646 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



there are more people than you might suppose 

 who reall}' prefer honey candied. This week 

 there was at my house a young lady who 

 refused the finest comb honey, but would eat 

 her share of candied extracted. [That's right 

 — keep the ball rolling. — Ed.] 



A COMMON NOTION seems to be that clipped 

 queens are superseded sooner than others. 

 Isn't that because you can always tell when a 

 clipped queen is superseded, and with whole 

 wings you can't easily tell whether there has 

 been any change? If the average age of 

 queens is three years, then a third of the 

 queens are superseded every year. [That 

 "common notion," like many another com- 

 mon notion, is not founded on facts. Queens 

 clipped or not clipped live out their best use- 

 fulness in three years, and some think in two. 

 —Ed.] 



On page 628, mention is made of Hutchin- 

 son using sections 1>^ inches wide, as if that 

 were unusually narrow. I understand they 

 were used without separators, making comb 

 the same thickness as sections l^^ with sep- 

 arators. If they were used with separators, 

 then the thickness of the comb was 1 inch, or 

 Ys to ^4 inch narrower than bees naturally 

 build them. [The -wddth 1}4 is narrow when 

 compared with 1 H , the standard width for the 

 United States. As to the natural width of 

 comb — what is it ? Some say /s inch, some 

 1%. But there is another point to be consid- 

 ered. Is it not true that combs one inch 

 thick or less will be filled and capped better 

 and quicker than combs 1}4 or 1^4 in. thick? 

 —Ed.] 



W. WooDLEY, the able contributor of Bril- 

 ish Bee Journal, has no use for a section- 

 cleaner, because his sections '^ are never made 

 dirty, so that no scouring or cleaning is 

 required. Bee - keepers may save a large 

 amount of labor if they are careful and clean 

 in all their work in the apiary." But, friend 

 Woodley, it isn't I but the bees that dirty the 

 sections. Either your bees do differently, or 

 else your market doesn't require as clean sec- 

 tions as our markets. [There is a vast differ- 

 ence in markets as well as in localities. In 

 my occasional "travels" among bee-keepers 

 I notice that, in one locality, there may be 

 comparatively little propolis-daubing, and in 

 another there is considerable. In one localitj' 

 propolis is red, and in another brown and 

 dirty-looking. There is also a difference in 

 bees. Carniolans deposit the least; Italians 

 next; blacks and hybrids next in order, and 

 Funics or Tunisians the most of any. — Ed.] 



A NEW BOY at school has to run a sort of 

 gantlet till the others find what stuff he's 

 made of. Same way with bees, in a time of 

 scarcity. Set a hive in a new place, add a 

 fresh story, or make almost any change, and 

 the robbers will try to enter the smallest crack, 

 while right beside it stands a colony unmolest- 

 ed although having plenty of big leaks. 

 [" Plenty of big leaks?" That reminds me 

 that on this point, at least, the doctor knows 

 what he is talking about. "Big leaks" — 

 why, his hives have 'em all over — dilapidated 

 lot many of them are. There, doctor, I didn't 



mean to give you away quite so badly ; but 

 it's only fair to say that you have been hang- 

 ing on to a lot of 3'our hives ( twenty or thirty 

 years old ) wilh the intention of superseding 

 the whole lot just as soon as you find a hive 

 that suits you to a dot. I don't blame you for 

 taking time to look over the field carefully. 

 Say, supply-dealers, here is a chance to show 

 the doctor the " only ideal hive." — Ed.] 



SELLING DARK HONEY. 



BY MRS. Iv. H.^RRISON. 



This week I visited an apiary two and a half 

 miles distant from ours, located in much bet- 

 ter bee-pasture, as all the adjacent land is oc- 

 cupied by market- gardens. There is also land 

 subject to overflow from the Illinois River, 

 within easy flight of the bees. On entering 

 the house I noticed upon a table a dozen glass 

 jars with tin covers, holding about one gallon. 

 These jars are usually used to hold candy in 

 stores. The color was like that of strong 

 coffee, and my curiosity was excited. In re- 

 ply to my query, "What have you in those 

 jars?" the lady said, ^' Honey.'" 



I never saw such stuff as this before. She 

 said, " The combs were built crosswise of the 

 sections, and some were bulged so I could not 

 pack them. The straight nice ones are in 

 those cases." 



On cutting some of the comb I found it was 

 tough and thick. She said, "Look at that 

 box-elder. Some mornings 3'ou would think 

 there was a swarm there, they hummed so 

 among the leaves; and the lilac-bush beneath 

 shone as if the leaves were varnished. That 

 grove of oaks there had honey-dew also." 



Putting this honey-dew upon the market 

 will be an injury. Many persons think that 

 bees make honey; and if they eat some of 

 this they will come to the conclusion that they 

 do not want any more. If extracted, cigar- 

 makers might use it, or printers could use it 

 in their rollers. If I have honey-dew I will 

 feed the bees upon it another spring, to rear 

 brood. 



BEESWAX. 



This lady showed me her wax. From its 

 appearance I judge that it had been boiled in 

 water too much, and then heated too hot. For 

 those who keep bees in a small way, and have 

 only a small quantity of wax, there is no bet- 

 ter way than to put the scrapings of hives and 

 sections in an all-metal sieve; set it over a pan 

 of cold water, and put it in the oven of a cook- 

 ing-stove. As it melts it runs down into the 

 water ; and if the oven is very hot, change it 

 to another pan of cold water. In this way 

 light-colored wax is the result. I don't want 

 the water in the pan to boil. If the first pan 

 is removed, and the second should be forgot- 



