946 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. IS 



The man said if I could rig up something 

 to get the honey I could have it, and I 

 should like your idea of it. I should like 

 to get ready to try it next summer. 



C. Mac Donough, Jr. 

 Shokan, N. Y., Sept. 22. 



[There is no way of getting the bees that 

 I know of except to cut the tree, or the 

 limb where they are located. You might 

 be able to smoke them out; but the proba- 

 bilities are you would kill the bees before 

 they would leave their quarters. You could 

 trap all the flying bees out with a bee-es- 

 cape; but in that case 3^ou would have to 

 take them to an entirely new location, two 

 miles or so away, or hang a hive with combs 

 near the entrance to catch the returning 

 bees. Taking it all in all, the bees would 

 probably have to be left in their quarters. 

 —Ed.] 



wiring frames. 



I am wiring all my frames. This sum- 

 mer I tried a new way by which I could 

 save a good deal of time. Instead of pierc- 

 ing the frames I made four cuts with a fine 



saw on the side of the end- 



I ' ' ' 'I bars, sawing as far as the 

 middle, as shown. I tried 

 both ways of passing the wires, and on a 

 set of eight frames I saved three minutes 

 over the way of using pierced frames. Be- 

 sides being able to pass the wire in a much 

 shorter time, there is the further 

 advantage of having no kinks in 

 the wire, which often result in 

 breaking it. 



Would it not be a good plan to 

 try some of them? To me they 

 seem to be as strong as the pierced 

 ones. The few that I tried had 

 the cuts all filled with propolis at 

 the end of the season. 



GuSTAVE Gross. 



Lake Mills, Wis., Sept. 22. 



[We have tried your method of 

 wiring, but it weakens the ends 

 of the frames to such an extent 

 that you lose a great part of the 

 advantage that you expect to gain 

 by having good strong stiff combs. 

 —Ed.] 



neglect to feed the queen. Result, exhaus- 

 tion and death of queen. Is this the secret 

 of so many failures? In my travels as ex- 

 pert there are many stocks queenless this 

 year. 



Our English press is opposed to the new 

 4x5x1;^ 8, but they are far ahead of the old 

 4 '4x4 '4 beeway. I use the 4x5 in frames. 

 Result, splendid sections easy to handle. 



J. Gray. 



Papcastle, Cockermouth, Cumberland, 

 Eng., Sept. 22. 



[The English bee-keeper is more conser- 

 vative than the American; but we have pos- 

 itive information that many of them are 

 taking hold of the 4x5 section. — Ed.] 



A mistake occurs in my article on page 

 848, top of second column. It is made to 

 read, " I use wine in an eight-frame hive." 

 It should read, "I use nine in an eight- 

 frame hive." H. R. Boardman. 



East Townsend, O., Oct. 28. 



In Farm and Ranch several have reported 

 treating pear-blight with salt, and say it is 

 a sure cure. They scatter from one to two 

 quarts on the ground under the limbs. 



L. C. Rousseau. 



Waxahachie, Tex., Oct. 27. 



[I doubt very much whether salt would 

 have any eft'ect on pear-blight. — Ed.] 



A reason WHY QUEENS SOMETIMES 



fail; the 4x5 section in 



ENGLAND. 



One friend to whom I sent four 

 Doolittle queens (after introduc- 

 tion) found them useless in a week 

 or two. Microscopist's report 

 showed the spermatheca full of 

 spermatozoa, but the ovaries des- 

 titute of eggs. I do not attribute 

 this to the cell-cup method of pro- 

 ducing queens, but to the season. 

 I reason it out this way: The 

 queen has traveled, and is now 

 impatient to use her egg- laying 

 powers; no honey coming in, bees 



'Va^it^Axk.e/r -/a/k^e^ ~^ftAA^ ry\ffu^rCr- 

 -t^^r^rrlA, . f(rm> of Ccrv<^r^ . 



'7)e Ba c^k^ <*-v-v<^ C r^y-'Ty^ ^-^^ci. 



