r>ET"OTEI> TO BEES AlVO HONEY, AT^D IIOMK ITVTE«ESnrs. 



Tol. IX. 



FEBRUARY 1, 1881. 



No. 2. 



A. I. ROOT, I 



Publisher and Proprietor, \ 

 Mcdiua, O. j 



Published Mouthly. 



Established in 187S 



r TERMS: Si. 00 PER AXNIM, IX APVAXCE; 

 I 2 Copies for 81. 90; 3 lor 82. To; 5 for 34.00; 10 

 I or more, 75 cts. each. Single Number, 10 ctsi. 

 -j Additions to clubs may be made at club 

 rates. Aliove are all to be pent to OXE posT- 

 I OFFICE. Clubs to different postollices, XOT 

 [^ LESS than 90 cts. each. 



NOTES FROM THE BAXNER APIARY. 



No. ]5. 



QUEEN-CAGES. 



^j?54 URING the past season Ihave received nueens 

 Wn) from several different breeders. Some of the 

 cages were provisioned with candy, some 

 with candy and water, and some with honey in a 

 sponge. All the queens arrived in good condition, 

 but none of the cages conformed to the letter of the 

 law. I agree with friend Heddon in saying, " I can 

 not help being mistaken sometimes, but I can and 

 will help being dishonest enough to trs' to cover it 

 up." For instance, last spring I thought we must 

 have water in our shipping cages, and I used the tin 

 bottles furnished by friend Root, until I saw the re- 

 port in September Gleanings, of friend Viallon's 

 candy, to be used without water, when I commenced 

 sending queens without water, making the candy 

 very soft. I have just left my writing, and "counted 

 up" the queens that I lost last season, and out of 245 

 with water in the cages, IT died; while out of 130, 

 sent without water, only 6 died; and I think some of 

 these perished from exposure to the cold. 



1 have an idea, in my " thinking machine," that I 

 shall probably put in practice another season; it is 

 possible that it has been tried and discarded, but I 

 have never heard of it. Partly fill your cages with 

 candy that is very soft, just about like molasses, and 

 over this pour a coating of candy that is just hard 

 enough to stay in its place and not "run." The bees 

 can " drill through" this outer crust and "strike" 

 water. Oh yes! one thing more: I have found that 

 a light grade of yellow sugar is more moist in its na- 

 ture, and seems to retain its moisture longer than 

 does the coffee A sugar. 



As so many of you are talking about 



THE PEET CAGE, 



I feel as though I must have my say. In the cage 

 that I received last season, the candy was broken 

 loose, and also broken into several pieces; but, 

 strange to say, not a bee was injured. 



You see the candy is poured against the wire 

 cloth, and the least bending of the wire cloth is lia- 

 ble to loosen the candy; but I think this objection 

 might, in some manner, bo overcome. Last summer 

 I introduced U queens with this cage. After confin- 

 ing the queen with the cage, I always left the colony 



undisturbed for two days, and at the expiration of 

 that time I never failed to find the queen released 

 and accepted. Somehow, without being able to say 

 iu»t why, 1 feel as though the cage, as an introduc- 

 ing cage, is all right,— per/iaps a little ahead of other 

 cages; but as a sZiippniff cage, I do not f/i ui/r I shall 

 like it. 

 I wonder, did anybody ever have any 



BEES KILLED BY LIGHTNING? 



A. C. Mosher, of San Marcos, Texas, writes that, a 

 day or two after a heavy thunder storm, in which 

 the electric fluid visited a house near by, and one 

 stroke of lightning sounded as though it struck their 

 own house, one of their strongest colonies of bees 

 was found dead, with the exception of a very few 

 bees. If the lightning did not kill the bees, friend 

 M. would like to know what did. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersvillc, Genesee Co., Mich. 



Friend H., the objection j'ou make to the 

 Peet cage has been remedied, or at least it 

 was in those friend Peet has sent me, for the 

 candy did not touch the wire clotli at all, but 

 was "kept from it by a thin piece of wood 

 running under the candy. The many good 

 reports from the cage, as well as yours, with- 

 out question indicate that it has succeeded 

 better, all things considered, than any cage 

 ever before used as extensively as this has 

 been. It is simpler to use, in the hands of a 

 novice, and entirely cuts off the possibility 

 of the queen taking wing when first let out, 

 as has been the case with so many others, 

 besides friend Merrybanks. 



m i«i * 



THE EAR liY- AMBER SUGAR-CANE. 



jHE cane industry is taking a grand boom this 

 winter. The past season has been a very suc- 

 cessful one, although the yield has not been 

 as great as some seasons. The quality has been 

 fine, and the demand beyond our capacity to sup- 

 ply, and the prices for sjTup have been such that 

 the business has been very profitable. In Minnesota 

 they have had the greatest success. They were sup- 

 plied with ample machinery, and turned out a fine 

 quality of sugar, and a refined syrup, which sur- 

 passed any thing in the sugar line I ever saw pro- 

 duced in the Xorth. 



