742 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



It is a great mistake to suppose that distance 

 is the main thing. If there is some object by 

 which the entrances can be located, there is 

 less danger of mistake with the entrances two 

 inches apart than with them at two yards apart 

 if the hives are in a long straight row on a 

 dead level, with no other object than the hives 

 to locate the entrances. 



With saw kerfs on the underside of hive- 

 covers, end-cleats will prevent warping, but 

 will they prevent twisting ? No matter how 

 firmly a cleat holds at each end of the cover, 

 it seems to me that would not prevent the 

 cover twisting so that the end-cleats would 

 not lie in the same plane. [Saw kerfs would 

 aggravate the difficulty rather than help it. I 

 believe the best solution of the hive-cover 

 problem will be two boards fs inch thick sep- 

 arated by a ^ air-space. The twisting ten- 

 dency of one board would be counteracted to 

 a great extent by the other if the two sets of 

 boards are properly naikd and cleated. — Ed,] 



Formerly I supposed that the presence of 

 queen-cells where there was no intention of 

 swarming was a reliable sign that no queen 

 was present. When I take a laying queen 

 from a nucleus and give a ripe queen cell, the 

 rnle is that, a day or so later, I'll find the 

 young queen present and a number of queen- 

 cells, which latter may not be destroyed till 

 they have young queens nearly ready to 

 emerge. When I give a caged lajing queen 

 to a colony, the i iile is that, a week later, the 

 queen will be laying, and queen cells will be 

 present, although not allowed to proceed to 

 maturity. Even the presence of cells and the 

 absence of eggs is not proof positive that the 

 queen is not there. Sometimes it will be more 

 than a week bef" re she begins laying. [This 

 is true according to mj' ex; erience. The pres- 

 ence of queen-cells, I think we may safely 

 say, outside of the swarming impulse and su- 

 persedure impulse, indicates tl;e absence of a 

 laying queen, especially if they are in all ages 

 of growth. A ripe queen-cell might, however, 

 be in a hive with a laying quten for a day or 

 two after the queen has been introduced, and 

 this would be the only other exception to the 

 rule, I believe. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, I had it laid up for you on the 

 question of size of colonies and of bees in 

 normal colonies destroying eggs. I intended 

 to weigh a strong colony, and then crow over 

 you. As a punishment for my wicked designs, 

 when the time came for strong colonies they 

 were not on hand, because the weather was so 

 dry that the bees had stopped breeding. I'm 

 not subdued enough, however, to refrain from 

 asking you why it is that we have such beau- 

 tifully even combs full of brood all uniform 

 in age if the workers have the ugly habit of 

 lunching upon the eggs at irregular times. 

 Why don't we always see some cells among 

 the sealed brood still open ? Y ju will see that 

 Bro. Doolittle makes no allowance for that 

 sort of lunching in his figures on page 712. 

 [When the honej'-flow is on full blast, and 

 conditions are normal, I do not suppose there 

 is any "lunching " business going on. Over 

 and over again have I observed that a frame 



that had been full of eggs on one day would 

 the next day have them half or two-thirds 

 gone. This was after the honey-flow, and it 

 may have been that supplies were very short 

 in the hive. Just now mv memory is not very 

 clear on this point. I still believe as I have 

 before said, tliat we can figure that not all the 

 eggs that a queen will lay will produce work- 

 ers, by a long way. — Ed ] 



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WlCJ^IJSTGS 



In speaking about movable apiaries, it 

 seems that Russia is taking the lead in a strik- 

 ing way. The August Century gives a view 

 of an immense floating barge anchored at a 

 village, also birdseye view of the deck. The 

 following, taken from Public Opinion, will 

 further explain the matter besides prove in- 

 teresting in other ways: 



The Russian educators, in casting about for the 

 best means of economically fulfilling their mission, 

 decided to experiment with immense floating gardens 

 hundreds of feet in length. These gre;it barges, built 

 wide enough to give a comfortable area for the laying- 

 out of a garden, are launched with the breaking-up 

 of the ice. As these floating agricultural-experiment 

 stations drift slowly downstream to warmer climes, 

 the seeds sprout, and grain grows and eventually 

 ripens. On the deck of the gi eat barge is an exten- 

 sive building, the re-sidence of the professors of agri- 

 culture who have the s ation in charge, and a smaller 

 house for the crew. The size of these buildings, how- 

 ever, i'< dwarfed by the immeusiiy of the barge. On 

 its great liroad decic, besides the vegetable and grain 

 beds, are various working models of beehives ; for 

 the government is bending every energj' to revive this 

 industry, once famous in Russia, when honey mead 

 was the national drink. 



As the barge journeys with the current, it stops at 

 every village. The church bell is rung, and the peo- 

 ple gather from the fields to be led by the stai osta, or 

 mayor, to the floating farm. They are invited aboard, 

 where the various plants are explained to them, while 

 illustrated lectures ate sometimes given on the ad- 

 vantages of diversified farming. The questions of the 

 peasants are intelligently answered, and seed is often 

 left with the most enterprising for planting. So far 

 the birge experimental farms have proved the most 

 efficient mfthod of spreading the new knowledge of 

 farming in Russia, for the country is one vast plain. 

 The great rivers flowing southward through the rich 

 agricultural prairies take their rise in the dense for- 

 ests of central and northern Russia. Here the great 

 barges are built late in the fall, the spring freshets 

 are made to save the expense of launching, and when 

 fall comes again the wood of the barges can be sold 

 in the treeless southern country, where wood is dear, 

 and thus made to pay the expenses of the trip down- 

 stream In America we little realize the extensive 

 use Russia makes of her waterways. In European 

 Russia alone there are over sixty thousand miles of 

 navigable waterways, or almost three times the mile- 

 age of navigable rivers in the United States. 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 

 Mr. Hill kindly says : 



The editor of Gleanings has taken a Western trip, 

 and in consequence thereof has become enthusiastic 

 in regard to the gieat extent and diversity of all 

 things apicultnral in that quarter. His mental expan- 

 sion is already evinced in his journal to a marked 

 degree. The fact that he quotes Horace Greeley, in 

 his admonition to young men, however, strongly sug- 

 gests that he has not yet " done " the South. 



