712 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



crystalline drops of honey oczing out of one 

 side of this test-bag, and on picking the 

 package up I was surprised tr see that the 

 contents had become as soft as summer 

 butter. The little white globules of honey 

 oozing out all around the bag, pushed thern- 

 selves through the pores of the paper in 

 spite of the paraffine covering. 



On the other hand, we have some candied 

 honey put up in glass sealed, that is almost 

 as solid as it was last winter; and I nat- 

 urally supposed that candied honey that 

 was dry and hard in winter (whether seal- 

 ed or not) would remain so in the bags. 

 The explanation of this is doubtless due to 

 the fact that candied honey as well as 

 liquid honey absorbs a large amount of 

 moisture from the atmosphere. This bag 

 of candied honey had been open s'^me months 

 previously, to determine the consistency of 

 the honey, and the top had been folded 

 back, but probably not tight enough to 

 keep out the moist air. 



A large trade has sprung up in paper 

 bags for candied honey. It is possible that 

 some will be disappointed, and blame the 

 Root Co. as well ?s our friend R. C. Aikin. 

 But if the honey is sold wilhin six mouths 

 from the time it is put up, it will probably 

 escape the hot weather; or if the top of 

 the bag is sealed hermetically tight with 

 sealingwax, or any substance that will 

 make an air-tight sealing, the honey will 

 probably remain in the solid condition, so 

 as to stand any amount of rough usage dur- 

 ing the hottest weather. 



I make this as a suggestion to those who 

 have purchased the bags, for it is well to 

 err on the safe side if we can. No harm 

 can possibly come from making an air-tight 

 sealing; and perhaps it may be a wise pre- 

 caution, after the bags have been filled, 

 the honey candied, and the top sealed, to 

 treat the whole package further with anoth- 

 er coat of paraffine by dipping it into hot 

 wax — not too hot. 



A SAMPLE OF THE EVERV-DAY OUEEN-CELL 

 WORK AT THE HOME OF THE HONEY- 

 BEES. 



Last month Mr. F. J. Strittmatter, of 

 Youngstown, O., an enthusiastic bee-keep- 

 er, stayed with us several days. He said 

 he desired an opportunity to learn modern 

 bee-keeping, and requested the privilege of 

 following the men around, asking ques- 

 tions as to why this, that, and the other 

 thing were done, all of which was freely 

 granted. He brought with him a kodak, 

 and while here he took a number of snap- 

 shots. Among the number is a very excel- 

 lent picture showing some queen-cells rear- 

 ed from wooden cell cups. This we repro- 

 duce on page 725, not as a sample of the 

 best work our men can do, but of what they 

 have been doing day after day. These 

 wooden cups are nothing more nor less than 

 little cylindrical plugs of wood about Va, in. 

 in diameter, and the same in length, in one 

 end of which is bored a hole about y% inch 

 deep, of the shape and size of a queen-cell. 



Into this is put a plug of soft warm bees- 

 wax. A forming-tool is forced down into 

 the hole, reaming out a nice queen-cell in- 

 side of the wooden plug. A lot of them are 

 prepared in this wa^', and then these are 

 stuck, by means of nail-points, on to the 

 extra cross-bar. They are next grafted 

 with royal jelly and young larvse from a 

 select mother. A cage made of perforated 

 metal, large enough to slip over the whole 

 lower portion of the frame, is then slipped 

 over the whole, when it is put into a queen- 

 less colon _v, as we find cells are started better 

 in such stocks than in an ordinary upper 

 story. After the cells are once begun they 

 may be put into an upper story of a strong 

 colony for final completion. 



If you look carefully you will see where 

 the perforated-metal cage already mention- 

 ed was slipped over these cells, by the line 

 of wax or propolis that is deposited along 

 the sides of the false cross-bar. Sometimes 

 we used a cage of this kind, and sometimes 

 we used a cylindrical Stanley cage, such 

 as we illustrated on page 446, for we have 

 been testing this in an experimental way, 

 and so far are well pleased with it. In- 

 stead of using Stanley's gun-wads as a 

 stopper for these cages, we employ the 

 wooden plugs, which we can use over and 

 over again for cell-building. As these plugs 

 are of wood, they can be very readily han- 

 dled — can be shoved into the sides of a 

 comb, or can be used to stop up a cylindri- 

 cal cage, either of queen-excluding metal or 

 of ordinary perforated metal, which neither 

 bees nor queens can go through. 



It will be interesting to note in this con- 

 nection that our men use a glove, to the 

 wrist of which is sewn an ordinary straw 

 cuff. The fingers of the glove are cut off 

 at the tip. This gives good protection to 

 the hand and wrist, and at the sime time 

 allows the use of the fingers for the pur- 

 poses of sensitive touch. 



FERTILIZING QUEENS IN SMALL NUCLEUS 



BOXES ATTACHHD TO THE SIDE OF 



A SMALL COLONY. 



On p. 536, June 15, one of our correspon- 

 dents told how he had succeeded in getting 

 queens fertilized in small section boxes at- 

 tached to and made a part of a strong colo- 

 ny run for extracting. This plan is sub- 

 stantially the same as was advocated by 

 Swarthmore a year ago. I promised to 

 give it a test in our yards, and report. I 

 had forgotten all about the matter until I 

 received the following' communication from 

 Mr. Doolittle. Before I tell how the thing 

 worked I will give his letter right here: 



Friend Roo/ : —Have yoii tried th'!- plan of rearing and 

 fertilizing queens in luU colonies as given on p 5l-i6? 

 You said you were going to. I tried it quite extensive- 

 ly on four colonies, and it proves, as I halt expected, 

 to be the same as fertilizing m upper stories over a 

 queen-excluder, only that, so far, I have not succeeded 

 in having a single queen thus fertilized. They take 

 them and keep them all right till they are from three 

 to six days old, when the bees begin to persecute 

 them, and finally kill them or drive them off as they 

 do drones. I hope you have tried and will report. 



Borodino. N. Y., Aug. 4. G. M. Doolittle. 



