122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



QuEENLESS BEES Will build worker comb if 

 ■weak enough. 



Bees make propolis out of various gums, page 

 114. Do they make it or find it ready made? 



T. L. Shavvler, sorry to say you are mistaken, 

 page 115. Illinois, which adjoins Iowa, has no 

 foul-brood law. 



Instead of a single central hive-entrance in 

 winter, F. Brequin has two smaller entrances, one 

 at each side of the center. He thinks this pre- 

 vents moldy combs. — L'Apiculteiir. 



G. H. Shirk's weighing device, page 105, is 

 much like mine, only better. It might be an 

 improvement to have that clamp work ice-tong 

 fashion. But, say — as a lifting-machine doesn't 

 that take the lead? 



After soaking candied honey in combs, ex- 

 tract, feed the honey to bees, and give the combs 

 to the bees to clean, p. 114. Why is that better 

 than the simpler way of giving the whole thing 

 to the bees in the first place? 



Not a bit, friend Doolittle, have you forgot- 

 ten about that clover-crop business, p 99. The 

 failure here of the clover harvest occurs oftener 

 with bloom than without it. I'm never very 

 much concerned to know whether there is a good 

 growth of clover, but much concerned to know 

 whether the bees will get any thing from the 

 blossoms that occur. 



The other day my bee-cellar went up fo 60 

 degrees, and the bees scarcely minded it. But 

 the air was about as pure as outdoors. If the 

 cellar had been close, there probably would have 

 been a high old time. [This only emphasizes 

 what we have been trying to teach, that cellared 

 bees can stand considerable high temperatuie pro- 

 viding they have sufficient ventilation. We have 

 had something like 75 colonies in our cellar in 

 March that were very quiet when the temperature 

 was up to 65, and had been for days; but, mark 

 you, there was a large amount of fresh air. — Ed.1 

 Been watching to see whether any one would 

 answer Wesley Foster's advocacy of double-tier 

 shipping-cases, p. 1312. Either his arguments 

 should be answered or the catalogs should be 

 changed, which practically say double-tiersshould 

 never be used J. E. Crane, p. 100, is the first 

 to dare to tackle W. F. ; and as the matter now 

 stands, J. E. C. seems ahead, at least on that one 

 point. But why will not the non-drip paper dish 

 do just as well for the upper as for the lower tier? 

 I insist the catalogs should answer Mr. Foster or 

 change their advice. [See editorial notes else- 

 where in this issue. — Ed.] 



Slowly I'm learning that what's best for me 

 may not be best for the other fellow. Last year 

 a good many of J. E. Crane's best queens failed 

 in May. Very, very rarely does that happen 

 here. I don't know whether it's locality or the 

 bees. But I think it's true that my queens are 

 nearly always superseded at least a little before 

 there is any noticeable failure. So the best thing 

 for me is to leave the superseding of all good 

 queens entirely to the bees, alt^1ough it may not 

 be best for the other fellow. [We do not quite 



see how locality could affect this proposition. 

 We should be inclined to think the difference in 

 results was owing to the difference in strains. 

 Possibly methods of management may have 

 something to do with it. — Ed.] 



[wMr. Editor, as to sending virgins to a fertil- 

 ization station, you say, p. 74, that we can send 

 from California to Maine 3 lbs. for 68 cts , and 

 " so we do not have to wait for parcels post." 

 Well, I don't know that we do. We might af- 

 ford to pay 68 cts. to have a virgin properly fer- 

 tilized. But we ought not to be satisfied until 

 we have parcels post at as low rates as they have 

 across ihe water Certainly we ought to have as 

 good rates for sending to any point in this coun- 

 try as we now ha^e for sending to Germany. 

 Parcels post to Germany costs 12 cts. per lb , so 

 you can send a yz-lh. package of bees to Ger- 

 many for 30 cts., or less than half of 68 cts. Be- 

 sides, we can send by express only where there 

 are express offices; and we ought to have a chance 

 wherever there's a postoffice. [While parcel* 

 post would certainly be a great advantage to the 

 people, and we wish we had it, yet so far as send- 

 ing virgin queens and bees is concerned we can 

 send them from Maine to California by express 

 for a comparatively small figure providing we get 

 the weight of the package and all so that the 

 mails can compete. — Ed.] 



"Probably three-fourths of the localities north 

 of the Ohio River have winters during which the 

 bees can have flights every two or three weeks." 

 That remark of jours, Mr. Editor, p. 98, startled 

 me. Then I got the map, and I found that the 

 mouth of the Ohio River is as far south as lati- 

 tude 37°, so that you might include every thing 

 north of that. Even then it astounds me, it's so 

 utterly different from the situation here at Ma- 

 rengo. I never knew a winter when bees could 

 have a flight every two or three weeks, and ne\er 

 expect to. This winter comps closer to it than 

 ever before. The periods so far without weather 

 for flights have been 32 days, 6 days, and 18 day. 

 The present period may be much longer. But 

 for every winter like this there will be three that 

 confine the bees three to five months at a sfretch 

 I'm not saying you're wrong — only why should 

 this locality be so exceptional? [The statement 

 that three-fourths of the localities north of the 

 Ohio River afford bees a flight every two or three 

 weeks may seem a little strong; but when we re- 

 member that many of the coast localities in New 

 York and New England have a comparatively 

 mild temperature, and when we remember further 

 that there a-e vast areas of country south of Clev e- 

 land, Toledo, and Chicago that are very much 

 milder than that of Marengo, the statement will 

 rot seem so very far out of the way, after all; 

 and especially so if we take into consideration all 

 the country on the Pacific coast on a line run- 

 ning through the mouth of the Ohio River. We 

 had in mind these localities. Probably three- 

 fourths of the bees north of the Ohio River are 

 wintered outdoors. Certainly all of them south 

 of that river are. 



It is probably not far from the truth when we 

 say that three-fourths of the bees north of the 

 great lakes are wintered indoors, for the very good 

 reason that in most of those localities there are no 

 flight-days to speak of during the winter. — Ed] 



