136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



Do HENS eat bees? Dr. Sonder answers 

 in Centralblatt, "Yes and no." He had 

 an apiary in which hens had free run, and 

 they never touched a living' worker. He 

 had another apiary in which the hens gob- 

 bled workers as fast as they settled. In 

 the latter case the hens were closely con- 

 fined, with little chance to get worms or in- 

 sect food. [Some years ago we had evi- 

 dence from a number of our subscribers, 

 showing that chickens, when they once 

 learn the trick, will gobble up workers in 

 a wholesale fashion ; but as a general 

 thing they will not touch them, so I think 

 Dr. Senders' "yes and no" is strictl}^ cor- 

 rect. — Ed.] 



Rauschenfels thinks that on one trip a 

 bee visits from 50 to 1000 flowers. One bee 

 made 640 visits before he lost sight of it. 

 So says Le Progres Apicole. [Rauschen- 

 fels must be exceedingly agile and nimble 

 of feet, and of quick eye, to keep track of 

 one bee long enough for it to make 640 vis- 

 its. I have tried it in clover-fields ; but 

 after one had visited about half a dozen 

 heads it would strike clear off across the 

 field, just as we used to do when we went 

 berrying. We would pick a little here, and 

 then conclude it was better picking over 

 across the field, and so we would move to 

 the other point. It must have been exceed- 

 ingly "good picking" for that one bee to 

 have made 640 visits to enable one man to 

 keep his eye on it all the time. — Ed.] 



No WORSE THING than a wire nail for 

 spacer to catch in the pocket of the extract- 

 or, says H. E. J.; p. 111. Just exactly 

 what I thought till I tried it, and then I 

 found it worked exactly as if no wire nail 

 were there. The wire cloth in my extractor 

 has 9 meshes to the inch. But say, H. E. 

 J., even if it wouldn't work for extracting, 

 you hardly ought to deny so good a thing 

 to those of us who don't care about extract- 

 ing. [Somewhere on my last trip, I can 

 not just remember where nor when, serious 

 objection was made to the use of nails on 

 extractiug-combs for spacers just because 

 they did interfere in practice, as well as in 

 theory, with putting in and removing from 

 the extracting-pockets; so it seems the ob- 

 jection — at least with some — is more than 

 theoretical. — Ed.] 



Referring to Stenog's comments, p. 93, 

 I may say that I think R. Hamlyn-Harris 

 has for some time been in Germany, and 

 so, like most of the Germans, his entire 

 horizon is filled by Dzierzon. Judging from 

 the German bee- journals, I should suppose 

 that the greater part of German bee-keep- 

 ers idolize Dzierzon, and don't know that 

 such a man as Langstroth ever lived. 

 American bee-keepers even up matters by 

 ignoring the fact that Dzierzon invented 

 movable combs (not frames) without having 

 heard of Langstroth's invention and that 

 it is to Dzierzon and not to Langstroth that 

 German bee-keepers owe most. Intelligence 

 is not all on one side — nor ignorance. 

 [This, it seems to me, is a very fair state- 



ment, giving full credit both to Dzierzon and 

 to Langstsoth. But did Dzierzon really in- 

 vent movable combs? and was it not Lang- 

 stroth, be5'ond all doubt, who gave us the 

 first practical movable frames? — Ed.] 



G. Thibault says in D ApicuUeur that, 

 although Prof. Gillett's experiments show- 

 ed that drone comb was heavier than an 

 equal volume of worker comb, new verifica- 

 tions upon hundreds of combs have shown 

 him that drone comb is only \% as heavy as 

 worker. [This new figure of later investi- 

 gation seems a little strange. A few j'ears 

 ago, when we were making some ineasure- 

 ments and experiments in this matter, we 

 found that drone comb, as a rule, for a giv- 

 en amount of surface and cubic capacitj% 

 was heavier than worker — ver3' much heav- 

 ier; and when Prof. Gillette, later on, fully 

 confirmed our results, it seemed to us the 

 question was settled. Our readers will re- 

 member that we showed cross-sections of 

 worker and drone combs, and that the cell 

 walls of the former were very much more 

 delicate than the latter. Perhaps it is a 

 question of locality. — Ed.] 



A Colorado sun-proof and rain-proof 

 cover, described b}^ M. A. Gill, in Review, 

 is covered with a heavy coat of oxide of 

 zinc and lead paint; upon this paint, while 

 still fresh, is laid thin unbleached muslin, 

 and immediately a heavy coat of the same 

 paint is laid on the muslin, and another 

 coat when dry. [I asked Mr. Calvert to 

 figure on the cost of Neponset paper and 

 unbleached muslin for hive-covers. After 

 figuring a little he surprised me by saying 

 the muslin cost only about half as much. 

 My impression is that I should prefer it, 

 even if it were twice as expensive as paper, 

 because, treated as Mr. Gill recommends, 

 it would certainly be very durable. If the 

 paint be first applied to the cover, then 

 cloth be laid upon it while the pHint is 

 green, it forms a bond of union with the 

 wood. Now, then, if he covers it with 

 another coat on the outside, it is rendered 

 impervious to water, and stiff and hard. I 

 suggest that the readers of Gleanings test 

 paper and muslin side by side. Let us see 

 which will stand the most "grief" in dif- 

 ferent localities. — Ed.] 



An inexpensive apifuge (is it as good 

 as inexpensive?) is given in Revue Int. 

 Take 2 parts vaseline to 1 of naphthaline. 

 Melt the vaseline with mild heat, then mix 

 in the finely powdered naphthaline. The 

 writer says he rubbed his hands with the 

 mixture, and visited 28 colonies without 

 getting a sting, while the bees attacked 

 furiously a veiled and gloved assistant. 

 [The recipe for apifuge may be all right; 

 but I tried the article put out by Mr. Grim- 

 shaw, of England, some twelve j'ears ago. 

 If the hands were bathed in the liquid, and 

 moved cautiously up to the bees, they 

 would retreat to a certain extent. But I 

 found it was entirely ineffective in the case 

 oj a sudden onslaught from one or a dozen 

 bees. It is this kind of attack that nothing 



