72 



GLEANTNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



COMB BUILDING IN SPRING RATHER THAN FALL. 



Why is it that bees make more comb in proportion 

 to the honev they, gut her in the spring' and summer, 

 th <n in the fall? And why are they so much more 

 inclined to store h >ney in the lower division of the 

 hive in the fall? W. F. Bason. 



Haw River P. O., N. C, Dec. 23, 1879. 



I think it is because the bees seem to rec- 

 ognize in the spring that a honey crop is 

 coming, and that much storing room will 

 soon be needed. In the fall, on the contrary, 

 they seem to have a sort of instinctive 

 knowledge that winter is coming, and that 

 it will be better to well fill the combs they 

 alreadv have than to build more ; hence they 

 store the honey below, near the brood nest. 

 To be snre, warm weather and new honey 

 incite comb building, and cool weather the 

 reverse, but the point is. do not bees behave 

 differently during the fall and spring, sup- 

 posing the temperature of the atmosphere 

 and the flow of honey to be the same? I 

 think they do, and for th« reasons I have 

 given, though it seems difficult to suppose 

 that they really know fall from spring. We 

 can often get extracted honey in the fall, by 

 giving them empty combs, when we could 

 not get them to store it and build the comb. 



DOOLITTLE'S THEORY IN REGARD TO DORMANT EGGS. 



I thought that I had made a great discovery this 

 summer. I will give the experiment as it occurred, 

 and ihen you can form your own conclusion. T h id 

 a eolonv of hybrids that I concluded to t reak up into 

 nuclei for que"ti rearing-. I removed the queen, and 

 in 6 days from th it time, ! removed nil their queen 

 cell-i, and gave thorn eggs from a choice queen, in 

 8 days more, I removed the cells in m that comb 

 and inserted them in four other combs, and left 

 them 1 dav, and then divided them into i parts, 

 leaving - one cell with the part on the old stand 

 They all, with one exception, destroyed the cells, so 

 I concluded they were a had lot. and I would leave 

 th'-m alone for a few days. The fourth day after 

 dividing-, F concluded to try them again, with eg-gs 

 this time. The second one that I opened had two 

 queen cells smarted and larvae two days old Here 

 comes in the discovery; n'ntteei days after th<» 

 queen was removed, 1 found brood twodaxsold! 

 wh n re did it come fr>m? Why, thev stole it from 

 some other hive They had actually been robbing 

 their n<Mg-bbors of th'ir brood to rear a queen, for I 

 th 'Ught it was impossible to save egg's lhat long; 

 but you see from friend Doolittle's report on page 

 434, in Nov. No , there is noihingr strange about it. 

 Fleas-' give your opinion of the above. 



Dt'CKS' FEATHERS FOR WINTERING BEFS. 



1 have my bees, 1 think, in good winter trim. I 

 have them packed with chaff cushions at the sides 

 and on top, with 5in. of chaff outside of hives, except 

 the colony containing th" imported queen As she 

 is a foreiarn ladv. I thought that [ would treat her 

 ■with a little more courtesy than the others, so I 

 borrowed of my wife, a pill"w of feathers that she 

 picked from a trio of fine white ducks she has. 



HOW TO MAKE CHAFF CUSHIONS WITH BUT LITTLE 



COST. 



Take old coffee sacks; they will only cost 5c. 

 apieee, and one sack will make two. 

 Whitestown. Ind., Dec. .l»79. S. H. Lane. 



I should explain that your two day old 

 larviB were from eggs laid by a fertile worker, 

 friend L. The bees had been for some little 

 time queenless, and it is rather to be expect- 

 ed that such eggs would be found at about 

 the time you mention. If those eggs had 

 hatched out a queen, or even produced work- 

 er brood, it would then have been a corrobo- 

 ration of Doolittle's theory. At different 

 times, bees have been accused of carrying 

 eggs from neighboring hives, but although 

 they do carry eggs from one comb to another, 

 it is extremely doubtful, in my opinion, 



about their carrying them on the wing, in 

 I the open air. As they doubtless have many 

 queer ways of doing things, which we know 

 nothing of, I am glad to have these facts 

 brought out. The operations of a fertile 

 worker will explain a great many of these 

 points, if it is borne in mind that they may 

 lay eggs when the queen has been but a very 

 few days absent. 



