594 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct, 1 



General 

 Correspondence 



COMD-BUILDING. 



Full Sheets of Foundation are Absolutely 

 Necessary from the Standpoint of Econ- 

 omy; Combs Built Better in Supers than 

 in Brood-chamber. 



BY E. M. GIBSON, 



[Our readers will not forget that the writer of this 

 article is one of our extensive producers. His business 

 is on such a scale that he runs three eight-frame pow- 

 er extracting-outfits. The statements of one so exten- 

 sively engaged in the business should have some 

 weight.— Ed.] 



With due deference and kindly feeling 

 toward those who differ with me, I would 

 say that the inexperienced should by all 

 means use full sheets of foundation. Enough 

 more honey will be secured to pay for the 

 foundation, the resulting combs will have 

 few or no drone-cells, and if spHnts are used 

 in the way that Dr. Miller recommends the 

 combs will be almost perfect. I bless the 

 doctor every day as I look at those combs 

 built clear down to the bottom-bar with no 

 buckling or elongated cells — a result that it 

 is impossible for me to get by the use of wires. 

 I would pay more than $L00 a pound for 

 foundation, if I could not get it for less, and 

 I would gladlj^ pay 25 cts. apiece for drawn 

 combs, and furnish the foundation from 

 which they are built. No doubt those who 

 believe that wax production is involuntary 

 on the part of the bees may think that this is 

 an exaggeration ; but this is my experience, 

 and I do not believe that locality has any 

 bearing on the question either. 



It is so simple to demonstrate this point 

 that no one need to be in doubt more than 

 one year. Take, for instance, 15 colonies. 

 Give to five of them full sheets of foundation; 

 to another five, drawn combs, and allow the 

 remaining five to build their own combs. 

 Now note the difference in the amount of 

 honey produced, also in the number of drone- 

 cells and in the quality of the combs. It 

 goes without saying, that colonies in such a 

 test ought to be nearly alike in strength, in 

 the quality of the queens, etc. 



I started an apiary this year in as good a 

 location as can be found in this section. All 

 the colonies had young queens, and they 

 were in better condition in every way than 

 the two other apiaries, except that they had 

 full sheets of foundation in the supers, where- 

 as the colonies in the two other yards had 

 the drawn combs. This yard produced one- 

 third less honey than the two others which 

 had the drawn combs. 



This has been a poor year in California, 

 and the difference is more perceptible, al- 

 though the results ai'e the same, even in a 

 food year. I have had similar experiences 

 eretofore, but this year's record has dem- 

 onstrated beyond a doubt that it pays me to 

 use full sheets of foundation. I use all the 



wax that I produce, and have bought hun- 

 dreds of pounds besides. I like to have the 

 combs built in the supers as far as possible, 

 as the bees do better work than they do at 

 comb-building in the brood-nest; and if any 

 thing goes wrong with the comb it will be 

 detected and remedied better in the super. 

 I had foul brood five years ago, and nearly 

 all my combs were built in the brood-nest, 

 and they were a poor lot. I am getting rid 

 of these as fast as possible. 



WAX-SECRETION NOT INVOLUNTARY. 



I am convinced beyond a doubt that the 

 conditions for the production of wax by the 

 bees are made in the same manner that the 

 conditions are made for egg-laying by the 

 queen; that is, by the quality and quantity of 

 food consumed. It would be just as reason- 

 able to consider the laying of the queen in- 

 voluntary as to consider wax-production in- 

 voluntary. I have seen a queen void eggs 

 promiscuously for a short time after condi- 

 tioiis were made so that she had no cells to 

 deposit them in; but this was for only a short 

 time; and, in the same way, it is probable 

 that wax scales on the bees may be in evi- 

 dence for a short time. 



Jamul, Cal. 



FOREIGN AND AMERICAN METHODS 

 COMPARED, 



BY F, GREINER. 



The American bee-keeper is apt to take it 

 for granted that we are leading the rest of 

 the world in the apicultural profession. The 

 idea has even been expressed in print, and 

 the outside world has not well received it. 

 Indeed, it would have been more becoming 

 if the thought had never been uttered, even 

 if true. Perhaps it can not be denied that a 

 certain class of bee-keepers in different 

 countries are looking toward America as set- 

 ting the pace. We have brought out and 

 adopted entirely different hives, developed 

 unique methods, and implements of a new 

 order ; different practices have gained a 

 foothold here not common in other countries, 

 but it must not be forgotten that conditions 

 here differ totally from those in other lands, 

 and that other conditions beget and demand 

 other practices. It would be hard, for in- 

 stance, to induce the bee-keeper of Northern 

 Germany, where the heath furnishes honey 

 abundantly, to adopt expensive sectional 

 hives, costly sections and shipping-cases, as 

 long as he has a much more simple and inex- 

 pensive arrangement from hive to shipping- 

 case than we ever thought of having, even 

 when we were using the soap-box on top of 

 the box hive for a super. 



The professional heath bee-keeper has his 

 hundreds of straw hives, keeps hundreds of 

 colonies, and lets them swarm to the heath 

 bees' sweet content. He usually accepts 

 every swarm, and hives each into the cone- 

 shaped straw hive. The heath furnishes an 

 abundance of dark gummy honey, and en- 

 ables eveij late swarms to lay in quite a sup- 



