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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



"The prize was given by the Ontario Bee- 

 keepers' Association. It occupied a space 

 12x20 ft.," page 658. They give big prizes 

 over there. 



To EXTRACT tender combs, don't uncap the 

 second side till you have extracted most of 

 the honey in the first side. — Bienen- Voter, 

 268. How is that? 



I PUT combs with pollen over an excluder, 

 as C. E. Adams says, p. 635, and it was not 

 long till it was all cleaned out. But I don't 

 think any of it was carried down ; it was eaten. 



I BACK DOWN, Mr. Editor. I tried feeding 

 sugar and water 3 to 1, and it's too hard to 

 dissolve. For late feeding I'd take 2l4 to 1, 

 heated, with the acid; but if not too late your 

 2 to 1, cold stirred, is all right. 



Rev. Burghardt, Leipz. Bztg., 155, speaks 

 approvingly of the American custom of allow- 

 ing no queen to enter her second winter. 

 Does one American bee-keeper in five follow 

 that custom? Does one in ten? 



John Major, p. 592, I think I would have 

 to use excluders if I did not fill my sections 

 with worker foundation. The queen is coax- 

 ed up by the drone-cells in a section not en- 

 tirely filled with worker foundation. 



If boiling splints an hour, as Geo. J. Friess 

 suggests, p. 629, will prevent gnawing, it's a 

 big item. [We should be pleased to get 

 further reports from those who have tried 

 boiling the splints for an hour. — Ed.] 



Replying to F. D. Spencer, I don't believe 

 foul brood comes from foundation, but from 

 surrounding diseased colonies or diseased 

 honey. The quickest way to cure is to throw 

 on foundation. I don't know, but I've some 

 question whether bait sections will carry the 

 disease, especially as no honey is left in them. 

 But it might not be safe with American. 



I've tried no little to have a colony empty 

 sections without having bees of other colo- 

 nies get at them — never succeeded satisfac- 

 torily. I tried the Greiner plan, p. 653, only 

 I put the super in front instead of behind the 

 hive. The chief result was a pint of so of 

 dead bees under the super. Friend Greiner, 

 it looks as if your plan ought to work. 

 Thanks. 



" I DON'T think I've averaged two natural 

 swarms a year that I hived in the orthodox 

 manner." I said that, p. 656, and ye editor 

 doesn't understand. Let me explain. I've 

 more swarms than that, but I don't hive them 

 as separate swarms. The queens being clip- 

 ped, the swarms return, and then we do 

 something to the old colony. In reality, how- 

 ever, there are very few swarms most years. 



Bees are cheap in Germany. In Septem- 

 ber Leipz. Bztg. I counted 24 advertisements 

 offering 4 or sTbs. of bees (no hive or combs) , 

 with laying queen, for $1.00 — some less. 

 [Selling bees without combs or brood is be- 



§ inning to be a new industry in the United 

 tates. It has the merit that it probably 

 eliminates all possibility of transmitting foul 

 brood. — Ed.] 



DOOLITTLE has never known bees to gath- 

 er basswood pollen. J. L. Byer says, Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, 298, that this year he had 

 no honey from basswood, but for ten days 

 the trees were swarming with hundreds of 

 bees, all laden with light-yellow pollen. 

 "Bees never do anything invariably," said 

 Mrs. Ellen S. Tupper. [See Canadian Notes, 

 page 592.— Ed.] 



MORLEY Pettit, the Ontario Provincial 

 Apiarist, carries about with him a sample of 

 European foul brood, "nicely cased up in a 

 small well matched frame, with glass on 

 both sides. — Canadian Bee Journal, 246. Neat 

 idea, only the learner can not easily enjoy (?) 

 the odor — an important item, especially with 

 the American brand. The European affair 

 seems to be getting quite a foothold in Cana- 

 da. 



I'M thankful to say that a late flow made 

 my hives heavy for winter, and gave me 1000 

 sections besides. I 'd rather have a late flow 

 to fill up than a much larger amount of early 

 surplus. [After the failure of the honey crop 

 during June and July, and the visitation of 

 black brood, this is encouraging. We hope, 

 doctor, that the young clovers are as abun- 

 dant around Marengo as they are around Me- 

 dina. — Ed.] 



Ye editor thinks, p. 674, that "as a gen- 

 eral thing there will be enough drone-cells 

 scattered around here and there in the brood- 

 nest so that, ordinarily, we would not think 

 the queen would be inclined to go above." 

 My guess would be that, unless the number 

 of drone-cells be unprofitably large, the 

 queen will be nearly as much inclined to go 

 above as if no drone-comb were in the brood- 

 chamber. Sections full of worker founda- 

 tion offer no temptation for the queen to go 

 above. [You are doubtless right. As you 

 have made this more of a study we humbly 

 defer to your opinion. — Ed.] 



Delos Wood wants me to read the pictures 

 on p. 603. Awhile ago ye editor, in a scrap 

 with me, insisted on holding his smoker as 

 if he were pigeon-toed in his hands. On p. 

 603 what looks like the same gentleman 

 makes four appearances holding his smoker 

 in the civilized fashion I contended for. Is 

 it a change of heart, or what? [If you will 

 turn again to page 603 you will see that the 



Eosition of the operator is such that it will 

 e more natural for him to grab the smoker 

 at the side than at the top. In Fig. 9, for ex- 

 ample, it would be almost impossible to hold 

 the smoker in any other way, and yet be able 

 to look up under the super. No, when ne- 

 cessity demands that the smoker be handled 

 in some other way than that which we gen- 

 erally pick it up, we use that "other way." 

 —Ed.] 



Does young brood make bees destroy vir- 

 gins? Editor Hutchinson says that in his 

 years of comm,erci9l queen-rearing he soon 



