438 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Grace Allen 



THE DIXIE BE 



^E 



Nashville, Tenn. 



lytot 



That was an interesting article 

 on page 242, March 15, "The Alex- 

 ander Method Adjusted to a Clo- 

 ver Locality." 1 think that was 

 just what we had been looking for 

 • — some adaptation of this famous- 

 ly successful method to localities 

 dependent on clover. We are like- 

 ry out a plan like this ourselves. 



One evening, about the 27th or 28th of 

 April, the moonlight that flooded our hives 

 and yard seemed deliciously fragrant. 

 " Can honeysuckle be in bloom somewhere 

 around?" we asked, but doubted. But when 

 a neighbor reported next day that our bees 

 threatened to carry her blossoming locust- 

 tree quite away, we understood and rejoiced. 

 That was probably one of the first locusts 

 around here to come out, but now they are 

 in full bloom. 



* * * 



The reijuted effect of patent-medicine 

 advertisements is to make the reader imme- 

 diately certain that he has some if not all 

 of the symptoms described. And looking at 

 those pictures of foul brood, and reading 

 descriptions of it, makes some of us who 

 are fortunately unfamiliar with it shiver 

 with the wonder if we haven't some combs 

 that look just that way. Is it like measles, 

 bound to come, and the sooner the better? 

 Less difficult, perhaps, while you're small. 



* * ♦ 



It was such a dry April ! Day after day 

 of beautiful warm sunshine, but no rain, no 

 April showers. Our fond hopes of clover 

 were beginning to wither. But then we read 

 in April 15th Gleanings, pages 326-7, Mr. 

 Adam Leister's favorable comment on " the 

 very light rainfall for the spring months," 

 with the assurance that " to make up for 

 this we are sure to get an abundance later." 

 And now, May G, we have just had a splen- 

 did life-saving sort of rain, and our hopes 



are I'eviving. 



* * * 



Our neighbors are very kindly disposed 

 toward our bees; but one thing that has 

 proved troublesome until this year was our 

 bees' fondness for the water at one neigh- 

 bor's i:»ump and hydrant. So this year we 

 followed the suggestion we had seen in the 

 ABC, and put water out for them very 

 early in the spring, when they first began 

 to fly. We salted it slightly, put it in a 

 common Mason jar, laid tiny bits of thin 

 stiips of wood across tlie mouth after filling 



the jar, inverted a shallow pie-tin over the 

 top, and then, holding the tin with one 

 hand, tipi:)ed the whole combination upside 

 down. Later, this one jar proving insuffi- 

 cient, we added another. We fill them every 

 morning when we water the chickens. Wa- 

 tering bees is no more trouble than water- 

 ing chickens. And it is an interesting sight 

 to see these crude and decidedly amateurish- 

 looking water-arrangements crowded with 

 bees all day. They measure well up to the 

 traditional popularity of watering-resorts. 

 The water-plant arrangement mentioned on 

 page 246, March 15, promises more of artis- 

 tic effect, and probably we shall try out 

 something along that line next year. Mean- 

 time our bees and our neighbors are at 

 peace, and so, therefore, are we. 

 * * * 



ITEMS FOR BEGINNERS. 



Please, all you brother and sister begin- 

 ners, be sure to use full sheets of founda- 

 tion and wire it. We didn't, at first, and 

 now we are breaking our hearts over a lot 

 of di'one comb. We just hadn't paid much 

 attention to the combs before — combs were 

 combs; but now we are putting those poor 

 ones into the supers to let the brood hatch 

 out, then the bees may store what honey in 

 them they can and will, and then goodby to 

 those combs. And we shall have as perfect 

 ones as we can get in the future. 



Even if you have only two or three colo- 

 nies, start right in keeping a record of 

 them. It is a wonderfully good habit, and 

 will be more than worth while. You need 

 not condense your comments as much as the 

 big beekeepers do, either. You have more 

 time than they, and far less experience. 

 Better put down everything you observe in 

 the condition of each hive whenever you 

 examine it, whether you understand that 

 condition or not. Record how much brood 

 and stores each one has, and what you did 

 about it ; raised a frame of brood, perhaps, 

 to give the queen more room, and inserted 

 a sheet of foundation in its place. (Though 

 of course, you would not do that except to 

 a strong colony, after settled warm weather 

 had come.) 



Of course you are dreadfully worried 

 about robbers. Every time you go through 

 a hive, and then see an exciting number of 

 bees in a vibrating sort of cloud around the 

 entrance, you are convinced that that stand 

 is being robbed. Perhaps it is. Probably 

 it is not, especially if there is a honey-flow 

 on. Since our first direful experience, when 

 we took a quart or two of dead bees from 



