596 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



derful climate. [I do not understand yet how 

 you can separate "sections from the wood." 

 See page 561. Skylark, appears to me, has the 

 advantage of you yet. — Ed. J 



Shipping-cases. H. R. Wright gives this 

 sententious bit of instruction, p. 569: "Don't 

 use a case holding over 24 combs (single tier), 

 nor less than 20 combs." No reason given why. 

 That may be all right for Albany; elsewhere, I 

 doubt. If I put 24 sections in a case it will be 

 double tier in the right kind of a case, and for 

 some markets 12 sections is a good number in a 

 case. [In general I think H. R. Wright's ad- 

 vice is better. While you may be able to put 

 up your honey in double-tier 24-lb. cases, the 

 average bee-keeper will give better satisfaction 

 in the average market by using the single- 

 tier.— Ed.] 



Since it has been demonstrated that sweet 

 clover makes good hay and pasture, many of 

 our farmers, Instead of trying to exterminate it, 

 as has hitherto been the custom, are encourag- 

 ing its growth." — J. L. Gandy, Nebr., in ^. JB. 

 Journal. [This is a good point. Let us keep 

 ihem circulating. I expect to say, and keep on 

 saying, until I do not have to say it anymore, 

 that sweet clover is not a noxious weed, but is 

 one of the best honey plants in the world ; that 

 it yields nectar everywhere, and that its flow is 

 prolonged, not days, but weeks and weeks; 

 that if it grows anywhere it grows in waste 

 places; is easily exterminated; that cattle 

 learn to eat it in preference to many other 

 kinds of green forage, and it makes a fairly 

 good hay. I have said these same things be- 

 fore; but it seems it must be repeated in differ- 

 ent ways in order to make people believe it. 

 —Ed.] 



Now LOOK HERE, Mr. Editor, none of your in- 

 sinuations and wrong deductions. On p. 499 

 you call me the only boy that doesn't carry a 

 knife. Nothing of the sort. I carry two — a 

 penknife and a barlow, besides strings and oth- 

 er things. But did you never forget to change 

 the contents of your pockets when you changed 

 your trousers? The chief point, though, was 

 that the book with scissors attached always 

 goes to the apiary with me. [Yes, sir. I used 

 to forget, many and many a time, to change the 

 contents of my pocket — knife, strings, and oth- 

 er thina:s— when I changed my trousers; but in 

 later years I fixed this trouble by having these 

 articles in every pair of trousers, so I am never 

 without them. But my " chief point " was that 

 very, very few bee-keepers use a book with 

 scissors attached, and nearly all have a knife, 

 and, therefore, knowing how to clip the queen's 

 tving with a penknife, or even a common pock- 

 et-knife, whether sharp or dull, is a thing 

 worth knowing. — Ed.] 



Prof. Cook, in A. B. J., doubts whether 

 worker-bees ever actually kill a drone, while a 



writer in British B. J. says he has seen work- 

 ers sting drones. I don't remember that I ever 

 saw a worker sting a drone, but I've often seen 

 them doubled up trying to sting them or else 

 pretending to do so. Seems to me that I've 

 seen the statement that drones couldn't live if 

 left to feed themselves, and that when the 

 workers stopped feeding them they starved. 

 [I have certainly seen workers make a big 

 show of trying to sting drones. Whether they 

 have ever actually done so, I can not say. 

 Bees have a fashion of making believe that 

 they are trying to sting and scare, and I should 

 not be surprised if Prof. Cook were right. Yes, 

 you saw a similar statement in the A B C of 

 Bee Culture, that drones could not live if left 

 to themselves, and A. I. Root is authority for 

 it. He does not say, however, that drones 

 would starve if given access to open cells of 

 honey, but that they would die in a clover-field 

 when the blossoms are secreting nectar at 

 their best.— Ed.] 



My wife says I'll make a wrong impression 

 by telling about taking five supers from one 

 hive. Well, then, let me tell the other side of 

 the story. I've some colonies that have given 

 only one super. In fact, in the past two years 

 of failure some very poor stock has worked in. 

 But she can't stop me from adding that one 

 colony has given 8 supers of 24 sections each — 

 only one colony, mind you. [Tell that good 

 woman that I do not think you gave any 

 wrong impression, for by your language I took 

 it that the colony referred to was your very 

 best. If you have any other one that is ahead 

 of that, or which has produced this year 8 

 supers of 24 combs, why, I feel like throwing up 

 my hat again. During these poor years, such a 

 feat on the part of any colony for any locality 

 is good. The copious rains we have been hav- 

 ing, and which seem to have been prevalent all 

 over the country, give us hope that clover may 

 yet regain its lost hold, and that our old-time 

 honey crop will be known as before. — Ed.] 



If supers containing some honey are put on 

 a hive immediately after putting a swarm in it, 

 I believe it has a tendency to make the swarm 

 desert. Wait a day or two before putting on 

 the supers. [The general practice on the part 

 of those who clip their queens' wings, and 

 catch the swarm as it returns, is to put that 

 swarm on another stand under the same set of 

 sections they have been working on. It is 

 much more convenient to do the whole job at 

 once. Mr. Vprnon Burt, who comes to my 

 mind as one who practices this plan, rarely, I 

 believe, has a swarm that swarms again when 

 so treated; but I can easily see that sections 

 put over them, containing honey, take away 

 the feeling that they have really got into new 

 quarters. If swarms have any collective or in- 

 dividual idea, to the effect that they are going 

 to the woods, or some place where there is no 



