&8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' RE'^^'ZS, 



nearly each number, keeps me from neglect- 

 ing the younger papers, and I want to fol- 

 low it for their sakes, even if it does seem a 

 little superfluous in other cases. 



There is another thing which has been in 

 my mind, and perhaps I might as well men- 

 tion it here. When I have reason to believe 

 that a paper no longer has earnest and per- 

 sistent editorial work put upon it — just some- 

 body cuffs it together in a few odd half hours, 

 mighty few of them at that — guess I shall 

 feel free to silently drop such a paper out of 

 its turn. When the children have to sadly 

 sing; 



"O dear, what c:ia the mitter be ? 

 Djiir. dair, what cau the matter hi ? 

 TheTEACHEiidon'tvisitour school ! " 



thea the public in=ip3ctor's visits also might 

 just as well cease, perhaps. 



(Quickly done for, indeed ! Ernest throws 

 up the sponge, and abandons the map of the 

 United States showing the large hive terri- 

 tory in different color from the small hive 

 territory. 



The E iglish fad of mikiag twj CDloaies 

 store in common ( Wells system ) has not had 

 much run in this country yet ; but the fol- 

 lowing seems to call for it a little. The 

 season was such that the average hive stored 

 less than ten sections. 



" Another colony on nine frames had the forces 

 from two other colonies added, and save three 

 28-section supers. All the evidence soes to show 

 that, if I had doubled the forces of ail, preserv- 

 ing the old stock in the original hives, I should 

 have had as many colonies in theend, and about 

 doubted my surplus. " It. AiKin, (ileanings 

 890. " 



Doolittle says he has had queens do good 

 work till the commencement of their sixth 

 year. Gleanings 8!tit. This is pretty well up 

 toward the peven years announced by Virgil. 

 And of waxing barrels he says, after telling 

 how to do it ; "Why not use those made of 

 soft wood which need no waxing ? " Is it the 

 hardness or softness of the wood that makes 

 the difference ? And will any workable soft 

 wood do ? or must it be some particular 

 kind of soft wood ? Mr. Doolittle talks 

 part of the time as if bad workmanship had 

 a good deal to do with it. Guess no work- 

 manship in the world could keep white oak 

 from shrinking under th'iinflaeaca of hon- 

 ey. Waxi ig is not so mush tj stop cracks 

 as to keep honey from soaking into the 

 slaves — as aresiMoi which will come shrink- 

 ing and inevitable cracks. Whatever wood 

 has been proi-iet/ not to shrink when soaked 



with honey should be recommended by name, 

 I think, rather that have its class of timber 

 loosely adverted to. 



The last Gleanings of the year was largely 

 devoted to a tribute to Langstroth, by many 

 writers, native and foreign ; and Mr. Cowan, 

 editor of the British Bee Journal, introduces 

 a sort of chronology of evolution, relating to 

 the great invention which Langstroth 

 brought to completion. 



( A ) i;)34. Mrtjor Munn's frame hive. 

 Beautiful to show to folks, before any bees 

 were put in, but entirely unpractical. 



( B ) 1)S41. The frame hive of Prokop- 

 owich. This was not only a frame hive but 

 was designed for inversion hive and all. 

 In practice there was great trouble and 

 much crushing of bees in getting the frames 

 out ; and once badly propolized removal 

 was practically impossible. 



( C ) 1843. The frame hive of Debeauvoys. 

 Something of an improvement, but still too 

 hard to get the frames out. 



( D ) 1851. Langstroth's frame hive — of 

 which no more needs be said than name it. 

 And let us not be in a hurry to evolute the 

 other way, toward immovable frames, as the 

 tendency of the present time seems to be. 



I am pleased to see ( and we do not often 

 see in these times ) so excellent an article 

 on the internal affairs of a bee hive as friend 

 Baldensperger gives on page !)r)0 of Glean- 

 ings. He says eggs will sometimes pre 

 serve their vitality for ten days. And he 

 Unds the details of the thing almost as sur- 

 prising as the main fact. On a comb well 

 stocked with fresh eggs some will shrivel in 

 a few hours, others in a few days, and just 

 a few will endui"e ten days. Some time 

 some of us must find out the cause of this. 

 It may be the key to something else. The 

 occasional long vitality of brood outside the 

 hive I presume many of us were aware of 

 before. 



Perhaps the most unique thing in the 

 article is his census of the eggs laid by a 

 queen for a whole year. It figured up 320,01X); 

 or a grand average of 97(! per day. I see he 

 assumes that these 320,000 eggs eventuated 

 in 300,000 bees. 'Spectsthat this part of his 

 work needs verification. The grand average 

 should not be used without remembering 

 that most of the laying was done between 

 March 3rd, and August 3rd, that is in 154 

 days ; and the average of this laying period 

 was 1,74S per day ; and the average for the 

 other 211 days was 240 per day. 



