Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager 

 J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager 



VOL. XXXVI 



JULY 1, 1908 



NO, 13 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



North Carolina is the latest addition to the 

 list of prohibition States. Next! 



All bees disappear at 65° north latitude, ^'.v- 

 cfpt bumble-bees. So when bees are reported in 

 arctic regions proper they must be bumble-bees. 

 — Dr. v. Buttel, Bienen-^uaier, 50. 



J. A. Crane gives a good plan for starting nu- 

 clei, p. 757. But instead of caging the queen 

 three days would he not be more sure to get cells 

 started, and to get more of them, if he removed 

 the queen entirely for three days? 



Referring to a Straw on page 411, A says he 

 didn't want his money back because the queen 

 died several months after introduction, but on 

 account of the poor stock he got. Perhaps I got 

 cases mixed. 



"Smoking is not allowed during office hours." 

 That's one of the latest rules issued by the Rock 

 Island R. R. [Good rule, and it ought to apply 

 to all business offices in the land, especially if 

 women are in the room. — Ed.] 



Thanks, Bro. Crane, for your tender consid- 

 eration of my feelings, p. 747; but haven't I al- 

 ways advised beginners to begin with such sec- 

 tions and separators and bees as will give solid 

 combs.'' And I've never been able to get such 

 sections as well without the two pieces of foun- 

 dation as with. 



Mehring, in 1857, made the first comb foun- 

 dation, in a press with wooden molds. In 1874, 

 Frederic Weiss, a German at Chicago, made the 

 first foundation cylinders. Improved at Medina 

 they are now used for nearly all the foundation 

 made in this country. Weiss died in the poor- 

 house at Chicago. The fate of so many inven- 

 tors! — Ills. Mo nats blatter. 



B. F. Averill says, page 756, "If bottom-bars 

 are not of good thickness to support the weight 

 of heavy combs, there is going to be sagging 

 sooner or later." Is it not the top-bar instead of 

 the bottom-bar that supports a heavy comb.'' and 

 if the top-bar does not sag, will the comb sag, 

 even if there is no bottom-bar at all.? Mr. Averill 

 has struck the right thing in putting horizontal 

 wires closer at the top than bottom. 



E. G. Hand, Canadian B. J., p. 73, refers to a 

 Straw, page 78, where I said a bee-moth with its 

 head pulled off would lay an egg between the 

 thumb and finger — perhaps several. He thinks 1 

 ought to have said " perhaps several dozen, and 

 possibly several hundred." All right, friend 

 Hand, I accept the "several dozen," if you or any 



other good authority has proved it. "Several" is 

 as far as I ever tried it, and I am skeptical about 

 the "several dozen." Positively, however, I'll 

 not accept the "several hundred," for that's more 

 than a moth lays in her lifetime. Prof. Cook 

 puts the total output at 100 or 200 eggs. 



K. Guenther, Leipz.. Bztg., 79, says that in 

 shipping bees the proper place to give ventilation 

 is not at the top nor yet at the side nor front. 

 In either of these cases the bees will crowd upon 

 the wire cloth and shut out the air. He puts the 

 wire cloth under, with strips, of course, to pre- 

 vent shutting off the air. Thus prepared he sends 

 swarms to all distances, even from Germany to 

 America. [Mr. Guenther is right, according to 

 our experience; but we go one better in the case 

 of long-distance shipments, putting wire cloth on 

 top and bottom. But in the case of weak colo- 

 nies in a regular standard hive, and for moderate 

 distances, wire cloth at the top is sufficient. — Ed.] 



Aluminum figures, indestructible, for num- 

 bering hives, are advertised in German journals, 

 about two inches high, at }x cent each. — Deutsche 

 Bzcht., 17. Please let us know when they can be 

 had at Medina. [These aluminum figures, when 

 imported to America, with duty added, would 

 come rather high. As it is, they are rather ex- 

 pensive, even in Germany; for most hives, where 

 there is much numbering at all, would have three 

 figures. This would cost 2% cents per hive. 

 Figures printed on heavy tagboard manilla, boil- 

 ed in paraffine, can be secured for very much less; 

 and we have been informed that, when the material 

 is boiled in paraffine, it holds its color and shape. 

 —Ed.] 



A colony queenless for a time is sometimes 

 stubborn about accepting a queen. Even after it 

 has stung several queens, giving it one or two 

 frames of brood will bring it to its senses. — 

 Leipz.. Bztg., 77. [It is certainly true that a col- 

 ony queenless for several days is very often stub- 

 born about accepting an introduced queen. We 

 have had that experience over and over again. 

 The sooner one can introduce after the colony is 

 queenless, the better. It has happened with us a 

 great many times that, when cells are started, the 

 bees seem to put their faith in the cells rather 

 than in any foreign introduced interloper; but we 

 never found that the giving of frames or brood, 

 sealed or unsealed, helped the matter any. It has 

 been our rule to let the bees have their own sweet 

 wnll, making them build ceils from choice larva?. 

 —Ed.] 



Occasionally bees may be seen loading up 

 their pollen-baskets with wax from old combs. 

 Dr. Brunnich, Leipz. Bztg., 35, reports an es- 

 pecially interesting case. A bee was observed 

 all day long for three days carrying loads of 



