1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



429 



distances of travel. Bees in the form of nu- 

 clei can be sent almost anywhere in the 

 United States with very little if any loss. 

 If the combs are not loaded down with hon- 

 ey (and it has been our rule to select them 

 just heavy enough with stores to carry them 

 through, and no more) the express on the 

 bees and the brood both (equivalent to a 

 pound of bees), will not be much in excess. 

 Our nuclei shipping boxes are made of i\ 

 basswood, and are covered, top and bottom, 

 with a very tough wire cloth, so that the 

 weight is reduced to the lowest possible 

 point. Then there is another thing. Tak- 

 ing a pound of bees out of a colony in the 

 spring, and leaving its brood unprotected, 

 takes the very life out of it; but if we take 

 half a pound of bees out and a nice frame 

 of brood, the bees that remain will easily 

 take care of the brood that is left. The 

 customer gets the equivalent of a pound of 

 bees, and the shipper has a colony laying 

 in much better shape. If we were to go 

 back to the pound business, we certainly 

 would have to charge more money. In our 

 experience a large percentage of the pound 

 packages had to be replaced by another 

 shipment while the bees in the nucleus form 

 would go through in good order, as a rule. 

 —Ed.] 



_ yrow Oi/t 



By 



)j 



•' You temperance folks want all the earth," 



Says little Tommy Toper ; 

 " Not so," says Jim. his uncle trim, 

 " We simply want it sober. ' 



C. K. Carter says in Review: " Take an 

 old horse-blanket that has been used, and 

 filled with sweat and odor, and put it on 

 the hive, and the bees will not be so likely 

 to sting a horse as they were before they 

 had become acquainted with the odor." 



Mr. Danzenbaker is here just now, and 

 he saj's he objects to having his hive spoken 

 of as the " Danz hive," as if that were his 

 name. He wants the name in full, or a 

 period of abbreviation after it. Still more 

 opposed is he to such a word as " Danzy " 

 in place of his real name. His point of or- 

 der is well taken. 



Red raspberries, so writes A. W. Smith, 

 of Parkville, N. Y., in Review, furnish a 

 honey as light-colored as that from white 

 clover, and he is surprised that Mr. Hutch- 

 inson should say it is not quite so white. 

 Mr. E. A. Morgan, of Col bourn, Wis., also 

 writes that the wild red raspberry blos- 

 soms in profusion for two months, frost or 

 no frost. If killed once, twice, or thrice, it 



will bud and blossom again. But whether 

 the honey is dark or light in color, its flavor 

 is equal to that of any other, and, to my 

 taste, superior. 



A prominent feature of the Anietican 

 Bee keeper iov a long time have been the ar- 

 ticles of Deacon Hardscrabble. Although 

 Uncle John frequently dipped his pen in 

 sulphuric acid, and more frequently fired 

 his gun toward those who might be consid- 

 ered his friends than toward his enemies, 

 he scored a good many fine points. He has 

 gooe the way of all the earth, dying Jan. 

 27. A good photo of him appears in said 

 journal for April. 



\fti 



In the Review for April is an article by 

 that fine writer and skillful bee- keeper M. 

 A. Gill, of Longmont, Col., on how he made 

 400 shook swarms. Here is a paragraph 

 worth pasting, etc.: 



Isn't it behind the spirit of the age for a full-grown 

 man to stand around all day practicing the old mythi- 

 cal methods, and "wondering if the bees will swarm"? 

 Why not open the hives and see if they ate going to ? 

 why not swarm them? and if not, then go somewhere 

 and hunt a job more pleasant and profitable. For my 

 pajt, I like "intense" bee-keeping. This season it 

 was recessary for us (my wife, one man, and myself) 

 to go through two apiaries each day. 



Again: 



If I should use a little, hot, half-story hive to confine 

 a large colony in for three or four days, until the bees 

 are ready for a super, as friend Morrison advises, 1 

 should expect absconding. If I should fill a hive up 

 with dummies (all except four or five frames), a la 

 Doolittle), I should expect absconding. But if we 

 shake all the flying bees into a full sized eight-frame 

 hive, with one or perhaps two frames of unsealed lar- 

 vae and eggs, remove the .super from the old hive, the 

 super being filled with bees well at work on bait sec- 

 tions and full sheets of foundation, on to the new 

 swarm, which is set upon the old stand, and given a 

 well ventilated cover the bees drenched with new 

 honey, that will fly out in the shaking process, why 

 should they abscond ? And, furthermore, how could 

 they, unless the queen should go on foot, as she is 

 clipped? 



In the same issue Mr. James A. Green 

 gives us an article which I wonder has not 

 been printed before. Much has been said 

 about the advantages of producing either 

 comb or extracted honey exclusively; but 

 Mr. Green here shows good reasons for pro- 

 ducing both conjointly. Mr. Green was 

 formerly of Illinois; but, like Mr. Gill, he 

 is trying his luck in Colorado. 



The present may be called the "era of 

 good feeling" among bee journals. I find 

 no personal differences being adjusted in 

 them, and nothing in particular being de- 

 bated. The right thing for the right place 

 is now there, and bee culture may be con- 

 sidered as being conducted in a waj' from 

 which there will be no radical departure 

 for many years if ever. If any problem 

 confronts bee- keepers it is the one that con- 

 fronts all honest men — adulteration. I have 

 just read a bitter complaint against it in a 

 Swiss bee-journal. The writer says phy- 

 sicians are annoyed by it, not knowing 

 what their patients get when a prescription 

 is filled. One orders honey, for instance, 

 for a sick man. The nurse goes to the gro- 

 cery and gets what she supposes to be pure 



