442 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



bees and fruit were not conducted at the Agri- 

 cultural College at all, but they were made at, 

 I think, eleven different locations in the west- 

 ern part of the State. The work was done 

 for the Connecticut Board of Agriculture. 



Page 248, G. Collier, Warsaw, N. Y.— Your 

 supposition about the comb following the 

 line of the foundation is, in the main, correct. 

 I have used that plan of putting foundation in 

 the sections on the catacornered, oblique, and 

 in every conceivable improper way, for the 

 sake of having misshapen, malformed sections 

 of honey to exhibit at fairs, and made a grand 

 success of the grotesque production. 



Woodbury, Conn. H. L,. JEFFREY. 



We have had no very bad reports of winter- 

 ing losses so far, that I know of. Colonies 

 themselves, however, as I have already stated, 

 appear to be considerably weakened ; but the 

 fine weather the past ten days, and the great 

 number of fruit-blossoms, appear to be mak- 

 ing amends for the bad weather and the late 

 spring of a few weeks ago. 



If there ever is a time in the whole year 

 when the absence of a laying queen in a strong 

 colony means a heavy loss to a bee-keeper it 

 is now. Be sure to go over every colony, and 

 see whether eggs are being laid regularly and 

 in sufficient number. Queenless colonies of 

 good strength should be supplied with laying 

 queens from nuclei or some weak stock that 

 has just come through the winter that has 

 only a queen and a few bees. Give these 

 bees a cell, and their queen to the strong col- 

 ony that needs her. 



I HAVE in hand the introductory article of a 

 series that is to be written on the subject of 

 " Bees in Law." The writer will take up the 

 subject of common and statutory law as it re- 

 lates to bees, and then proceed to give specific 

 mention of various classes of special legisla- 

 tion directly and indirectly affecting them. 

 The important court decisions that have been 

 handed down will also be given. It is possi- 

 ble we may have this put in pamphlet form 

 for the use of the members of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association. 



The heavy snows in the Eastern and North- 

 ern Central States have given the clovers a 

 wonderful start. The snow fell to the depth 

 of one or two feet, and during the quite warm 

 weather it took all of ten days for the last 

 vestiges of it to disappear. This vast quanti- 

 ty of water trickling down every day upon the 

 grasses, clovers, and other vegetation, had a 

 most stimulating effect, and we shall, there- 

 fore, expect that, if good weather has any 

 thing to do with nectar secretion early in the 

 season, the clovers will do well this year. 



I AM glad to introduce to our readers Editor 

 W. J. Craig, of the Canadian Bee Journal. 

 Mr. Craig succeeded Mr. R. F. Holtermann, 

 both in the management of the supply busi- 

 ness of the Goold, Shapley & Muir Co. and 

 in the editorial conduct of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, A man of pleasing address, Mr. 



W. J. CRAIG. 



Craig seems to have predominantly in his 

 makeup the faculty of making and keeping 

 friends. The CanadiaJi Bee Journal is well 

 edited, and is in the front ranks of other pub- 

 lications of its class. 



COMB honey versus EXTRACTED. 



In the last issue of Gleanings it was ad- 

 vised to turn our attention more to the produc- 

 tion of comb honey than of extracted. There 

 remains one thing more to be said in favor of 

 comb - honey production ; viz , colonies run 

 for comb are almost invariably in better con- 

 dition for wintering than those run for extract- 

 ed. It would seem that a colony regards the 

 brood chamber and the extracting-super above 

 as its sole domain which is not to be med- 

 dled with ; and when the fall honey comes in, 

 the same is distributed around with a view of 

 having it on hand for winter use. When we 

 now remove the extracting super we throw 

 things badly out of balance. 



A comb-honey super is apparently not re- 

 garded by the bees as a favorable spot to lo- 

 cate during winter ; and when preparing their 

 nest it is left entirely out of calculation. 



how those bees CAME OUT OF THAT MA- 

 CHINE-SHOP CELLAR, ETC. 



On the 1st, 2d, and 3d of May we took all 

 the bees out of the cellar under the machine- 

 shop. They were in fine condition, and ap- 

 parently just as strong as when they were put 

 in last fall, about the first of December, but 



