704 



GLEANINGS IN REE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



can give you on the use of these terms is that 

 made by A. Norton, in another column.— Ed.] 



Hasty says in Review that no swarming 

 without drones is probably all in imagination. 

 Worst swarming he ever had was when he tried 

 very hard and persistently to suppress drones 

 in most of his colonies. [The statement that 

 bees will not swarm without drones does not 

 begin to be supported by recent reports; while 

 we may set it down as an almost invariable 

 rule that they will not leave the hive without 

 a queen, the reports seem to indicate that 

 drones have very little influence one way or 

 the other. — Ed.] 



I COMMENCED to read to my wife that kink 

 on p. 683 about managing hot wax when spilled. 

 She stopped me short by saying with an em- 

 phatic shake of her head, " We're not going to 

 have any spilled wax." I could not deny that 

 her plan was a good one too. [Your wife's de- 

 termination is quite right. But you know, 

 doctor, 



The best laid plans of mice and men 

 Gang aft agley. 



Something may happen some time in all well- 

 regulated homes when the wax will get spilled 

 on the floor. It is a good thing to know what 

 to do then.— Ed.] 



R. L. Taylok, in his report in Revietv, says if 

 bees have a foundation they prefer, they show 

 that preference plainly only up to a certain 

 point. After the preferred sort reaches that 

 point they hold back and let the poor sort part- 

 ly catch up. That point is reached in sections 

 measuring 9 to the foot. As that is a trifle less 

 than 19g^ from center to center, it must be with- 

 out separators, and that means sections about 

 1^ wide with separators. Query.— Will bees 

 store more honey in a season in sections 1,% 

 wide than in wider ones? [The tendency, I be- 

 lieve, with bee- keepers all over the country is 

 strongly toward narrower sections— not because 

 bees show any particular preference for them, 

 but because the market seems to demand them. 

 In Canada the standard is 1^; and our own 

 trade shows that there is more and more de- 

 mand for the narrower sections.— Ed.] 



"A NAIL HEAD is Objectionable on account of 

 its liability to catch in the wire cloth of the 

 extractor." Thus the editor, p. 667, on wire 

 nails for spacers. But what's that to me? I 

 don't want my brood-frames to go into an ex- 

 tractor, and I protest against being obliged to 

 use what doesn't suit me, just to accommodate 

 manufacturers who want comb honey men to 

 use ihe same supplies as extracting-men. Still, 

 it wouldn't be a very hard thing lo make the 

 extractor fit the nail-heads. [LJut, doctor, you 

 can not tell positively that you may never want 

 to produce extracted honey. And, again, sup- 

 pose you are to adopt wire-nail spacers. These 

 spacers might require a special kind of top-bar 



or frame different from what the great mass of 

 bee-keepers would require. Then you would 

 have to pay an extra price because the stuff 

 would be irregular. It is not a question as to 

 whether a certain frame or hive will accommo- 

 date manufacturers, but whether it will ac- 

 commodate a bee-keeper now producing comb 

 honey exclusively, but who may in the future 

 desire to produce extracted. — Ed.] 



If bottom-bars % inch wide will secure 

 combs built clear down every time without 

 having the foundation touch the bottom-bar, 

 or if any other width will do it, then that's the 

 right width for bottom-bars. I've had thou- 

 sands of bottom-bars ^ and ,V wider than %, 

 and the bees always leave a space over them, 

 and I'm a little afraid % wouldn't do much bet- 

 ter. I can get combs built down to the bottom- 

 bars by having foundation touch the bottom- 

 bar, but I'd be glad to be rid of the trouble. 

 [A width of % inch is a compromise between 

 the very narrow and the wide bottom-bar. The 

 objection to a wide one is that, when the hive 

 is tilted bottom up, its condition can not be as 

 readily diagnosed as when narrower bars are 

 used. Very many times I judge of the condi- 

 tion of a colony by tilting it up from its bottom- 

 board and peering under. Then, too, I think 

 the bees do build down better to the narrower 

 bar. The best way I know of to get combs 

 clear down is to key up the Hoffman frames, 

 turn the hive upside down, and leave it that 

 way long enough for the bees to build the combs 

 up to the bottom-bars now on top. — Ed.] 



" I FIND that the honey-bee becomes ac- 

 quainted and familiar with the bee-keeper who 

 walks among the hives," says L. A. Aspinwall 

 in Review. I'm not skeptical about that as I 

 used to be. Lately I've been experimenting in 

 comb-building, visiting the hive several times 

 a day. I used the crossest colony in the apiary, 

 Punic half-bloods. Finally I could open up the 

 hive bare-headed, without smoke, after a rain, 

 when bees were doing nothing, and not get a 

 sting. The question remains. Do those bees 

 know me from any one else? [I do not think 

 those bees know Mr. Aspinwall any better than 

 they do any one else; but they become accus- 

 tomed to the disturbance. We have a path 

 from the factory to our barn, right through 

 the middle of our apiary. This path runs di- 

 rectly in front of and close to quite a number of 

 entrances. The bees of all these colonies have 

 become accustomed to large moving objects 

 passing by, and rarely if ever pay any atten- 

 tion; but colonies remote from this path or any 

 other roadway, I notice, do not take so kindly 

 to a person brushing by the entrance. 



I notice when 1 go a hunting (this is our 

 squirrel season) that the least noise made by 

 the cracking of a twig or the crumpling of the 

 leaves on the part of a human being causes the 

 squirrels to start and seek their hiding-places; 



