770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



we need pure air, just, as nuich do we need pure 

 distilled water, which is the only pure water. 

 tVater is the great cleans-er, and is not pure, no 

 matter from what source. Even rain water 

 collects impurities and microbes as it descends. 

 Water from lakes, springs, creeks, and rivers, 

 has earthy salts, carboiuite of lime, various 

 minerals, decayed fish, worms, snails, and 

 lizards, millions of microbes and animalcuho. 

 The excrements of fish, worms, and the thou- 

 sands of insects, birds, and animals, that lire 

 in and frequent the water, are found in it. A 

 dead frog or rat occasionally comes up in the 

 well-bucket. Do you think such water is 

 healthful ? All impurities are left behind 

 when water is turned into steam, and that con- 

 densed or turned into water, and iti no other 

 way can one get pure water. There is no filter 

 that will take out all impurities. My con- 

 denser gives us drinking-water while getting 

 our meals. 

 Los Gatos, Cal. 



[Friend B., your instruction in regard to 

 using second-hand oil-cans will probably be 

 valuable to many of our readers; and I am 

 greatly curious to know about that home-made 

 apparatus for getting distilled water Can't 

 you describe it. or make a rude picture of it so 

 we can have it illustrated ? In many localities 

 I suppose such a method is almost the only one 

 for getting real nice water to drink.— A. I. R.] 



THE DARK AND BRIGHT SIDE OF APICUL- 

 TURE. 



THE "OTHKR «11)E " TO THE DAKK SIDE PRE- 

 SENTED BY FRIEND DOSCH ON P. 737. 



By J. p. Shaw. 



In reading Gleanings last evening I noticed 

 the article on page 737, written by L. A. Dosch, 

 of Miamisburg, O., very discouraging indeed. 

 Now please excuse mistakes, as this is my first 

 writing. I live not quite three miles from Mr. 

 Dosch, up the Miami Valley. Three years ago 

 I started with one hive; increased to ten, but 

 got no honey; wintered through all right. 

 From six of those ten last year I got 280 lbs. of 

 section honey; increased the other four colo- 

 nies to 1.5. Starting in last winter with 21 col- 

 onies I came out in the spring with in fair 

 shape — a loss of two colonies. 



Now for this dry season. started 12 colo- 

 nies to working on sections, and got 400 lbs. of 

 section honey from them, leaving plenty for 

 winter. The other 7 colonies increased to 15 

 last year. With (5 colonies I got 280 lbs.; and 

 ray neighbor, with only a fence between our 

 bees, got 10 lbs. from 7 colonies. I think there 

 is a great deal in the management of bees. So 

 you see this locality is not so bad after all. 

 Sweet clover here is the main honey-flower. 

 As dry as the summer has been here, it grew 

 from 5 to 6 feet high, and the bees just swarmed 

 upon it. I use the eight frame L. hive, and I 



contract down to six frames at the commence- 

 ment of the honey season, and feed a little in 

 the spring at the right time. I do not think 

 this locality so bad as iriend Dosch does. I 

 guess I shall have to go down and buy him out. 

 West Carrollton, O. J. P. Shaw. 



[AditTerence of only three miles sometimes 

 makes quite a difference in the honey; still it 

 is not improbable that your superior manage- 

 ment accounted largely for the difference in 

 results. When a man is utterly discouraged, as 

 friend Dosch is. he is not apt to put the best 

 foot forward; in other words, use the best and 

 most economical management.— Ed.] 



ISRAEL'S CROSS-EYED BEES. 



FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS VS. FOUNDATION IN 

 BULK OP THE SAME AGE; AN INTEREST- 

 ING AND VALUABLE EXPERIMENT. 



By J. P. Israel. 



1 have for many years enjoyed the reputa- 

 tion of being the boss idiot of Southern Califor- 

 nia. No man so far has questioned my title or 

 contended for the championship. But the bees 

 this year have stripped me of my honors, and I 

 have yielded up to them the belt so long and 

 honorably worn. This is how they went about 

 to do it. 



When the time came, in the spring, for put- 

 ting on sections, I found I had more than 

 enough, with foundation already in them, to 

 cover my whole apiary. This foundation had 

 been put in these sections more than a year 

 before; and on our failure to get honey in 1894^ 

 the sections were stored away. 1 thought I 

 was fortunate in being all ready for the honey 

 crop, and uited on the sections liberally. Ten 

 days afterward I looked over them to see how 

 they were building. Every colony that had 

 gone into the upper story was building crooked! 

 Their favorite way of building was crossivise 

 the sections, as if they wished to bind them 

 together with iron bands. Crosswise, cat-a- 

 cornered, around the corner and back again 

 they came. But the foundation, they would 

 not touch. It was pure wax, made in this 

 apiary, and run out by myself. What could be 

 the matter? I sat down on a hive to meditate. 



•' Here," said I, " is a whole apiary gone mad 

 crosswise! I will get at the true secret of this 

 state of affairs, even if it takes me all sum- 

 mer." 



I got my microscope and examined the bees, 

 and, lo! the secret was out. The whole apiary 

 was cross-eyed. I stood aghast with astonish- 

 ment and consternation. Could it be possible? 

 Oh for a carload of '• them fellers " from the 

 East who know it all, to tell me how to breed 

 back again to straight-eyed bees! I could see 

 through the crooked part of it very plainly. 

 When a bee got on to a piece of foundation to 

 draw it out, being cross-eyed he was actually 

 not there at all, but around the corner, build- 



