18 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
Febl 
the same barrel was recently sold for 20c. per 
lb. and was pronounced “tip top.” 
Moral. : It will pay to have a tight floor to 
your bee house and to keep it well painted ; al- 
so drive the bungs in tightly and if convenient 
leave them in very hot weather uppermost, and 
lastly never disagree with the “women folks” if 
they do get fidgety if the floor is not always 
kept “just so clean”. 
Gleanings in Bee Culture, 
Published monthly, 
_A__ I. ROOT <5c CO., 
EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. 
MEDINA, OHIO. 
Terms : 7<5c. Ter Annum. 
For Club Rales see Second Page. 
3VLEIDX3Sr-A., FEB. 1, 1874. 
Please excuse small type; ’tis our old complaint, 
we have more matter, than room. 
We find the Prairie Farmer one of the best, among 
our Agricultural Exchanges, its appearance is bright 
and attractive, and Its articles are from our real live 
business men, aye and women too, and what pleases us 
more is that their writers have a definite place of exis- 
tence instead ot being dropped loose in a whole county 
a 9 is so much the fashion of late. 
We cannot say that subscribers “pour” in, as some of 
the papers do, yet we are kept sufficiently busy to ren- 
der it possible that a mistake may creep in now and 
then. Whenever such be the -case drop us a postal 
card and dont be bashful in stating just where we’ve 
“put our foot in it.” We certainly “mean well” as the 
boy said of his dog when he bit a piece out of the 
man’s leg. 
Our bees “scold” when the temperature of their 
room gets below 35*, when warmed up to 40° or 45° 
they are as still as if dead nearly, but when it is in- 
creased to 50, or 55 they begin to emit quick sounds at 
intervals, that seem to us to be interrogatories, as 
much as to say, “ wont it do to let us have a fly ? ” Ii 
the temperature is kept there, they soon get quite un- 
easy. About 40* seems to us, the most desirable point. 
Candy costs from 25 to 30c. per lb and sugar about 
11 % only. By stirring it with a little water, and then 
baking it in a slow oven until all the water is expelled, 
we have hard cakes that answer every purpose of can- 
dy so far as we know, at a cash outlay of only the price 
of sugar. Now the above solution of Prob. 1. must be 
worth at least S5.00 to every bee-keeper but we don’t 
see how we can sell receipts, for they will tell their 
neighbors. 
The “Honey Bee” price 50c. By Aaron Benedict, 
Bennington, O. is before us. 
The paper is cheap, the print bad, and the contents 
mainly extracts from old numbers of the A. B. J. 
Although published in 1873, we can And no mention 
at all of the Extractor nor of the recent troubles in 
wintering. The concluding item is, “Hives should be 
so constructed that the frames will lit tight In the 
hive, preventing the space between the sides of the 
hives and frames, etc.” Truly, we fear the Island 
wheron our friend rears untested queens for $5.00 has 
shut him out from the rest of mankind, as well as his 
bees. A veritable Rip Van Winkle, in Bee-culture. 
We would refer the numerous friends who have 
written us for bees, to the advertisement of Adam 
Grimm, for even after paying freight his prices are 
less than we could sell for. The best honey-gatherers 
we have ever had, were bees from Queens purchased 
of him. 
To such of our Southern readers ami others as have 
their bees flying when this reaches tliem, we would 
say, commence giving them dry sugar as soon as they 
will use it ; place it in the sun but out of the wind amt 
get them them to “building up” as fast as possible. 
Their rye, oat or barley meal may be given them at 
the same time and place, and the nearer we can get 
them to approach their natural activity, the better; 
the use of the sugar will prevent their straying to su- 
gar-camps etc., but will not prevent their going for the 
blossoms when they appear. Dampening the sugar 
will hasten matters but is apt to incite robbing and to 
call them out in unseasonable weather. 
“BEES WINGS” AND SUNDRY OTHER 
MATTERS. 
BY 1>. L. ADAIR. 
w .*\ ROOT. In your notice of the paper I read! 
l|»yS at the last meeting of our National Society at 
A',/— l»i Louisville, you make an unfair statement when 
you limit it to “'‘that bees breathe through their wings,” 
thus conveying the impression that I located, tbe 
breathing apparatus and the lungs in the wings. Bees 
breathe through Spiracles or pores un/ler the wings , 
and I so stated, I further stated that from these the 
air is led through delicate tubes to every part of the 
body, even to the tips of the wings, and no naturalist 
will* deny the statement. No organ is specialized as 
lungs, the bees have no lungs, except those .tubes 
which follow the veins or circulating fluid throughout 
the whole bee, and the air is brought in contact with 
the blood through the thin walls of these tubes in 
every part of the system, just as is the case in the 
human lungs. Would it not ^e fairer to publish the 
whole paper so that your readers could judge for 
themselves, or at least make a fair statement ot what 
vou call “Adairs folly.” [By way of parenthesis : Did 
it ever strike you i hat calling a man a fool was not 
courtesy ? Do you think you can advance Bee-culture- 
by calling hard names? Or do you think your judg- 
ment is so infallible that you are justiltcd in calling a 
man a fool because you differ with him in opinion.'' 
If I am in error convince me of it by fair argument. 
but please quit calling names.] 
The only argument you use Is the statement that- 
one of your best queens, the mother of the colony 
that gave you 330 pounds of honey had no wings, and 
she was good for at least two seasons. Now, as you 
attribute Mrs. Tnppers statements about injuring, 
brood to her “ inexperience,'''’ you will not certainly get- 
mad and go to calling hard names if I apply the word 
to you, ami question your facilities for judging ol 
what a good queen is ; lor so long as you manage bees 
as you do, in hives that will not allow a queen to- 
show what she can do, you will certainly be “inexpe- 
rienced.” Until you give the queen a compact brood 
nest sufficiently large to accomodate her with ample 
room, at all times, to deposit every egg she can be 
stimulated to produce you will be “inexperienced.” 
So long as you shift the brood about and mix it up in- 
discriminately in top and bottom story, you will have 
your bees continually disorganized, and even a queen 
that Is badly diseased can furnish all the eggs that 
are requlrcu, and you will be “Inexperienced; ” and 
you will be “inexperienced” so long as you pass judg- 
ment on every “New Idea,” that is suggested, before 
you investigate it. 
That Adam Grimm clips his queens wings and gets 
a paving crop ol honey is no reason why Adam Grimm 
might not do better if he did not so mutilate them and 
had his bees in hives that would require perfect, vig- 
orous queens, and allow of better management. 
I have a letter from one of the best entomologists in 
tbe U. S. in which he says “ Your argument that, the 
wings of insects serve as lungs is unanswerable. It 
must injure the bee thus to mutilate it awl reduce its 
strength.'''' So says Dr. Packard, Editor of the Amer- 
ican Naturalist, and author of A Guide to the Study 
