276 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Junk 



favor of the one selling bees, etc.? This is a ques- 

 tion to be decided, as it may end in serious difficul- 

 ties. Suppose I send you 10 lbs. of bees, and when 

 you receive them they weigh only 8 lbs., though 

 none died in the boxes, and they were weighed here 

 correctly? Now, I went to-day, since the idea struck 

 me, and gave a smoking to a colony, and after I 

 thought they had filled themselves, I introduced 1 

 lb. into a box, similar in size to another filled with 

 bees taken without being filled up, and really there 

 is a marked difference in the size of the bunches. It 

 looks to me as if it were more than one-fourth. I 

 wish you would answer the above. 



Do you know that I am proud of my candy? I 

 have not only mailed all my queens without loss, 

 but also the bees accompanying Ihem — over 300 

 mailed to date. There will be more dollars saved in 

 mailing queens with my candy than with the Peet 

 cages, as nearly any cage will do to mail queens, but 

 not any candy. Yourself will save more dollars in 

 using the candy than you will probably make in sell- 

 ing Carlin's fdn. cutter. Feet's cages, etc., to whom 

 you have paid to use their inventions. I inclose 

 some of the last postals received ; they all are near- 

 ly the same. P. L. Viallon. 



Buyou Goula, La., May 13, 1881. 



Below, Ave give the cards to whicli he re- 

 fers : -=- 



Queen received all right— not a bee dead. Please 

 accept thanks. P. Elbert Nostkand. 



650 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., Aprils, 1881. 



The bees arrived in very good condition- not a 

 dead bee in the cage. P. Stephens Stenger. 



St. Meinrad, Spencer Co., Ind., April 26, 1881. 



Queen received on the 30th, tiptop order, without 

 a dead bee. Please let mo know at what price you 

 can furnish me VA or 3 lbs. of bees, with dollar 

 queen, and how soon could you furnish them? 



Decatur, 111. J. C. Hendricks. 



The queens arrived at 7 p. m. last evening, in splen- 

 did condition, not a single dead bee in the whole. 

 Lyons Farms, N. J., May 6, 1881. Wm. Gcnnman. 



You touch on an important matter, friend 

 v., when you speak of the extra weight of 

 bees when filled with honey ; and as we are 

 selling bees at S2.0(), instead of $1.25, the list 

 price this month, I presume onr customers 

 Will have a right to complain if they get a 

 cage of bees weighing less than 1 lb. ^Ve 

 have never taken any pains to make them 

 till themselves, but I have noticed that bees 

 put up during a heavy honey yield are al- 

 ways full any way, and that tliey always 

 ship better at such times. If we send them 

 with candy and no water, I should think it 

 much safer to make them till themselves 

 with thin honey before starting. As you 

 state it, we should therefore put up U "lbs. 

 to be sure and have tliem hold out. I 

 have before mentioned that bees will rapid- 

 ly shrink in weight, in any case, and those 

 who buy bees by the pound, to sell again in 

 the same Avay, will have to allow a pretty 

 wide margin for profits. Much will de])end 

 upon the honesty of the one avIio sends them 

 out; and as with the dollar (jueens, he who 

 sends the most satisfactory ecpiivalent for 

 money received, will probably build up the 

 greatest business. No one of our customers 



has ever complained of short weight that I 

 know of. 



Now about the invention of the honey 

 candy. If you will turn to page 215, July 

 Gleanings for 1878, you will And there that 

 I had been for some time experimenting on 

 a honey candy almost exactly like yours, on- 

 ly I used btit one grade of sugar in its com- 

 position. The soft sticky candy that our 

 friend j\I. T. Kowe there complained of, car- 

 ried queens in beautiful order; and so much 

 pleased was I with it, that I gave directions 

 in the A B C for using honey with the can- 

 dy for queen-cages. Our friends who have 

 the early copies of the ABC will find it 

 there given. After a few months, our queens 

 began to die again, and I tried pure coffee 

 sugar, Avith vials of Avater, Avith Avhat seemed 

 such a marked improvement, that I discard- 

 ed the honey. Water Avorked beautifully 

 aAvhile, and then again it didn't work, and 

 Avith much foreboding I Avent back to your 

 honey candy again, friend Y. As we have 

 lost several valuable queens Avith it this 

 summer already, I do not knoAV but that I 

 shall have to get you to make the candy for 

 us, and if you will guarantee all our queens 

 to go through alive, I will willingly pay you 

 3100.00 for the invention. It just now oc- 

 curs to me, that friend Y. did not write his 

 letter for publication, but it is a matter of 

 such general interest, I think he Avill excuse 

 it. In regard to the bees consuming a pound 

 of candy in 5 days, are you sure they did not 

 crumble down a great portion of it, and al- 

 loAV it to sift out of the cage? This has been 

 one great trouble we have had Avith all our 

 candy, but I think the honey candy is less 

 liable to this objection. 



•^•••^ — 



A DEVICE TO GO AVITH THE SWARITI- 

 ING-BOX. 



MAKING BEES GO INTO THE SWARMING-BOX WITH 

 SMOKE. 



M S swarming time has begun, I will try to tell 

 J^^_ you how I got swarms into the box last year.- 



' Get a pole 15 or 20 ft. long, and put screw 



eyes in it at intervals of about 4 ft., and at the top 

 end a bit of iron, or fold tin thus: 



Now put two tin staples on the un- 

 der board of the smoker bellows thus, 

 to slip the bent iron on the end of 

 the pole into, thus: also put an eye 

 in the end of the upper board of the 

 smoker-hook, a cord in this eye, and pass it through 

 the eyes on. the pole, and by pulling the end of the 

 cord you caa stand on the ground and smoke a 

 swarm into the box without any difficulty. 



A. T. McIlwain. 



Abbeville C. H., S. C April 19, 1881. 



Quite an idea, friend M., for, if I get it 

 correctly, Avith this arrangement you com- 

 pel the bees to " get out" of whatever cavi- 

 ty or inaccessible place they may try to clus- 

 ter in, aiul go into the swarming-box, and 

 that, too, Avithout AA'aiting for any slow 

 movements they may think proper to make. 



