GLEANINGS 

 BEE CULTUI\E. 



Devoted to Bees and Honey, and Home Interests. 



Vol. IX. 



SEPT. 1, 1881. 



No. 9. 



A. Z. ROOT, ] 



Publisher and Proprietor, \ 

 Medina, O. j 



Published Monthly. 



1 rates. Aoove a 



EstaUished in 1873. [Z^^i..^^:^L 



r TERMS: $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE; 

 I 2 Copies for $1.90; 3 for $2.75: 5 for $4.00; 10 

 I or more. 75 cts. each. Single Number. lO.ots. 

 -1 Additions to clubs may be made at club 

 rates. Above are all to be sent to one i>ost- 

 to different postofficcs, not 

 each. 



NOTES FROITI THE BANNER APIARY. 



NO. 



WATER IN QUEEN -CAGES. 



^fpULY 30,— Huw fcas^ibk- some things look on pa- 

 oTjl per, anrt how useless they prove in practice ! 

 For instance, I told yon some time ago I In- 

 tenflcd to put up soft candy, something about like 

 thick mfilnsses, in the bottom of my queen-cages, 

 and then cover it with hnrder candj'. I have not 

 yet made it a success. I filled some cages in this 

 manner, and they looked all right until I began 

 throwing them across the shop to see how they 

 would stand rough treatment, when the soft candy 

 just "busted" out in every one of them. I filled 

 some more in the same manner, only I made the 

 coating of hard candy considerable thicker. I did 

 not "throw" these cages, but put some queens in 

 them, and had them all ready to ship, when some 

 thing detained me an hour or two, and, by that time, 

 the soft candy was running from the cages. 'Twas 

 lucky that they were not in the mail-bags, wasn't 

 it? Well, before I could send the queens, I had to 

 go and flu cages in the old-fashioned waj% making 

 the candy as soft as possible. I could not bear to 

 think of using those tin bottles that you furnished 

 last season, friend Koot, because so many bees 

 reached ihcir destination daubed and dead. I was 

 glad to see your explanation of the matter, in the 

 last Gleanings, as the subject had puzzled me 

 somewhat. Well, the ordinary candy, made very 

 soft, sccracd to answer every purpose until the hot 



dry weather came, when postals began to arrive 

 that read about as follows: - 



•• Those (lueens that vou :-ent the 15th came to hand the l»th. 

 and 1 am soriv to sav that, in two of the cages, both the queen 

 and bees were dead. Thev looked to me as though they had 

 died of thirst. How do vou expect bees to live without water 

 siu-h weather as this; Please send me two more tiueeiis :is soon 

 as possible, as I have two ([Ueenless colonies.'' 



I could see no escape from my troubles unless I 

 went back to the plan that I adopted the first sea' 

 son that I shipped queens, -that of putting into the 

 cagt a dram vial of water, and stopping its mouth 

 with a piece of spouge. I thrust a bit into the hole 

 through which the queen is put into the cage, and 

 bored a hole to the depth of half an inch, inside the 

 cage, in the direction of one corner of the cage. A 

 bottle of water was set into this hole, and a wire 

 nail driven down in front of its mouth. The candy 

 was now poured in around the bottle until just its 

 "nose" stuck out. To make sure that the bottle 

 would not be broken in the mails, I began throw iug 

 a cage across the shop. I threw it with all my 

 might, and continued throwing it until I split the 

 cage in two, but the bottle remained uninjured, 

 i^ou see, it is so imbedded into the candy that it can 

 not be broken. Come to think of it, friend Root, 

 just to show you how it is all arranged, I will send 

 you a cage containing an untested Italian queen. 



Aucj. 3.— How dry and dusty it is ! not a drop of 

 honey do the bees seem to get; if this weather con- 

 tinues much longer, I shall certainly have to feed. 

 Gleanings came last evening, and I don't know 

 how many times Mrs. H. said, "Come, Will, don't 

 you know that it's after ten o'clock? " I declare, it 

 sometimes seems as though Gleanings is as inter- 

 esting as those old-tjme love-letters used to be. And 



