796 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



public. Cases of adulteration are receiving 

 his special attention. 



THE FORM AI.DI- HYDE TREATMFNT FOR FOUL 



BFOOD Rl- FOR TED A FAILURE IN THREE 



CASES. 



We h ive already had three reports where 

 bee-keepers had tested the formaldehyde 

 treatment, fumig-ating combs thoroughly in 

 a closed box. The combs were put back 

 into the hives, and the disease reappeared 

 in each case. It is evident from other re- 

 ports that the drug- not only helps but 

 cures. But the three failures already re- 

 ferred to should make every bee-keeper who 

 is afflicted with the disease cautious — not 

 to put too much confidence in it. 



KEEPING HONFY LIQUID INDEFINT TELY UN- 

 DER ALL CONDITIONS. 



Some time last fall Mr. H. R. Boardman 

 told me he had discovered a plan by which 

 he could keep his bottled or tumbler honey 

 liquid almost indefinitely, and under al- 

 most any conditions. Although I hadg-reat 

 confidence in whatever Mr. Boardman says, 

 I doubted very much whether he could suc- 

 ceed to the extent he claims d. He may fail 

 yet; but certain it is that I took one of two 

 samples of honey that he sent me and plac- 

 ed it on the window-sill outside of my office. 

 This was some time last fall. Throughout 

 the entire winter this honey remained liq- 

 ui(! ; and to-day it is as clear and limpid as 

 when I received it. I have never yet found 

 any bottled honey that would stand zero 

 weather through the winter, although it is 

 qu te possible to seal the honey while hot 

 in glass or tin so it will remain liquid for 

 one" or two years, providing it is kept at an 

 even temperature of from 50 to 80 deg-rees. 



THE UNKNOWABLE BEE-PARAT,VSIS ; IS IT 

 CURABLE? IF SO, HOW? 



A SHORT time ago I received some inti- 

 mation—I do not remember when nor how- 

 to the effect that our old friend O. O. Pop- 

 pleton, of Florida, one whom I consider one 

 of the most conservative and careful bee- 

 keepers in the country, had a method for 

 curing what we had formerly supposed was 

 incurable— namely, bee-paralysis. I had 

 intended to look into the matter, but had 

 overlooked it for the time being. I now ob- 

 serve that my brother-editor, H. E. Hill, of 

 the American Bee-keeper, is firing stray 

 shots up my way that are evidently intend- 

 ed for me. Referring to the acknowledg- 

 ment made by Geo. W. York, in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, of the cure practiced by 

 Mr. Poppleton, he says: 



" There are some other editors and pro- 

 lific apicultural writers who should arise 

 and explain their ignorance of important 

 information with which Bee-keeper students 

 have long been familiar." 



With the greatest of pleasure, my good 



friend. I desire to say, right at the outset, 



that when Mr. Poppleton says he has a 



■ method of cure for bee-paralysis, I am quite 



as well prepared to accept his statement as 

 if I had set n the method applied, and its re- 

 sults. The plan in brief — a modification of 

 it has been printed before in our columns, 

 but I had not quite credited its efficac}' — is ' 

 sprinkling powdered sulphur over the af- 

 fected bees and affected combs, but not till 

 all the brood of the diseased colony has 

 been removed, and put in a strong healthy 

 one; for Mr. Poppleton says the sulphur 

 kills all the unsealed brood and eggs. He 

 finds that the source of the disease is prob- 

 ably not in the brood or combs, for he has 

 put combs from paralyticcoloniesrepeatedly 

 into health}' ones, and never but once has 

 the disease developed in another colony to 

 which such combs have been given, and 

 that was a year afterward. Mr. Poppleton 

 rightly assumes that the infection — if it be 

 such — came from some other source. He 

 first used the powder-gun for applying the 

 dust, but found he could sprinkle the bees 

 better by picking up the powder between 

 the thumb and fore finger. Every bee must 

 be dusted. At first the disease will seem 

 to get worse instead of better. The colony 

 will dwindle down; but in two weeks there 

 will be a decided improvement, and finally 

 the colony will be cured and stay cured, 

 while other colonies not treated with the 

 sulphur will continue groveling in the 

 throes of the disease until treatment is ad- 

 ministered, when a cure will be effected 

 within two weeks. 



I hereby extend my apology to the Bee- 

 keeper for not noticing so good an item; and 

 when 1 neglect a good thing like this again 

 I shall consider it a favor if our friend will 

 send another shot or two up Medinaward. 



I have before said that Mr. Hill is one of 

 the best editorial writers in all our ranks. 

 His journal contains many good things be- 

 sides the two I have already given in this 

 issue. 



CAGES FOR MAILING QUEENS. 



Mr. Frank Boomhower, of Gallupville, 

 N. Y., a prominent queen-breeder and bee- 

 keeper in the eastern part of his State, uses 

 a very ingenious introducing and mailing 

 cage. Some little time ago a sample of it 

 was mailed us, from which we have had en- 

 gravings made that show fairly well its 

 general construction and use. But first we 

 will let Mr. Boomhower speak for himself. 

 He says: 



I send you withthis a case with three of my Novelty 

 safety cages the way I make them now. You can see 

 at a glance the superiority of these cages. They are 

 the only shipping-cages that fully meet the require- 

 ments of the postal law regarding .^ending queens by 

 mail. I have been told liy a mail clerk at Washing- 

 ton that lots of live bees escape in the mails through 

 unsafe cages that are unprotected. I myself last sea- 

 .son. while in Bluemont, Va., received a shipment of 

 queens from Georgia, and every one, bees and all, 

 except one, was out in the mail-bag when it arrived at 

 Washington. The cases were frail, with no protection 

 only a thin pasteboard over the wire cloth. If the 

 queens and live bees are again excluded from the 

 mails we shall not be able to get them back again in 

 a long time. I wish you would test the single cage I 

 send you. L,aj' it on the floor and walk over it: let the 

 heaviest man' in j'our factory stand on it with his 

 heavy boots or shoes on, and see how much it will 



