490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 15 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



M. BONHOTE, Apiculfeur, 27;^, says there is 

 less swarming when drawn combs are used 

 in extracting-supers than when foundation 

 is used. Of course. 



Wesley Foster, it may be bees don't al- 

 ways do alike; but when I've put an empty 

 section-super under a partly filled one in a 

 waning flow, the bees have kept on with the 

 old super and left the lower one untouched. 



In spite of what poets say, says Gaston 

 Bonnier, L'Apiculteur, p. 248, bees are never 

 seen on roses. Oh! but they are here, pro- 

 fessor! In times of dearth they trouble by 

 tearing open my rosebuds, and this year they 

 worked busily on Crimson Kamblers. 



R. C. AiKiN, American Bee Journal, p. 241, 

 dares to question the venerable belief that 

 "no bees work so hard as a newly hived 

 swarm." He says there is not much activity 

 until sufficient comb is built to receive eggs, 

 nectar, and pollen. I might venture to add 

 that there is no marvelous activity for some 

 little time before the swarm issues. 



Replying to footnote, page 445, it is well 

 known that in an upper story comb will be 

 built down to the bottom-bar more readily 

 than in the lower story. The bottom is out 

 of the cluster, slower work is done there, 

 and if honey is coming in slowly the bees 

 may begin gnawing the lower end of a splint, 

 and, having begun, they are likely to follow 

 it up. 



Two MEN whom I hold in high esteem, one 

 on each side of the big pond, have said that 

 when queenright bees start queen-cells they 

 select larv(S over which they construct the 

 cells. One of the things that I feel pretty 

 sure I know about bees is that they don't al- 

 ways do that way, for I've seen hundreds of 

 queen-cells containing eggs. What proof is 

 there that they ever do? In other words, 

 when bees make preparations for a prime 

 swarm, or for superseding a queen, do they 

 ever start a queen-cell with a larva in it? 



Allen Latham, your plan of waxing foun- 

 dation to bottom-lDar when using foundation- 

 splints, p. 411, is better than split bottom-bar 

 without waxing. I now use both. The split 

 bar makes it easy to have a true fit. Wax- 

 ing, I think, helps to prevent gnawing under 

 the foundation. [We are getting quite a 

 number of favorable reports regarding the 

 use of the Dr. Miller foundation-splints. We 

 should be glad to hear from others who have 

 tried them. It has been found in a few cases 

 that the bees will gnaw the wooden splints, 

 and to some extent tear away the foundation 

 around them. What we should like to get 

 hold of now is the conditions under which bees 

 will do this and when they will not. — Ed.] 



The Canadian Bee Journal quotes a Straw, 

 page 330, with Editor Root's argument, "If 

 bom honey and pollen are present in the 



same blossom, it would seem very strange if 

 the bees ignore the honey and take only pol- 

 len." To this it might be replied, " It would 

 seem more strange if the greater portion of 

 the bees should ignore the pollen and take 

 only honey." And we know that's just what 

 happens. But Editor Hurley comes to the 

 scratch by saying he watched a bee sinking 

 its head down deeply into each flower, the 

 pollen meanwhile accumulating on its legs. 

 Now some one may say, "But the bee was 

 getting only enough nectar to stick together 

 its load of pollen, with perhaps a little for 

 lunch." 



Swan Anderson understands that founda- 

 tion-splints can be used only when there are 

 split bottom-bars or foundation is waxed to 

 bottom-bar. Friend Anderson, there's no 

 advantage in a split bottom bar except that 

 it makes it easy to have an exact fit at the 

 bottom. I'd rather have a plain bottom-bar 

 than spHt, if foundation is cut true and wax- 

 ed to bottom-bar. But either way is too 

 much trouble, he thinks, when he must an- 

 nually throw his bees on to foundation be- 

 cause negligent neighbors keep up the sup- 

 ply of foul brood. Well, even if you use 

 only starters coming part way down, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Crowther, in whom I have much 

 faith, you may still use splints. Please try 

 them long enough to reach from top-bar to 

 within >2 inch of lowei* edge of foundation. 

 [We should be pleased to get general reports 

 from those who have used the Dr. Miller 

 foundation-splints. Many thousands of them 

 have been sold for staying foundation; and 

 if this item reaches the eyes of any of the 

 users, we should be pleased to have them 

 give us a report of how they like them. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, why don't you look how bees 

 fly for yourself, instead of making me go on 

 a hot day to look for you? Well, I'm noth- 

 ing if not accommodating, so I went and 

 watched the bees playing. Nearly every 

 bee, as it flew back from the entrance, went 

 uphill, but some seemed to go downhill and 

 some on a level; but it was hard for me to be 

 sure, they darted so quickly and in such a 

 confused way. Then it occurred to me that 

 the entrance being so low they were largely 

 compelled to rise as they went backward. 

 So I found a place where they were "up in 

 the air." There they flew backward, most- 

 ly down hill, and some on a level. How do 

 Medina bees do it? [Why, bless your heart, 

 doctor, we have been watching the bees fly- 

 ing at the entrance of a number of colonies, 

 before we prepared the footnote to the ques- 

 tion of our correspondent who asked if bees 

 could fly backward. We saw no cases where 

 the bees flew backward on a horizontal line 

 like a humming-bird; but we did see them 

 slide backward ?.s if down hill. We also 

 saw them turn abruptly about and fly in the 

 opposite direction. We have been out again 

 and looked over the entrances of a number 

 of colonies, but we have not found any that 

 go back on the same level. May be if we 

 look long enough we will see exactly what 

 you find. — Ed.] 



