J 90 



GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



cut down our geographical distances, doctor, 

 or, better still, give us railroad mileage of 

 half a cent per mile, I will guarantee that we 

 can have a convention of at least 500 bee- 

 keepers. — Ed.] 



HONIGKUCHEN. Bring 1 lb. extracted hon- 

 ey and !4 lb. butter to a boil. Let cool for 10 

 minutes. Add 1 lb. flour, j4 lb. ground 

 almonds, '^ teaspoonful of cloves, the grated 

 peel of a lemon, and a scant teaspoonful of 

 soda dissolved in a little hot water. Mix, and 

 set aside over night. Next morning, roll out 

 }4 inch thick, cut in small squares, press an 

 almond in each corner and in the center, and 

 bake in a moderate oven. — Chicago Record. 



" Ever SINCE we have begun using loose 

 bottom-boards, and raising the hives in front 

 in hot weather, we have avoided the breaking- 

 down of combs bj'heat." — C. P. Dadant in 

 American Bee Journal. Is there no mistake 

 about this ? Somewhere I think I have seen 

 it stated that on a hot day it is cooler in the 

 hive than out, and that raising the hive only 

 makes it warmer. [Why should there be 2i\\y 

 mistake about Dadant's statement? It ap- 

 pears to me to be entirely within the limits of 

 the experience of some others. — Ed.] 



Whoop ! whoop ! hurrah ! lots of us out- 

 siders are glad a quietus has been given to 

 Medina saloons. [While we rejoice over our 

 victory we realize that it would be folly to rest 

 on our laurels. In any temperance fight, it is 

 necessary to keep continually on the alert, 

 else the Devil would be sure to take advantage 

 of us. He is never asleep, you know. If 

 more of the churches would send their preach- 

 ers and their best laymen to the polls to work 

 for the cause of righteousness, there would be 

 less of wickedness in high places. — Ed.] 



"ShouIvDThe queen be clipped? A bee- 

 keeper inquiring on this subject, Mr. E. Root, 

 the editor of the American journal. Glean- 

 ings, replies that he has clipped queens for 

 more than 60 years, and finds it to his advan- 

 tage." — L'Apiculteur. I didn't suppose Er- 

 nest had begun clipping so long ago. [I can 

 not imagine where L'Apiculteiir got its infor- 

 mation. I first saw daylight something over 

 36 years ago; but it was not till I was about 15 

 years old that I had much if any thing to do 

 with bees, so that my apicultural experience 

 all told comes inside of about 20 years. Lat- 

 terly, it is true, we have practiced clipping, but 

 for only about two years — quite a difference 

 between that and fifty. — Ed ] 



Dispute about feeding, p. 76*3, between 

 Messrs. Doolittle and Root. Both right. The 

 man who has bees to feed late should take no 

 chances feeding half-and-half sugar and wa- 

 ter. But if he's wise he'll not wait so late that 

 he'll have any need of cookery. I fed 600 

 lbs. of sugar this year, with no cooking and 

 no stirring. I just dumped sugar into the 

 feeder, then poured water on it. [We have 

 made syrup cold by mixing sugar in the pro- 

 portion of one-third water to two-thirds sugar, 

 but it took a little more stirring ; but I sus- 

 pect that, after all, when it is necessar}^ to 

 feed late, Doolittle's method of mixing syrup 



will be better; but I never could see that syr- 

 up granulating in combs back to sugar made 

 any trouble so far as wintering is concerned. 

 —Ed.] 



That loss of sting does not necessarily 

 mean loss of life, M. Vesigne {Revue Inter- 

 nationale) satisfied himself after this fashion : 

 He put a live mouse into an observatory hive, 

 and stirred up the bees, at the beginning of 

 winter. The mouse was hidden by bees, 

 which left their stings by hundreds. Number 

 of dead bees next day — seven/ [Look here, 

 doctor; you did not finish your story. We 

 are all at sea as to whether that mouse lived 

 or died. You will remember how, some years 

 ago, we caged several bees that had lost their 

 stings, along with other bees that had their 

 stings, and that one lot lived as long as the 

 other. I know it is generally thought that 

 bees die immediately after losing their stings; 

 but it is high time the mvth were exploded. — • 

 Ed.] 



M. Genonceaux, director apicultural sta- 

 tion at Huy, says, in Sept. Rucher Beige, that 

 foul-broody honey should be boiled 2^< hours, 

 or kept at 195° for four hours. Critic Taylor 

 called me down for saying boil 2^ hours, say- 

 ing he thought 15 minutes enough. Possibly 

 Bro. Taylor is giving dangerous advice. [It 

 would be interesting to know whether Mr. 

 Genonceaux found that some of the germ life, 

 or spores, after two hours and a quarter of 

 boiling, say, were still alive. Personally I 

 should be inclined to believe that Taylor's 

 statement was correct. W^e have fed foul- 

 broody honey brought to a temperature of 

 about 180, or about as hot as it could be made 

 with a steam-pipe, and kept it there for ten or 

 fifteen minutes. No foul brood resulted from 

 this honey. Now, perhaps this honey was 

 not infected, so it would be interesting to 

 know further in regard to Mr. Genonceaux' 

 experiment. — Ed.] 



I don't know for certain, but I imagine 

 there's some imagination in the talk about the 

 tenderness and fine edible qualities of comb 

 in sections, its being friable, etc. I doubt 

 whether the flavor of the wax is ever noticed 

 by one eating biscuit and honey. At any 

 rate, I always prefer the honey that has run 

 out on the bottom of the plate. One thing I 

 know for sure: Comb ten years old, that has 

 been out of the hive in a dry place for five 

 years empty, is more friable than comb made 

 two months ago. [Extracted honey very oft- 

 en comes from old combs, and if it be in that 

 comb six weeks before it is thrown out it 

 would acquire no added quality in the way 

 of flavor. The honey that is stored in sec- 

 tions is stored in neiv comb, and may remain 

 in that comb anywhere from two weeks to 

 two years before it is eaten. Suppose it is 

 consumed, as it would be in the majority of 

 cases, within six months from the lime of 

 coming off the hive. Now, suppose again 

 that there is a peculiar flavor to wax, would 

 not more of that flavor be imparted to the 

 honey stored in sections than that stored in 

 extracting-combs ? Understand I do not claim 

 that wax has a flavor of its own. — Ed.] 



