42- 
“ novice’s ” GLEANINGS in bee culture. 
painted after being waxed and the hoops 
driven tight.) 
A wire strainer will be needed to set in 
the top of a deep jar to place the cappings 
after each day’s work; don’t pat them in 
the top of the hives nor attempt to save 
any honey of any kind by giving it to the 
bees during the working season, for it will 
prevent their gathering honey to an ain’t 
greater than such odds and ends are 
worth. After the caps have drained sev- 
eral days, separate the wax and honey 
with the wax extractor. Our wax ex- 
tractor cost us about $8.00, but something 
to answer the same purpose could be made 
by almost any tin-smith for not more than 
half ns much. 
With the given arrangement of the api- 
ary, the labor is not great, if each comb 
be carried in and extracted as fast as the 
bees are brushed off; but if preferred a 
light frame can be used holdiug from five 
to ten combs. With proper care in avoid- 
ing any exposure of honey that may in- 
cite robbing in the forepart of the season, 
that disagreeable feature in operating, 
may he almost unknown. 
When you have some honey barreled 
ready for sale write us how much you 
want for it nnd we will open our honey 
column again, and we hope to make it a 
long list too. 
P. S. — “P. G." says, “tell 'em” before wax- 
ing the barrels, to stand them in the sun until 
they are. hot and dry, drive down the hoops 
and proceed. If the barrels are cool or 
cold more wax will adhere than is neces- 
sary or profitable. 
aiTF.KNS. 
*J*roukic queens are an absolute ncces- 
«4i sity for strong colonies, and strong 
colonies are the only ones that give us 
profit. We have, for many years, built 
up weak colonies in the spring at the ex- 
pense of combs of brood from the strong , 
ones, but we have of late come to the 
conclusion that we damaged our best 
ones by so doing more than poor ones 
were worth; yet it must be borne in mind 
that this applies only to such as are weak, 
because the queens are not prolific ; oc- 
casionally the bees get thinned down in 
spring by dysentery or gradually from 
freezing in small clusters away from the 
main body until they cannot take care of 
the eggs even, of our best queens, and 
such stocks it will unquestionably pay to 
help. We have this season several colo- 
nies that had dwindled down to almost I 
nothing, and to save queens that we sup- 
posed valuable, after futile efforts to 
strengthen them up with hatching brood, 
we caged their queens and exchanged 
places with strong colonies while flying 
briskly. Two of these were killed when 
r .‘leased, although they had been caged 
fair days; one don't lay eggs at all now, 
and two have been replaced and queen cells 
st irted from their brood, a state of affairs 
that don’t please us we assure you. It is 
sometimes difficult to decide whether the 
fault is with the queen or elsewhere, but 
we should advise replacing all queens not 
up to the standard, as soon as wo can get 
a better one. We can usually judge of the 
queen's prolificness by her manner of de- 
positing the eggs. If we find eggs and 
larvae of different ages mixed up with 
sealed brood, wc should pronounce the 
queen a ‘‘slow ccacli” and deficient in 
system and judgment at any rate, and af- 
ter submitting her to the following test we 
can be pretty suro of getting a correct 
measure of her worth, viz: as soon as the 
colony will bear it without injury, place a 
nice, clean, empty worker comb in the 
center of the cluster, and in 21 hours 
count the eggs, and see if they are in a 
compact cluster. If at the first experi- 
ment the comb should be filled with honey 
and pollen, try it again. In good weath- 
es not less than 1000 eggs should be depos- 
ited in that time; but much depends on 
the strength of the colony. 
Who can report the largest number of 
eggs in a comb in 24 hours? 
If so many queens are poor, the ques- 
tion may be asked, how are we to be sure 
of rearing good ones? That’s the ques- 
tion, and to be frank, we really don’t 
know. We do know that we have reared 
long-lived, prolific queens many times un- 
der what would be called quite unfavora- 
ble conditions, and others reared under 
conditions that seemed all we could desire 
have failed in from three months all the 
j way up to three years. Although we have 
I used queen cells constructed when a queen 
was to be replaced, and also at the time 
of natural swarming, we find them on 
an average no belter. 
Suitable weather and enough bees ( more 
than a fair working colony is useless) 
seem almost a necessity, buteventhen but 
few extra prolific queens are reared. 
“Novice" insists that “lots of pollen” is 
the key to invariable success, but we can 
hardly expect anything practical from 
him until he gels somewhat over his "pol- 
len mania.” If each one of our large 
family of nociccs will send in their expe- 
rience and opinions on the subject, we 
may be able to glean from them some- 
thing valuable. Are queens reared late in 
the fall or early in the spring usually as 
prolific? “P. G.” thinks a lot of queens 
equally as good as a dozen of our best, 
would be worth $25 apiece to us now, but 
that a dozen like our poorest would be 
dear at about four cents apiece. 
We will, for the benefit of Apiarian Sci- 
ence, advertise gratuitously anything we 
deem of universal value to bee keepers, 
offered at low rates. At present this de- 
partment only includes honey and eggs 
from Imported Queens. We hope to add 
artificial comb foundations, when some 
can be furnished that fully answer the 
purpose. 
