1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



them and taking care of them until needed 

 again. The need of a cushion can be obviated 

 by cutting the lower inside corner of the regu- 

 lar cover a very little with a plane, thus making 

 it fit the same as on the regular Dovetailed 

 hive. This, all who use them will find to give 

 a hive that is very much better than to have to 

 keep a super on them all the time. 



This hive takes the regular r^angstroth frame, 

 17i?sx9i4, and is intended to hold 8 frames, and 

 room for a follower and wedge. The design is 

 to use the self-spacing Hoffman frame. Those 

 frames have been on trial now for two years. 

 If you intend to remove your bees from place to 

 place, or haul them in any way, this frame is 

 what you want. When they are keyed up prop- 

 erly they will stand a great deal of rough usage, 

 without breaking down, especially if in wired 

 frames. This frame was intended to be one on 

 which there would be no brace or burr combs 

 built: but in this respect it is a failure. It was 

 also intended that the bees should not propolize 

 the frames together, but somehow the bees 

 could not see it that way. They propolized the 

 frames together so well that three or foui' can 

 be taken out together without coming apart. 

 They build burr-combs fi'om the frames to the 

 cover-board in nearly every hive: and they so 

 effectually build brace-combs between the 

 frames that a hive might be turned over and 

 handled in the style the baggagemen handle 

 trunks, without the least danger of the frames 

 becoming loose. 



I have over 200 of these frames in use at pres- 

 ent, and speak from experience. I think the 

 trouble is in grooving the comb-guide out of the 

 frame. The thick-top frame lx<< gives the 

 finest combs in the apiary, perfectly straight, 

 and not a brace or a burr comb in a hive full of 

 them. If frames could be gotten with IxK top- 

 bar, and otherwise the Hoffman frame, I think 

 they would be about the thing. The tendency 

 to propolize the frames together can be over- 

 come by rubbing the parts where they come 

 together with cosmoline. This is inexpensive 

 and effectual. Any super used on an eight- 

 frame hive will do for this; but the regular 

 dovetailed super, with pattern slats, will be 

 found the most convenient; and the matter of 

 sections is worthy of some attention. 



It will be found that bees fill and cap sections 

 quicker if they are not too thick; and narrow 

 sections will be built as straight, if foundation 

 is used, without separators as wider ones with 

 separators. I mean to try eight to the foot next 

 season, if pattern slats can also be secured. 



This hive costs one-third more than the reg- 

 ular single-walled Dovetailed hive. It is better 

 to use them, and keep one-third less bees. The 

 honey the colonies in them make will more 

 than pay for the difference in cost. Colonies 

 that were even in the spring, if on<^ is in a 

 single-walled hive and the other in a packed 

 chaff' hive, the one in the chaff hive will build 

 up and be in much better shape for the harvest 

 than the other, all else being equal. 



To make assurance doubly sure, I shall leave 

 my Dovetailed chaff hives out until settled cold 

 weather comes, and then set them in the cellar. 



Atlantic, la., Dec. 7. W. C. P"'raziek. 



[It was not claimed— at least that impression 

 was not intended to be conveyed — that the 

 Hoffman framps would not be stuck together 

 with propolis: in fact, it was explained by us 

 that two or three could be lifted out at a time 

 hec<i}ise propolis would hold them together. 

 See May 1st, 1891, p. ?.()9. We have never tried 

 vaseline; but from the number of favorable 

 reports we have received we have no doubt of 

 its success for the purpose. 



We can not understand why you should have 



had burr-combs when all the rest, with one oth- 

 er possible exception, report no burr-combs 

 with these new top-bars. Let's have reports. 

 If bee-keepers generally prefer the%-inch top- 

 bar without being molded out so as to leave the 

 comb-guide in relief, we can give it to them at 

 the same price.] 



CALIFOKNIA FLORA. 



EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE SECRETION OF 

 NECTAR. 



All countries or sections of countries where 

 dry warm climates predominate, pos.sess the 

 most superior honey- flora. In proof of this as- 

 sertion, make a note of Southern California, 

 parts of Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado. The 

 indigenous honey-plants in the above-mention- 

 ed sections are rich in nectar of the choicest 

 kind. Aside fiom the wild bloom (where water 

 can be obtained), alfalfa, the great desert hon- 

 ey-plant, will revel in its glory and furnish an 

 abundance of nectar. The honey gathered 

 from alfalfa in the desert regions is very superi- 

 or to that gathered from alfalfa along the moist 

 river-bottoms of the San Joaquin and iSacra- 

 mento Rivers; in fact, alfalfa yields a great 

 deal more honey per acre in these desert lands. 



Not speaking of the irrigated districts of al- 

 falfa in Southern California. Nevada, Arizona, 

 and Colorado, there are no better honey- pro- 

 ducing lands on earth. California, with its 

 white, black, blue, and yellow sages; sumac, 

 California lilac, alfalfa, alfilaree, button-bush, 

 holly, incense cedar, and folocio(California lilac, 

 holly, incense cedar, and folocio are Eastern 

 and Northern California honey plants); Ne- 

 vada, with its yellow sage, tj,lfalfa, willows, and 

 hundreds of lesser conspicuous honey-plants; 

 Arizona, with its numerous species of cacti, 

 which produce honey in enormous quantities; 

 its mesquite and other wild honey-plants, and 

 its immense tracts of alfalfa; and Colorado, 

 with its Rocky Mountain bee-plant, vast tracts 

 of alfalfa, and thousands of other bee-flowers 

 which bloom in lavish abundance, gives but a 

 faint outline of some of the sources of honey in 

 these favored bee-lands. 



It is strange, but nevertheless true, that the 

 best honey is produced in a country having a 

 dry warm atmosphere; the more moisture there 

 is in the air, the less nectar there is secreted, 

 and it is also more inferior in quality. 



And. again, there is something strange how a 

 plant will yield honey one day, and the next it 

 will not. it must certainly be an atmospheric 

 influence of some kind that starts and stops the 

 plant from secreting nectar. Possibly electrici- 

 ty has much to do with it; may be a certain 

 quantity of this element is required to start 

 nectar, and a certain other amount to stop 

 nectar secretion. Just before a thunderstorm 

 there is more nectar in the flowers than at any 

 other time; on these occasions the flowers seem 

 to yield all their nectar at once: for in a day or 

 two afterward they are destitute of it, and it 

 requires several days for them to recover their 

 original prolificness of nectar again. Some 

 persons may think that the rain washed all the 

 nectar from the flowers: but I will state that, 

 in thunderstorms with but a few drops of rain, 

 it is the same. 



In view of the above facts, it is quite certain 

 that the amount of nectar secreted in the flow- 

 ers is due to certain atmospheric conditions or 

 influences with which we are unacquainted. 

 There are seasons when every vale and hillside 

 is a perfect hot-house of bloom and blossom; 

 still there is no nectar in the flowers. Again, 

 there may be a profusion of bloom and an im- 



