189S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



53 



which has once soured will never become fit to 

 put on the market, unless one cares nothing 

 for his reputation or for the good of the mar- 

 ket for other bee-keepers. I have returned 

 such honey to the bees, and let them try their 

 hand at making it marketable again ; and 

 while they will dry and clean it up, even if 

 they have to remove the whole from the cells 

 and redeposit it again, still it is an unpleasant 

 job all the way around, and at best the honey 

 never looks as nice as it did when first remov- 

 ed, and in taste it can not be called good hon- 

 ey any more. The best thing that can be done 

 with it is either to extract the honey and keep 

 it for feeding purposes, after scalding it, or 

 cooking until sufficientl}' thickened, allowing 

 the bees to clean out the combs, or feed the 

 honey to strong colonies right from the combs, 

 when in either case the combs will do for 

 " bait " sections the next season, after being 

 leveled down with the comb-leveler or an un- 

 capping-knife. 



But I see I have failed to notice one very 

 important point in this matter. You say that, 

 when you took the sections from the hive, you 

 ^' spread theui on the floor,'' italics mine, for 

 I wish to emphasize those words, so that no 

 one will ever place nice section honey directly 

 on the floor of any room. When I first com- 

 menced keeping bees I used a room quite sim- 

 ilar to that described by the questioner, and 

 did just as he did in putting the sections on 

 \h& floor. When I came to crating that honey 

 I found that those next the wall of the room 

 and the floor had soured, and the honey was 

 bursting from tlie cells, while that higher up 

 in the room, and out from the wall, had not 

 grown thin or watery at all. I took the hint 

 at once, and the ver}^ next year found me with 

 a temporary platform fixed of slats, the same 

 spread apart enough so that the edges of the 

 sections would just catch on them, said plat- 

 form being raised up a foot from the floor. 

 When another tier of sections was to go on 

 top, strips were placed between, and so on 

 clear to the top of the pile, and in this way 

 there was no hindrance to the air from circu- 

 lating all through the sections, above and be- 

 low and between. 



All these are little matters; but the whole of 

 these little matters, applicable to every phase 

 or part of bee-keeping life, when put together 

 to make one great whole, make all of the dif- 

 ference between success or failure in our be- 

 loved pursuit, according as we understand and 

 use them ; and the finding of these little mat- 

 ters in print, in our different bee-papers, is the 

 very thing which keeps our tender feet from 

 being lacerated and torn by blundering on the 

 snags which we should otherwise find in the 

 way. 



A plainly dressed woman was noticed to be 

 picking up something in one of the poor slum 

 streets of one of our cities where ragged bare- 

 footed little children were accustomed to play. 

 The policeman on the beat noticed the woman's 

 action, and watched her very carefully. Sev- 

 eral times he saw her stoop and pick up some- 

 thing and apparently hide it in her apron. 

 Finally he went up to her, and, with a gruff 

 voice and threatening manner, demanded. 



" What are you carrying off in your apron? " 

 The timid woman did not answer at first, 

 whereupon the policeman, thinking she must 

 have found something valuable, threatened 

 her with arrest if she did not show him what 

 she had in her apron. The woman opened 

 her apron and revealed to the astonished po- 

 liceman a handful of broken glass. "What 

 do you want with that stuff ? " asked the po- 

 liceman. The woman replied, " I justthought 

 I'd like to take it out of the way of the chil- 

 dren's feet." 



The dear soul was doing what she could to 

 save those children trouble. And shall we not 

 imitate her example, each and every one of us, 

 by doing all we can by way of telling others 

 how they may avoid the mistakes we have fall- 

 en into? How much better and " sweeter " 

 the bee-keeping world would be if each of us 

 would be careful to save the ' ' bare feet ' ' of 

 the 'young and the weak " in the wav ! 



JjJiaJi 



Pm^^^^ 



HIVINGS WARMS WITH CLIPPED QUEENS, 

 In the bee publications I have read regard- 

 ing the hiving of swarms with clipped queens, 

 the instructions are to find and cage the queen; 

 remove the parent colon\^ and place a hive 

 with empty combs or foiandation on the old 

 stand, and allow the queen to run in with the 

 returning bees. Now, Mr. Editor, I should 

 like to know if you have ever tried the follow- 

 ing, which has worked like a charm with us 

 this summer. Have your empty hive ready 

 on a new stand. When the swarm issues, cage 

 your queen in the usual way, and tie the cage 

 on the end of a ll'-ft. pole and elevate where 

 the bees are flying thickest, when they will 

 cluster around the cage and pole, and you can 

 then carry them to your new hive, and dump 

 them down in front, releasing the queen as the 

 bees run in. This seems to me to carry out 

 nature's intentions better than the other nieth- 

 od, as you give the swarm what they issued 

 for — a new home and a new location; besides, 

 in the moving method all the field-bees on re- 

 turning go in with the swarm, when, accord- 

 ing to Nature's way, they should remain with 

 the young bees in the parent hive. 



J. M. Mitchell. 

 Indooroopil'y, Queensland, Aus., Nov. KJ. 



[Yes, I have practiced your plan a good 

 many times; but it is very' much inferior to 

 the other way — the one described in our cat- 

 alog, and the one that is used by the great 

 majority of practical bee-keepers. By the 

 plan mentioned above, it is necessary to hold 

 the pole (perhaps at arms' length), and wait 

 till the bees cluster on it. On the other hand, 

 by putting the queen at the entrance of the 

 hive, to receive the swarm, the bees will go to 

 the hive automatically, and relieve the apia- 

 rist of the necessity of any further work. — Ed.] 



