344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE^CULTURE. 



JUME 1 



are so old, misshapen, and crook- 

 ed] that you almost need a crow- 

 bar in order to pry one out. 

 Brood- rearing is confined to a 

 space about as large as your hand 

 in the lower part of the combs, 

 while the rest of the space is clog- 

 ged with masses of honey so old 

 that it is fairly petrified — the 

 poor bees can never use it, for 

 nothing short of a hatchet will 

 make any impression on it. 



Then there is a popular notion 

 that bees retjuire little or no at- 

 tention, and that the bee keeper 

 has done his whole duty when he 

 puts on a super of sections each 

 year. This let-alone plan is the 

 worst possible policy where bee 

 forage is meager, and, consequent- 

 ly, where the bees need to be coax- 

 ed to do their best. It reminds 

 me of the sick man who, when 

 the doctor asked him if he bathed 

 regularly, replied, "Yes, doctor, regularly — ev- 

 ery Fourth of July! " 



Many of these bee-keepers (?) leave the super 

 on all winter, giving the hives no protection 

 whatever, so that with the cold empty space 

 above them it is a wonder that the bees survive 

 at all. 



Then, again, hives are never examined and 

 brood-combs taken out. The bee-keeper knows 

 nothing of what is going on in the hives; and if 

 the bees were originally Italians they have long 

 ago degenerated into blacks. Some of these men 

 never saw a queen, and do not know what one 

 looks like, because the hives have descended from 

 father to son, even to the third and fourth gener- 

 ation. Speak to such a man about buying pure 

 Italian queens and he would have " heart failure. " 



No wonder foul brood flourishes and colonies 

 are eaten up by mice and moths. It is condi- 

 tions like these that discourage the men who 

 have fine strains of Italians. We can not get 

 queens purely mated on account of so many 

 black drones. 



Of course. Eastern Massachusetts is far differ- 

 ent from othtr sections of the country where bees 

 have access to hundreds of acres of clover, alfal- 

 fa, buckwheat, basswood, and other bee forage. 

 This is a poor honey country, and we humbly 

 take off our hats to the men who are getting 200 

 or more pounds of comb honey per colony in 

 favorable localities. To tell the truth, we are 

 too modest to intrude our own "small potatoes" 

 when the professionals are securing such large re- 

 turns in other parts of the country. If we get 50 

 pounds of comb honey per colony we are doing 

 fairly well; but there are some men who have 

 produced 95 and even 150 pounds on their best 

 colony; but the latter was a phenomenal yield. 



Massachusetts bee-keepers should cheer up, 

 discard their antiquated hives, put their bees in 

 modern hives, to get the most out of our short 

 honey-flows; give winter protection, use up-to- 

 date methods, and then they will get fair results. 



Ipswich, Mass. 



[You will find some of the conditions you de- 

 scribe ID many other States as wtll as in Masia- 



POUDER's new BEE-SUPPLV and HONEV house Al S5V MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS AVESUE, INDIANAPOLIS, IMD. 



chusetts. Such methods anywhere bring dis- 

 credit to the industry. — Ed.] 



POUDER'S NEW WAREHOUSE. 



BY WALTER S. POUDER. 



Four car-lines pass my door — Columbia Ave- 

 nue line; Brightwood line; East Tenth Street 

 line, and Eighteenth Street line. I am located 

 seven blocks east of the postoffice, or three blocks 

 further out than my old location. 



My new storeroom is 20 feet front and 120 

 deep, with concrete basement 10 feet deep. I 

 have a freight elevator of two-ton capacity, elec- 

 tric power, making the trip in 25 seconds, and 

 stopping automatically at either floor. In un- 

 loading a car of goods we use an incline from 

 the sidewalk where goods slide down into the 

 basement. Walls are enameled white; maple 

 floor; lighting and ventilating are superb. The 

 elevator in descending trips a switch which turns 

 on electric lights; and as it comes up it trips the 

 lights out again. I have every modern conven- 

 ience for liquefying and bottling honey — water, 

 gas, and electricity. Some of my friends here 

 refer to the place as " the Bee Palace." 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



HOW YOUNG AS WELL AS OLD BEES 

 GO TO THE FIELDS. 



How the Intelligence of New Honey in 

 the Fields is Communicated to the In- 

 mates of the Hive; an Interesting and 

 Valuable Series of Observations. 



BY THE LATE E. L. PRATT. 



[The lollowine article was written only two or three weeks 

 before the death of Mr. Pratt. This contribution to our present- 

 day literature and science we regard as exceptionally interesting 

 as well as valuable. In a measure it upsets some of our old the- 

 ories, and likewise, in a measure, it confirms some of the work 

 of other writers. 



It was Mr. Pratt's habit, when he had leiiare,to sit and watch 

 his bees by the hour. This habit continaed over a period of 

 many years, and save him a direct knowledge of the domestic 

 tconomy of the hive poiietied by bat very few. 



