1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



139 



ian bees to protect a score or two of combs 

 from the ravajj^es of the wax-moth." 



"But we are digressing-. Some say I 

 should put on the sections for surplus honey 

 early, while others say they should not be 

 put on till after swarming-. How do you 

 reconcile this? " 



Here each has a different idea in view. 

 The first wishes to discourag-e increase as 

 much as possible, while the latter wishes 

 increase, and so says wait till after swarm- 

 ing, so that he may be sure of all the in- 

 crease possible. All practical bee-keepers 

 know that, while the early putting-on of 

 sections will not entirely prevent swarming-, 

 it will check it to some extent; but more es- 

 pecially it tends toward swarms issuing- 

 later in the season." 



"Then there are a thousand and one 

 different ways of introducing queens, each 

 claiming his as infallible, while the others 

 say all are liable to fail except the particu- 

 lar plan advised by him. What about this?" 



" This reminds me of what occurred some 

 years ago, when, in our bass wood flow, I 

 found I could introduce queens by letting 

 them run in at the entrance just at night, 

 the old queen having- been removed during- 

 the forenoon; and as I did not lose a single 

 queen out of scores so tried, I set it down 

 as a rule that queens could be thus intro- 

 duced safely every time. Now, thought I, 

 here is a common-sense rule that will ap- 

 ply to bees as the rule of multiplication ap- 

 plies to the multiplication-table; but when 

 I came to use it after the bass wood harvest 

 was over I found it did not work with two 

 queens out of three. This said the season 

 of the year was the controlling factor in the 

 matter. At the time I was having such 

 success I wrote to a friend living in New 

 Jersey, where there was no basswood, in 

 reply to a question on this subject, how he 

 could safely introduce queens by this plan; 

 and although he used it at the same time of 

 the 5'ear, he lost ever^' one he tried, owing 

 to his being in a different localit}^ which 

 g-a\e a different honey- flow. Undoubtedly 

 he wished that Mr. Doolittle had told him 

 something which he could follow with a 

 certainty of success." 



" Do 3'ou think that the season and the 

 locality was what made the difference? " 



" 1 can only think that the reason why he 

 failed was because all things were not in 

 the same condition in his locality that they 

 were in mine when I wiis having- success; 

 for, when there came a change in the con- 

 ditions existing in my own apiary, I also 

 failed, and I doubt if those exact conditions 

 will ever come to my apiary again. And 

 from these examples given, you can, I 

 think, see why no rule regarding bee cul- 

 ture can be formed which will do to follow 

 throughout the world as can the rules of 

 arithmetic." 



" This being- the case, how can I or any 

 other beginner know what to do? " 



" The only thing- we can do is to try the 

 plans of others (or even our own plans) 

 cautiously till we know they are suited to 



our wants, using charity all the time, for 

 there is a g-reat difference in persons. 

 Some experiment carefully, proving every 

 thing critically, step by step, as they go, 

 arriving at almost a definite conclusion 

 with the first experiment; while others ex- 

 periment in such a slip-shod manner that 

 their experiments at the end of several years 

 are of little value. Yet, notwithstanding- all 

 of these drawbacks, the careful reader of the 

 many articles on bees found in our litera- 

 ture of to-day will find much of value after 

 he has sifted the chaff from the wheat. 

 One hundred dollars per j'ear would not 

 hire me to cease from reading- on this sub- 

 ject, for it is to this reading- that I owe 

 nearly all the knowledge I possess relative 

 to bee-keeping." 



I THINK we never had so much g-ood copy 

 on hand before as now. Some articles that 

 we have been trying to get in the " very 

 next issue " have been lying- on the galleys 

 for two iTionths, and they are good articles 

 too. We have been printing- eight extra 

 pages, and ere long will issue a double 

 number to catch up. 



In referring- to Prof. Frank Benton, in 

 our Jan. 1st issue, page 16, I spoke of him 

 in one place as "the entomologist." Prof. 

 Benton has called my attention to the fact 

 that this language might inean Dr. Howard, 

 the head of the Division of Entomology. He 

 explains that, at that time, he was one of 

 the assistanf entomologists, and the omis- 

 sion of the adjective might refer to his chief. 



In our April 15th issue for last year, p. 

 335, Mr. R. C. Aikin, of Loveland, Colo., 

 described his non-swarming method, and 

 then requested others to test it. It worked 

 satisfactorily for Mr. Aikin, and in my 

 footnote I stated that it embodied some fea- 

 tures in a plan that I had tried with some 

 success. Mr. Aikin wishes to know now 

 whether any one did try it, and, if so, he 

 would like to hear from the parties through 

 our columns. 



THE SALISBURY MKTHOD OF GLASSING 

 SHIPPING-CASES. 



In our last issue, page 58, I spoke of the 

 advantages of using small squares of glass, 

 in place of the long large pieces, for ship- 

 ping-cases. I have just learned that some 

 of the honey that took the first prize at the 

 Pan-American was put up in cases having 

 the small lights and wooden buttons. To 

 my notion, the new method of glazing comb 

 honey gives a far better appearance than 

 the old, and it has the advantage that one 

 can do his own glassing from material he 

 can get around home, almost for the asking. 



