1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



557 



Mr. J. W. Southwood, in the Bee-keepers' 

 Review for August, writes that, when this 

 discussion about red-clover bees came up, 

 he gave it only a passing thought; but queen- 

 breeders, he says, were not slow in taking 

 up the idea, and so they began to rear and 

 advertise queens that would produce bees 

 with long tongues that would gather honey 

 from red clover. At first he was somewhat 

 skeptical, believing it was nothing more nor 

 less than a scheme to sell queens. At this 

 point we will let him tell his own story: 



But not beiner entirely faithless, after several years I 

 purchased one of these queens. Last fall, 1907, I re- 

 queened a number of colonies from that queen, and 

 last season I was delighted in seeing my bees working 

 on red clover, and that, too. so plentifully that on first 

 hearingr them I thought it was a swarm passing over. 



Lest some may think we are putting this 

 in to advertise a strain of our own bees or 

 queens, we will say that our old original red- 

 clover queen died some years ago. We have 

 no strain of the original stock, nor any stock 

 that shows any remarkable qualities when 

 red clover is in bloom, and therefore we 

 have not advertised any red-clover stock for 

 about two years back. 



The question may arise right here as to 

 why we did not develop that strain the same 

 as stock-raisers develop some valuable traits 

 in some individual out of the flock. For the 

 simple reason that we were unable to con- 

 trol the drone parentage. Until bee-keepers 

 can discover some reliable plan for inbreed- 

 ing sister with brother of some particular 

 strain of bees it is practically impossible to 



fo beyond one or two generations. Nature 

 as put up a big barrier against making any 

 radical change in our bees; but we publish 

 this item right here because it illustrates that 

 bees, like every other stock, will "sport;" i. 

 e., develop some desirable trait that is far 

 more potent than in the average stock. If 

 we could perpetuate that superiority by con- 

 trolling the male parentage we should have 

 a stock much superior to any thing we now 

 have. 



The report of Mr. Southwood as given 

 above is only an isolated case. At the time 

 we were furnishing red-clover stock we 

 could produce a good many more just like it. 

 Indeea, we have them on file yet. 



WOOD SPLINTS FOR STAYING FOUNDATION; 



PUTTING WIRE IN FOUNDATION 



AT THE FACTORY. 



In this issue, page 429, our old correspon- 

 dent, Mr. J. A. Green, has furnished an ex- 

 cellent article on wood splints. We endorse 

 all he says regarding the different methods 

 of wiring and the objections to the horizon- 

 tal wires, and the need of some sort of ver- 

 tical stays that will prevent ordinary light 

 brood foundation from stretching so that the 

 queen avoids the elongated cells, or, worse 

 yet, lays drone eggs in them. 



Mr. Green suggests that it would be desir- 

 able to have splints made of some tougher 

 material, which the bees would be less in- 

 clined to gnaw. This will doubtless be hard 



to find unless some one can grow a sort of 

 broomcorn that will give us strands of equal 

 size and yet compete in price with those 

 made of wood. 



From all the evidence gathered this year, 

 it would seem that, for the average bee-keep- 

 er at least, the wood splints should be a little 

 shorter than the inside depth of the frame. 

 Bees are inclined to commence gnawing at 

 the bottom, as Mr. Green says, in order to 

 provide passageways under the combs; and 

 when they once start the job of gnawing they 

 keep it up. There has been quite a little 

 testimony to show that the shorter splints 

 are not molested. 



The ideal arrangement is small vertical 

 iron wires, say No. 36, or, better, No. 40, im- 

 bedded in the foundation while it is being 

 milled at the factory; but there seems to be 

 no feasible plan as yet for accomplishing this 

 and doing it cheaply. It is our opinion, 

 however, that No. 40 size could be used, pro- 

 viding the foundation comes through the 

 mill the wide way instead of the narrow way. 

 Ordinary foundation passes through the rolls 

 lengthwise — that is to say, the rolls are only 

 a trifle longer than the width of the founda- 

 tion. In order to incorporate the wires in 

 the sheet successfully, the rolls should be as 

 long as the standard Langstroth frame, and 

 strands of wire the right distance apart run 

 through the mill with the foundation. If a 

 sheet of wax were passed through the wide 

 way, and chopped off so that it would be 

 just the right depth for a Langstroth frame, 

 it would then be possible to feed in the wires 

 at the time of milling the foundation; but so 

 far no feasible plan of cutting the wires and 

 also the foundation at the same time has yet 

 been presented. 



But then there is another problem that is 

 different to solve. From a mechanical point 

 of view, the narrower a sheet is milled, the 

 more perfect the product. It is doubtful if 

 foundation 17 or 18 inches wide, when it 

 passes through the mill, would be anywhere 

 near the equal of the product that now comes 

 through only 8>^ inches wide. It is well 

 known that, in order to get a good thin or 

 extra thin foundation, the sheets must pass 

 through very short rolls, or just wide enough 

 to give a sheet to fill out the inside depth of 

 the standard sections. Now, then, if we 

 should attempt to roll brood foundation the 

 other way to, so it would be 18 inches wide, 

 we would increase our difficulty of milling 

 very materially. 



The average bee-keeper, perhaps, has not 

 considered this problem as it confronts the 

 foundation-maker. We have had the thing 

 in our mind'seyefor a number of years back; 

 but taking everything into consideration, 

 the Dr. Miller foundation-splints perhaps of- 

 fer the best solution against the stretching 

 of foundation while it is being drawn out by 

 the bees in the hive. 



In the meantime we should be pleased to 

 get further reports from those who have 

 used the splints, especially telling how far 

 they have been satisfactory and to what ex- 

 tent they have failed. 



