824 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



were powerful enough to have driven the ants 

 back. Hut the strangest part was, that there was 

 only the one hole of entrance, so that the bees and 

 ants must have passed each other going in and out. 

 The comb was old in many places, as if the bees had 

 been there some time. The bees in the hole were 

 only the common brown bee, but very vigorous 

 workers. 



We are having a glorious spring here, September 

 being our first month, so that we expect to have a 

 good season after a number of bad ones. 



F. Markel. 



Campbelltown, N. S. W., Australia, Sept. .5, 1887. 



Friend M., the matter of bees working in 

 the ground is not new in countries where 

 there is little or no rain to fill up their holes 

 or drown them out. My brother in San 

 Diego, Cal., has written of numerous swarms 

 of bees found in holes in the ground in that 

 vicinity. In many parts of the world they 

 are in the habit of storing considerable 

 quantities of honey in caves; and where 

 there is no rain during the summer months 

 they can occupy holes in the ground, and do 

 quite well. I have several times seen ants 

 occupy part of a bee-hive when the hive was 

 larger than the necessities of the bees re- 

 quired. When the colonies of bees increase, 

 however, so as to need the room, the ants 

 are generally given to understand in some 

 way or other, I don't just know how, that 

 they had better vacate, and I believe they 

 generally pack up their duds and obey or- 

 ders. " 



FI-AT-BOTTOM FOUNDATION IMPRACTICABLE. 



Last spring I purchased of you a foundation-mill 

 for making Hat-bottom fdn. for starters in sections. 

 While the mill made nice-looking fdn., yet in my ex- 

 perience of the past season it does not fill the bill. 

 In my tests the past season I used this Hat-bottom 

 fdn., and fdn. made on a ten-inch Vandervort mill, 

 for making brood fdn. The wax I used on section 

 fdn., worked on both the Hat-bottom and natural- 

 base machines, was sheeted at the same time, and 

 was one and the same, and hence of the same 

 weight. In working, the sheets made on the Hat- 

 bottom mill would draw out a little longer than 

 those made on the Vandervort mill, which would 

 make the Hat-bottom fdn. just a little lighter— a 

 very little too. The base of cells made on the Van- 

 dervort mill were very thin; but the side wall, or 

 lines, were quite heavy. In my tests I used the 

 chaff hive. I use honey-racks, four to a hive when 

 full, each rack holding 18 sections, with no separa- 

 tors. I place two honey-racks side by side on a 

 honey-board. When they are partly capped I raise 

 them up and place others under. In testing the 

 fdn. I tilled some racks with sections having Hat- 

 bottom fdn., and others filled with sections having 

 natural-base fdn. Other racks were filled, one row 

 with Hat and one with natural base fdn. These 

 racks were placed in the hives, some with one rack 

 having natural base, and one with Hat bottom; oth- 

 ers with half flat and half natural base, placing 

 some with a row of flat over the center of the clus- 

 ter, and natural base outside, and rice versa. In 

 every instance the bees showed a decided prefer- 

 ence for the natural base, goin^i- to work at once 

 and filling the sections, and refusing to use the flat- 

 bottom fdn., and in many instances tearing out the 

 fdn. Colonies having a rack of each Hat and nat\i- 



ral base fdn. would fill all the sections in the rack 

 having the natural-base fdn., and leave the other 

 rack empty. The only instance in which the bees 

 would accept the Hat bottom at all was where racks 

 were used having one side with Hat and the other 

 with natural base, and placed with the natural base 

 furthest from the cluster, in which case they work- 

 ed on all at about the same time. For me I am sat- 

 isfied that flat-bottom fdn. is used at a loss, and 1 

 shall be content in the future to use natural-base 

 fdn. C. A. Graves. 



Birmingham, O., Oct. 6, 1887. 



THE PARTRIDGE-PEA AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



I send you by to-day's mail a sample of partridge- 

 pea honey. The partridge-pea is our best honey- 

 plant. In the high pine forest it yields honey from 

 the first of ,Iune till the first of September. Where 

 it is in cultivated fields. I think it would fill a vacan- 

 cy in many locations further north. I will send you 

 some seed, if you want to give it a trial. It is an an- 

 nual of easy cultivation, and not a noxious weed. 



Argo, Fla., Sept. Sti, 1887. F. T. Kuhns. 



Thanks, friend K. The sample of honey 

 is quite pleasant to the taste, but it is too 

 dark colored to command a good price in 

 our Northern markets. You don't tell us 

 whether the partridge-pea is a cultivated 

 plant witli you or not. If so, we presume it 

 is of some other use than for honey alone. 

 It would prol)ably be of little use to try it so 

 far north as we iire, unless it has been al- 

 ready grown as far north as our parallel. 

 But "perhaps some of our Southern friends 

 will be glad of some of the seed. If it has 

 any uses aside from its value as a lioney- 

 plant, we should be glad to know more 

 about it. It has been mentioned before as a 

 honey-j)lant, but I don't remember what 

 was said about it. 



0UR QUEgTI0N-B0X, 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions shonld be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 ami marked, " For Our Question-Box." 



Question No. i3.— What kind of surplus comb-hon- 

 ey arrangement do you use? State why you prefer 

 it to all others. 



We don't raise comb honey. 



E. FUANCK. 



One and two pound sections. I prefer it, because 

 trade demands it. Mks. L. Harrison. 



I have never raised enough comb honey to have 

 any special arrangement that I prefer to all others. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



The Doolittle, because it is easier to manipulate, 

 and we can contract it to the capacity of the colo- 

 ny. Paul L. Viallon. 



Heddon case. Can not, as I am not sure that I do. 

 I think something like the Armstrong T case might 

 suit me better. A. J. Cook. 



We use the bi'oad frames, simply because we 

 raise mostly extracted honey. Tf we were to raise 

 comb honey exclusively, we would use Foster's or 

 C. C. Miller's or Heddon's crate. Dadant & Son. 



