1428 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



you, use this same way; and as soon as you are a 

 little wa,y from the hive, put your head (protect- 

 ed by the arms at the face) in some leafy bushes 

 which may be near by. Or in the absence of the 

 bushes, go prone, face down, on the ground, 

 when in a few minutes all the bees will leave you, 

 and you can walk quietly away. Of course, when 

 you are at work with the bees it is best to wear a 

 veil, which is all the protection you need if you 

 are careful with your work with the hives. Be 

 careful about jarring the hive before you tell the 

 bees you are there by giving them a puff or two 

 of smoke at the entrance, and, above all, avoid 

 the killing of bees, as the poisonous smell that 

 fills the air where bees are crushed is one of the 

 quickest ways to irritate them. 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



By R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



I found by accident that, for covering supers 

 of honey in the apiary at robbing time, the best 

 material is a felt cloth loosely put together. The 

 bees appear to be afraid to alight on it. I suppose 

 it looks to them about as inviting as a loose 

 brush-heap looks to a man for strolling through. 



FINDING QUEENS IN POPULOUS STOCKS. 



At the last Norfolk County Bee-keepers' con- 

 vention held recently at Simcoe, F. J. Miller, 

 President of the Ontario Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion, gave his method of finding a queen in a 

 populous colony, mentioning the method special- 

 ly in connection with finding queens for clipping. 

 He instructed the bee-keepers to give the colony 

 a fairly sharp smoke at the entrance of the hive. 

 The bees will roar, and the sound is to be noted. 

 In about 2^ minutes the bees should be given a 

 fe--w more sharp puffs at the entrance so they will 

 again roar. The moment the roar changes from 

 the sharp to the lower note, the queen, in a hive 

 not deeper than the Langstroth, will be found 

 in the bee-space below the cover. Mr. Miller 

 stated that the colony must be strong if this 

 method is to be a success, but that such colonies 

 were the very ones in which it is difficult to find 

 the queen. 



* 



REQUEENING. 



I made the statement at the same convention 

 that there is less need for bee-keepers to requeen 

 the colonies where there is a fall flow. The bees, 

 in a locality having a fall flow, are much more 

 apt to supersede defective or failing queens them- 

 selves during this flow. The first time I saw an 

 apiary during a good buckwheat flow was when 

 visiting Mr. C. W. Post. He at that time show- 

 ed me in one apiary eight colonies in which 

 mother and daughter were laying in the same 

 hive. 



♦ 



BASSWOOD POLLEN. 



Some time ago a highly valued friend and well- 

 known contributor to Gleanings made the state- 

 ment that basswood has no pollen. I tried to 



point out that, according to nature's laws, this 

 would be impossible. The United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has issued a Bulletin (No. 

 110) which Dr. Wiley has been kind enough to 

 send tome. This includes "A Microscopical 

 Study of Honey Pollen," by W. J. Young, assist- 

 ant, Microchemical Laboratory. On page 79 

 (Fig. 6) we find illustrated the pollen grains of 

 basswood. This surely settles the matter. It 

 might be instructive for Gleanings to reproduce 

 illustrations of some of the pollens in which bee- 

 keepers are most interested. 



STOPPING UP leaks IN HIVES. 



When moving bees I always carry about me 

 an assortment of nails, crate-staples, and a ham- 

 mer. I formerly had convenient strips of wood 

 to stop up leaks; but for over a year I have used 

 for this last purpose cotton-batting. For this 

 purpose it is superior to any thing else I ever used. 

 In a moment it can be broken into any size; it 

 can be made to fi* any opening; it sticks well 

 where put, and it is so loose in texture that the 

 bees prefer to leave it alone. I also have the 

 smoker going, especially in the early part of the 

 trip. I am giving this information because the 

 idea has been of value to me. Some readers of 

 Gleanings think I have a lot of rough uneven 

 hives; but this is not the case. Accidents will 

 happen in the best-regulated houses, and it is well 

 to be prepared for them. 



TURNING losses INTO PROFIT. 



W. S. Manley, at the National convention at 

 Detroit, stated that it seemed to be a rather diffi- 

 cult matter to turn losses into profit; but that a 

 loss can be turned into profit whenever one has 

 to go through an experience in which the first 

 loss prevents him from making the same mistake 

 again. Friend Manley lost his bees, and his 

 neighbors lost theirs because the stores gathered 

 in the fall were not good. Of course, he wisely 

 decided that there was no use in losing the wax 

 and combs as well as the bees, and he therefore 

 melted them up for wax. However, he conclud- 

 ed that this was a rather expensive way of getting 

 wax, and he now feeds sugar syrup to the bees 

 for winter stores. He either has combs filled 

 earlier with sugar syrup, and shakes the bees up- 

 on them after the frost has stopped the honey- 

 flow, or he shakes the bees upon empty combs, 

 and in an empty super or body underneath he 

 puts an open feeder with warm syrup. Even in 

 pretty cold weather the bees, feeling the heat 

 from the warm feeder underneath, will store the 

 syrup for winter. 



This fall I fed syrup made by stirring 2^ parts 

 by measure of sugar into one of boiling water, 

 adding a teaspoonful of tartaric acid to every 13 

 lbs. of sugar. Such sugar does not require much 

 evaporation; and if the brood-chamber is con- 

 tracted so the bees will cover their combs and 

 stores they will be in the very best condition for 

 winter. 



Of course, we should all have an ideal. Cir- 

 cumstances, such as lack of time, may prevent us 

 from doing what we know to be best. All we 

 can do is to aim at the ideal we have set before 



