556 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



band, as it were, made of half-inch stnff, 

 and but half the height of tlie Simplicity 

 upper story. With the exception of tlie 

 plan of carrying the cases to market just as 

 the honey was stored in them, the wide- 

 frame arrangement is much the most sim- 

 ple. The difficulty in using the cases two 

 high on the hives is, that tlie under side of 

 the case has bars for tlie sections to rest on, 

 to raise them from the frames, and also to 

 keep the under side of the sections clean. If 

 you set a second tier over it you have this 

 space and these bars between the upper and 

 lower sections, in a way that would be very 

 bad economy. All things considered, I think 

 the wide frames most desirable where you 

 have a colony strong enough to work in two 

 sets of section boxes. 



A DIFFICULTY WITH ATMOSPHERIC FEEDERS. 



In using the pepper-box feeders, and feed- 

 ers of that class, you know they must be 

 taken out of the hive to be filled. Well, this 

 is not all, for, in taking them out of the 

 hive, you get more or less bees with them, 

 and the otners left exposed are often cross. 

 The idea of confining the bees down in the 

 hive by wire clotli, on which the feeder is to 

 be placed, is very old, and I am sure I do 

 not know why it has been so long abandon- 

 ed. The friend who writes below brings it 

 up again : — 



I saw an item in the Kan'.as Bee-Keeper, by F. L. 

 Wright, from which I have evolved the following: 

 Take a strip of tin; make a ring, and cover with 

 wire cloth, for a screen to set the pepper-box feed- 

 er on, and to keep the bees from getting out when 

 flUing. Make a hole in a quilt ; put the screen in over 

 the bees; fill feeder, and set over it. You are wel- 

 come to any part of the idea. G. H. Mackey. 



Milan, Erie Co., O., Oct. 1, 1881. 



QUEENS STINGING WORKERS. 



I notice on page 448, Sept. No., that friend; Jones 

 suspects a queen of killing the bees caged with her. 

 Now, I am going to venture my opinion, that the 

 bees died from some other cause, and the queen 

 would have died also, but queens will outlive work- 

 ers under all circumstances, because they are 

 stronger, more enduring, longer lived, and fed and 

 cared for by the workers, and, were it otherwise, 

 queen-rearing would be quite a good business. J 

 think it would be a sad breach of instinct for her 

 Royal Ladyship to step down and bemean herself by 

 bayoneting her subjects for nothing. I think that 

 such a bee would not, in reality, be a truly devel- 

 oped queen in possession of all the instincts and 

 functions belonging to the royal mother of the hive, 

 and I would lose no time in convicting and executing 

 her. But now I will give you a little of my experi- 

 ence with virgin queens. I put a young virgin into 

 a cage containing another, and she immediately 

 crawled upon the other one, and, without any re- 

 sistance, deliberately stung her, and she expired in 

 a few minutes. I have several times, in introduc. 

 ing a young virgin that had never met a bee, seen 

 her pounce upon the tirst worker she would meet, 

 and attempt to sting it, but would discover her mis- 

 take just in time to save its life, would release her 

 hold, and travel on without molesting another bee. 

 It appears that, when a queen emerges from her 

 cell in perfect innocence, she must first learn the 



difference between a queen and a worker. Then 

 her instinct leads her to assist in removing all ri- 

 vals and destroying the structures containing them. 



QUEER WAYS BEES SOMETIMES HAVE OF CONSUM- 

 ING THEIR ImTORES. 



The past season opened very encouragingly in this 

 part of Southern Ohio. I got my dilapidated, dirtied, 

 and soured combs all cleaned up and repaired by 

 the bees, and every thing put in good order once 

 more, and took about 1200 lbs. extra-fine honey from, 

 the top stories of about 20 hives. I left the lower 

 stories untouched, which were all full, when the ex- 

 cessive heat and drought set in. I at once discon- 

 tinued extracting, leaving some top stories full and 

 others partly full, and now I have to feed almost 

 every colony, even some that I left full above and 

 below, or almost so, and I find that some colonies 

 have consumed the stores in first story, and saved 

 the upper story, while others have done just the 

 contrary. D. A. McCord. 



Oxford, O., Oct. 10, 1881. 



EXTRACTED VERSUS STRAINED HONEY. 



To the Editor of Gleanings:— Whereas, bee-keep- 

 ing having become one of the leading industries of 

 the Pacific Coast; and bee-keepers take so much 

 care to place their honey on the market in the best 

 possible shape, discarding the old process of strain- 

 ■in(i their honey, and adopting the more scientific 

 and business-like way of extracting their honey with 

 machinery for that purpose, thereby producing an 

 article as pure as the best comb honey, therefore be 

 it 



Resolved, That our Pacific-Coast papers, in quoting 

 extracted honey as strained honey; and also honey 

 merchants, in speaking of liquid honey, calling It 

 strained honey, are doing- those engaged in produc- 

 ing extracted honey a serious injury that has been 

 keenly felt for several years. 



Individual ettorts proving of but very little, if any, 

 avail in changing the quotations,— 



Til ere fore,— Wo, the bee-keepers of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, in convention assembled, protest against the 

 name, and request that all papers quoting our honey 

 quote it as extracted honey. 



By order of the District Bee-Keepers' Association 

 of Southern California. 



W. W. Bliss, Sec. 



Los Angeles, Cal., Sept. 9, 1881. 



A good blow in the right direction, friend 

 Bliss. 1 indorse it most cheerfully. 



ONE-POUND SECTIONS, VERSUS TWO-POUND. 



We take the following from the Bse-Kecp- 



ers'' Exchange: — 



The honey market can not bo said to be open un- 

 til after "fiytime;" but a few lots have come for- 

 ward. We have received 99 cases from the apiary of 

 A. E. Manum, Esq., of Bristol, .Vt. It was in one- 

 pound caps in wooden side sections — a fancy pack- 

 age and fancy goods. We sold it for 24c; but we 

 think this higher than can be sustained. Even to- 

 day the same honey in a 2-lb. section would not sell 

 for over 20c; but the smaller the caps or sections, 

 the greater the consumption — consequently it has a 

 better demand, especially here in New England 

 among our operatives in thp factories, who have but 

 little money to spend, and they buy a small package 

 when they will not a large one. 



Two-pound caps are not offered very freely yet, 

 but we anticipate the white stock will range from 17 

 to 20c; hut Jmckuhc((t1ionc!j will not sell here, neither 

 will a mixture soil readily. 



A great many shippers have a notion that to grade 

 honey is to throw away time and money; they put 

 their best white caps on the outside and fill in the 

 center with buckwheat, half-filled caps, and any 

 thing, expecting that it is all going to be sold at the 

 highest price. We often do sell it to run as it looks, 

 until it comes haci; <in ns, then we have to do the best 

 we can, and the shipper gives us a great blowing-up 



