lyoG 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



IISI 



had been iiit'erted 1)y oj^eii-uir feediiiir of dis- 

 eased liouey. and in six weeks the apiary 

 Avas eiired. ready for the honey-How. and 

 the eonibs melted for market, (utd tin: ((piari/ 

 sfdi/id cured. ]\Iurli of that success was due 

 to Mr. E. Tondin. now of Modesto, C'al.. 

 who did most of the work. The numlier of 

 stocks was somewliat reduced liy unitiuoj, as 

 little honey was coming in at the time, and 

 healthy brood was lacking, which should 

 have been used in connection with the dis- 

 eased stock in effecting a cure. Since July 

 or August it seems foul l)rood has been en- 

 tirely cured in this part of the country. If 

 the Alexander method would work we could 

 have saved many combs and much work. 

 Ceres. Cal. " W. A. H. Gilstuap. 



[1 believe I stated that any one who could 

 equal the record on page 96, or l)eat it. would 

 be entitled to live years' subscription to 

 Gi-EANiNGs free. As you get Gleanings 

 regularly, being one of our correspondents, 

 you are hereby invited to make any selection 

 of bees or supplies that you may desire, to 

 the amount of $5.00. No, I am not going to 

 pay a premium on eating honey in large 

 (luantities to see how much it is physically 

 possible for some families to consume, but I 

 desire to get a ret-(n-d of what has been done 

 in order that we may collect particulars 

 showing that, while ordinary sweets eaten 

 in large quantities are harmful, honey may be 

 taken in some instances as a regular article 

 of diet, without injury. — Ed.] 



THE DOOLITTLE NON-S WARMING SYSTEM: THE 

 DIFFICULTY IN GETTING QUEENS. 



Doolittle's method of handling bees, as de- 

 scriljed this spring, doesn't work with me. 

 So far it is all right to commence with. Init 

 when I hived theua in tlie upper chaml^er on 

 combs with honey they restricted the queen 

 from laying, completely tilletl the brood-nest 

 with honey, and then prepared to swarm. 

 Only one colony entered the super, tilletl one. 

 and swarmed day liefore yestertlay. Each 

 colony treated hail one super tilled with bait 

 combs. The same time I changed the brood- 

 nest a la Do(dittle I sliook one colony on to 

 full sheets of foundation, and they have given 

 me two supers already, and no intention of 

 swarming. 



I think queen-breeders ought to be more 

 careful to come up to their advertisements. 

 Last April 18th. I sent for a (jueen to a prom- 

 inent l)reeder in the South, and got her tw(j 

 weeks after. May 31 I sent $5.00 for queens 

 to another bi'eeder. and up to date (June 9) 

 I have not heard from him. Both times I 

 selected them because they advertised in 

 Gleanings that queens w-ould be sent by re- 

 turn mail. 



Of course, a queen-breeder might at any 

 time get so many orders that he runs out of 

 queens; but in that case he ought to send 

 notice to that eft'ect by return mail, and 

 state at what time he can ship. 



To go every day for a week or more three 

 miles before one gets his queen will cause a 



man next time to send to somebody else or 

 prepare to raise his own. L. H. Willmek. 

 Napoleon. Mo. 



[Your suggestion in your next to the last 

 I^aragraph is no more than reasonable antl 

 right. It often happens that a (jueen-breeder 

 runs out of (lueens. The weather is unfavor- 

 able for perhaps two or three weeks, during 

 which time very few of the ([ueenswill mate. 

 In all such cases a breeder shoulil notify his 

 customers that he will not l)e al)le to make 

 deliveiy immediately, explaining the cause. 

 In the case uniler consideration it is very 

 possible and even probable that the queen- 

 breeder was overrun with orders and over- 

 run with work. It is possible, too, that he 

 kept expecting every ihiy he would be able 

 to till the oriler, only to be disappointed. 

 As I told one queen-breeder recently, nothing 

 builds up a queen-rearing business so sub- 

 stantially as promptness in tilling oi'ders : 

 and w^henever in any case it is not possilile 

 to make a reasonal)ly prompt delivery, send 

 a card explaining, saying that the money 

 will be returned in case the customer can 

 not wait. In telling what a (jueen-breeder 

 oNijIif to do we realize that we have not 

 always ourselves lived up to tlie standaixl of 

 our own preaching. When we fail to do so. 

 and a customer complains, we feel it onr 

 duty to make amends in some way. — Ed.] 



ripening honey outside the hives. 



It was not without some gratification that 

 I saw in one of "Sir. Alexander's articles that 

 he has been practicing with success the same 

 method for ripening his honey outside the 

 hive that I commenced and followed with 

 the greatest satisfaction 23 years ago. The 

 Government Bulletin I now forward with 

 this shows I was advocating the method be- 

 fore his articles were published. The im- 

 mense saving in time, labor, and expense, 

 by the plan given, should induce those who 

 have been so strong in favor of ripening in 

 the hive to give it a trial. 



I. Hopkins. 

 Government Apiarist. 



Auckland. N. Z. 



success with a damp cellar. 



Having I'ead considerable in the journals 

 concerning the conilition of cellars so as to 

 give the best results in wintering bees. I 

 thought perhaps you might like to know my 

 success during the past winter. I put a cel- 

 lar under my house last summer: and by do- 

 ing the woi'k myself I did not get it finislied 

 until freezing weather had set in. In bu-t. 

 some of the cement froze as soon as put in 

 the planks, but afterward thawed out and 

 then set. By this you will see that I had a 

 damp cellar. My 18 colonies which I set in 

 the cellar about the 10th of December I took 

 all out again the 3d of April in prime condi- 

 tion. At no time was the thermometer above 

 40 degrees, and it ranged all the way to 38. 

 and a good part of March it lield close to the 

 33 degrees. I had them raised at the back 



