838 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



out first day. Chunk honey was in special de- 

 mand. All honey was guaranteed by society; 

 a minimum price of 2") cts. for comb and 20 

 for extracted was set, but the actual average 

 of comb was 30 cts. ( one man got 35 ) , and of 

 extracted 22 >^. 



Fall introduction. — Remove a queen 

 after breeding stops in fall; and with no brood 

 in hive the bee.^- are hopelessly queenless, a 

 condition in which they never refuse a queen. 

 So thinks W. Z. Hutchinson, and quotes Mr. 

 Turner, who re-queens in fall and never lost a 

 queen. [I had never thought of it before; 

 but my own experience would lead me to be- 

 lieve that \V. Z. and Mr. T. were right. But 

 say, doctor, you did not tell us what you 

 thought about it. Give us another Straw on 

 the svibject, and, b}^ the way, tell us more what 

 you think when you quote the opinions of the 

 other fellows. — Ed.] 



HoNEv-CAKES. The famous lehkiichen of 

 Germany. Bring to a boil 2 lbs. honey with 

 Yz pt. water. While still warm, mix with 2 

 lbs. flour; knead well and set away for some 

 days (the longer the better). Then stir in 3 

 yelks of eggs, with flour, and plump \)i oz. 

 bicarbonate soda previously dissolved in wa- 

 ter. Mix we'.l. Add, according to taste, 2 

 lbs. sugar, some crushed cinnamon, cloves, 

 citron, and chopped almomls; knead well, roll 

 out to a finger's thickness, and bake. — F. L. 

 Thompson in Reviciv. [That cake ought to 

 taste good; but I should think such an array 

 of stuff would be rather hard on a fellow's 

 stomach. By the \va\', some of the Root wo- 

 me 1 have been trying your recipe for honey 

 caramels as given in the honey-leaflet " Food 

 Value of honey." The caramels are just fine, 

 and to my n^.tion taste much better than the 

 bough ten ones, and certainly more whole- 

 some. — Ed] 



Please tell why, Mr. Editor, the name 

 Danzy is given to the bottom-board that I de- 

 scribed and illustrated long ago, and that you 

 saw years ago on all my hives. [With the 

 greatest of pleasure, doctor. When Mr. Dan- 

 zenbaker came here and showed me his pecul- 

 iar style of bottom-board I said, "Why, that 

 is Dr. Miller's." And then we looked up the 

 back volumes, and found where you had de- 

 scribed something .similar with an illustration, 

 but not quite the same thing, although intend- 

 ed to accomplish the same purpose. The con- 

 struction of Dr. Danzenbaker'd bottom-board 

 if quite different. Your floor was flat on one 

 side, with a tvo-inch space on the other. Mr. 

 Danzenbaker's has one inch space on one 

 side and yi on the other. Your board was 

 made of % flooring nailed o)i to two side- 

 pieces, while you will note that Mr. Danzen- 

 bakers's is made up of Y% stuff let into grooves 

 of two side rails. And then, too, his is so 

 constructed as to permit of a shrinkage and 

 swelling of the boards without splitting. 

 Your old board could not be used with the 

 modern Dovetailed hive with no bee-space 

 under the frames The name "Danzy" is 

 theref' re applied to a peculiar conslrudion of 

 the bottom-board, and not to a board that may 

 be used the same as you used yours. — Ed.] 



Separators, p. 814, are advised in ship- 

 ping-cases, so when a section breaks down it 

 won't break down others. But isn't it cheap- 

 er not to have the first one break down ? I 

 can't imagine a necessity for more than one 

 section in a thousand breaking down, and that 

 one section shouldn't be shipped. [Ye-s-s. 

 If everybody were careful not to ship any hon- 

 ey that would break 'own, and the freight 

 smashers were freight handlers, we should not 

 need any no-drip shipping cases — that is, I 

 mean cases with paper traj's with little cross- 

 cleats ; and yet you yourself acknowledge 

 these to be good. We c m not take too many 

 precautions. In the first place, ship only such 

 honey as we feel tolerably sure will not break. 

 Second, put it in no -drip shipping- cases. 

 Th rd, put separators between them. The 

 last two items cost but a mere trifle, and might 

 save a hundred times their value in honey 

 that might be broken down by freight-smash- 

 ers or truckmen, who somehow are able to 

 smash even the strongest trunks ever built, to 

 say nothing of honey put up in the best way- 

 possible. We must provide for the unexpect- 

 ed, even though the ' unexpected " may not 

 happen once in a htmdred times. — Ed.] 



Sorry to say, Ernest, we're not nearly so 

 smart as you want to give us credit for, p. 802. 

 I can't say how much time we did devote to 

 that honey crop, but I know that two of us 

 did all the work except what help we had 

 from Ghordis and Philo. Their htlp would 

 amount in all to less than one man's work for 

 two months. Perhaps one man would have 

 done in a month what both of them did. So, 

 " I know that two of us did all the work ex- 

 cept " what Ghordis and Philo did — "per- 

 haps what may be eqiiivalent to two months' 

 work." [Ah, 1 see — no, I don't, either. You 

 haven't jr/ told us hozv ?//a;/r days you and 

 your women-folks spent in harvesting the hon- 

 ey crop. You simply tell us that two of you 

 did all the work except what Ghor^lis and 

 Philo did, and that their work would be about 

 the equivalent of two months. What I should 

 like to know is this : Did you and your as- 

 sistant spend all of your time during the 

 other ten months in harvesting the crop, or 

 were you busy a part of the time at some- 

 thing else? i know for one thing that you 

 write for Gleanings, the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and a number of other periodicals. I 

 know, also, that you spend some time in Sun- 

 day-school work, and a little time in raising 

 posies; perhaps some time in running a small 

 farm — and in mowing " weeds and things " in 

 front of your place. I know, also, that Emma 

 helps a good deal about the housework. Now, 

 what I am trying to get at is this: About how 

 much time in da^s, of ten hours each, did you 

 two spend in harvesting that crop, from the 

 time of putting the bees into the cellar to the 

 time of putting them in again ? Just give us 

 a good guess, if you can not do any better. 

 The time, if get-at-able, would be very inter- 

 esting for the reason that we then could arrive 

 approximately at the cost of that honey per 

 pound, making due allowance for interest on 

 money invested in appliances, deterioration, 

 and changes. — Ed.] 



