52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan 15 



style of frame is used ; and this is the size I 

 have used mostly during the past 30 years." 



" What number of Lands' roth frames will 

 give that size of brood chamber ? " 



" About 7 '< ; and where I use the Lang- 

 stroth frame I use only seven in some hives 

 and eight in others." 



"Bat do you have two different sizes of 

 hives ? " 



" No. As, occasionally, a queen will occupy 

 ten L frames with brood I make all the L. 

 hives I use to hold ten frames ; and by the use 

 of dummies the hive can be contracted down 

 from a ten frame hive to one holding only five 

 or six, if the queen is only equal to such a 

 number of combs." 



" What is a dummy ? " 



" I make them of inch lumber — rough hem- 

 lock or the cheapest pine being as good as any 

 thing for this. The lumber is cut the same 

 dimensions as the outside of the frames less 

 the top-bar, and then the top-bar to a frame is 

 nailed to it. Thus the dummy hangs in the 

 hive in place of one frame." 



" And these boards are used to take the 

 place of the frames the queen does not fill 

 with brood? " 



" Yes. All frames which she does not have 

 filled with brood at the beginning of the hon- 

 ey-flow are taken out, and their places filled 

 with these boards ; and in this way even a four- 

 frame colony can be made to contribute some- 

 thing toward our crop of comb honey ; though 

 better results accordingly can be secured from 

 the colony whose queen will keep 7, 8, 9, or 

 10 combs occupied with brood immediately 

 preceding the honey harvest." 



" You have spoken several times about the 

 honey harvest. What do you mean by that ? 

 I thought bees could get honey at any time 

 when the weather was pleasant." 



"In this thought you erred, especially in 

 this locality. Our first honey comts from the 

 willow. The next from fruit-bloom ; but 

 neither of these generally jit-lds more than 

 the bees need to carry on brood-rearing prop- 

 erly. After fruit-bloom we have a period dur- 

 ing which little or no honey ii gathered, last- 

 ing from fifteen days to three weeks, no mat- 

 ter what the weather is, as there are no hon- 

 ey producing flowers in bloom at that time. 

 About the middle of June the white clover 

 opens sufiiciently for the bees to begin storing 

 from that, where white clover is abundant." 



" But our land is kept so constantly under 

 the plow that we have little here." 



"You are right in this, and so we do not 

 calculate much on white clover for surplus. 

 But basswood yields honey (or nectar) in 

 large quantities, as a rule, and for this we cal- 

 culate and plan, and at the opening of bass- 

 wood is the time to use the dummies, as we 

 talked about." 



" Whew ! Is that nine the clock is strik- 

 ing? How short the evening has been! I 

 told Mrs. Jones I would be home before nine, 

 and I must be going. Good night." 



The winter thus far has been comparatively 

 mild. 



ALSIKE AND OTHER CLOVERS IN WISCONSIN; 

 ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT PROPOLIS. 



3/r. Root : — Since the clover symposium 

 was published I have received a number of in- 

 quiries regarding the alsike, two of them from 

 Oregon. I am pleased to see so much interest 

 in this the best of the clover family. 



Our second crop (after-growth) here in 

 Northern Wisconsin this season made a heavier 

 hay crop than the first crop, the weather be- 

 ing more favorable the latter part of the season. 

 Our bees worked diligently on the second crop 

 from Aug. 1 until the alsike was harvested the 

 latter part of September. No other plant 

 yields nectar for so long a time, except, per- 

 haps, sweet clover. We sometimes get a 

 splendid catch of clover by sowing in August, 

 as A. I. Root has written of the Traverse re- 

 gion. I have some sown Sept. 12 that appears 

 to be still growing under six inches of snow ; 

 but there is no frost in the ground. 



We often read in the bee-journals of large 

 yields of honey in different sections of the 

 country. There are, perhaps, localities where 

 they secure greater yields of honey per colony 

 than we do here ; but when it comes to big 

 yields of propolis I claim the championship 

 for our bees. At the close of summer they 

 plaster every crack and crevice, fasten brood- 

 frames and sections together solid, glue the 

 cover fast to the hive, so that we need a strong 

 chisel to pry them apart. The plant from 

 which our bees collect propolis is dwarf birch, 

 Betula gUnidulosa. I have frequently watch- 

 ed his beeship gather his load from the resin- 

 ous dots on the birch. I have also seen them 

 gather propolis from some of the thorough- 

 worts, EupatoriuiH. Wm. Robinson. 



Chapman, Wis., Dec. 4. 



BROOM SEDGE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE 



broom; ALSO FOR BRUSHING BEES 



OFF THE COMBS. 



While traveling through Tennessee I noticed 

 a peculiar kind of tall grass, and asked a resi- 

 dent of that State what it was. He told me it 

 was broom sedge, and that it grew in wornout 

 fields. 



Last winter, while remaining at a hotel for 

 two days, on the shore of St. Andrews Bay, 

 I noticed a large field of broom sedge near, 

 and that there were brooms in every room 

 made from it. On talking with my landlady 

 in reference to it she said, " I have enough 

 gathered before heavy frosts come to make a 

 yeir's supply of brooms, and I make them 

 only as I need them." 



It was quite cool while I was there, but I 

 went out to the field during the warmest part 

 of the day, and gathered sedge, and tied it up 

 into brooms which I took home. A northern 

 friend, seeing them, remarked, "I don't see 

 why people here do not make brooms the usu- 

 al way, and put them upon the market." 



