1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



47 



drawn along till we come to the frame of 

 brood, when the last prepared frame of cells 

 is taken out, one or two taken off for royal 

 jelly, and the frame " jumped " to the outside 

 of the frame of brood, which gives room for 

 the third prepared frame between the frames 

 of brood again, where it is placed as soon as 

 prepared. 



As I do no work with the bees on Sunday I 

 time it so that no cells have to come off that 

 day, and so four days now elapse be r ore I put 

 in another prepared frame, which makes ten 

 days from the time we started, so that we real- 

 ly have only three prepared frames every ten 

 days. 



I now take out the frame of " ripe " cells, or 

 the first one prepared, and distribute them 

 where wanted, getting the bees off, etc., as 

 given in chapters 8 and 9 of the book, when I 

 lift out the two frames of brood, look them 

 over to make sure that the bees started no 

 queen-cells on these frames (unless this is 

 done we may have a queen hatch when we 

 least expect, and destroy all of the cells on 

 the other prepared frames), when the-e two 

 frames of now sealed brood are " jumped " 

 over behind the two frames of cells now re- 

 maining. I now take out a frame of honey 

 on each side, and shove all the frames along 

 toward either side of the hive, so as to make 

 room for two frames c ntaining eggs and 

 larvae, taken from any hives in the yard (gen- 

 erally from nuclei when under full headway 

 later on), which are placed in the center of 

 the hive again, as the first Iwo were, being 

 left apart for the fourth prepared frame, which 

 is now fixed as was the others, and put in. 



This tells you all there is of it, only that 

 you keep right on in this way all the season, 

 and the result should be with you, the same 

 as I gave on page 849 of Nov. 15th Glean- 

 ings. I see the Roots use colonies preparing 

 to supersede their queen, but I have not used 

 such a colony since the book was published, 

 and do not see why others can not succeed as 

 well as I do with a good laying queen below, 

 for I do not believe that the raising of queens 

 in this way is any " trick " at all. Colonies 

 worked as above given are quite likely to 

 swarm under the pressure of bees given by 

 their own queen and the inserted brood ; and 

 when they do so I simply take off the upper 

 story, cut off all ciueen-cells started, cage the 

 queen for ten days, cut the queen-cells again, 

 and allow the bees to liberate her by eating 

 out the candy from the stopper, as given in 

 January 1st Gleanings for 1898. 



As to feeding : I feed generally, to start 

 with, till the frames in the upper story are 

 quite well supplied with honey, unless honey 

 is coming in quite freely from the fields, after 

 which I rarely feed at all unless at times of 

 real scarcity. That is, when enough is coming 

 in from the fields so that no robber bees are 

 about looking into hives as I open them, I do 

 not feed, only for the first ten days, but feed 

 at all times when nothing can be obtained 

 from the fields. 



Then there is a bare oossibility that the 

 deeper Gallup frame has something to do with 

 it, but I think not. I have never tried so rear- 



ing queens at the out-apiary, for I use only 

 the one colony at home, bringing brood from 

 the out-apiary, if I wish to breed from any 

 eiueen there. 



If I have failed to make all plain, don't be 

 afraid to ask questions, for on good queens 

 hangs the greatest success in apiculture. 



Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 30, 1898. 



APIS DORSATA. 



A Correction by Mr. Benton. 



It is unfortunate that, in attempting to cor- 

 rect the item which you quote in Gleanings 

 for Dec. 15, 1898 (page 939), from the Amer- 

 ican Cultivator, you should leave the subject 

 about as badly mixed as before. Allow me to 

 suggest a little more charity toward the editor 

 of an agricultural journal, when the editor of 

 a bee -journal — even of Gleanings itself — in 

 an attempt at correcting the former on a point 

 pertaining to the history of the industry, can 

 not make half as many statements without 

 blundering quite as badly. 



Immediately below the quotation which you 

 made from the American Cultivator is your 

 effort at correction, which reads as follows: 



"Now, there may be some truth in the 

 above, but certainly there are a lot of mistakes 

 mixed in with the truth. Mr. Benton went 

 origmally to the Island of Cyprus, in the Med- 

 iterranean Sea. Then in pursuit of Apis dor- 

 sata he went on to India, and then south to 

 the island of Ceylon. But, according to our 

 geography, the Philippines are a very great 

 distance from Ceylon and India, and twice 

 as far fiom Cyprus. Mr. Benton did not go 

 to the Philippines. I have thought best to 

 copy the above, because just such blundering 

 statements are the ones that go the rounds of 

 the papers." 



Although it is now eighteen years since I 

 made the journey which Editor Root men- 

 tions, and though, since then, I have made 

 many others, the recollections of that partic- 

 ular one are still quite distinct; nor do I need, 

 for that matter, to depend upon memory 

 alone, for, besides certain published accounts 

 which appeared at the time, some in European 

 and others in American apiarian journals, I 

 have memoranda and notes of travel which 

 settle beyond doubt the question of the route 

 taken. Incidentally I must remark that it is 

 a rather " queer " geography you stuely if it 

 teaches you that "the Philippines are twice 

 as far from Cyprus" as Ceylon is! It is 

 about 4500 miles from Cyprus to Ceylon, and 

 2800 miles from Ceylon to the Philippine 

 group. Nineteen days (exclusive of stops) 

 were at that time usually consumed by the 

 most direct route in making the first-mention- 

 ed journey, while ten to eleven days sufficed 

 for the trip from Ceylon to the Philippines. 

 And the distance from the Malay Peninsula, 

 forming a part of Farther India, to the Phil- 

 ippine group, is but 1000 miles. 



As to the route taken in my journey, I wish 

 merely to state that it was not first " to India 

 and then south to Ceylon," nor have I .ever 



