358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



is evidently something that appeared from 

 the pen of Mr. W. K. Morrison, one of our 

 department writers. As a matter of fact, wc 

 do not know whether there is a ferment that 

 inverts the sugar in the nectar before the 

 bees get hold of it or not. — Ed.] 



Drone comb for extracting-supers is ob- 

 jected to, page 349, because of the lot of 

 drones reared. To be sure, you can avoid 

 that by using excluders. But another objec- 

 tion remains. If there is drone comb in, the 

 super and none in the brood-chamber, the 

 bees are inclined to hold empty at least part 

 of the drone comb in the super for the queen 

 to lay in. Besides this amount of idle comb, 

 may it not have at least a little tendency to 

 crowd honey into the brood-chamber? [We 

 think you are right. — Ed.] 



Never before did I know a season with so 

 few flight days up to May 4. I left the bees 

 severely alone. Scarcely a hive was opened 

 till May 8. Then I was surprised to find so 

 little brood present. But how they did boom 

 with the warmer days! If I had fed or done 

 something else to stimulate brood-rearing I 

 might now be bragging how much I had ac- 

 complished. Give bees abundance — not 

 plenty, but abundance — of honey in spring, 

 as Doolittle and Townsend say in last Glean- 

 ings, and let them "gang their ain gait." 



Who took that picture of a foul-broody 

 comb, p. 341? I've spent a long time admir- 

 ing it as a work of art. [This was taken by 

 our junior editor, H. H. Root. The general 

 public may not know it, but we have a fully 

 equipped photograph gallery, three cameras, 

 a modern up-to-date dark-room, and men 

 who understand the art of taking pictures. 

 One camera alone, a little 4x5, cost $150. 

 The lens, no larger than that in most $5.00 

 cameras, is worth over $75.00. To run an il- 

 lustrated journal such an equipment is almost 

 a necessity. — Ed.] 



Conflict — decided conflict — between ye 

 editor and this deponent, p. 262. I don't say 

 ye editor is wrong. I can only give my own 

 experience. For 48 years I have taken bees 

 from cellar only at a time when they could 

 fly. I have not observed bad results, even 

 when taken on different days, although near- 

 ly always the whole have been taken out the 

 same day. I do not think "the strong are 

 apt to draw from the weak," if, immediately 

 after being taken from the cellar, the en- 

 trances are closed down to about an inch. 

 It maybe that "if there happens to be a 

 heavy wind it is liable to force the bulk of 

 the flying bees toward the leeward side." I 

 don't know. I never took bees out in a 

 heavy wind. Couldn't be hired to. [See 

 what J. E. Crane says on this subject in this 

 issue. — Ed.] 



Some think that sections with tops and 

 bottoms exposed in T supers become so bad- 

 ly propolized that they can not be well clean- 

 ed. It may do no harm to mention that the 

 sections so highly spoken of on page 328 were 

 all produced in T supers. [Nearly all the 

 sections of honey produced in this country 

 have their tops exposed while on the 



hive. At one time the wide frame was used 

 largely. This has almost entirely gone out 

 of fashion, and in its place has come the sec- 

 tion-holder, or topless wide frames, single- 

 tier, and the T super. In either case the 

 bees can propolize the top of the sections, 

 and they do to some extent; but it is quickly 

 scraped off. The Dr. Miller honey that we 

 saw at Hildreth & Segelken's warehouse was 

 not only very pretty and nice, but the tops 

 of some of the sections showed that they had 

 been most carefully scraped, while the rest 

 showed they never had been scraped because 

 the bees had put no propolis or stains on them 

 in the first place. As a matter of fact, when 

 honey comes in with a rush there will be very 

 few propolis-marks and but little travel-stain 

 on the sections, so no scraping would be re- 

 quired. — Ed.] 



I wish we might know the bottom facts 

 about queenless bees and pollen. If a colo- 

 ny is carrying in little or no pollen when 

 others are carrying in abundance we are al- 

 most certain that it is queenless. But if it is 

 carrying in pollen, can we feel as certain 

 that it is queenright? I doubt it. We know 

 that a queenless colony is likely to have its 

 combs heavily laden with pollen. That makes 

 it pretty clear that, for a time at least, pollen 

 was carried in when it was no longer need- 

 ed. As a sidelight I may mention that, years 

 ago, when I caged queens in their hives for 

 ten days or so, the combs became pollen- 

 clogged. [After Mr. Townsend's article was 

 put ni type we went out into the bee-yard 

 where all the hives were marked, whether 

 queenless or not. Dandelions, some fruit- 

 bloom, and mustard were in bloom. The 

 bees were carrying in pollen to quite an ex- 

 tent. It was apparent, just as Mr. Townsend 

 says, that those colonies that had queens 

 were carrying in more pollen, and were more 

 active at the entrance, other things being 

 equal, than those that were queenless. But 

 queenless bees do carry in some pollen, and 

 under some conditions a good deal of it; but 

 whether any one would in any case be able 

 to draw the line unerringly between queen- 

 less and queenright colonies by the amount 

 of pollen carried in at the entrance is some- 

 thing of a question unless he also associates 

 with pollen-carrying the general activity at 

 the entrance. 



There is another factor that has a good deal 

 to do with the matter. At certain seasons of 

 the year there is very little honey to be had, 

 but considerable pollen. Take, for example, 

 the time when corn is just tasseling out. 

 IDuring that time corn affords very little if 

 any honey, while it affords a good deal of 

 pollen. When pollen is plentiful at such 

 times one might not be able to distinguish a 

 queenless from a queenright colony. At 

 another time honey will be very abundant — 

 so much so that the bees, if they were al- 

 ready well supplied with pollen, might not 

 be gathering very much of it, whether queen- 

 less or not; although when there is brood- 

 rearing going on there is almost sure to be 

 some pollen coming in no matter how much 

 honey is being gathered. — Ed.] 



