1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



605 



MODERN OUEEN-REARING. 



The controversy on queen-reariner, which 

 has been groing on in Gleanings for some 

 time, has much interested me, a bee-keeper 

 of over 50 years. The early methods of 

 queen-rearing and those of Alley and Doo- 

 little are familiar to me; they have been 

 useful and instructive to us all. Apicul- 

 ture, like every thing else, has made great 

 progress during the last 20 or 30 years, and 

 we must endeavor to keep pace with the 

 times. It is well not to be too hasty in 

 adopting new ideas or views of others; at 

 the same time, we must not be so conservative 

 as to be satisfied with old methods we have 

 used, and think they can not be improved, 

 or be prejudiced against any thing that is 

 new, and that we do not thoroughly under- 

 stand. Equally good results are frequent- 

 1}' to be obtained with less labor and ex- 

 pense. All, I think, will agree that the 

 less a colony is disturbed by frequent ma- 

 nipulations, the better will be the result; 

 the frames in the brood-chamber should be 

 lifted out as little as possible, and any 

 manner of rearing queens that avoids con- 

 stant disturbance must be a great advan- 

 tage. 



Mr. E. L. Pratt, in his article on page 

 492 on this subject, has fully explained 

 how this can be done with a less amount of 

 labor and better results. Mr. Pratt is evi- 

 dently a very close observer, and with his 

 system, the use of flanged cups resting on a 

 removable top-bar, with holes to receive 

 them, he is able to watch the action of the 

 bees cleaning out any royal jelly that is 

 placed in the cups, or the development of 

 the cells, which he describes. With the re- 

 movable top-bar holding cups, he can not 

 only "pull out a cell without lifting the 

 frame," but he can obtain all the advan- 

 tage you claim by removing "the frame to 

 take a pick of the best," "or discard those 

 that have been rejected, and substitute 

 others in their place much quicker" than 

 by raising the frame and disturbing the 

 bees as you have to do, as I understand 

 from your criticisms in your note. 



I think, Mr. Editor, you must have read 

 this article hastily or you would have no- 

 ticed the points to which I have called your 

 attention clearly described by Mr. Pratt, 

 where he mentions the few points in Mr. 

 Phillips' article, which he criticises as be- 

 ing either wasteful and in some cases ex- 

 travagant or unnecessary. Who was the 

 ftrst to use wooden cups and when ? It will 

 be interesting io know if there is any rec- 

 ord in Gleanings, if you could kindly 

 give your readers the benefit of it. 



Philadelphia, Pa. J. M. Hooker. 



[See answer to Swarthmore on page 601. 

 —Ed.] 



bees on roofs and in tenement houses. 

 I live on the third floor in a three-tene- 

 ment house, and should like to ask if you 

 think it would be practical to make a start 

 by keeping the hive in the front entry on 



the third floor, and arranging it at the win- 

 dow so that the bees can come and go into 

 the hive without their getting into the en- 

 try. The owner of the house objects to 

 their being out in the yard on account of 

 children; or would it be more practical to 

 hire a lot close by and start in a small 

 way by having one or two hives to start 

 with? Albert W. Dakin. 



olneyville, R. I. 



[It would be perfectly feasible to have a 

 colony of bees on the third floor of the tene- 

 ment house, with entrance communicating 

 with the outside, in the manner suggested 

 by 3'ou. Perhaps you could get permission 

 to use the roof of the building; if so, you 

 would be enabled to put out several colonies. 

 In that case it would be necessary to pro- 

 vide some sort of shade for the heat of the 

 day, as the radiation of the sunlight on the 

 roof would have a tendency to melt down 

 the combs unless hives were protected. — 

 Ed.] 



not true that candying is a proof of 

 purity. 



A wholesale grocer to whom I sold honey 

 some time ago asked me if it were true that 

 the granulating of honey is an evidence of 

 purity. I assured him that it was to a 

 great extent. He then told me that a few 

 years ago he bought some bogus honey in 

 jelly- tumblers from a molasses firm. Dur- 

 ing the winter that honey candied solid. 



Ft. McKavett, Tex, F. L. Wignall. 



[Glucose honey will candy providing it is 

 not almost entirely glucose. We have sam- 

 ples in our office that are two-thirds and 

 three- fourths glucose that we fixed up our- 

 selves that have granulated solid, but they 

 do not look the same as pure honey that has 

 candied to a solid condition. It is a wrong 

 impression that bee-keepers have that glu- 

 cose mixtures will not candy; and it is one 

 that has done a great deal of harm, because 

 the dealers have been claiming to their pa- 

 trons that the bottled stufi" that they had 

 will all candy, and that it won't candy un- 

 less it is pure. You can readily see how 

 such heresy would hurt the bee business. 

 —Ed.] 



bees dying of dysentery. 



I noticed in front of one of my hives, the 

 ground literally covered with dead bees. I 

 have been feeding good candy to get my 

 colon 3^ up to the standard. These bees 

 have a swollen appearance. Do you think 

 the case paralysis? What would you ad- 

 vise? S. A. Butler. 



Belleville, 111., Feb. 6. 



[The case mentioned is probably one of 

 paralysis and not of dysentery. If the for- 

 mer, it will have been cured by this time; 

 if the latter, spraying powdered sulphur on 

 the bees at night, when they are all in the 

 hive, would probably do much to effect a 

 cure. See editorial on this subject on page 

 482, May 15th Gleanings.— Ed.] 



