710 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



BEES CARRY AN EGG THROUGH AN EXCLUDER AND THEN 

 START A CELL IN A SUPER. 



I think I have positive evidence that bees carry eggs 

 to the near or remote parts of the hive. Last May I 

 placed on hive No. 10 a Danzenbaker hive-body, with 

 full combs, above the queen-excluding board. Later I 

 raised this body and placed a comb-honey super be- 

 tween it and the hive proper, leaving the queen- 

 excluding board on top of the brood-chamber. A few 

 days later I removed the Danzenbaker hive-body, now 

 on top of the honey-super, for the purpose of extract- 

 ing. To my surprise I found a ripe queen-cell on the 

 middle frame. There were no other eggs nor was 

 there any brood on this frame nor on any of the other 

 frames, all being fully supplied with honey capped. 



Now, this hive-body which I thus used as an extract- 

 ing-super above a queen-excluding board, and upon 

 which the ripe queen-cell was found, had stood in the 

 honey-house all winter, and was taken directly there- 

 from to hive No. 10. I do not think it reasonable that 

 the queen found her way through the excluding- 

 board, deposited this one egg, and then returned to 

 the hive-body through the excluder. I can draw but 

 one conclusion— the egg was carried up into the super 

 by the bees. 



Iowa Falls, la., Oct. 11. T. F. RiGG. 



[In our back volumes a number of instances were 

 given showing that, under some conditions, bees do 

 unquestionably move eggs from one part of the hive to 

 another; but so far as we know they never do this ex- 

 cept to supply a queen-cell. 



One or two cases were given where it appeared that 

 hopelessly queenless colonies somehow purloined an 

 egg from some neighboring hive. No one saw a bee 

 carry the egg from one hive to the other; but the 

 queen reared in one of the hives was of a different 

 race from that in the hive.— Ed.] 



HOW FAR WILL BEES FLY FOR HONEY? 



I have a lot of basswood on my place, a good deal of 

 it being old bush, and some of it large second growth. 

 I seldom see any of my bees on this, but there are 

 many wild honey-bees of different kinds. I live some 

 three miles from the heavy bush to the south, and two 

 and a half miles from the one at the north. Now, dur- 

 ing the first ten days of the basswood flow last year 

 we had a south wind nearly all the time, and I suppose 

 that ninety-nine out of every hundred bees came from 

 the south. A hive on the scales during this time 

 showed a gain of from 10 to 17M lbs. I believe that the 

 scent has more to do with the flight of bees than any 

 thing else. The first day that the wind blew from the 

 north I could see bees passing me, traveling north. I 

 followed them for at least two miles, when I had to 

 turn off the road. The basswood bush was still half a 

 mile beyond. When I reached home I found very few 

 bees coming from the south. 



milkweed NOT HARD ON BEES. 



Some time ago some one spoke about milkweed be- 

 ing hard on the bees; but it can not be the same as the 

 milkweed we have here, which some call cottonweed. 

 I have about one acre of this. It yields very heavily, 

 and the bees are on it from early morning until dark. 

 I have seen as many as five or six bees on one bunch 

 of the blossoms, and there are often from four to six or 

 even S3ven bunches on one plant. The bees seem to 

 leave every thing else for it. They do not work on 

 clover anywhere near the milkweed. The bees are 

 often so thick on the milkweed that no, one will walk 

 through it. Of course, one acre is not enough to make 

 any great difference in the honey yield from my fifty 

 colonies. 



Donaldson, Ont. Charles Blake. 



SPLINTS MADE FROM CANE FXSH-POLES. 



Seeing a good many complaints from bee-keepers 

 about bees gnawing splints out of brood-comb I am 

 constrained to give my way of making splints that are 

 absolutely ungnawable. 



Take your fish-pole of last season (the kind com- 

 monly called cane-pole, that grows in any swamp 

 south of the Mason and Dixon line, and which can be 

 bought for ten cents in any place), and saw it into the 

 desired lengths, not using the joints. These lengthscan 

 be split up into as small pieces as desired. They split 



like ribbon, are 'as hard as iron, and very stiff and 

 springy. The cane is so hard that it will turn the edge 

 of an ordinary pocket-knife should one undertake to 

 whittle it like wood. It won't whittle, but will split in 

 any desired size. Boil them in wax, as Dr. Miller ad- 

 vises, and lay them on the foundation while hot. The 

 best instrument with which to handle the hot splints is 

 a pair of dental tweezers, as they are longer and more 

 pointed than the ordinary kind. 

