360 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



July 



GlEAWmC S m BEE CULTURE. 



-A.. I. :root, 



EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, O. 



TERMS: $1.00 PER ¥EAR, POST-PAID. 



FOR CLUBBING RATES, SEE FIRST PAGE 

 UF READING MATTER. 



]VEX3X3X3>a-.A., iTTJTLM^Sr 1, 1881. 



For even Christ pleased not himself.— Rom. 15:3. 



The evidence this season in favor of starters com- 

 pletely flUiug the sections, is now very strong-. 



The next meeting of the Cortland Union Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, will be held at Cortland, N. Y., 

 Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1881. C. M. Bean, Sec. 



The supply of wax sent in since our cover was 

 printed, obliges us to reduce prices to 31c cash, or 

 23c trade. Please read these prices instead of those 

 on the cover. 



The best advertisement you or any one else can 

 have. Is to send the goods just as you advertise them, 

 or a little better, and the very minute the order 

 reaches you. 



Neighbor H. and myself will visit D. M. Ferry's 

 seed-gardens, in response to the invitation of friend 

 Hunt (see page 289, June No.), on Saturdaj% the 16th 

 of July, no preventing providence. 



The Revised New Testaments are just at hand, a 

 whole thousand of them. Price 10c; if wanted by 

 mail, 5c more for postage. For wholesale prices, see 

 counter store. Give us an order, and see how 

 quickly we can send you one. 



The American Bee-Journal has completed its first 

 six months as a weekly, and has proved a success, 

 as it could not well help being, with the able way in 

 which it is gotten up— clean nice print, good paper, 

 and brim full of "bee-talk " that could not all very 

 well find place in a monthly. 



We have to-day, June 28th, 265 queen-rear iug col- 

 onies, and are adding to the number by buying new 

 swarms of blacks, hybrids, and Italians, at 50, 60, and 

 75c, per lb. respectively. If you think I am making 

 too much money in selling them at $2.00 per lb., just 

 take the trade out of my hands, please. In fact, I 

 wish you would, for I want to go right to work now 

 getting ready for winter, that I may fill orders more 

 promptly next spring. 



BEES TWO DOLLARS PER POUND. 



It is very bad to change prices, I know ; and everj' 

 time I have to do it I resolve I will not do it again if 

 I can help it — I mean, a raise in prices. I do not 

 know that anybody ever found fault when I put 

 them down. Well, as you will see by our Julj* price 

 list, bees by the pound will be $2.00, or just double 

 last year's prices, until further notice. Every thing 

 else will be at ola prices or lower. When bees get 

 to be a drug in the market again, I will try to do 

 better. 



shipping BEES BY THE POUND. 



Some of the friends have had very discouraging 

 success in sending bees by the pound, but I think 

 they are all doing better now. With abundance of 

 Ventilation, candy, and plenty of watei', they go 



safely to Texas and California. We now put a water 

 bottle in every section. It needs wire cloth, on ev- 

 ery one of the six sides of the package, and the cage 

 for a pound of bees, should be full as large as those 

 we use. 



We h ave received from C. H. Lake, Baltimore, Md„ 

 a very fine specimen of workmanship in the shape 

 of a wax-extractor. It will no doubt do its work 

 Avell; but since our invention for rendering wax by 

 steam, the job is so quickly done with any quantity, 

 we hardly have occasion to even try any of the new 

 inventions. 



Thirty queens were received at 7 o'clock in the 

 evening. Ntnghbor H., John, Ernest, and myself, 

 undertook to introduce them before dark. It was 

 done by caging only three, and not one of the thirty 

 was lost. The 27 were let right out on the top of the 

 frames without a single one being attacked. Of 

 course, every colony had been several days queen- 

 less. 



Moral : About 27 times out of 30, during a yield of 

 clover honey, you can let queens right out in any 

 hive that has queen-cells well along. Many of them 

 were laying next morning. 



labels for honey, etc. 

 Since there has been so much trouble about de- 

 lays on labels, we have finally arranged to 

 print them ourselves, and expect to be able to 

 mail all orders within 48 hours after the day they are 

 received. The work is in the hands of Mr. Gray's 

 son George, one of the microscope boys. He will 

 print you any kind of a gummed label, one color, for 

 $1.00 per 1,000, providing it does not exceed in size 

 1x2 inches, nor contain over 50 words. Try him, and 

 see how he "pans out" tor promptness. If you 

 "swamp" him with orders, a dozen boys and girls 

 are ready to give him a lift. If wanted by mail, put 

 in 5c per M. extra. 



the rubber foundation plates. 

 The rubber plates for fdn. work beautifully in our 

 hands, and Mr. Gray, with one hand to assist, makes 

 and trims L. sheets at the rate of one a minute, on 

 an average. These sheets are from 6 to 7 square ft. 

 to the pound, and work in the hives beautifully. 

 One strange thing about the rubber is, that you do 

 not want cold water to Immerse the plates in, but 

 water tolerably warm. When every thing is right, 

 the sheets will almost fall from the rubber dies of 

 themselves. We have sold perhaps a dozen sets of 

 plates; but I am sorry to say, as we go to press, only 

 three of these purchasers have reported, and none 

 of these favorably. In starting a new pair of plates, 

 a little soap bark dissolved in the water in the tank 

 seems to make the wax lift easier. 



sending queens without marking the cages. 

 It would seem strange that any one should send 

 us queens without saying a word as to whether they 

 are blacks, hybrids, dollar, or tested queens ; but we 

 have received two lots to-day, in just that way. Do 

 you suppose we are so wise that we can tell all 

 about it by simply looking at them? I have been 

 sorely tempted to say I would give you credit for all 

 such at 15c each, and sell them to the first customer 

 for 25 ; and if they are worth more, it would be his 

 good fortune; but a small voice within says, "No, 

 you won't, for you have promised to ' suffer long, 

 and be kind.' " Please to be more thoughtful, dear 

 friends, and do not thus block the wheels of the busy 



