1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



611 



get a taste. They worked at it fiercely all day 

 in great clumps, trying to get in, many rob- 

 bers being slaujjhtered. Nothing remarkable 

 about that, and I'm not proud of it, but I 

 mention, it to say that not another case of 

 robbing occurred in the apiary, although 

 there were 73 hives hoisted \'^ inch on four 

 blocks, others with a 12x2 entrance, and some 

 nuclei with ordinary entrance. [If I under- 

 stand you, d' 'Ctor, you have had no trouble 

 from robbing in any case where hives have 

 been raised up on four blocks. But the case 

 of robbing you did have was due to the fact 

 that you let the bees clean out supers con- 

 taining a little honey. I dare say that a good 

 many of the friends who have purchased 

 hives with deep entrances this year thought it 

 would be necessary, after the honey season, to 

 contract this entrance down. Even our api- 

 arist, Mr. Wardell, had somehow got this 

 notion into his head. He had contracted 

 some of the deep entrances. I told him to 

 pull off the blocks and let the robbers have 

 full swing; but so far not one of these hives 

 has been attacked. I would not, however, go 

 so far as to say that such deep entrances 

 would be advisable in case of nuclei. — Ed.] 



The other day when Mr. Levering was wash- 

 ing dishes and I was wiping them (you see we 

 are baching together), said he, " Do you know 

 where the term ' Old Reliable ' originated, as 

 applied to the Auierican Bee Joiaiial f " 



" No, I have not the least idea," said I. 



"Well," said lie, "when I lived back in 

 Missouri there was a stage-driver whose ar- 

 rival was as regular as the rising of the sun, 

 and seemingly the most violent storms would 

 not interfere with his regularity, and he be- 

 came noted far and near as the ' old reliable.' 

 When I edited the bee department in the Los 

 Angeles Herald the American Bee Journal 

 came to the office so regularly that I was 

 reminded of the old stage-driver, and noted 

 the fact, and in the next issue in.serted an 

 item calling it the "Old Reliable" Soon 

 after I saw it copied, and from that time to 

 this it has borne that name. Now, some one 

 else may have suggested the same name, but 

 nevertheless the term applied was original 

 with me." 



Mr. C. A. Hatch is now in Colorado, en- 

 gineering an apiary, and hobnobbing with R. 

 C. Aikin and others. Mr. Hatch should not 

 have been discouraged at the failure of the 

 honey crop in Southern California, for there 

 are many places where the bees will roll in 

 quite a honey crop, even in California. Here 

 am I, where the alfalfa is yielding honey 

 quit.' rapidly, and the conditions are so nice 

 the ranchers believe it makes better hay to 

 stand a while in bloom, and that is just pleas- 

 ing to the bee-men. 



Did you ever have wax and honey stick to 

 the soles of your shoes while extracting, or 

 working where there are scraps on the floor ? 

 It is really uncomfortable to have a wad ac- 

 cumulate on the heel or sole, and then it is a 

 vexatious operation to dig it off. I find that 

 a rubber sole greatly nntigates the nuisance. 

 If you do not wish to wear rubbers, peg a 

 rubber sole to your shoes. 



Allow me to thank Mr. Theilman for that 

 plan for leveling drawn comb in sections with 

 a common honey-knife. It works like a 

 charm. As I have several hundred to operate 

 tipon, that item was valuable to me. I would 

 make the additional suggestion that the knife 

 works well when cold, when the comb is cold 

 and brittle ; but if the day and the comb are 

 warm, you also want a hot knife, and that is 

 where a knife-heater comes in handy. 



Noting what you have to say about produc- 

 ing comb honey without separators leads me 

 to remember seeing a fine lot of comb honey 

 in Riverside, Cal., that was produced without 

 separators, and there were biit a few of the 

 sections that would not pack nicely in the 

 case. Of course, the few bulged sections 

 were just what were wanted for home use. 

 This honey was produced by Mr. George K. 

 Hubbard, and in the Hubbard hive. He says 

 he has no use for separators. 



Mr. Editor, that Echo about a certain lot of 

 honey handled by the Exchange seems to be 

 troubling the minds of a few of the directors. 

 I wish to say, in reference to it, that, in echo- 

 ing the matter, I had no idea of injuring the 

 Exchange. I have no objection to the publi- 

 cation of the letter se, t you by the present 

 secretar}' of the Exchange or by anybody else. 

 I beg the editor's pardo-i for getting him into 

 the trouble, and agree to hold a clam silence 

 upon such a sensitive subject hereafter. 

 Now, whatever you publish I shall pay no 

 attention to it, for I am now in the midst of a 

 very good honey-flow, 750 miles north of the 

 Exchange, and 2G42 feet above it. 



[Regarding the last Echo, I would state, 

 for the information of our readers, that, along 

 the last of April, I received an article in reply 

 to a California Echo that appeared in our 

 issue for Feb. 15, referring to the specific 

 gravity and quality of honey that was sold by 

 the Exchange. I thought the matter hardly 

 of sufficient or;/ ifn?/ importance to bring it up 

 again. At all events I sent the article to Mr. 

 Martin, and asked him if he cared to reply. 

 He stated that he did not wish to take any 

 space, but had no objection to the publication 

 of the article. After some correspondence 

 with Mr. Clayton the matter was dropped; 

 but it has been resurrected again by the Echo 

 above, and I now give the article that was 

 sent in the first place. 



The sample of honey in question was sent 

 us as stated, and I do not wonder that it was 

 by some considered sour. When we came to 

 know its real history it is easy to understand 

 that the acid flavor might be due to the citrus 

 bloom. That it should be necessary to refer 

 to the specific gravity of honey in pounds and 

 ounces, I do not believe. — Ed.] 



