1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



693 



"For two reasons. If selfishness is the 

 prompting motive, the first reason will be 

 that, in the telling, the matter will be the 

 more thoroughly imbedded in our minds 

 through a reflex action, and thus we sh til be 

 benefited more and more. Undoubtedly j^ou 

 have heard the old metaphor along this line, 

 which runs : 



There was a man, his neighbors thought hira mad ; 

 The mote he gave: away, the more he had. 



" It is impossible to impart knowledge to 

 others without being benefited by this reflex 

 action. And the second reason why we should 

 tell of it is that the world may receive the 

 benefit of what we know, so that generations 

 following may be bettered by standing on 

 more advanced ground than where we stood. 

 If a man is so selfish that he keeps all to him- 

 self, and dies with all the good things which 

 he found out, the world is not a whit better 

 for his having lived in it." 



"Never mind your sermonizing. What of 

 the third point? " 



"Thirdly, we wish to examine all the im- 

 plements, hives, etc., to see if any of them, 

 or parts of the same, will help us in securing 

 our products more easily, with less expense 

 and in better shape, or give us more than we 

 already secure with our own fixtures. In 

 short, bee conventions not only pay in many 

 ways, but also tend toward cementing togeth- 

 er those who at'end, with a love and good fel- 

 lowship that is worth more than dollars and 

 cents can buy. Btit I ani obliged to meet an 

 engagement at eight o'clock, so shall have to 

 hitch up my horse and be going." 



The frequent rains over the country are 

 causing good fall flows of honey in various 

 sections, especially in Wisconsin, where there 

 was such a drouth and an almost complete 

 failure of white honey. 



Sampi^ES of bees are being sent in right 

 along for me to measure their tongues. So 

 far the longest measurement I have obtained 

 is -^§xi- I a™ not able yet to get any great va- 

 riation. Some tongues will show up .16, 

 some .15, and some .18. 



The county fairs will soon be held over va- 

 rious portions of the LTnited States ; and bee- 

 keepers who are in the immediate vicinity of 

 them would do well to fumigate all their colo- 

 nies with a little tobacco smoke in the morn- 

 ing. It is our plan to give our colonies about 

 two or three whiflFs, and then repeat the oper- 

 ation two or three hours afterward. Without 

 this tobacco dosing we are likely to have 

 trouble with the candy-men from the frequent 

 visitation of the bees. 



By the special notice given on page 702, of 

 this issue, our readers will see that we have at 

 last succeeded in getting a $200 red clover 

 queen with bees having extra-long tongues. 

 This queen and her colony have given the most 

 remarkable showing in red clover of any bees 

 since our red-clover stock of over 20 years 

 ago, and which we have been trying to dupli- 

 cate ever since. We now have it, and, what 

 is more, the queen is a leather- colored one, 

 imported direct from Italy. 



Perhaps the average honey-producer will 

 feel that the long editorial in this issue on 

 queen-rearing will not be of any special inter- 

 est to him ; but I am thoroughly convinced 

 that every one who keeps bees should lear a 

 very large per cent of his own queens. If he 

 uses late methods, and goes at it intelligently, 

 his stock of queens will be fresher and better, 

 for I can not help feeling that a journey 

 through the mails often interferes with the 

 longevity and future work of queens. 



THE FERRIS WAX-EXTRACTOR. 

 We recently had a very pleasant vi.sit from 

 C. G. Ferris, of South Columbia, N. Y., of 

 wax-extractor fame. Mr. Ferris has given the 

 subject of rendering of old combs a very care- 

 ful and thorough study. After an extended 

 examination into the merits of his machine we 

 have about concluded to catalog it for next 

 season, believing it to be the most efficient of 

 any thing ever devised. True, it has to make 

 use of artificial heat, but I am satisfied that it 

 will pay for itself in the extra wax it will se- 

 cure, before the season is half over. We hope 

 to present it to our readers very soon, with il- 

 lustrations of the special features of the ma- 

 chine. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY THE PASTEBOARD 

 METHOD. 



Reference has been made in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal editoriaWy, to the new method 

 of introducing that we have been using in our 

 apiary for a year or two back, and which we 

 have recently applied to all the Benton cages 

 that go out from our office. It is well known 

 that the release of the queen from the Benton 

 cage has hitherto been accomplished by the 

 bees eating out the candy through a small 

 hole in one end of the cage ; but up till a few 

 mouths back this hole has been plugged with 

 a small cork. The receiver of the queen 

 was directed to remove said cork when he 

 placed the cage on the hive. It sometimes 

 happened after a long journey that nearly all 

 the candy was consumed, and in such cases 

 the queen would be released before the bees 

 got acquainted with her and kill her. But all 

 this has been changed. A piece of pasteboard 

 with a line of perforations is nailed over the 

 hole, instead of plugging it with a cork. 

 When the cage is received it is laid on the 

 brood-frames after removing the cover, and 

 that is all there is of it. The bees will stick 

 their tongues through the perforations, gnaw 

 the holes larger, and tear away the pasteboard. 

 This takes anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, after 



