812 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



market (not your own market as I understand) 

 so far as I can ascertain perfers the single-tier 

 cases. The same is true of nearly all the other 

 markets.— Ed.] 



I AGREE with your figures, p. 777, Mr. Editor, 

 till you say, " If the bees reared a cell from an 

 egg, the young queen would hatch in about 16 

 days." Unqueen a colony and the bees will 

 start a queen from a larva, never from an egg. 

 I think I never knew even a nucleus to be 16 

 days raising a queen, and a full colony will 

 have a oueen hatch in 9 to 11 days. That 

 means that a larva 1 to 3 days old was chosen. 

 [It is never wise to be positive; but I feel quite 

 certain that I have seen queen-cells right over 

 eggs. As nearly as I can remember, such colo- 

 nies, having been queenless for a long time, were 

 given a frame of eggs. In their eager haste 

 they built cells over the eggs. Remember, 

 I was talking from the time the egg was laid to 

 the time the queen would emerge. — Ed.] 



Tarn British Bee Journal will ''In future de- 

 cline to pass an opinion on samples of honey re- 

 ceived here unless the place from whence the 

 honey has been gathered is stated and vouched 

 for." Tnat means British honey is better than 

 foreign when they both taste alike. But some- 

 how I admire the patriotism of the British Bee 

 Journal. [The " foreign " honey referred to by 

 our British cotemporary, as nearly as I can gath- 

 er by reading the articles, is not the better qual- 

 ity of American honey that finds a good market 

 in this country without being sent abroad; but 

 it is the poorer grades sent from America and 

 from British provinces on this side of the globe, 

 and which are palmed off' in England as British 

 honey. This our British cousins do not like, 

 and I do not blame them. If they had a little 

 American " protection" over there they could 

 stop that sort of disreputable competition. — 

 Ed.] 



WiKED FRAMES wlll hold foundation without 

 any fastening around the edges; but to make 

 sure that the foundation is in the middle at 

 every point I always fasten it on all sides. I 

 can afford to be fussy with a thing that 1 want 

 to be just right, and that lasts for a lifetime. 

 [Is it true, doctor, that your combs will last 

 for a lifetime'? Was there not some talk two 

 or three years ago, and from some pretty reli- 

 able sources too, that combs older than 10 or 15 

 years had better be melted up because the cells, 

 from the accumulation of cocoons, would be too 

 small to breed normal-sized bees? and more- 

 over, doctor, you are quite liable, once in 15 

 years, to change to a different frame. And, 

 again, if you were producing extracted honey. 

 as some of your friends do, the real dark old 

 combs would notfbe as good as the newer combs. 

 -Ed.1 



Hkart's-ease and smartweed, as they grow 

 in Northern Illinois, are so much alike in ap- 

 pearance that a careless observer takes one for 



the other. But the most careless taster could 

 nevermake any mistake if he bites the leaves. 

 Smartweed smarts like fire; but there isn't the 

 least smart to heart's-ease. [I probably was 

 in error in stating that smartweed and heart's- 

 ease belong to the violet family. Smartweed, 

 at' least, belongs to the Pul\j(jonacecG, or buck- 

 wheat family. LBy consulting authorities I find 

 there are .two kinds of heart's-ease— one that 

 belongs to the violet family, just as I stated, 

 and another to the.^buckwheat family. It is 

 the one that belongs to the last-named family 

 that concerns bee keepers. But I am not cer- 

 tain in my own mind whether we have real 

 heart's-ease of smaller growth or whether it 

 may be smartweed; and as the season is over, 

 it is not possible for me to make proper identifi- 

 cation with the botanies. D Perhaps Prof. Cook, 

 or Prof. Bessie, of the Lincoln State University, 

 can enlighten us. — Ed.] 



How LONG from the laying of the egg to the 

 hatching of the queen? "Queens emerge be- 

 tween the 17th and 18th day after the eggs are 

 laid," was the law laid down by Berlepsch, 

 American Bee Journal, Vol. I., p. 199, though 

 Dzierzon thought that, under favorable circum- 

 stances, 17 days was enough. That was 35 

 years ago. Later 16 days was taught; but 

 years ago some of us declared that was too 

 much. The books, at least some of them, now 

 give 15, but many still cling to the old 16. I 

 think data were originally taken from nuclei; 

 but results are quite different in full colonies; 

 15, not 16, remember, is the number. [Consid- 

 ering the fact that some authorities, as you say, 

 state that queens emerge between the 17th and 

 18th day, and you and some of the rest think 15 

 is nearer right, 16 is a very good average. In 

 A. I. R.'s early experiments he found that the 

 queens average about 16 days from the egg, 

 and so reported in the ABC book. It is pos- 

 sible that 15 might be a nearer average. — Ed.] 



" Most people like an oblong comb of honey 

 to set before guests better than one which is 

 square," says Doolittle, in American Bee Jour- 

 nal. It's important to know whether that's 

 correct. Are not the plates on which honey are 

 placed usually square or round? Would an 

 oblong comb look best on them ? Who can tell 

 us what is liked best? [I certainly think an 

 oblong comb, when it stands up, looks very 

 pretty, and, in comparison with a square comb 

 of the same sur/((ce, looks larger. I believe it 

 is Capt. Hetherington who says our tastes have 

 been educated to prefer t; 11 buildings, and 

 panes of glass the longest way perpendicular 

 rather than horizontal. Mr. Danzenbaker, I 

 believe, has made the point that sash with 

 square panes of glass do not look nearly as well 

 as sash having glass longer the perpendicular 

 way than the horizontal. After all, I suppose 

 it is a matter of taste and what we get used to. 

 It strikes me, however, that a square comb 



