1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



537 



from the colony, throug^h the zinc; and when 

 you wish to discontinue a nucleus, all you 

 have to do is to put the bees and brood in 

 the colony, and stop up the hole in the col- 

 ony with a wooden plui;- or cork. The old 

 bees from the colony will come into these 

 nuclei, and protect them aj,'-ainst robbers. 



I prefer my little hives or nuclei made 

 with one side oil' instead of the hole, as this 

 puts the bees in nuclei closer to the hole in 

 the colony; but if this is done you will have 

 to be careful to fasten them ag'ainstthe hive 

 by some means, which s/iould be done any 

 approved waj'. D. R. Keyes. 



Wewahitchka, Fla. 



LYour plan seems to be essentially the 

 same as Swarthmore's, illustrated in our 

 issue for Sept. 15, 1901, page 743. That the 

 plan will work seems probable, and we are 

 interested euoug-h to give the matter a trial 

 in our j-ards this summer. The fact that 

 both you and Swarthmore pronounce it a 

 success would seem to indicate that others 

 might have confidence in it. The feature 

 that commends itself to the average produc- 

 er of hone}' is that he can g-o on producing- 

 his regular crop of honey and still rear a 

 few queens for his own use, without in any 

 wa3' interfering with the work of any one 

 colony. — Ed.] 



«»»»«t« ■ . 



A WORD OF ADVICE FROM THE OTHER END OF 

 THE LINE. 



Comb Honey too High-priced; Extracted Honey Li- 

 able to be Adulterated. 



BY KIT CLOVKR. 



You people sit down and chat together, 

 month after month, about how to raise bees, 

 and how to "shake " them after they are 

 raised, and how to get the honey after they 

 are shaken, and all that. No doubt it is 

 all interesting to you; but, meantime, what 

 of us? Here we sit, at this end of the line, 

 the consumer's end, and here is the way 

 the matter stands. Suppose I have a house 

 and six children, husband, a boarder, and 

 myself. We all like honey. We want hon- 

 ey. We are fond of hot biscuits and honey, 

 and I propose to make the biscuits, and go 

 out to the grocer's for the honey. 

 " Twenty-two cents a pound." 

 I look at the pretty little section of nice 

 honey, and estimate it. There are nine of 

 us. and one section will not give over four 

 " helps," therefore I must get two sections, 

 at 44 cts., and go without myself, or get 

 three sections at 66 cts. This makes a rath- 

 er expensive relish, and, on a small salary, 

 can not be indulged in often. So I betake 

 myself to the counter of extracted honey. 

 These are attractively put up in cans or 

 bottles. Let me say right here, all honey 

 should be put in jars. The housewife will 

 buy twice as readily knowing the pint or 

 quart Mason jar will do for canning fruit, 

 while the ordinary bottle is a dead loss. 

 But now comes the pick. Who of us all 

 •can know, when we buy a jar of honey, that 



we are not getting glucose? This is where 

 our trouble is, and this uncertainty prevents 

 the sale of tons of extracted honey. Can't 

 you get up in your might and procure such 

 stringent laws as shall make it a crime to 

 put up or to sell glucose or any kind of an 

 imitation as pure honey? Make the penal- 

 ty heavy enough, and I think the law can 

 be enforced. 



Please, Messrs. Beemen, when you sit down 

 to talk, make this the subject of your thought 

 until you sweep the spurious stuff out of 

 the market. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



[The National Bee-keepers' Association, 

 together with the local State organizations, 

 is doing much to get laws that will make 

 the adulteration of honey a crime. The 

 National has already at different times 

 sent delegates to the Pure-food Congress at 

 Washington, and the last Congress of the 

 United States came very near passing a 

 national law that would have stopped traf- 

 fic in adulterated honey between the States. 

 Through the influence of organized effort in 

 Illinois, New York, and Colorado, anti- 

 honey-adulteration laws are in force. Ohio 

 had already a good law before the bee- 

 keepers of our State had taken any hand 

 in the matter. California has a good law, 

 but the officials for some reason are not 

 disposed to enforce it. Bee-keeper and con- 

 sumer alike are interested in pure food, es- 

 pecially in pure honey, and they should at 

 once ally themselves with organized bodies 

 of bee-keepers. — Ed.] 



FORMALDEHYDE FOR CURING BLACK BROOD. 



How to Save the Brood, and How to Render the 

 Combs Infected Safe for Use in Healthy Colonies. 



BY G. W. HAINES. 



I have read several pieces in Gleanings 

 on formaldehyde for curing black brood. I 

 have used it for two seasons; so I will send 

 in my experience with it. 



Formaldehyde can be had at any drug- 

 store. If not in stock they will get it. I 

 used it with a spray until I was satisfied 

 it was no cure. Our State bee- inspector, 

 Charles Stewart, asked me to make some 

 trials of fumigation with formaldehyde; so 

 I sent to A. B. Huested & Co., of Albany, 

 N. Y. For SI. 25 they sent me a kit for 

 fumigating, and instructions. I made sev- 

 eral trials that proved all right. I found 

 my kit too small, so I made one. I will try 

 to describe what I have now. 



I made a large box or cupboard, tight 

 joints, two doors that fit tight all around; 

 where the door closes up I put in a strip of 

 heavy felt. When the doors are closed it is 

 as nearly air-tight as I could make it. It is 

 just wide enough to take two tiers of frames, 

 one in front of each door, and four rows 

 high, twelve in each row. When full it 

 holds 96 frames. 



To fumigate I use a common bracket 

 lamp. I set on top of the chimney a small 



