1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1085 



"GOLD dust" for REMOVING PROPOLIS. 



I notice an item in last issue of Glean- 

 ings about removing propolis from the 

 hands. Did you ever try gold dust ? I have 

 used this for years, and never saw any thing 

 better. Soap the hands first, then add a 

 teaspoonful or less of the gold dust, and 

 watch it cut up the propolis. 



Effingham, 111. G. W. Dyke. 



[I have never tried gold dust, but shall be 

 glad to do so at the next opportunity. So far 

 I have found nothing that will remove the 

 real sticky propolis that we find in the fall, 

 promptly and easily— not even gasoline or 

 sapolio, as recommended by the next writer. 

 Either one will take it off providing you 

 scrape long enough. —Ed.] 



sapolio FOR PROPOLIS. 



I see on page 760 where you used benzine 

 and lava soap for removing propolis. Why 

 don't you give my remedy a trial ? It is 

 sapolio. It never fails with me, and I have 

 the worst bee-glue I have ever seen any- 

 where. S. G. Kilgore. 



London, Ohio. 



[See answer above, to Mr. Dyke.— Ed.] 



propolis removed by sapolio. 



Your experience with propolis and lava 

 soap, p. 760, leads me to question whether 

 you have ever tried "hand sapolio," a soap 

 now largely advertised for toilet use. Hav- 

 ing been out of touch for several years with 

 bee-keeping (during absence from home) I 

 do not know whether the above-mentioned 

 cleanser has ever been recommended in this 

 connection. There is nothing "in this lo- 

 caHty " that I know of that will free the 

 hands from propolis and smoker stain as 

 well as hand sapolio and a good fiber nail- 

 brush (I find fiber better than bristles) , es- 

 pecially if a little ordinary laundry bar is 

 used in conjunction with it. If you haven't 

 already tried it I think you will find in it the 

 thing for which you are looking. 



I may add that I have no interest what- 

 ever in the sale of this article, save that its 

 value as a propolis remover appeals to me as 

 a commercial man who must avoid even the 

 appearance of being lax in matters such as 

 cleanliness of hands, etc. Perhaps this has 

 been suggested before: if not. I am sure its 

 use will be found a great help to the bee- 

 keeper who wants his fingers freed from the 

 sticky traces of the day's work. 



R. B. Ross, Jr. 



Montreal, Canada, Sept. 8. 



queens raised from brood brought from 

 another apiary. 

 It may interest you and your readers to 

 know that I have taken brood from a neigh- 

 boring apiary (that of Mr. H. H. Jepson, of 

 Medford, about five miles away) and raised 

 queens in my own yard from it. I repeated 

 this again this season so far as fetching the 

 brood is concerned, and expect to raise 



queens agam. I carried the strip, which 

 was about 3X6, in a piece of wrapping-paper 

 as an ordinary package. 



James M. Pulley. 

 Melrose, Mass., Aug. 7. 



[Some years ago we used to do quite a 

 business in sending little patches of brood by 

 mail to customers. Where larvae were lav- 

 ishly supplied with food the recipient could 

 put it into prepared queen-cells and get 

 young queens from a selected breeder a hun- 

 dred miles away. But such brood can not 

 go much over ten or twelve hours without 

 starving. It is perfectly feasible to carry 

 young larvas from one yard to another for 

 grafting purposes, but it must not get chill- 

 ed.-ED.] 



ventilator in a bee-cellar. 

 I expect to partition off a place in the cel- 

 lar 11x12 ft. for a bee-room. I shall lath 

 and plaster against the cellar wall. There 

 will be one window which I shall close up. 

 The room is 8 ft. high. The cellar is dry. 



1. What ventilators, and where would you 

 put them in? 



2. Would it be necessary to plaster over- 

 head to keep out the noise from above? 



3. How many colonies should be put in a 

 space of this size? 



Jefferson, N. Y. Chas. M. Harris. 



[1. I would have no ventilators connecting 

 directly with the air outdoors. A door open- 

 ing into the other cellar— that other cellar 

 having direct connection with outdoors— will 

 give all the ventilation required, ordinarily. 



2. The plaster will be unnecessary. Noise 

 overhead does not particularly bother the 

 bees. 



3. This is a hard question to answer, as 

 every thing depends on how well you can 

 control the temperature. If you can keep it 

 in the range of 40 to 48 you might be able to 

 squeeze in 150 colonies. Ordinarily 75 to. 100 

 would be enough. — Ed.] 



SECURED one CENT ABOVE THE MARKET 

 ON PLAIN SECTIONS OVER THE BEEWAY 



SECTIONS. 



I sold some honey to-day to the local trade 

 in 4x5 plain sections, and got one cent above 

 market price without asking it. I will never 

 retrograde to the 4JX4J beeway sections. 



Denison, Iowa. Geo. W. Stephens. 



Do you think my queens will mate this 

 year which I raise from now on? Drones 

 are not very plentiful, and we have much 

 cool cloudy weather already. 



Milroy, Pa., Sept. 15. A. H. Kanagy. 



[After about the middle of September 

 there is a good deal of risk in getting queens 

 mated, as drones are liable to be quite scarce 

 at that season of the year. Unless you had 

 previously arranged to have a lot of them 

 reared beforehand, many of the late-reared 

 queens would prove to be worthless. — Ed.] 



