GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 1. 



be different later. Possibly it may be account- 

 ed for by the change within a week from very 

 cool to very hot weather, and from the point of 

 starvation to a flood of honey. [There are 

 some other unusual features about swarming 

 this year. See editorials. — Ed.] 



Professok Cook is right, page 449, and he's 

 wrong. We ought never to have had two or- 

 ganizations, and we never would have had 

 them if he and the other members of the old 

 Union had understood correctly. But when 

 amalgamation was killed, there was nothing 

 left but to start the new organization. If wise 

 counsels prevailed there would even yet be a 

 union of the old Union and the new Union. 

 [Many of us hope that wise counsels will yet 

 prevail.— Ed. j 



Tkansferring 21 days after swarming is 

 perhaps better than during fruit-bloom. [Yes, 

 perhaps; but during fruit-bloom there is very 

 little honey in the combs, comparatively. 

 Twenty-one days after swarming the combs 

 may be crammed full. I have transferred a 

 good many colonies after the honey-flow, and 

 it was no pleasant job. It also occurs to me 

 that, 21 days after swarming, robbing would 

 be bad, and cutting up combs filled with honey 

 would only aggravate matters. During fruit- 

 bloom, combs would be comparatively light, 

 and bees would be busy on fruit-blossoms. — Ed.] 



There! I'm glad we have a standard set 

 for rapid section -folding— 1000 in 40 minutes. 

 But, say; that girl has the advantage of long 

 and exclusive practice, and common people 

 needn't be discouraged at 1000 or less in an 

 hour. Now give us a mark to aim at in using 

 the Daisy foundation-fastener? How many 

 starters does your expert put in in an hour ! 

 [Our people have never timed themselves on 

 startering sections; but a fair average speed is 

 about 500 an hour. They say they could do it 

 a little faster, but never tried to see what they 

 could do at their best.— Ed.] 



The a. I. Root Co. will take hold of a uni- 

 form honey-package if some organization will. 

 Page 444. Why wait for some organization ? 

 But I suspect there was a shortage of " nots " 

 in the printer's case when he set that sentence. 

 [You are right, doctor. One little not was in- 

 advertently omitted. I tried to say if no one 

 else would take hold of the cheap extracted- 

 honey package the A. I. Root Co. would. But 

 we do not care to do so unless the demand is 

 made sufficiently strong to warrant us in lay- 

 ing in stock at our branch offices and agencies. 

 -Ed.] 



John McArthur, in American Bee Journal, 

 thinks it is ridiculous to describe the markings 

 of workers and not of queens and drones. It 

 does seem a little so, but I couldn't give a dis- 

 tinct description of an Italian drone; and while 

 belaboring me for my ignorance he fails to give 



such description himself. [The fact of the 

 matter is, that the color of the drones and 

 queens may vary all the way from black to a 

 light yellow in very pure stock. On the other 

 hand, workers themselves must show uniformly 

 three yellow bands. When these three show, 

 the other characteristics are present. Some of 

 the blackest queens we ever had, produced uni- 

 formly nicely marked three-banded Italians. 

 The drones from one of the best breeding- 

 queens we ever had were almost black.— Ed.] 



The Bee Master is the name of a new bee- 

 journal published in England. It makes the 

 unique statement that it has no editor, and its 

 columns show it; for a good editor would not 

 allow so many abusive personalities. It is for 

 Punic bees and against the British Bee Journal. 

 [While nominally there may be no editor to this 

 new bee-paper it is pretty evident that John 

 Hewitt is the presiding genius. The fact of 

 the matter seems to be that this gentleman is 

 sore over the fact that the British Bee Journal 

 and Gleanings said some plain and truthful 

 things about Punic bees. Having started a 

 journal of his own he is again extolling the 

 merits of Punic bees — a variety that is cross 

 and bad propolizers, with hardly a redeeming 

 quality.— Ed.] 



AiKiN AND Tou, Mr. Editor, don't agree as 

 to the advisability of selling consumers candied 

 honey. Tm with Aiken. C. F. Muth has for 

 years had his customers educated to demand 

 candied honey. Suppose you sell it liquid. 

 Before it's half used up it candies; and the 

 customer, knowing nothing about properly 

 melting it, considers it spoiled, and doesn't 

 want any more honey. Wouldn't more honey 

 be sold in the long run if it were sold granulat- 

 ed, and people instructed what to do with it? 

 [Aikln may be right for his class of trade, 

 especially if he has educated his customers up 

 to the idea of candied honey; but the general 

 run of consumers do not take very kindly to 

 candied honey. The retailers nearly all say 

 that the honey should be liquid, and kept so. 

 Mr. Chalon Fowls, M. H. Tweed, and numerous 

 others, hold to this idea. They visit the grocers 

 selling their honey, and any bottles containing 

 honey candied, or partly so, are exchanged for 

 those that are liquid. Later. — After writing 

 the above, J. A. Buchanan, who retails so 

 many carloads of honey, says Aikin's idea 

 " looks well on paper, but in practice it is dif- 

 ferent." He promises to write an article ex- 

 plaining his position more fully. — Ed.] 



Conflicting testimony as to foundation 

 without papering comes from two southerners, 

 p. 453. Now, whose testimony shall be taken — 

 that of the man who, without saying he has 

 tried it, says it would get matted together, or 

 of the man who says he tried it and it didn't 

 get matted together? This week I used brood 



