538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Our field of biennial yellow sweet clover. This was cut the latter part of May, just before it began to 

 show indications of bloom; and altl'.ough the hay remained out in almost half a dozen showers, and it was 

 nearh two weeks before we could get it dry enough to store in the barn, our cows and horses prefer it to 

 anything else; and the amount of cream and milk was quickly in evidence as soon as the cows got a taste of 

 it. While I write, June 16, the field is one mass of yellow blossoms roaring with bees. To-day I went out 

 through the clover-field pictured above. To my surprise I found patches of alsike clover of wonderful luxuri- 

 ance scattered through the sweet clover, and both are in full bloom and humming with bees. But there were 

 at least a dozen bees on the sweet clover to one on the alsike : and although I spent quite a little time watch- 

 ing the bees I was not able to find a single bee that worked on the alsike and also loaded up on the sweet 

 clover, and vice versa. It was a pretty good demonstration that when a bee starts to gather honey it confines 

 itself to one particular plant, and does not gather a little from one blossom and then get some more from a 

 difl'erent plant. There may be exceptions to this ; but in that clover-field, where there is a great plenty of 

 hlooin of both alsike and sweet clover, each busy worker seemed to have its own job and stuck to it. See 

 Gardening Department. — A. I. Root. 



an excellent idea, and said they were suited 

 for general utility; but he could not make 

 a departure from standard methods. With 

 his shipping business of full colonies and 

 nuclei such a change off: hand would be 

 almost too radical for consideration. 



As soft lumber was used for these splints, 

 results might not have been satisfactory. 

 The bees gnawed the splints between bot- 

 tom.-bars and combs. Some of them were 

 cut off entirely. 



Here the matter rested until I was situ- 

 ated to use the splints upon my own respon- 

 sibility. Four years later I was located in 

 Bolivar Co., Miss., with a couj^le of apiaries 

 of my own, and I had fully tested my meth- 

 od with splints in the mean time. 



I used them thei'e two seasons — 1500 L. 

 frames, and did not have a comb in the 

 whole lot showing any imperfections. But 

 these splints were sawn from oak lumber, 

 and the bees did no't gnaw them as they did 

 the softer splints sawn from basswood in 

 Louisiana. The bees do not gnaw the splints 

 in the e.xtracting-supers except in the brood- 

 combs; and with splints of soft lumber 

 combs are often much disfigured in the 

 center of the brood-chamber. Witli oak, or 

 lumber as hard as oak, the wood splints are, 

 perhaps, equal to wire in durability. 



Getting splints sawn from hard material 

 ■was a difficulty, and I decided to pay the 



additional cost, and use stays of soft steel 

 wire. In 1907 I ordered 10,000 wire stays, 

 and put over half of them in service. So 

 far I have not regretted so doing. 



Some years ago I wrote an article de- 

 scribing in Gleanings my method of util- 

 izing wood splints; and the same principle 

 of application is correct for the wire stays. 

 Inquiries having come to me then for fur- 

 ther particulars, and thinking a picture 

 might make the plan more explicit, I am 

 illustrating four frames, numbered for a 

 brief statement of their serviceability. 



Xo. ] is a frame shoAving the nine wires 

 full length, as ] generally use them. It is 

 best to use a drop of glue at each end of the 

 center wire. No. 2 is a frame with half- 

 lengih wires as I used them for half-sheets 

 of foundation. A call for hives, when I 

 was putting them out on shares, and being 

 short of foundation, was the occasion for 

 using half-sheets to secure straight reinforc- 

 ed brood-combs. 



The frames with half-length wires give 

 ample support for full sheets of founda- 

 tion; but for transportation before being 

 Avorked out by the bees, the wires should be 

 set in place with glue. By general adoption 

 the double groove and wedge can be dis- 

 carded, saving a strip of foundation the 

 length of sheets in any dimension used. 



Contact with the top-bars is i-equisite; 