Your coffee sacking is much the same 

 thing as the burlap, but I hardly think one 

 sack would make two cushions as large as 

 those we use in the chaff hives. 



MOORES' "JIMMY" FOR THE APrARY. 



A. T. Root: — I send you, by this mail, a full-sized 

 model of a chisel, so to speak, which I find very use- 

 ful in an api try. I tried different sized chi-els and 

 screw-driveis but they were unsatisfactory. I then 

 had made an implement like this, but smaller, which 

 1 liked better than anything 1 had tried, but it was 

 too light and narrow. Having lost it, 1 made a 

 wooden nv del like the one sent, and had a black- 

 smith duplicate it in iron, pointed, at the broad end, 

 with steel. As soon as it was ready. I tested it, and 

 found ihat 1 had just the thing. I have shown it to 

 several bee-keepers who approve it. I had occasion 

 to assist a friend to extract, this fall, and carried my 

 chisel with me. After using it awhile, he remarked, 

 "I am bound to have one. cost what i' will." 



1 use it to pry off the covers of the hives, using the 

 broad end beveled side up; to pry apart the top and 

 bottom stories, using the narrow end; to m >ve the 

 frames in the hive, when tightly gummed to the rab- 

 bets, using- the narrow end; to slice off bits of wax 

 and propolis attached to the cover and sides of the 

 hive, and from tb<»topand bottom bars of the frames, 

 using- the broad sharp edge, wi'h a pushing motion; 

 to scrapr* propolis (in cool weather) from the tabbets 

 and from the edges of th^ stories, using the sides of 

 the broad end. in repeated strokes. You can't imig- 

 ine what quantities of propolis we have in this sweet- 

 gum country. 



1 hope you will have one of these chisels made and 

 give it atrial, and if you are pleased with it, and will 

 offer it for sale to bee- keepers at a reasonable price, 

 I shall c nsider myself paid for sending the model 

 and writing you. You may think the weight an ob- 

 jection, but I think, on trial, you will find it a decid- 

 ed advantage. W. L. Moores. 



Cyruston, Lincoln Co., Tenn., Dec. 16, 1879. 



We give an engraving of the tool below. 

 Its length is 14 inches; width of large end, 

 1|, and thickness, 1; the small end is I, by i. 



TOOL FOR WORKING AMONG HIVES. 



I have no doubt the tool will prove a great 

 favorite; and, as friend M. has suggested it, 

 I propose that he should have them made 

 and offered for sale. 



MR. JOSEPH M. BROOKS. 



If you have time. I would like to tell vou how I 

 came to hear of you, out here in Colorado. It was 

 through the kindness of Mr. Jos. M. Brooks, Colum- 

 bus, Ind. And here let me say, as it is but an act of 

 justice due him, that I have never dealt with a more 

 honorable man. Last summer, when I had almost 

 got discouraged in bee-keeping, I wrote to Mr. 

 Brooks for an Italian queen, and received a queen 

 and two frame nucleus, in perfect condition. OI 

 such beauties! they were the admiration of all who 

 saw them. Being the yellowest and largest I ever 

 saw, I took them to our annual fair, to compete for 

 the premium, and took the first prize, $5 HO in gold, 

 for the finest Italian queen. Mr. Brooks has been 

 very kind in writing and answering my questions. 

 I have found his letters very instructive 



Mrs. B. Woodbury. 



Boulder, Boulder Co., Col., Dec. 30, 1879. 



There! friend B., just see how folks "talk 

 about you" and your yellow bees. I have 



