364 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



sippi? [So far I have yet to hear of alfalfa 

 yielding' honey east of the Mississippi; and 

 it was a surprise to me that it did so in 

 any locality not irrigated. I refer to what 

 Carl F. Buck says of its yielding honey in 

 Kansas. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, you say you marked loca- 

 tions, so that, when you put out bees a 

 month later, you can put them on same 

 stands. I wish you would change location 

 of a few, so as to see just how much harm 

 would come of it. Some say they will get 

 mixed if put on wrong stands, even after 

 being in cellar all winter. It never seemed 

 that my bees clung so tenaciously to old 

 locations. This year I set a colony near 

 the cellar on taking out. It flew that day, 

 and, after standing there a week, I took it 

 down to the apiary. The first day it flew, 

 perhaps ten days after its first flight, it 

 seemed to mark its locality anew, and I 

 don't know that any bees were lost. [Per- 

 haps you are right; but we determined 

 to be on the safe side; but if bees after a 

 confinement of ten days will mark their 

 locations anew, then the fact is a matter of 

 importance on the score of convenience if 

 nothing else. — Ed.] 



A TRICK in transferring, new to me, is 

 given in Revue Eclediqiie. Lay your empty 

 frame on its side; drive into the side of the 

 top-bar seven or eight small nails, leaving 

 the heads projecting \% incli. Likewise 

 drive an equal number in the side of the 

 bottom-bar. Take very fine wire and fas- 

 ten one end to the first nail above; pass to 

 the first nail below, take a turn and pass 

 to the second nail below, then successively 

 to the second nail above, third nail above, 

 third nail below, fourth below, fourth 

 above, and so on, fastening on the last 

 nail. Turn your frame over and lay combs 

 in it, then put over the combs another se- 

 ries of wires, and there j'ou are. [M3% oh 

 my ! That would be a lot of work ; and 

 how much better would it be than a string 

 or thread wound around the frame of 

 combs? The string, the bees will take oii" 

 of their own accord if the apiarist is too 

 lazy to take it olf after the combs are fas- 

 tened ; the wire — that would have to be 

 taken off very laboriously; and those nails! 

 how nice (?) they would be for uncapping! 

 Give the fellow that got that up a leather 

 medal. — Ed.] 



I THREW BRICKBATS at F. B. Simpson be- 

 cause he said we mustn't breed from freal<- 

 best queens. The National Stockman fur- 

 nishes a briclibat that might come whizzing 

 about my ears if he should happen to see it. 

 It says: "Most breeders will endorse Mr. 

 Gormle3''s position that speed without a 

 speed inheritance is not likely to reproduce 

 itself; and that for breeding purposes the 

 inheritance without the standard speed is 

 preferable to the speed without the inherit- 

 ^tnce. " Well — yes — or — but, say, F. B., 

 bees are not horses — that is to say, you 

 can't control the mating, and so you never 

 can be sure of inheritance ; and so long as 



you are perforce compelled to forego inher- 

 itance, it is better to breed from the best 

 performers in the hope that at least some- 

 thing of their good qualities will be inher- 

 ited by their royal ofi'spring. [There is the 

 trouble — the control of the male parentage. 

 In our own experience, breeding from our 

 best queens produces a superior class of 

 daughters — no doubt about that. A princi- 

 ple that may be true in the breeding of 

 horses may not hold good in breeding 

 queens. — Ed.] 



The wind is a factor in wintering that is 

 not sufficiently considered. Some speak as 

 if an increase of latitude must make an in- 

 crease in the severity of the winter. The 

 isothermal lines do not by any means keep 

 company with the parallels of latitude. 

 The wind may cut more figure than either. 

 Where I live, the wind thinks nothing of 

 keeping up a lively gait 24 hours at a 

 stretch, with the mercury not far from zero. 

 I can easily imagine a place 500 miles fur- 

 ther north, and a good many degrees cold- 

 er, where it will be easier on outdoor bees 

 than in this windy localitj'. [It is not 

 much wonder to me that Dr. Miller has 

 never been able to make a success of out- 

 door wintering in his locality. A lively 

 gale of wind for 24 hours on a stretch, with 

 a zero temperature, is something we do not 

 have in Medina, for perhaps more than one 

 day in the winter, although we may have 

 several days of high wind when the temper- 

 ature is 20 above; but these are liable to be 

 followed by a warm spell, and it is not an 

 unusual thing during the winter for bees to 

 have a flight. Notwithstanding, however, 

 we have made a great success with outdoor 

 wintering at Medina, I am coming to the 

 conclusion that the indoor method even here 

 will be more economical in the consumption 

 of stores, and give us stronger colonies for 

 the honej'-flow. I may change my mind; 

 but that is the way the straws round about 

 Medina blow just now. — Ed.] 



One of the things fully settled long 

 ago was that it is a bad thing to put bees 

 out of cellar for a flight and then return 

 them. Having tasted the pleasure of the 

 free air they would not again be content to 

 be imprisoned. Now, Mr. Editor, you've 

 gone and unsettled the whole business 

 again by what j'ou say on p. 323. Please 

 tell us minutel}' as to the final result. Also 

 tell us when you took out, returned, and 

 took out for good. There have been times 

 when I felt I'd like to give the bees a flight, 

 and then return them to the cellar; but I 

 had too strong respect for traditions. [I 

 think we have proven, to our own satisfac- 

 tion at least, that the old idea that indoor- 

 wintered bees should not be given a flight 

 on some warm day in midwinter, is not 

 good practice for Medina. In a normal 

 state of health, bees are compelled to void 

 their excreta at certain regular intervals. 

 We know that they do retain them during 

 the winter; and we know that, just as soon 

 as they are set out, the first thing they do 



