1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1419 



that both queens in l)oth cages arrived in 

 perfect condition, hees bright and lively. 

 cages clean, and only one bee dead. Queens 

 were sent out during our unusually hot 

 weather in July, and went through in the 

 condition stated. 



Of course, one swallow or two of them do 

 not make a summer: but in view of the 

 splendid success of Mr. Benton when he was 

 in Europe, and later of the Department of 

 Agriculture, with the same cage, it would 

 seem as if, for cxjJort work at least, the orig- 

 inal Benton, pure and simple, would be the 

 thing to use. 



I might explain two or three conditions 

 necessary for success. First, the candy must 

 be made right^ — not too soft nor too hard. 

 The candy-hole must be thoroughly coated 

 with beeswax or paraffine; then when candy 

 is pressed into place it must be covered with 

 a sheet of thin wax or foundation. A plain 

 wooden cover completes the etiuipment. 

 This is nailed down perfectly tight, without 

 any wire cloth between it and the cage prop- 

 er. There is abs6lutely no ventilation save 

 a tew awl-holes piercing the end compart- 

 ment of the cage, all the rest of the cage be- 

 ing practically air-tight. When cool or cold 

 the bees will cluster in the center hole: when 

 warm or hot, in the end hole — the only one 

 ventilated. As our readers may not have 

 seen the original Benton I will have a new 

 illustration prepared so that they may know 

 what it is bke. 



SOME OF THE GOOD THINGS THAT GLEAN- 

 INGS WILL HAVE DURING THE REST OF 

 THIS YEAR AND A PART OF NEXT. 



We are already at work on our Christmas 

 issue of Gleanings, which will be fully the 

 equal of the one we put out a year ago, and 

 in some respe(*ts very much superior. It will 

 be very profusely illustrated, and at the 

 same lime be filled with the usnal grist of 

 good matter. 



In our previous issue I referred to the fact 

 that we are soon to begin the publication of 

 that valuable paper by Dr. von Buttel-Kee- 

 pen, entitled "Are Bees Retiex Ma-hines?" 

 While not all bee-keepers will agree with the 

 c-onclusions of the author, perhaps, the paper 

 will serve the pui'pose of stimulating discus- 

 sion and a more thorough investigation into 

 the mysteries of a bee-hive. 



We have engaged Mr. J. E. Hand to de- 

 scribe his non-swarming system for the pro- 

 duction of comb honey with his divisible 

 brood-chamber hive as he has modified it. 

 He will not only describe the method and 

 the hive, but tell how to make every section, 

 or nearly every one, fancy. Last, but by no 

 means least, he will explain how he is able 

 to conti'ol swarming, and at the same time 

 increase his crop. 



Over twenty years ago the merits of the 

 divisible-brood-chamber hive were exploited 

 in all the bee journals. A good many were 

 attracted to the hive, and some have during 

 all of these years continued to use it. Others 

 have dropped it in favor of the standard 



Langstroth. Among the former is Mr. J. E. 

 Hand, who has not only used it with satis- 

 faction, but believes he has so far perfected 

 it that it leaves every thing else behind in the 

 race. So enthusiastic is he after a thorough 

 test that he firmly believes he has a better 

 system of controlling swarming and securing 

 a larger percentage of fancy comb honey than 

 has ever before been published l)y any jour- 

 nal. The outlines of the plan have been giv- 

 en to me, and 1 am convinced he has some- 

 thing that should merit the attention of the 

 whole bee-keeping world. 



Mr. E. W. Alexander has in preparation a 

 continuation of his series of interesting ar- 

 ticles. We sent our correspondent. Dr. Lyon, 

 to his place with his camera last fall, and 

 while there he secured a tine lot of photos 

 which are now in the hands of Mr. Alex- 

 ander. This means that the articles will be 

 well illustrated. This series will be fully as 

 interesting and valuable as those published 

 during the past year, if I may be permitted 

 to judge by the advance copy in hand. 



Our funny man, the Jay, has a lot of inter- 

 esting matter which we now have in hand. 

 Don't get the idea that it will be merely fun- 

 ny, for the Jay is a practical bee-keeper, who, 

 like Josh Billings, has learned that "egspe- 

 rience teeches a gude skewl, but the tuishun 

 comes pretty hi." A part of the Jay's writ- 

 ings especially will be the recounting of his 

 mistakes when he did not know as much as 

 he does now. 



All our department editors so far as we 

 know will continue their work as before. 

 We also have in hand a lot of valuable arti- 

 cles on various topics which we hope to print 

 later on when the season for their appearance 

 arrives. 



But this is not ah. We have already se- 

 cured an exceptionally fine lot of photos of 

 interesting bee subjects. Some of them are 

 snapshots of methods showing just how to 

 work bees to the best advantage; others are 

 views of bee-yards, the arrangement of which 

 are either artistic or show some novel or 

 helpful idea. 



In this series will be some photos taken by 

 the editor, showing some experiments made 

 with the Aspinwall non-swarming hive. By 

 the way, this hive has been given a severe 

 test, but it showed no disposition to cast its 

 awarm nor even build cells. 



Dr. Miller has, during the fall, been using 

 a camera to illustrate some of his new kinks. 

 With the aid of this he will take the reader 

 into his apiary, and give him a heart-to-heart 

 talk on how he gets his crops of honey. 

 These articles will be in addition to his reg- 

 ular department of Stray Straws. 

 _ It will be impossible to set forth fully the 

 fine array of matter that will appear in 

 Gleanings during the next year. Now that 

 we have an effective national pui-e-food law. 

 Gleanings believes that a bright future 

 awaits the bee-keeping interests when the 

 public can be fully assured that, when it buys 

 honey, it is buying the real article and not 

 something that masquerades under that 



