1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



551 



DooLiTTLE has given us some valuable sug- 

 gestions on how to find the queen, elsewhere. 

 He says that early in the morning the queen is 

 in the center of the brood- nest ; that from 11 

 to 2 o'clock he finds her on one of the outside 

 combs of brood, nine times out of ten ; but the 

 best time to look for the queen is from 11 to 1. 

 His article will bear a careful reading, and I 

 should like to hear from others as to the best 

 and shortest way to find her majesty. If it 

 can not be done by machinery, what is the 

 easiest way to do it with the eyes and fingers ? 



BEE CUI.TURE IN CUBA. 

 Mr. O. 9. POPPLETON, now of Stuart, Fla., 

 and formerly of Cuba, has, it seems, been hav- 

 ing showered at him a series of questions rela- 

 tive to bee-keeping on that island that just now 

 seems to be the center of interest throughout 

 the wide world. Mr. Poppleton writes us that 

 his old eye trouble, which has been somewhat 

 worse than usual, absolutely prevents him from 

 answering letters fully enough to be of much 

 value. Indeed, it is almost a physical impos- 

 sibility to give them any attention whatever. 

 After the war is over we may send Rambler or 

 somebody else to write up bee-keeping in Cu- 

 ba ; for I have no doubt that American enter- 

 prise will do much to help develop the rich re- 

 sources of that island now laid waste by the 

 cruel hand of w'ar. 



THE WEIGHTS OF BEES, AND THE I.OADS 

 THEY CARRY. 



In the published proceedings of the eighth 

 annual meeting of the Society for the Promo- 

 tion of Agricultural Science, held at Detroit, 

 Mich., I find on page 60 an account of an in- 

 teresting series of experiments, over the name 

 of C. P. Gillette. I omit the table, but the 

 summary is given in the last paragraph. 



According to the table there would be in a pound, 

 on an average, .5578 unloaded worker bees ; :)5o2 

 honey laden bees ; .5060 pollen-bearing bees ; 5447 un- 

 loaded pollen-bearers ; 5;K)4 idlers taken on the front 

 of the hive ; 2206 drones ; 10,965 loads of honey; and 

 40,580 loads (the amount carried on both legs) of pol- 

 len. 



These experiments are interesting as they 

 confirm largely the work of others They 

 also show what is very interesting to me, that 

 a worker bee may carry a weight of honey 

 equal to its own weight, and that pollen loads 

 do not usually run more than a tenth of the 

 weight of the bees. 



A MAMMOTH JUMBO SMOKER. 



Some little time ago we had an order for two 

 smokers somewhat larger than the regular smo- 

 kers on the market. They were to be regular 

 jumbos, and in general specifications were to 

 be the same as our regular Crane. After they 

 were completed they were such mammoth af- 

 fairs that I thought our readers would like to 



see the relative differences in size. A regular 

 standard sniuker was set down on the table, 

 and beside it one of the jumbos, and just back 

 of it a boy twelve or fifteen years old. A pho- 

 to was then taken, and the n suit is given be- 

 low. We did not try ihe smokers, but have 

 no doubt they would be a regular old Vesuvi- 

 us, figuratively speaking. 



1 somewhat question, however, whether a 

 smoker larger than the regular standard size, 

 in the apiary at least, would be any better. 

 No doubt it would give a tremendous volume 

 of smoke ; but it would be so big, awkward, 

 and unwieldy, that the average bee-keeper 

 would abandon it and tike up his little light 

 smoker that would give him plenty of smoke 

 for an hour without filling. 



THE LANGSTROTH MONUMENT — A SUGGES- 

 TION FROM P. H ELWOOD. 

 Some days ago I received a letter from Mr. 

 Elwood, from which I make the following ex- 

 tract : 



I notice what Doolittle says about the I^angstroth 

 monument. I am not in favor of costly monuments. 

 Money can be put to better use in this world. I have 

 just engaged a family monument for 3^100, and think 

 it enough. People are getting to be extravagant in 

 burials. If in a place where many people pjss, a fine 

 rnonument for L,angstroth would "be appropriate ; but 

 his monument is the movable-frame hive. 



Starkville, N. Y. P. H. Elwood. 



It is true that the Langstroth frame is and 

 always will be a monument to his memory. 

 I never shared the opinion, myself, that we 

 ought to go in extravagantly on any thing of 

 this kind. Something costing in the neigh- 

 borhood of $200, perhaps, has been about my 

 idea of the expense that should be involved in 

 the erection of a monument. If I am correct, 

 we have scarcely $100 in sight, even after all 

 that has been written and said; and, with two 

 or three exceptions, a bee-keeper from across 

 the water has given more than any one else. 

 Our American bee-keepers surely ought to be 

 willing to give at least a little. Sums of 10, 

 15, or 25 cents, or even a dollar, would help 

 greatly. But a lot of " ten centses " from ten 



