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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



Now is the season for bee conventions. 

 Let all attend who can. 



This winter is starting off with a great deal 

 of snow and rain. This is favorable for young 

 clover, providing we get enough snow. 



It appears it was Mr. C. H. Pierce, instead 

 of Mr. Leon Pierce, who took the picture of 

 Mr. France "looking for foul brood." See 

 pages 873 and 882 of our last issue. 



The case of Utter vs. Utter will possibly be 

 heard some time during the latter part of De- 

 cember. Our readers may rest assured that 

 they will have full particulars and a full ac- 

 count of the trial. 



A GREAT deal of interest is now being man- 

 ifested on the subject of queen-clipping. I 

 did not suppose, when we started the discus- 

 sion, that there were so many good methods. 

 These will be described later in our columns. 



I WONDER how many of our readers have 

 their bees put up in good condition for winter. 

 I am afraid there are some who are waiting 

 for a " more convenient day " when they will 

 have "plenty of time," and the temperature 

 will be "just right " before fixing up the poor 

 bees. Delays are dangerous during these 

 days. 



Samples of bees are being sent us daily to 

 have the tongues measured. So far there has 

 not been a single case of good workers where 

 the tongues have measured less than jV,, ; and 

 in the generality of cases they run along about 

 the 19 and 20 marks. The average tongue- 

 length of ordinary worker-bees is between 15 

 and 16 hundredths. We have yet to find a 

 case where extraordinarily good workers have 

 had medium-length tongues. 



We are making preparations for our next 

 issue, the Christmas edition. The half tones, 

 an extra number of them, will be print- 

 ed on an extra quality of coated book paper. 

 The series of articles on bottling honey will 

 begin with that issue. There will also be a set 

 of engravings showing the tongue of a bee as 

 seen under the microscope, and how measure- 

 ments are made. The series of Ridgepole 

 Musings will continue as begun in this issue. 



Will those who send bees, the tongues of 

 which they desire us to measure, be kind 

 enough to send live specimens ? We can not 

 do much with dead bees, as the tongues are 

 apt to be shriveled up, and it is practically im- 

 possible to get any thing like a fair measure- 

 ment. With live specimens we chloroform 

 them, and this causes them to protrude their 



tongues to their greatest length ; and while 

 thus stretched out the tongues are laid on a 

 graduated scale and measured from the mcuth 

 p^rts to the end of the tongue. 



BEE-KEEPERS' INSTITUTES IN NEW YORK. 



There will be a series of bee-keepers' in- 

 stitutes in New York, as follows : Batavia, 

 Dec. 12; Canandaigua, Dec. 13, 14; Romulus, 

 Dec. 15 ; Auburn, Dec. 17 ; Johnstown, Dec. 

 18. Bee-keepers living in the vicinity of these 

 institutes are urged to attend and take an ac- 

 tive part in the proceedings. The editor of 

 the Review and of Gleanings expect to at- 

 tend these meetings with a stereopticon. 



a bee cellar blasted from a solid 

 Roc^;. 

 Mr. C. H. Pierce, referred to elsewhere in 

 this issue, has blasted a bee-cellar out of solid 

 rock. The roof of this cellar is 10 feet thick ; 

 the side walls are 4 rods thick, and the rear 

 wall is about 40 rods thick. Mr. Pierce writes 

 that he had to use dynamite, and blast a hole 

 in .the east end of a sandstone bluff. I have 

 no doubt this will be a good cellar, and we 

 should be glad to have Mr. Pierce inform us 

 as to how his bees winter in such a cellar. 



HOW TO FEED IN THE DEAD OF WINTER, AND 

 HOW TO MAKE GOOD " GOOD " CANDY. 



If a colony runs short of stores, and you 

 have not good combs sealed, give them a 

 big chunk of Good candy kneaded into a stiff 

 dough. Mix pulverized sugar and warm hon- 

 ey. Stir with a big spoon or a wooden pad- 

 dle. Keep stirring in sugar till it is so stiff it 

 can be stirred no longer. Dust the hands 

 with pulverized sugar, and also the molding- 

 board ; then mold and work till the dough is 

 stiff and hard. Let it stand in a warm room ; 

 and if it runs slightly, knead in a little more 

 sugar. Place a chunk of the dough, about as 

 large as the doubled fist, over the cluster, then 

 tell the bees to "go Gallagher." It will hard- 

 ly do to feed sugar syrup so late as this in 

 most localities above the 40th parallel. 



MORE records FROM LONG-TONGUED BEES. 



The evidence is still piling up, to the effect 

 that long-tongued bees are the ones that get 

 the honey. D. R. Keyes, of Dixie, Ga., mails 

 us a cage of bees which he says are from 

 " the best working colony I ever saw, by far," 

 in all his experience of IS years. The tongue- 

 reach measurement shows ^^r^. 



Again, another correspondent, J. H. Ger- 

 bracht, of Spring Grove, 111., sends a cage of 

 bees, with a tongue - reach of -^^^. These 

 bees produced 240 lbs. of surplus honey. 

 While Mr. Gerbracht does not consider this 

 amount as any thing remarkable, yet the rec- 

 ord of this colony, in contrast to that of the 

 other colonies, is " rather startling." In this 

 connection hp says that, the season before, he 

 made the mistake of requeening almost his en- 

 tire apiary from a five-banded breeder, which 

 bees, to use his exact language, " turned out to 

 be the most worthless lot of bees I ever saw." 



