704 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



cars. I can work as long as I like, and 

 when my work is done I can start home 

 without any waiting. I often carry along a 

 lot of stuff, such as foundation, supers, and 

 the like. My son, fourteen years old, also 

 goes with me as a sort of errand boy, and 

 brings me this and that in the yard, while I 

 am working over the bees. 



THE DUAL PLAN OF INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



We have something like 200 Pratt baby 

 nuclei running at full blast. We are about 

 inaugurating the plan of introducing two 

 queens to these babies at a time. We will 

 to-day, say, cage a virgin. Three or four 

 days hence we cage another in the same nu- 

 cleus. In a few days more, virgin No. 1 

 will begin laying. Just the minute she de- 

 posits eggs she is removed, and virgin No. 2 

 is released, when she will fly almost imme- 

 diately. At the same time, virgin No. 3 is 

 caged. The time lost in introducing is thus 

 to a great extent saved, with the result that 

 the virgin, as soon as she is released, is of 

 flying age, and ready to lay very shortly. 



The dual plan of introducing has been 

 worked several seasons in our larger nuclei 

 of standard-sized frames; and if it will work 

 with a baby nucleus, a hundred of such ba- 

 bies will be able to do the work of two hun- 

 dred, and yet secure at the same time egg- 

 laying often enough to keep the baby sup- 

 plied with a very essential element— brood. 



As I have said before, I desire to repeat, 

 the honey-producer can well afford to set 

 out a few baby nuclei to supply himself with 

 queens, fresh and ready for strong colonies 

 that have queens too old for the best re- 

 sults, as per E. W. Alexander's article in 

 this issue, or for other cases where queens 

 were suddenly missing, and where it would 

 be a great loss to the colony to go without a 

 laying queen for a matter of four or five 

 days or two weeks before one could be rear- 

 ed, or obtained of the dealer or breeder. 

 And that reminds me that the queen-breed- 

 ers of the country have been rushed with 

 orders for queens this spring and summer as 

 perhaps they never were before. At one 

 time we were over 500 queen-orders behind; 

 but, thanks to modern methods and the bet- 

 ter weather, we shall be caught up now in a 

 few days. 



FEEDING UNKNOWN HONEYS TO BEES. 



Every once in a while we see an item in 

 the bee journals condemning the method 

 now in vogue of feeding sugar syrup to bees 

 requiring winter food or stimulation in spring 

 or summer. Gleanings has never recom- 

 mended the feeding of honey for that pur- 

 pose unless it has been boiled at least two 

 hours. As a general thing, a honey that 

 can be bought at the price of sugar syrup is 

 of very poor quality. For a winter food, at 

 least, granulated-sugar syrup is far better 

 and cheaper, as a rule. 



But what called this more particularly to 

 mind was a letter just received from an ex- 

 tensive bee-keeper in California, whose ad- 



dress and name I omit for obvious reasons. 

 He writes: 



I bought honey of a commission man in , to feed 



to my bees, and have got a bad dose of foul brood in my 

 two apiaries. What is the best method of feeding them, 

 in your judgment? 



This man could have well afforded to pay 

 a double or treble price for sugar syrup 

 rather than to take what he has. 



I see no wrong in feeding sugar syrup to 

 bees so long as we confine it strictly to the 

 brood- chamber. If honey is to be fed at all, 

 boil it two hours. Honey from healthy bees 

 could, of course, be fed back to them; but 

 do not take any stuff, the source of which is 

 unknown to you. 



The quotation I have made above is only 

 one among many others; and if those who 

 advocate feeding only honey could see some 

 of the letters we get they would see the 

 danger of spreading foul brood, as they are 

 liable to do by feeding any thing but sugar 

 syrup. So long as honey will bring a higher 

 price, even a poor article, than sugar syrup, 

 it is certainly folly to feed the more expen- 

 sive food. 



Of course, I am in sympathy with the idea 

 of using cheap honey for feeding to keep it 

 off the market, providing it is cheap enough 

 to compete with sugar. But if it costs 

 more, why run the great risk? 



A cheap and LASTING SMOKER-FUEL. ■ 



For a dry, clean, lasting smoke without ' 

 sparks, and little or no creosote, old gunny 

 sacks, old burlap, old pieces of carpeting— 

 in fact, any old rags or machine-shop waste 

 —excels any thing else I have ever tried. 

 We have for years used a sort of excelsior 

 that comes from the hand-holes in making 

 hives; and, while this is an excellent fuel, 

 the very nature of the timber of which it is 

 made (pine) causes sooty deposits. 



Some years ago Mr. W. L. Coggshall, 

 among other good things he has contributed 

 to the bee-keeping world, described a sort of 

 cartridge fuel that he uses in his smokers; 

 and you will remember he is, perhaps, the 

 most extensive bee-keeper in the United 

 States just now, running more outyards and 

 colonies than any other man in the country. 

 Well, his fuel is nothing more nor less than „ 

 old gunny sacks rolled on a stick until the ■ 

 roll is about the size of a smoker- barrel. " 

 Strings are tied around the roll at regular 

 intervals, when a sharp hatchet or ax cuts 

 the roll into lengths just right for the 

 smoker-barrel. One end of this roll of fuel 

 is dipped into a solution of saltpeter water, 

 and allowed to dry. A quantity of these 

 cartridges, as we may call them, is prepared 

 in advance, and distributed at the various 

 yards. When the apiarist arrives he is not 

 compelled to fuss and fuss and fuss with 

 shavings or rotten wood to get it to ignite. 

 He simply picks up one of these cartridges, 

 touches a match to the dried saltpeter end, 

 that instantly ignites, jams the cartridge 

 into the smoker, and then he is all ready for 

 business for two good solid hours of subdu- 

 ing smoke. 



