1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



537 



out getting either brood or pollen in them. 

 The idea, I believe, comes mainly from our 

 English friends. If I am correct, no sur- 

 plus boxes are used on top, but all are placed 

 in the one brood apartment, and the frame 

 is to be a deep one,— much like the old 

 American frame that has been used so ex- 

 tensively, and mostly discarded, if I mis- 

 take not. Our usual frame of sections, 

 placed on each side of the brood-nest, it 

 seems to me, covers about the whole of this 

 ground, but perhaps I am not right about it. 

 I have no doubt but that the perforated sep- 

 arators will be a great advance, but I can 

 not see how it will pay to perforate the met- 

 al by hand, unless one has much spare time 

 on his hands. 



WHY DO THEY PICK AND PtTLL AT CERTAIN BEES. 



Two or three bees arc often seen to take hold of 

 another bee and seem to be gnawing at it. Without 

 hurting it, it seems to be annoying to the bee, and it 

 curls itself on the side like. What are they doing to 

 it? 



I think such cases are usually young bees 

 that have by mistake sot into the wrong 

 hive. The sentinels, recognizing that he is 

 not a robber, do not want to sting him, and 

 yet they wish him to take wing and get 

 away where he belongs. He, poor fellow, 

 discovers he is not with comrades, but, in 

 his fright, seems not to know where to go, 

 and therefore he curls himself up. not un- 

 like a young puppy when scolded, and en- 

 dures with meekness their bites and pinches, 

 until they decide, seemingly by mutual con- 

 sent, that no very great harm will accrue 

 from letting him remain. 



DRONE COMBS FOR THE EXTRACTOR. 



You recommend drone fdn. for comb honey; which 

 kind for frames for extractor? More honey may be 

 stored with drone fdn., but the frames could not af- 

 terward be used in the brood chamber. 



I should by all means prefer drone combs 

 in the upper story, for the extractor. In 

 transferring I have saved out all the drone 

 combs, and put them into frames by them- 

 selves, and there is no question in my mind 

 but that such combs were idled and capped 

 over during a heavy yield considerably soon- 

 er than the worker combs by their sides. 



CHANGES IN THE ABC. 



Changes arc made in A B C from time to time; why 

 not publish them at the end of the year, making 

 them a part of Gleanings, from which they might 

 be separated and pasted into A IJ C? or, if separate, 

 sent to such as want them. 



A. 15. Kise. 



Safe Harbor, Pa., Sept. 20, 1880. 



I have often thought of an appendix sheet 

 for the A B C, but there are so many chang- 

 es being made, and they are made so con- 

 stantly, that it has seemed a little difficult 

 to get* at it. All of the matter first appears 

 in Gleanings, and it is my purpose to put 

 nothing in the A 15 (' until it has been well 

 tested. Several- of our friends, when their 

 ABC gets pretty well worn, sell them for 

 about half-price to some neighbor, and get a 

 bright new one ; but I will prepare the ap- 

 pendix sheet, if there are enough who want 

 it. 



A QUESTION IN REGARD TO STARTING NUCLEI. 



If I should take a bunch of bees from a colony 

 and put them in a hive with some comb, and put a 

 queen with them, will they stay and go to work, or 

 wilt they go back to the old hive? 



E. F. Varner. 



Harvey sburg, O., Oct, 9, 1880. 



Your experiment would probably fail, as 

 you state it ; but if the comb contained a 

 little unsealed brood, a great part of the bees 

 would be pretty certain to cling to that, and, 

 if there were enough of them, they would, 

 with the assistance of a queen, make a 

 swarm. In saying this, I take it for granted 

 that you would not undertake to do this in 

 the winter, nor even at the present time in 

 the fall of the year, but that all attempts in 

 the line of artificial swarming should be made 

 at about the time bees swarm naturally. A 

 very severe (and, I can but think, needless 

 criticism) has been made on a passage in the 

 A B C, because I neglected to state, in di- 

 rect connection, that the work was to be 

 done at a season when bees swarm, although 

 I very distinctly so stated at the beginning 

 of the subject. Perhaps I should add, that, 

 to have the above plan succeed well, we 

 rather need some young bees. Those that 

 cluster on the outside of the hive will be 

 very apt to go right back home— the greater 

 part of them. 



THE GRAPE-SUGAR CANDY FOR WINTER. 



I see some of the candy bee-feed is made according 

 to your formula, except in the matter of flour. I 

 used a less quantity, and it is candying in the cells 

 of some of the bees to which I fed it, and I am sorely 

 afraid it will be unfit for winter use. I was afraid to 

 use the full quantity of flour, on account of sour- 

 ing. What additional light can you shed on this im- 

 portant subject? lam feeding 12 colonics, and am 

 very naturally anxious to avoid mistakes and steer 

 clear of Blasted Hopes. I used the candy last win- 

 ter, which was very mild here, with the best of re- 

 sults. Sam'l Kau. 



Homeworth, O., Sept. 21, 1880. 



We have had no bad result from using it, 

 and have never had any remain in the cells 

 so but that bees used it out in the spring ; 

 but stores of candy only, of any kind, are 

 rather unsafe for winter. The bees will 

 sometimes seem unable to get the requisite 

 moisture to soften it up, and hence starve, 

 where they would not, had they access to 

 liquid food. On this account the candy 

 must be fed quite early, or the bees must 

 have at least a portion of their stores in the 

 form of liquid food. 



A WABlil.ING SAW FOR MAKING RABDETS. 



Friend Root, we have been making Simplicity 

 hives, and I think we have made an improvement 

 on the method you give for sawing out the rabbets 

 in the covers. We do it by running the board once 

 over the saw set wabbling, thus saving one handling 

 of the board, and doing as clean and smooth a job as 

 it is possible to do by your method, and, I think, at a 

 considerable saving of time. D. G. Edmiston. 



Adrian, Mich., June .'5, 1880. 



Thanks. We have tried the same plan, 

 but thought it cut so much slower that it 

 did not pay. 



