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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



59 



thought it best not to admit it in print, be- 

 cause it would ••make such a breeze." 

 Never mind the breeze. I would rather the 

 bees should be blamed for more than they 

 are guilty of, than that it should be said we 

 are interested, and won't own it. 



BEES BALLING THEIR OWN QUEEN. 



From the different cases I have seen, I am satisfied 

 lhat bees, at least sometimes, ball their own queen 

 for the purpose of protecting her. In that ease, the 

 ball of bees is a very different tiling- from the 

 hissing- mass that envelops a stranger. 



For a number of years, 1 have practiced introduc- 

 ing queens by simply introducing them; that is, 

 when a queenless hive had started queen cells, I 

 simply placed the queen, without caging, on a brood 

 comb among the bees, and let her go about her busi- 

 ness. For a long time, I noticed more or less dead 

 bees on the ground in front of such hives, without 

 knowing why, until I found, as nearly as I could 

 make out, that there were two factions,— one deter- 

 mined to install the stranger as queen, the other 

 (the minority) determined to "oust" her; and I 

 think the less I meddled with them, the safer was 

 the queen. It seemed that friendly bees balled her, 

 and killed those that attacked her. 



SPUING DWINDLING. 



I have never been troubled with spring dwindling, 

 and would be glad if 1 could know just why; for, if 

 it is in any way due to my management, by continu- 

 ing the same management I might hope for con- 

 tinued immunity. I have somewhat suspected that 

 it was due to the fact that my bees have no winter 

 flight, and remain undisturbed in winter quarters 

 until the soft maples are in bloom. May it not be 

 that they thus remain imprisoned till danger from 

 dwindling is past? I would like to know whether, 

 among those who have suffered from dwindling, 

 there are any who do not let out their bees till soft 

 maple blooms. 



Yes, friend M.; we have had had cases of 

 spring dwindling in our neighborhood, when 

 the bees were wintered in a cellar just as 

 yours are. Our neighbor Blakeslee used to 

 boast that he cotdd keep his bees all right in 

 the cellar, all summer if need be ; but, last 

 winter, he lost badly of those in doors, while 

 those left on the summer stands came out 

 all right. Are we to understand, friend M., 

 that you keep your bees in the cellar all 

 through this warm January without trouble? 



FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS. 



Notwithstanding the vehement opposition of 

 some, I have used fdn. largely in sections, and am 

 not satisfied with any thing less than a piece that 

 will nearly fill the section. 1 think I can manage to 

 have quite thick fdn. thinned out by the bees, lint I 

 would rather have it with a thin base. Last year, 1 

 used 10 lbs. Of thin, flat bottomed fdn. in sections, 

 alternating them in the frames with sections con- 

 taining the ordinary fdn., and could not see that the 

 bees made any difference in working the two kinds. 

 The price, however, of the Hat bottomed appears to 

 me a decided objection to it, and I am very anxious, 

 as no doubt others are, to know about the new ma- 

 chine on which Mr. W'ashburn is at work. How 

 many feet to the pound does the fdn. made by it av- 

 erage? and what is the price per pound? Please 

 tell us all about it. Are you now ready to furnish 

 such fdn.? 



You like sections without grooves better when 

 using starters an inch wide, but it seems to me 1 

 should hardly like them, when they are to be filled 

 with fdn. Have you tried it? 



I agree with you, friend M., that the best 



results are obtained with sheets that nearly 

 till the section, and that we want it with a 

 thin base, in order to be on the safe side. 

 The great bulk of the testimony seems, how- 

 ever, to indicate that more time is occupied 

 in working out the flat bottomed fdn. than 

 in working that having the natural form of 

 the cells. <)n another page will be found a 

 description of the machine for making 

 starters. 



WHITE DUTCH CLOVER. 



Does any one know that there is any difference be- 

 tween white Dutch clover and the common white 

 clover? or do seedsmen get both out of the same 

 bag? I have a piece of white Dutch growing, and, 

 so far, I can see no difference; but perhaps I can 

 tell belter when it comes into bloom. 



Your white Dutch clover, if true to name, 

 will give larger blossoms than the ordinary 

 white clover, although it is almost the same 

 thing in every other respect. 



A SUGGESTION. 



When one bee keeper meets another for the first 

 time, conversation does not proceed far between 

 them, before the question is asked, "How many 

 stocks of bees have you?" When reading articles 

 in the bee journals, one has the desire to ask the 

 same question of each contributor. Very often a 

 full understanding can only be had by knowing 

 date of article, locality of writer, and number of 

 stocks kept. If a writer says "1 have taken 1000 lbs. 

 of honey," it makes a difference in our estimation 

 of his success, whether he took it from 10 hives or 

 50. Can not some way be devised, by which, with- 

 out taking much room, we may know how many 

 stocks each writer has? If there is no better way, 

 how would it do to put the number of stocks kept, 

 immediately after the signature? thus: John Smith, 

 2; Mary Brown, 40. Perhaps the number given 

 should be the number owned on the first of May 

 preceding. Two men might start on the first of 

 May with 50 stocks each, and one increase to 100 

 strong stocks, and the other to 200 weaklings that 

 will nearly all die in the winter; we can make a bet- 

 ter estimate of them by knowing that each had 50 

 last May, than by knowing that they have 100 or 200 

 now. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



"Well, friend M., why do you not set us an 

 example by telling us how many stocks you 

 have, and then giving your date as well as 



address. 



ITIY WAX EXTRACTOR. HOW I < AiH# 

 TO INVENT IT. 



MY usual way of rendering wax used to be, to 

 borrow my wife's clothes boiler, fill it about 

 J half full of water, and heat the water on 

 the stove to boiling; then immerse a sack of wax 

 to be tried, or rendered, and stand over the stove, 

 with a paddle in one hand, to keep the sack sub- 

 merged and assist in pressing out the wax, and a 

 ladle in the other, to dip the melted wax, as it rose 

 to the surface, and pour it into a vessel to cool. 

 The heat and steam from the boiling water would 



