to our conventions; but let us 

 by all means have correct reports. 



M. H. htjxt's non-burr-comh fha.me. 

 itAt the Grand Rapids convention iNIr. M. H. 

 Hunt exhibited his uon-burr-comb frame. It 

 is a double top-bar, with a bee-space between, 

 and is the same as that suggested by I. H. 

 xVmes, Hudson, Mich. (Gleanings, p. 204, 18tX)), 

 with this difference: The upper bar is only % 

 inch wide, to give plenty of room to the fingers 

 in handling. The lower bar is l3s wide. This, 

 he says, is an absolute prevention of burr- 

 combs, and we do not doubt it. When the mat- 

 ter originally came up. you will remember we 

 were quite enthusiastic on this double top-bar. 

 It answers the purpose of a Hill device in win- 

 ter, and also allows the enamel cloth to lie flat, 

 and to be scaled on the frames for winter — a 

 very desirable desideratum, by the way. The 

 I'eason we preferred the thick top-bar was be- 

 cause it is cheaper, and th^re are fewer pieces: 

 and, barring the Hill-device feature, it was 

 every way as good. Another difficulty with 

 the double top-bar was the trouble of putting 

 in a suitable comb-guide. As Mr. Hunt wires 

 on the perpendicular plan, a comb-guide is un- 

 necessary. 



(iRADING HONKY. 



On the first page of this issue, . I. A. Green 

 otters some good suggestions on grading. Be- 

 fore reading his article, howevei', our idea was 

 to use the Chicago system as the basis, calling 

 the first grade "Fancy:" second grade "A," 

 and the other grades by the letters of the alpha- 

 bet in their order. The Chicago scheme of 

 leaving out color as a quality in each grade, we 

 thought a good one, leaving the matter of color 

 to be decided entirely by the kiiid of honey. 

 Foi' instance, a fancy buckwheat could come 

 under the highest grade; but the name "'buck- 

 wheat" would describe a dark honey. But 

 perhaps there is a ditficuly here. The general 

 public, and many of the commission houses, 

 probably would not know what is meant by 

 '• Fancy " or "A" grade smartweed or Spanish- 

 need le honey: and they would be utterly in the 

 dark as to what would be their respective colors. 

 The trade call all wiiite honeys clover; that is, 

 it prefers to do so, as its customers are not ac- 

 ijuainted with th(> many sources: but when a 

 honey is described as ••whit(>„'" it has some sig- 

 nificance. On the whole, then, we would indorse 

 Green's system. It seems to be an improve- 

 ment on both the Chicago and .\lbany classifi- 

 cations. We should be glad to have this subject 

 discussed further. It would be a great boon to 

 bee-keepers and honey-merchants if a national 

 system of gi'ading could be adopted. It sliould 

 be broad enough to l)e frei- from local interests. 

 and yet be six'ci tic (Miough to cover e\ei'y sort 

 of honey. 



HEAVY AS. LIGHT BROOD FOUNDATION. 



Many of our readers, in anticipation of send- 

 ing in their orders soon to their supply-dealer, 

 are debating the question whether they shall use 

 heavy or light brood foundation. We have 

 formerly given the advice that, whei'e frames 

 were not wired, to use the heavy brood. As the 

 horizontal plan of wiring described elsewhere is 

 so cheap, and so little laljor, every one will find 

 it cheaper and vastly more satisfactory in its 

 results to purchase medium or light brood 

 foundation, and wire, than to purchase the 

 heavy article and not wire. There are a good 

 many bee-keepers who think it is unnecessary 

 to wire; but we fancy that, if they knew they 

 could wire and yet get good combs for less 

 money they would do it. While in this connec- 

 tion, we might I'emark that a certain German 

 supply-dealer is ordering all his foundation- 

 mills made for extra heavy brood foundation. 

 The walls are so deep that the foundation is J4 

 inch thick. We have tested this foundation; 

 and while it makes beautiful combs, it is an 

 awful expense. Only about three Langstroth 

 sheets to the i)ound can be obtained; whereas, 

 of the light brood there are about eight sheets. 

 With the ordinary heavy brood there are from 

 four to five. With these figures before you, 

 considering tliat light brood costs only six per 

 cent more than the lieavy brood, with nearly 

 twice as many sheets to the pound, the reader 

 can figure out for himself which foundation he 

 prefers. It is immaterial to us or to any man- 

 ufacturer which grade the be«>-keepers order. 

 We do. however, want them to look after their 

 own interests. 



SUCCESSFUL MAILING OF Ir.' QUEENS TO AUS- 

 TRALIA. 



Aloxc; last September we sent by mail some 

 thirteen ([ueens toditlVrent parties in Australia. 

 The r(>ports are now in, and show that twelve of 

 the thirteen arrived alive, and eleven are now 

 successfully introduced. We make extracts 

 from the letters, that will speak for themselves: 



Tlie queen you ordered from G. M. Doolittle ai-- 

 rived siife with six workers alive. R. J. Crib. 



Brisbane, Queensland, Sept. 22. 



lamg-lad toiuform youbotli queens came through 

 in tiptop condition. Tliey arrived here, and wei-e 

 safely introduced Nov. 14-tli. You can mention the 

 fact "in Gleanings, stating- tliat Mr. Bell, of Bris- 

 l)ane, received and safely introduced the queens on 

 my belialf. S. H. Bateman. 



Kedlaiid Bay, Aus., Nov. 22. 



You will lie pleased to hear that the three Italian 

 (lueens mailed l)yyou Oct. 8 were received Nov. 10 

 all alive and in ^ood condition. In one cage there 

 were two (k'a<l workers; in anotlier, six; and in the 

 otiier. tliiitet'H. They had ronsiuned in each case 

 about two-thirds of tiieii- food; and althougli tliey 

 were reci'ived and introdui-ed in cold wet weather, I 

 was successful with them all. Thomas Dixon. 



Masterton, New Zealand. Nov. 28. 



Tile (jueeiis arrived heie on the evening of Nov. 

 14. so that tliey were 37 days coming. Two out of 

 your tliree arrived in good shape; the other one 

 "(liees and queen) had seemingly been dead a long- 

 time. Out of friend Doolittles three, only one 

 ((jueen and two bees) arrived alive, and tlie (jueeii 

 died in the intioduciiig--eag-e a few days after. I 

 may say tliat 1 lost one of yours in introducing, so 

 that 1 ria\e only one left out of the six. 



Lyndhurst. Victoria, Nov. 26. .lAS. McFaklane. 



1 am hai)i>> to lie al)le to inform you that tlie three 

 Italian ((uet'iis arrived liert^ (piite safe on Saturday, 

 tlie 14th insl. The only living liee in one of the 

 cages was the (lueeii, and in one of the other cages 

 tliere weri- seven alivt' liesides the <|ueen, and in tlie 

 third one tlieie were only tliree liees dead, and they 

 were stuck in their footl, and that was tlie cause of 

 most of the deaths, I believe. As soon a.s they ar- 

 rived I introduced them liy cagiiif them on the 

 comli, as per instructions in the A 15 C, and yester- 



