Gleanings In Bee Culture 



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



H. H. ROOT, AssislaiU Edilor 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager 

 J. T. CALVERT, Busineis Manager 



VOL. XXXVI 



JULY 15, 1908 



NO. 14 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



White clover showed its first blossom May 

 23; yellow sweet clover, June 1; white sweet clo- 

 ver, June 24. That 23 days of yellow in advance 

 of white sweet clover would be quite an item in 

 a year of failure of white clover. 



A frame of young brood helps to decide 

 whether a virgin is present in a nucleus. If no 

 cells are started it is reasonably certain that she 

 is there all right. But two or three cells are 

 sometimes started, e\en with a virgin present. 

 If a whole lot are started you may count your vir- 

 gin is gone. [Right you are, on both proposi- 

 tions. — Ed.] 



M. M. Baldridge, instead of putting a weak 

 colony over a strong one in spring, reverses the 

 Alexander plan, putting the strong colony over 

 the weak one on the stand of the strong one, an 

 excluder between. This, when dandelions or 

 other flow is on, at sundown, not smoking the 

 weak colony, and smoking the strong one just 

 enough to make the bees leave the bottom-board. 

 Three years' trial of both plans has shoA-n that 

 the weak colony builds up more rapidly by the 

 Baldridge plan. 



Whether because of the yellow bees I have 

 been getting in, or because of the season, swarm- 

 ing is very bad this year. One colony that 

 swarmed, not only had no advanced cells but not 

 even an egg could be found in a queen-cell in the 

 hive! [By "yellow bees" we suppose you mean 

 Italians. Do we infer that the latter swarm more 

 than your hybrids and blacks.? If all of them 

 swarm, then we should attribute this swarming 

 to the peculiarity of the season rather than to the 

 yellow blood. — Ed.] 



J. E. Hand, referring to your remarks, p. 819, 

 I will say that I know of no reason for thinking 

 that my colonies that stored under the brood- 

 nest were in an abnormal condition. The 

 large number of colonies engaged in it rather 

 precludes the idea of played-out queens; and, 

 although I can not say positively, my impression 

 is that among the number were some that made 

 the very best records at storing. I think, friend 

 Hand, if you could have seen the white combs of 

 honey built in those spaces in bottom-boards, 

 with the vigorous colonies above, you would 

 have shaken your head and said, "Well, every 

 now and then we must give up some of our pre- 

 conceived notions; there goes another." 



I don't know why Hervey B. Jones should 

 have had his failure with foundation splints. 

 You are right, Mr. Editor, that splinted founda- 

 tion should be given only when honey is coming 



in; but even if given in a dearth I've never known 

 the bees to do much at cutting out the splints. 

 The trouble is that, in a dearth, they dig away 

 a passage between foundation and bottom-bar. 

 The only thing I can think of is that the splints 

 were not properly coated with wax. They should 

 be boiled in wax till all the moisture fries out, 

 and, when taken from the wax to be fastened on 

 the foundation, the wax should be merely hot 

 enough to be liquid, but not hot enough to run 

 entirely off the splints. With the splint well 

 coated with wax, why should the bees tear at it 

 any more than at the foundation itself.? 



White clover is more abundant than ever 

 before. I think I've said that before. It was 

 true then; it's more emphatically true now. 

 Fields are far and away whiter with the bloom 

 than ever before. There's nectar in it too. Not 

 only do the bees drop at the entrance as they 

 come in heavily laden, but they drop on the hives 

 and surrounding grass. I suspect there is five 

 times as much nectar as the bees can take care of. 

 [This is the kind of report that we are getting 

 from many sections of the clover belt. It is 

 very remarkable the way reports have come in. 

 One locality will show a most tremendous hon- 

 ey-flow, while another one, only a few miles 

 away, and in the same State, will show "almost 

 nothing doing." It is peculiar this year that 

 large areas will produce a large amount of honey; 

 but in those areas there are pockets where there 

 is little or no nectar. — Ed.] 



I THINK I've heard it said that, under some 

 conditions, as much comb as extracted honey can 

 be produced. I don't see how that can be if the 

 bees have no comb to build for the extracted. 

 Say that it takes a pound of comb to contain 20 

 lbs. of honey, or 5 lbs. of comb for 100 lbs. of 

 honey. If it takes 10 lbs. of honey to make one 

 of wax it takes 50 of honey to make that 5 lbs. of 

 wax. So 150 lbs. of honey must be gathered for 

 100 lbs. of comb honey. If these figures be cor- 

 rect, there can in no case be less than 50 per cent 

 more extracted than comb. To be sure, it may 

 take les? than 10 lbs of honey to make a pound 

 of wax; but even if it takes only 5 lbs. of honey 

 for one of wax, that still makes 25 per cent more 

 of extracted than comb. Then it must not be 

 forgotten that it takes bees to secrete the wax and 

 to build the comb. If bees are released from 

 this duty in the extracting-super it means a great- 

 er number of bees in the field. Don't tell me 

 that bees won't go afield before 16 days old. I've 

 seen them do^ it under stress when only 5 days 

 old, and I don't believe a bee will loaf around 

 doing nothing until 16 days old if there is no 

 housework for her to do, and she can find work 

 in the field. [We should like to see this question 

 discussed by those who are in position to give us 



