498 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



ter. This spacing insures beautiful combs, flat 

 as a board— nothing but worker comb. 



Yet there still lingers the possibility that 

 drones can be raised around the bottom of the 

 comb, or even in a corner. The only way to 

 prevent absolutely a single drone-cell coming 

 would be to adopt some sort of backing, say 

 wood, for our foundation, and so prevent this 

 undesirable possibility. Gleanings contained 

 an account not long ago of foundation that had 

 a wooden backing. This sort of thing ought to 

 be encouraged. We could, by this means, ren- 

 der the production of drones an impossibility. 



One easily sees the immense importance of 

 this matter. Complete control of our bees would 

 then be possible. Some of your correspondents 

 talk of hives that secure to them complete con- 

 trol of their bees. They surely do not mean it, 

 as the bees get up and swarm, or raise drones, 

 whenever they are so minded. This question 

 will have to be looked at squarely, and consci- 

 entiously worked on by a number of good bee- 

 keepers, to secure tangible results. If the ex- 

 periment stations would try something of this 

 sort they would deserve more fame than they 

 now receive. 



All these discussions about burr and brace 

 combs simply show that the hives containing 

 such are improperly constructed. Thick top- 

 bars are only a makeshift. Put your combs 

 close enough so that the bees do not have to 

 build bridges across to the next comb. Some 

 people seem to think that a bee can reach over 

 about }.i inch. I can handle my frames with 

 the same facility that a person handles a book. 

 Formerly I needed a screwdriver to pry every 

 frame apart. It seems to me the whole ques- 

 tion of hive-making rests on accurate measure- 

 ment. People think they are wonderfully ac- 

 curate when they get it down to tV inch; but is 

 it not probable that a bee looks at -^,^ with the 

 eye that we do a yard? My measurements of 

 the combs are something like this: Thickness 

 of comb, /o% inch ; space required for the body 

 presence of two bees, i^,^ inch ; added together 

 this makes just H inches. The bees are won- 

 derful economists, and they abhor more space 

 than this unless drone comb is intended. Final- 

 ly, if you do not desire swarming (and who 

 does?) don't raise a drone. 



I will defer the accouut of my experiments in 

 this line to a future period, hoping that some of 

 your readers will test the matter fully, and re- 

 port. 



Devonshire, Bermuda, June 1. 



[Some five years ago, when I advocated self- 

 spacing frames, I concluded from the reports as 

 well as from private experiments we have been 

 making, that the ordinary l^-inch spacing 

 from center to center was too wide; and accord- 

 ingly I began to advocate the y^ distance, par- 

 ticularly because it seemed to be a compromise 

 between wide spacing and the very narrow 1}4 

 and !)§. At this time I asked for reports from 

 those who had tested the narrow, medium, and 



wide spacing; and the testimony at that time 

 gathered seemed to show that 134 and 1}^ 

 would largely if not altogether prevent the 

 rearing of drones. It also seemed to show that 

 these narrow spacings were a little too much of 

 a good thing. It appeared also that the 1% 

 was a nice golden mean ; and now that self- 

 spacing frames of this width are so generally 

 adopted among progressive bee-keepers it would 

 be difficult if not impossible to get down to nar- 

 rower distances. 



At all events. I should like to hear from our 

 readers who are in position to know whether 

 the entire absence of drones will prevent 

 swarming. I am rather of the opinion that it 

 will not. If it does not prevent will it dis- 

 courage swarming ? I should like to hear from 

 a number of our readers on these and other 

 points brought out in Mr. Morrison's able and 

 excellent article.— Ed.] 



SYRIAN BEES. 



Question. — Do you keep the Holy-Land bees? 

 and if so how do you like them? Please give 

 us something in Gleanings regarding their 

 qualities. 



Ansiver. — The Holy-Land bee is no more and 

 no less than the Syrian bee, which abounds 

 about Jerusalem; hence the name, "Holy 

 Land," as applied to it by many. I have care- 

 fully tested these bees; and for this locality I 

 regard them as the poorest of all the bees ever 

 brought to this country. It would look as If 

 nearly every one who has tested them is of the 

 same opinion; for, of late, we see no advertis- 

 ing of these bees, and scarcely a word said 

 about them in any way. The two great faults 

 which make them of little value are, first, not 

 breeding when they should breed, and then 

 breeding beyond measure when they ought to 

 breed but little, which results in few laborers 

 in the field during the honey-harvest, and 

 countless numbers of consumers after the har- 

 vest is past, to eat up all the few gathered, 

 consequently giving little or no profit, with a 

 hive short of stores for winter. In all of the 

 colonies I had during the five years I was test- 

 ing them not one of them had stores enough 

 for winter when October arrived. In a locality 

 where there is a continuous flow of honey from 

 spring to fall, these bees would be of more 

 value; but, unfortunately, very few such local- 

 ities exist in North America. This securing of 

 the bees at the right time for the honey harvest 

 is, I think, of the utmost importance; and 

 because no certain work can be done along this 

 line with the Syrians was the greatest objec- 

 tion I found to them. 



Second, the workers begin to lay eggs as soon 

 as the queen has been from the hive two or 

 three days, whether by swarming or otherwise, 

 so that the combs are often filled with a mul- 



