1010 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



very finest. If in your locality there are not a 

 good many colonies you will be able to get some 

 surplus, and also enough for winter stores. — Ed.] 



A CAUTION IN REGARD TO GREASY WASTE. 



In your comments on greasy waste as a smo- 

 ker fuel, page 868, July 15, you say, "Two or 

 three bushels of it will last one almost an entire 

 season." There may be a number of persons 

 who read this who will collect this greasy waste 

 and leave it in a box, keg, or barrel; and if it 

 happens to be collected from a shop where lard 

 oil or any animal or vegetable oil, for that mat- 

 ter, is used, as in cutting threads, the waste 

 would probably set fire to the building if it were 

 not discovered in time, as it would catch fire 

 from spontaneous combustion. This might not 

 happen if the oil in the waste is of mineral ori- 

 gin, as that does not oxydize as readily as the 

 other oils. Linseed and lard oil have quite an 

 affinity for oxygen ; but as almost all the lubri- 

 cating oils are compounds I think you -should 

 warn your subscribers of the danger of leaving a 

 pile of greasy waste in any wooden building. I 

 have had a small pile of waste in a tin can get 

 quite hot in ten hours in an engine-room, and 

 the oil in the waste was supposed to be a strictly 

 mineral oil, as it was used for lubrication. 



Philadelphia, July 28. J. T. Fennell. 



[We have before mentioned the danger of al- 

 lowing greasy waste to stand in a building, but 

 we neglected to add this caution on the page re- 

 ferred to. Many fires owe their origin to the 

 spontaneous combustion of greasy material left 

 carelessly about. The best place to keep such 

 smoker fuel is in a rain-proof box out of doors, 

 away from any building. — Ed.] 



WHEN SWEET CLOVER YIELDS. 



Is there a season of honey (nectar) flow for 

 sweet clover, as for white clover and basswood, 

 or is it a steady yielder all summer.? If the lat- 

 ter, do the bees keep on putting the honey into 

 the sections where there is an abundance of the 

 bloom, or do they get simply their winter stores 

 and living from it? I inquire because I have the 

 right-of-way for a mile on both sides of my place 

 sowed; and as it is now coming up nicely, by 

 next year I expect to have the country covered; 

 for, besides sowing it alongside the railroad 

 track, I have had it scattered alongside the vari- 

 ous roads leading out of town. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. A. F. Bonney. 



[Sweet clover usually begins to yield nectar 

 shortly after clover and basswood are out of 

 bloom, beginning in our locality anywhere from 

 the first to the middle of July. It continues then 

 to yield nearly all summer. During that time it 

 is freely visited by the bees. While the road- 

 sides and railroad embankments have a large 

 amount of it, it does not yield enough honey to 

 make any showing in the supers, and sometimes 

 not very much in the brood-nest. 



In localities where there are only a few colo- 

 nies and a large amount of bloom, it yields con- 

 siderable surplus honey. In the vicinity of Chi- 

 cago a large amount of sweet-clover and white- 

 clover honey is secured. The quality is of the 



A GOOD protection FOR AN APIARY. 



To protect the apiary from cold and hard north 

 winds, make a fence from wire netting on the 

 north side of your apiary, and plant some never- 

 freezing honeysuckle plants close to it. In a 

 short time these will grow and climb up the net- 

 ting from one end to another so tight that no 

 wind will get through, and so the apiary is saved 

 from hard-blowing winds. These flowers will 

 also make a nice appearance, especially when in 

 bloom, as the blossoms are of different kinds, 

 and there are green leaves the whole year. The 

 plant will stand any cold. 



By pulling down the wax cloth from one of 

 my hives I saw that there were some holes gnaw- 

 ed in the tops of the frames by bee-moths. Please 

 tell me whether this will do any harm to my bees. 

 The holes are gnawed through the frames so that 

 they can reach the honey. I have the black and 

 hybrid races, but I always keep my colonies 

 strong. 



How high must I place my hives to keep frogs 

 or toads from doing any harm to my bees.? 



New Ulm, Tex. Wm. H. Kautz. 



[If there are moths in the hives at all, it would 

 pay you to Italianize your colonies, and thus be 

 rid of them entirely. We should suppose that 

 hives two feet from the ground would be safe 

 from toads, etc. — Ed.] 



THE IMPORTANCE OF A SPACING-STAPLE AT THE 

 LOWER END OF THE FRAME END-BARS. 



I want to make a strong appeal to the readers 

 of Gleanings to put end-spacing staples at the 

 lower corners of frames to save bees from being 

 slaughtered by the score. I am going to get out 

 a petition and get 20 or 30 bee-keepers of New 

 York State to sign it, to the effect that any man- 

 ufacturer or bee-keeper who does not recommend 

 putting staples, or something similar, on the low- 

 er end of the end-bar, to keep from killing bees, 

 be subject to a fine for cruelty to insects, the 

 honey-bees. 



You can't take out a set of frames from a pop- 

 ulous colony having no staple or other protection 

 on the lower corners in three or five minutes with- 

 out injuring or maiming 20 or 30 bees. If you 

 raise one end of the frame X inch higher than 

 the other you crush or maim some bees and oc- 

 casionally a queen. 



Groton, N. Y. W. L. Coggshall. 



[Any one can put staples on his frames if he 

 prefers. Manufacturers are willing to furnish 

 what bee-keepers demand. — Ed.] 



MATURE bees DYING IN THE SPRING. 



Complying with your request, page 703, June 

 1, I will give the experience I have had with 

 bees dying in the spring. 



Last year I had my bees in a canyon at the 

 foot of the mountains. They were in good con- 

 dition, and seemed to do well for some time after 

 I set them out in the spring; but about the last 

 of May I noticed a great many dead bees in 

 front of the hives, and this continued probably a 