 Grand Junction, Col., Sept. 21. R. D. Tait. 



[We are quite sure that cane would be a good substi- 

 tute for sawed soft-wood splints. Strips of cane such 

 as are used in making chair-bottoms have already 

 been suggested. We doubt whether splints could be 

 produced very cheaply from fish-poles, on account of 

 the great amount of labor involved; but, at the same 

 time, this idea offers an opportunity for any one to try 

 the material, and report. — Ed.] 



A STRONG COLONY ABSORBS THE BEES OF A WEAKER 

 ONE. 



Summer before last I took three colonies of bees to 

 the farm and put them in an attic where there was al- 

 ready a very strong colony. After a time I noticed 

 that the three new colonies were very weak in bees, 

 although the hives contained plenty of stores. These 

 three kept getting weaker, while the original hive, a 

 Jumbo, got so populous that the bees loafed on the out- 

 side and along the floor. Finally, it dawned on me 

 that the bees all coming in together got acquainted on 

 the window-sill; and as they all flew in and out the 

 same window, the window-sill was then the alighting- 

 board instead of the front boards of the hives. I learn- 

 ed from this, that if I wished to keep colonies inside I 

 must provide a separate exit for each one. 



Carthage, Mo. Benj. C. Auten. 



[Your experience is not unusual. Where two or 

 three colonies are put with entrances close together, 

 and one is very much stronger than the others, the 

 strongest one is apt to draw from the weaker. The 

 reason for this is that, when the bees are out flying, 

 the strongest colony will make the strongest demon- 

 stration. The young bees that are out for a playspell, 

 not having thoroughly marked their location, will join 

 the big crowd, and become members of the big colony. 

 It is, therefore, desirable to have colonies located far 

 enough apart, with distinguishing objects like small 

 shrubbery or trees near by so that each hive shall hold 

 its own bees. 



When you placed the three colonies in the attic the 

 entrances were probably close together, and looked 

 very much alike. It is not at all strange, then, that you 

 found the big colony growing stronger and the weak 

 ones weaker.— Ed.] 



HIVES OF CONCRETE. 



I take pleasure in handing you herewith a clipping 

 from a recent issue of a paper called China, Glass, and 

 Lamps, published at 121 Fourth Avenue, Pittsburg, Pa. 

 Probably this has already been brought to your no- 

 tice by your regular clipping bureau; but as I have 

 not seen any mention of it in Gleanings I thought I 

 would send it to you. 



Whitestone, L. I., Oct. 26. A. LOEHR. 



[The clipping referred to is as follows:] 



The object aiiioni? others here is to provide a hive of con- 

 crete or cemeut whose walls are thick enough to exclude heat 

 or cold, and whose interior will be large enough to receive 

 any desired form of honej -frames, and which will afford at Its 

 entrance ventilating means, eleanlng-out means and means 

 for the passage of the bees into and out of the hive. 



[The idea of making a concrete bee-hive has been 

 made the subject of a number of patents. We never 

 considered the principle worth any thing, because the 

 stone hive would chill the bees to death. It might 

 answer in a hot country; but even there, any thing 

 like stone or cement would convey the hot rays of the 

 sun clear through its walls to the cluster. A hive 

 must be made of some material that is a non-conduct- 

 or of heat and cold. The ordinary wooden hives are- 

 much better when made double-walled, the walls filled 

 with some porous material that will hold air in small 

 pockets, and at the same time prevent any circula- 

 tion of air. If, therefore, we go clear to the other 

 extreme and make a hive of some heat-conducting 

 material like stone or metal we are doing the very 

 thing that violates all accepted principles of bee-hive 

 construction.— Ed.] 



brushing RATHER THAN SHAKING OUR FOUL-BROODY 

 COMBS. 



Please accept my thanks for your indorsement of my 

 method of handling bees infected with foul brood— p. 



