1368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



honey so as to be fully prepared for winter. As 

 a rule, however, all increase should be made dur- 

 ing June and July. As to which is best, a nat- 

 ural or a driven swarm, good authorities differ, 

 many claiming that a driven swarm is as good 

 as a natural one. It is always safe to say that, 

 for the beginner, a swarm issuing in the " good 

 old way " is fully as well equipped for the battle 

 of life, if not better, as they can possibly be by 

 the interference of man. 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane 



Say, brother bee-keepers, let's just remember 

 that robber trap described on p. 989, and make 

 one next winter. It may be worth many times 

 what it costs. 



* 



We are grateful for those fine pictures of As- 

 pinwall's hive. It seems almost as good as see- 

 ing them. It may be too early to criticise them; 

 but if he can get all those supers filled they must 

 have some virtue. 



* 



I am not surprised at the testimonials to the 

 value of corrugated paper in place of cleats for 

 sections to rest on, p. 1073. I believe the more 

 it is used the more it will be appreciated. That 

 new shipping-case is a beauty if we may judge 

 from the picture. 



* 



Commencing on page 1071 are three articles on 

 grading and packing honey that will well repay 

 any one who raises honey to read with the great- 

 est care. They are packed as full of good thin/^s 

 as they well can be, and no one can go amiss in 

 following their advice. They must be read care- 

 fully to be fully appreciated. 

 # 



Dr. Miller wonders if his bees place dark wax 

 brought up from the brood-chamber between the 

 clamps because it is too dark to cap the sections 

 with — p. 987. Did not the bees place the dark 

 wax on the bottom of the upper clamps before it 

 was raised up, and then, as honey became more 

 abundant, and wax more easily produced, use the 

 new wax for sealing the lower clamp.? 

 ♦ 



Dr. Miller also says, page 987, " Ever noticed 

 that bees are more particular about the combs 

 they put brood in than about those they put hon- 

 ey in.?" I have noticed it, and thought that it 

 was for the purpose in some way of fitting it for 

 brood-rearing. I have sometimes noticed that, 

 where occupied with brood before being filled 

 with honey, some cells were left empty, as 

 though the brood had died in them. 

 # 



Dr. Miller tells us how his bees do not cluster 

 out, although the thermometer registers 99° in 

 the shade at 2:40 p. m., p. 987. Decidedly inter- 

 esting; but are you sure that the time of the bees 

 is wasted when they cluster outside a hive in very 

 warm weather.? Clover nectar, I believe, as a 

 rule has to be reduced from one-half to two-thirds 

 to make honey; and I am satisfied (as I hope to 



show later) that this is a laborious task, amount- 

 ing to perhaps one-third or one-half of the work 

 of the hive. I never could see that it made any 

 difference with the work in the house if the wo- 

 men sat out under a tree in the afternoon of a hot 

 summer day; and it seems to me the bees can 

 just as well reduce their nectar on the outside of 

 a hive as inside — perhaps better. 



On page 1005 Mr. Bassett suggests rearing a 

 young queen over an excluder, and then, by 

 shaking her down in front of the hive, supersede 

 the old queen. Mr. Alexander replies by saying 

 that it is a very difficult thing to do. I believe 

 Mr. Doolittle advises the same method as the 

 easiest and best one for changing from an old to 

 a young queen. I tried it with a number of col- 

 onies the past season and found it a failure in 

 almost every instance. 



In the Aug. 15th issue Mr. Doolittle has an in- 

 teresting article entitled "Closing up the Section- 

 honey Season;" but what I wished especially to 

 call attention to is the price he obtained for his 

 light unfinished sections — within 2]/^ cents as 

 much as for fancy. This has been my experience. 

 We secured within two to three cents of the fan- 

 cy price during the past fifteen or twenty years, 

 and we put up from fifty to one hundred such 

 cases, each year. I do not intend to have such 

 sections run below three-fourths full weight; and 

 when they sell for such a price it doesn't pay to 

 mix it in with the best grade. 



* 

 Those remarks by the editor on page 1049 on 

 marketing honey are well worth pondering by 

 bee-keepers. One of the things that constantly 

 surprises me is the large number who like honey 

 and the few who get it. They do not seem to 

 know where to find it. Only yesterday we sent 

 a case to New York to fill an order. Recently 

 we had request for samples from San Francisco. 

 Some two years ago we received a letter from a 

 lady in Massachusetts asking for a bottle of our 

 honey, as she had sampled some of it and was 

 pleased with it. We wrote her, asking her to 

 club with her friends and send for a case, as it 

 would save freight. Well, now! that woman 

 has sold several hundred pounds of our honey, 

 and so it goes. We shipped several cases to the 

 city of Washington last winter in the same way. 



* 

 On p. 1047 Dr. Miller has a Straw in regard to 

 the depth of space between the bottom-bar of the 

 frame and the floor of the brood-chamber. I 

 have not been troubled so much as to the depth 

 I should like as to what I can keep. If I start 

 with, say, Yz inch, it is sure to increase in winter 

 when the inside of the hive is damp, and shrink 

 in summer in dry weather; and this constant 

 swelling and shrinicing, year after year, has so re- 

 duced this space that I have had to nail cleats 

 around the top to make my brood-chamber deep- 

 er. Moral. — Make your brood-chamber a little 

 deeper than you want, and in time it will just 

 suit. 



On the next page, 1048, Dr. Miller tells us how 

 queenlessness may be discovered by the way the 

 honey is distributed through the hive. Very 



