412 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mav 15 



be left on the outside? In the case of a 

 comb-honey super the separators are com- 

 paratively narrow. They are slotted at the 

 top and bottom so as to reduce the width, 

 in many instances; and now that the fence 

 is so rapidly pushing- its way forward, the 

 separator or fence has transverse slots that 

 allow the whole cluster to mingle tog-ether. 

 Say — perhaps you can tell us with what 

 success the one-sided combs are used in 

 Germany. They were talked about at one 

 time; but, if I am correct, there was noth- 

 ing- but talk outside of a few isolated ex- 

 periments. — Ed. ] 



Adrian Getaz says in Ajner. Bee Joiir- 

 nal, "a colony of bees of normal size con- 

 sumes something like 200 pounds of honey 

 every 3'ear, at least, and probablj' more. " 

 So if a colony g-athers 240 pounds there's 

 40 surplus, and gathering- 280 makes 80 sur- 

 ])lus. So he says increase the gathering ]b 

 and you double the surplus. That makes 

 it easier to understand how there can be so 

 much difference in the surplus of two colo- 

 nies of like appearance. [There is proba- 

 bly a great deal in what Mr. Getaz sa3's; 

 but is he not figuring pretty high on the 

 amount of honey actually consumed for the 

 whole year? D. A. Jones once had an api- 

 ary on a barren island in Georgian Bay, 

 for rearing Holy Land bees. He had an- 

 other for the rearing of Cyprians on anoth- 

 er island. The only food these bees had 

 was syrup that he gave them, as there was 

 nothing on either island that they could get, 

 except a little pollen, perhaps. I can not 

 now remember the amount of syrup requir- 

 ed per colony, but the figures were nothing 

 like 200 pounds. He kept them at brood- 

 rearing to their fullest capacity; and an}^ 

 one who is familiar with those Eastern 

 races knows they rear brood to excess. 



It would be interesting to know whether 

 this 200 pounds of honey per year is an es- 

 timated figure or one obtained by taking 

 account of syrup actually fed in a locality 

 reasonably barren of natural flora. — Ed.] 



Thanks for that editorial about Post 

 check money, p. 370. I never fully under- 

 stood it before. Why, it's immense. With- 

 out troubling to go to a bank, express office, 

 or postoffice, you can at any time take a 

 bill out of your pocket and write two names 

 on it, and then it's ready to mail. In spite 

 of the risk, hundreds of dollars in bank 

 bills are sent through the mail now. That 

 would take away the risk. [I hope, if 5^ou 

 (and, in fact, all the readers of Glean- 

 ings) have not already done so, you will 

 immediately write to your Senators and 

 Representatives in Congress. It is not suf- 

 ficient to wish devoutly to have Congress 

 act on a certain desirable measure. It is 

 our privilege and duty to sit down and 

 write to our members of Congress to give 

 this or that measure their support. Some- 

 times I think our people do not realize that 

 this is a representative government, and 

 that every one should have something to say 

 about the laws that shall be made. Out- 



side of abolishing the canteen at our army 

 posts, I do not know of any national mea- 

 sure that interests me more than this Post 

 check money. It would prevent the con- 

 tracting of disease in perhaps thousands of 

 cases ; it will save life and property, V^e- 

 cause it will absolutely remove the tempta- 

 tion to rob the mail, either on the part of 

 desperadoes that hold up a whole train, or 

 postal clerks who are not strong enough to 

 withstand temptation, because thej' knou- 

 that many letters contain money that they 

 f ancj' they can abstract and escape detec - 

 tion. Besides being a great convenience to 

 the people and a saving of life, this is a 

 moral measure that may be the means of 

 saving some poor mother's son's soul. — Ed.] 



Changing from frames 18X9 to the regu- 

 lar size I've had hundreds of frames and 

 combs to transfer, and after trying strings 

 and wires for fastening combs in frames I 

 much prefer the wires. Cut the wire in 

 proper lengths, lay three of them under a 

 frame, one at the middle and one near each 

 end ; put your comb in the frame, then fas- 

 ten the two ends of each wire together by 

 twisting at a corner of the top-bar. The 

 fine wires are easily broken at any time 

 after the bees have fastened the comb in 

 place, althovigh they may do no harm if 

 never removed. Of course that will work 

 onl}' when combs are in pretty large pieces. 

 If pieces are quite small I'm not sure but 

 it might pay to use the plan given on p. 364. 

 The nails would make no trouble when un- 

 capping, for they are left "projecting ^g 

 inch " so as to be drawn when the comb is 

 fastened. [While a wire might, perhaps, 

 be more convenient than a string, in the 

 manner in which you use it, yet just think 

 of the labor of driving little nails along the 

 edges of the brood-frame, stringing wires 

 up over them, pulling them off again, then 

 afterward pulling out the nails! Your plan 

 of using the wires is vastly better; but I 

 can not help feeling that a string is better 

 still, for I have used both. One summer I 

 transferred 75 colonies, and as a general 

 thing I used neither string nor wire. I just 

 crowded in pieces of combs around the 

 edges to wedge the comb into place. When 

 that was not practicable I used one strand 

 of string, going around the frame two or 

 three times, and tying in a bow-knot. If I 

 did not happen to think to go around and 

 pull out the string the bees would save me 

 that trouble and carry it out of the hive bit 

 by bit. If I did think, all I had to do was 

 to pull out the bow-knot and slowly draw 

 out the string without removing a single 

 frame. — Ed.] 



The Rocky Mountain Bee Journal says, 

 " The wide-awake, reading specialist puts 

 on the second super as soon as work has 

 well begun in the first; a third is soon add- 

 ed, and then four and sometimes five." 

 Replying in Lone Star Apiarist, Li. E. 

 Kerr says, speaking of tiering up supers, 

 "In other than expert hands it is a most 

 dangerous procedure, where honey is the 



