626 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



first place. I have taken a set of Hoffman 

 frames, and laid on them two strips of w-'od, 

 turned the hive upside down on the bottom- 

 board, and let the hive remain upside down 

 for two or three days during the height of the 

 honey-flow. It does not take long for the 

 bees to force the comb clear up to the bottom- 

 bars in this case. — Ed.] 



Die Bikne reports that H. Heimberger had 

 4000 combs built from cylinder foundation, 

 and 1000 built from foundation made in a 

 foundation-press. The latter were the only 

 ones that did not stretch out of shape. [By 

 "cylinder foundation" I suppose is meant 

 that which comes off from ordinary founda- 

 tion rolls. The ordinary article I have seen, 

 that comes from the press, has a thicker base 

 and much heavier walls than that which comes 

 from the rolls. If this is the case, of course 

 the former would not be as much inclined to 

 stretch as the latter. Foundation from rolls, 

 as a general thing has lighter walls; and I 

 should incline to the opinion that it is not a 

 question of rolls or plates, but a question of 

 cell -walls in the first place. — Ed.] 



A PUTTY-KNIFE of overgrown size is greatly 

 liked by S. E. Miller {Progressive Bee-Keep- 

 er'). Handle and all, it is nearly a foot long ; 

 will pry apart bodies with ease and without a 

 snap, and will scrape burr-combs from two 

 top-bars at once. It is made of j'^-inch steel, 

 ly^ broad at the end, tapering to \]-i inches 

 6 inches from end, or where handle begins. 

 The handle is made of two half-round pieces 

 of wood riveted on like handles of butcher- 

 knives. — [Our people at the Home of the 

 Honey-bees use, as a general thing, a putty- 

 knife for a hive-tool, seeming to prefer it to 

 any thing else. Although I have handled a 

 variety of hive-tools, yet they all seem to be 

 laid aside, and the good old-fashioned putty- 

 knife is used. — Ed.] 



An error that seems to have more or less 

 credence among those who might easily know 

 better, if they would use their eyes, is that a 

 post-constructed queen-cell consists of three 

 cells made into one. It is never any other 

 than a single worker-cell enlarged. The usu- 

 ally reliable British Bee Journal admits an 

 article with the error aggravated by speaking 

 of the queen laying in cells " consisting of 

 three cells turned into one." [You seemed 

 to be surprised once because I did not know 

 what " post-constructed " and " pre-construct- 

 ed " cells were. Well, now, I am not going 

 to say whether I have forgotten or not ; but 

 methinks you had better make a definition of 

 both, so we can have it incorporated in 

 Gi<EANiNGS and in the ABC book. — Ed.] 



My heart is singing with gratitude this 

 18th of July. Last night we had a glorious 

 rain to break the terrible drouth. For weeks 

 no rain, and for many days up to 98° to 100°, 

 one day reaching 105° with an incubator ther- 

 mometer. The honey crop is a failure, some 

 other crops as well, but there's lots to live for 

 yet. It's worth while to be roasted a while to 

 find out how good a thing a drenching rain 

 is. I'm now writing on the piazza at 9:30 a. 

 M., with the thermometer at 83°, and it seems 



so nice and cool. [On my trip from Colorado 

 eastward I took occasion to ride through Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska in the day time, because I 

 had heard about the awful drouths in those 

 two States, and I wanted to see for myself. 

 Sure enough, the corn was beginning to show 

 the effects of the drouth, and no mistake. 

 But, fortunately, I soon had the pleasure of 

 seeing the gathering clouds, and in a day or 

 two afterward I heard that those two States 

 had had a good shower ; but it would take a 

 number of them, I should judge, before the 

 thirsty ground would have enough to put 

 things on a boom again. When I got into 

 Iowa I found every thing parched just the 

 same ; and at Des Moines the lawns were all 

 brown. It had been found to be practically 

 useless to sprinkle them, as the heat was so 

 intense. As I moved eastward I could see 

 more and more evidences of rain ; and when 

 I got into Ohio, my dear old State, the ground 

 was nice and moist, and every thing on a boom. 

 While in the mountain States the ranchers in 

 th« valleys were discussing the drouth in the 

 States east of them, and were congratulating 

 themselves because they could have water, 

 and plenty of it, any tiine they opened their 

 irrigating-ditches. — Ed. ] 



" Whew ! " says Denver ; " 't's getting cool ; 



It's down to 96;" 

 " I fear we'll melt," says Illinois; 

 " It's up to 96." 



In the previous issue I spoke of an article 

 appearing in the Australian Bee- keepers' Re- 

 view, credited to J. E. Crane. W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson informs me that said article first appear- 

 ed in the American Bee-keeper, of Jamestown, 

 N. Y., our Australian friends failing to give 

 proper credit. I am glad Mr. Hutchinson 

 noticed the error. 



REVUE UNIVERSELLE D'APICULTURE. 



As Mr. Fisher's regular article. Bees in Law, 

 does not appear in this issue I thought that it 

 might not be uninteresting to the readers to 

 know that this matter has been before the 

 French courts, and constitutes a very consid- 

 erable part of their jurisprudence. The ques- 

 tions arising in regard to swarms have been 

 matters of judicial action since the days of the 

 Romans at least ; and out of a great many 

 precedents we have to-day the law as it stands 

 in France. I make a translation of only the 

 essence of some decisions thus far arrived at, 

 omitting the dates of the laws. 



As to the right of pursuit, the owner has the 

 right to capture and rehive a swarm so long as 

 he has not ceased to follow it. This confers 

 on the owner of the hive the right to follow, 

 in preference to that of any other person. 

 The legitimacy of this right is recognized in 



