98 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 1. 



"Californian in original cans." One can not 

 help pitying that poor cent in having so much 

 to do in covering the expense of jars and put- 

 ting up. The report innocently remarks, " It 

 would be ruinous to send adulterated honey to 

 England." 



Replying to that footnote on page 48, 1 

 think it's a fine thing to have occasional spells 

 of warming up a cellar if it's too cold; but it's 

 a much finer thing to keep it even all the time 

 at that point that keeps bees most quiet. If I 

 could hold my cellar at that point every min- 

 ute of the time, and have the air always sweet, 

 I'd risk the bees. That's what enrages me so 

 at Doolittle and his cave. I can't keep my cel- 

 lar so even. 



I pkotest, I earnestly protest, against that 

 sort of tyranny that says I must use spacers. I 

 don't like them at all for comb honey, just be- 

 cause they don't suit extractors. Next thing 

 you'll be making me produce comb honey in 

 brood- frames just because extracted - honey 

 men have no use for sections. [If you don't 

 like "that sort of tyranny"— why, just revolt. 

 Perhiips you and I together can force the ex- 

 tracicu-honey men into producing extracted 

 honey from S( ctions. If you won't go to the 

 mountain, perhaps the mountain will come to 

 you.— Ed.J 



Lazy bees have ofien been talked about, 

 and a difference as to the industry of different 

 colonies has been generally admitted; but it 

 strikes one as revolutionary to hear Wm. S. 

 Barclay suggest, in A. B. J., that there may be 

 such a thing as old bees playing in front of the 

 hive when bees generally are at work in the 

 field. Do old bees play ? [I have seen bees 

 " play " many times, but I never saw old shiny 

 backs engaged in such frivolous pastime. In 

 all cases under my observation, the bees that 

 play are the bright fuzzy ones— the younger 

 ones. — Ed.] 



Mb. Editor, you say the Standard Diction- 

 ary uses "apiary" as an adjective, page 48. 

 Nouns are constantly used as adjectives, 

 just as you make the nouns "clover" and 

 "chunk "do duty as adjectives on the same 

 page. But that doesn't warrant you in using 

 an adjective as a noun. Drinking-water might 

 be used for dish-water, but hardly dish-water 

 for drinking-water. [Correct; we did not mean 

 to say the Standard was right to call Dr. Miller 

 the definer of " apiary terms." The book itself 

 does not use apiary as an adjective in defining 

 that term. — Ed.J 



Commenting on figures given by Balden - 

 sperger (see p. 951) who counts the life of a 

 worker from 35 to 40 days, and whose colonies 

 reach only 35,000 to 40,000 in number, the editor 

 of French Revue thinks it must be that bees do 

 not live so long in Palestine as elsewhere. M. 

 Bertrand reports an experimental swarm hived 



June 24 without a queen, and yet Nov. 23 it had 

 at least 8000 bees living. [Isn't it true that bees 

 are shorter lived in hot than colder or temper- 

 ate climates? In the first mentioned they can 

 fly every day of their lives, and hence wear out 

 sooner. — Ed.] 



That little fiction, that paper is neces- 

 sary between the sheets of foundation, lives on 

 year after year, in spite of the trouble it makes 

 to get the paper out of the way. I have piles 

 of fuundaiion 18 inches deep without paper, 

 that have stood three years in a window with 

 only a thin board to keep off the direct rays of 

 the sun, and I can separate the sheets easier 

 than if papered. [I saw those piles of founda- 

 tion unpapered, and I can vouch for the doc- 

 tor's statements. We papered because we 

 thought it necessary. We shall be very glad 

 to believe it is not. How is it, readers?— Ed.] 



that wintering symposium; mammoth solar 

 wax-extractoks in olden times; 



THK kitchen stove. 



You need not fear, Mr. 

 Editor, that the wild and 

 frantic admiration, and 

 the storms of applause 

 with which these Skylark 

 papers have been received, 

 will either abate or be dis- 

 appoinied. It is true. I 

 have not been able (in my 

 own small plant) to manufacture a sufficient 

 supply of undeveloped intellect for my own use. 

 Besides, my baler is broken and there is no 

 mechanic in this country place who under- 

 stands how to repair it. But I have made a 

 contract with the best and strongest company 

 in the United States for a full supply— a car- 

 load a week — pending the erection of a large 

 factory which I have designed. These papers 

 shall always be the ne plus ultra and sina qua 

 non of mulium in parvo. If any man can beat 

 that, I should like to see him hitch up his team 

 and drive out. Don't be afraid, Mr. Editor. I 

 am equal to the occasion. 



I have read in Gleanings the whole eight 

 articles for wintering bees. From all I can 

 gather from the eight writers, and their de- 

 scriptions of their methods, I can't see that 

 they differ very widely from one I built for my 

 bees in the East, twenty years ago. Putting 

 all their plans together, and making one build- 

 ing out of them, would be a downright and 

 palpable infringement on my patent. But as 

 that ran out about three years ago, I suppose I 

 have no recourse. 



