:.'13 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



certainly would greatly improve the T super; 

 but cleated separators, yon are probably aware, 

 are not new. In Nov. 1st Gleanings, 1888, p. 

 833, Oliver Foster set forth their advantages. 

 His article was accompanied with an engrav- 

 ing which, for the convenience of our readers, 

 we now reproduce. 



You will notice it is not exactly like yours, 

 but it embodies the same principle. The cleats 

 on both sides are half a bee-space thicl^. 



Mr. J. E. Crane, of Middlebury, Vt., is an- 

 other bee-keeper who has been enthusiastic, I 

 believe, in the use of the cleated separators. 

 Wlien I called on him in 1890, on that bicycle 

 trip, he showed the advantage of this sort of 

 separator in connection with sections having 

 no bee-ways or openings, the bee-spacing being 

 entirely provided for by separator-cleats.— Ed.] 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



By Rambler. 



At the recent California State convention of 

 bee-keepers. Prof. Cook called out quite a num- 

 ber of test votes. In the use of quills of various 

 kinds over the frames, 10 had used them, and 

 now only 9 of the 19 use them, showing that 10 

 had discarded the useless, mussy things. 



California bee-keepers are invited to make 

 exhibits of their products in the Chamber of 

 Commerce. An attractive display here of sev- 

 eral feet of floor space would be a standing ad- 

 vertisement of California honey. People from 

 all portions of the earth are visiting the Cham- 

 ber daily. 



The bee-escape was considered not so much 

 of a success here in clearing an extracting-super 

 as it might be. The escape clears the super of 

 bees; but the honey, deprived of its warming 

 factor, gets cold during the night, and is ex- 

 tremely hard to extract. What we want is 

 something to clear the super as quick as a brush 

 would do it, or .from three to five minutes. 



Mr. Brodbeck had one of his hives in the 

 Chamber of Commerce. Mr. B. has taken a 

 step in the right direction. He uses the Dove- 

 tailed hive with Hoffman frame; but hive and 

 frame are shallower than the standard, by an 

 inch or more. That's right, Mr. B. You will 

 soon progress to the use of the shallow divisible 

 brood-chamber. 



The rainfall up to date in the San Bernardino 

 Valley amounts to 17 inches. This, with a few 

 inches in March and April, will probably insure 

 a honey crop. But even after profuse rains, 

 there are sometimes climatic influences at work 

 to prevent the secretion of nectar. These ex- 

 traordinary influences, however, appear so sel- 

 dom that plenty of rain gives great buoyancy 

 to the spirits of the bee-keeper. 



" Skim-milk queens " was a very happy term 

 applied by Mr. Mclntyre to those queens reared 

 under the forcing plan, and where the royal 

 jelly is thin and scarce. Skim-milk queens and 

 successful honey production do not work well 

 together. 



In this valley, thousands of acres will be 

 planted to what has hitherto been considered a 

 worthless plant — canagrie, with the newly dis- 

 covered tanning properties. Reliable authori- 

 ty claims that it does not yield honey. Per- 

 haps, with thousands of acres, the bee will find 

 a sustaining forage upon it. 



In these days of foul brood, bee-paralysis, 

 etc., it behooves bee-keepers to be very careful 

 about introducing queens, honey, or second- 

 hand hives into or near their apiaries. Our 

 most successful bee-keepers breed nearly all 

 their own queens, and would not feed honey 

 bought up promiscuously, under any consider- 

 ation. A pastor of a Disciple church informed 

 me that such a purchase of honey, and a feed- 

 ing of it. inoculated his whole apiary of 50 colo- 

 nies, and he lost them all. His experience was 

 brief but pointed — spent 400 dollars on bees; 

 never received a cent in return. Moral: Be 

 careful what you feed your bees. 



^ I — ^ 



EAMBLE 128. 



AT BLACK DIAMOND. 



By RamhJer. 



Mr. Jones, collector for the Pacific Gas Im- 

 provement Co., a few evenings after our call 

 upon his quarrelsome bees, reciprocated, and sat 

 down with us by our camp-fire. We found Mr. 

 Pryal an adept at keeping up the flames. We 

 had been chaffing him some about the raw and 

 foggy condition of the nights around the Bay, 

 and had urged him to visit the more salubrious 

 clime of our sunny Southland. Of course, like 

 a true native son his Oakland possessed the 

 best climate in the world; and then he wonld 

 emphasize his remarks by throwing another 

 armful of brush on the fire. Where nature 

 requires so much aid in August to keep up a 

 comfortable warmth, it is indeed pleasant to 

 find such an efficient helper. 



Around the fire the conversation circled; and 

 bees, best locations, hunting deer, bear, and 

 even hogs and their profitable culture as a side 

 issue with bees, was discussed. Mr. Jones 

 thought a hog-ranch out in the free air of the 

 country preferable to those everlasting side- 

 walks and tall brick buildings. A good apiary 

 in connection with it would just profitably 

 round" out the season. 



Pryal and Wilder held a grand idea that, 

 when prices in pork and honey ruled low, the 

 hog might be raised profitably for its bristles. 

 For instance, a tooth-brush is sold for 15 cents 

 and upward; a good-sized hog, with his back 

 well cultivated, would yield bristles for a 



