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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



When the price of honey drops to a low 

 figure it is extremely hard to put the price 

 back to its former place — witness the market 

 reports. Now that there is a short crop all 

 over the country, prices will necessarily be 

 forced up. Is there not some way whereby 

 they will be prevented from falling to such a 

 low figure again ? 



This from an eastern paper: "The lawn- 

 mower is hardly in working trim before the 

 cobwebs have to be dusted off the snow- shovel; 

 still, there is no use kicking; it will all be the 

 same by and by." Why, man, it is all the 

 same now. All you have to do is to come to 

 California. Here the lawn-mower runs all the 

 year round, and there are no snow-shovels. 



California is now rejoicing over the first 

 rain of the season. About an inch and a half 

 has fallen, and it has blessed the entire State. 

 There is usually a light rainfall in October, 

 but the present rain is more abundant than 

 for several years thus early. For six years 

 the rainfall has been below normal. We have 

 reasonable expectations that the rainfall will 

 be abundant this time. 



At the Philadelphia convention, Doolittle 

 and Whitcomb object to Coggshall's plan of 

 allowing bees to enter a house and clean the 

 extracting - combs — too much annoyance. 

 Why, brethren, don't you know that is just 

 what Coggshall lives on ? and the more an- 

 noyance the better. Then the fun of it is 

 that, when the honey season is over, Bro. 

 Coggshall hies himself away to a sanitarium 

 to recuperate. 



There is a great question agitating my 

 thinking-garret just now, and all owing to the 

 editorial talk about $100 queens. The prob- 

 lem is this : How can I get a hundred-dollar 

 queen into each of my 100 colonies, and then 

 how can I sell the hundred colonies at one 

 hundred dollars each? I am sure I could 

 throw in a few valuable articles with each 

 colony. Any way, such a sale would come in 

 handy after two dry seasons — equal to a gold- 

 mine, hey ? 



Under editorials on page 724 I find that 

 some one objects to plain sections on account 

 of their being too well filled. Who is to de- 

 cide that matter — the producer or the con- 

 sumer of the honey ? I have an idea that the 

 consumer will select the too well filled section 

 every time. Under the same heading are the 

 bees with drone heads. When you breed 

 from those queens you have ordered, will you 

 be particular to have the young queens mate 

 with drones akin ? 



I have just discovered two fine honey-plants, 

 both vines of vigorous growth, and both good 

 for covering screens, rocks, and old buildings. 

 The bees work at a lively pace upon ' ' rosa de 

 montana," recently introduced from Guate- 

 mala. It blossoms but once a year, and that 



once lasts six months. The other vine, a 

 species of tecoma, or trumpet-flower, was re- 

 cently brought from China. From blossom 

 after blossom I squeezed from five to eight 

 large drops of nectar, tasting much like sap 

 from the maple ; but, alas ! our hopes of gain 

 from that wonderful nectar-producer are bar- 

 red by having tubes so long and so narrow 

 that the bees can not enter them. If we 

 could educate our bees to tear open the base of 

 the tube they would find a veritable bonanza. 



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ANSWERS TO 



SEASONABLE 



QUESTIONS 



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CARING FOR COMB HONEY AFTER TAKING 

 THE SAME FROM THE HIVE. 



Question. — Please tell us in your depart- 

 ment in Gleanings if it will answer to take 

 comb honey from the hive before all the cells 

 are sealed up along the edges of the combs 

 next the wood, and, if so, how is this unseal- 

 ed honey prevented from running out of the 

 cells in handling and during shipment? Also 

 tell us something about moth-worms, or the 

 larvae of the wax-moth on comb honey in sec- 

 tions, and how they can be got rid of. 



Answer. — I doubt whether there ever was a 

 season since I have written about bees when I 

 had so many inquiries about moth-worms and 

 the care of comb honey as now; and from the 

 letters received it would seem that, owing to 

 the poor season, the larvse of the wax-moth 

 have been concentrated on the little obtained, 

 thus being noticed more than in seasons of 

 plenty. But, to the question : 



The first requisite for caring for comb honey 

 after taking it from the hives is a good warm 

 room in which to store it. I use a room 7X10 

 feet, in the southwest corner of my shop, hav- 

 ing the outside painted a dark color, so that 

 the rays of the midday and afternoon sun will 

 make it as warm as possible. Some use an 

 upstairs room, which is still better, and which 

 will generally be warm enough without any 

 pains being taken with it, especially if this 

 room is under the south roof of the building, 

 with no partition between the roof and the 

 room. The only objection that can be brought 

 against such an upper room is the amount of 

 heavy work required in lugging the honey up 

 and down the stairs. Where an elevator can 

 be used, it is just the thing. As a body of 

 honey once thoroughly warmed will hold the 

 heat for a long time, the average temperature 

 of such a room will be pretty high, ranging 

 from 80 to 100° most of the time, thus ripen- 

 ing the honey splendidly. The object of this 

 is to have the honey growing better and bet- 

 ter, instead of poorer, from the moment it 

 leaves the hives, and have the honey in those 

 unsealed cells, where there happens to be any, 

 around the outside of the section next to the 

 wood (which is spoken of above) grow so 

 thick that it will equal any in the section. 



