794 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



A vei-j' little oil rubbed on the hands and 

 knife when cleaning sections will prevent 

 propolis from sticking, and save time and 

 temper. » # « 



It is doubtful whether any thing so valu- 

 able has ever been written on the subject of 

 the pi'oper time to put on sections as the 

 write-up by G. M. Doolittle, p. 521, Aug. 1. 



* « « . 



On page 564, Aug. 15, in a paragraph on 

 the pollination of alfalfa by the bees I 

 read of the production of new varieties by 

 the hybridization of colonies. It should 

 read " clovers " instead of " colonies." 



* • « 



Editorial mention is made on page 558 

 of hive-tongs, and illustrations are given on 

 pp. 573, 574, Aug. 15. But I have no use 

 for tongs. I prefer to have hives with 

 frames that are movable rather than to use 



an extra tool. 



* * « 



I am glad, Mr. Editor, that you could get 

 out among the bees during the busy season 

 this year. If there is any thing that gives 

 a fellow new life and enthusiasm it is to 

 " get out among the bees " when honey is 



coming in fast. 



* * * 



The caution given by A. H. Snowberger, 

 page 579, Aug. 15, about hiving stray 

 swarms on old combs is well worth remem- 

 bering. There is certainly danger of foul 

 brood if such swarms are hived on combs. 

 Better give them three or four days in an 

 empty hive. 



That new method of introducing queens 

 by smoke will be of great value if it proves 

 as good when honey is scarce as it lias when 

 honey is abundant at Medina. A method 

 that is simple and quick and which will 

 succeed ninety-nine times in a hundred, at 

 all seasons, is of great value. 



* » » 



On page 565 Mr. Chadwick tells how his 

 bees have become accustomed to children. 

 I am sure he is right, as I find bees are not 

 nearW as " sassy " where they are brought 

 up among folks. The most disagreeable 

 bees I find in inspecting are those that have 

 never been handled. Oh, my ! but aren't 

 some of them cross? 



What is said in that paragraph by J. L. 

 Bj^er, page 518, on the value of an abun- 

 dance of old stores is not overdrawn. Every 

 young beekeeper would do well to cut it out 



and paste it on the .door of his bee-house; 

 and, better still, to practice it. I agree with 

 Mr. Bj^er as to reeord-keei^ing. Very full 

 records take too much time. I have found 

 a board three or four feet long and five 

 inches wide, with the numbers of the hives 

 on it, ample to record all I wish. 

 * * « 



I am glad to see Mr. Niver's name head- 

 ing an article on page 576 ; and he makes a 

 good point, too, on straining honey. I have 

 tried several ways myself, but have not yet 

 found any that was satisfaetdiy but strain- 

 ing when hot through cotton cloth. The 

 condition in which we often find extracted 

 honey that we buy is not very satisfactory, 

 with bits of wax, leg's, and wings of bees, 

 and sometimes larger portions of their an- 

 atomy. * * # 



On page 441 Mr. Chadwick refers to the 

 fact in his experience of bees entering an 

 eight-frame hive before they will a larger 

 one. My experience has been the same; 

 and it stands to reason that the same size of 

 swarm will enter sections on an eight-frame 

 hive before they will in a ten-frame hive; 

 but there is another factor that comes in. 

 A ten-frame hive is apt to have a larger 

 store of honey, so that a colony in such a 

 hive with abundant stores will bieed up 

 earlier; and, under such circumstances, it 

 may even enter supers before colonies in 

 smaller liives. * * * 



The editorial, page 516, mentions the cut- 

 ting of sweet clover by the roadside. Yes, 

 it is done almost everywhere. As one bee- 

 keeper said to me, " The farmers are fight- 

 ing it;" and yet, as I have driven along the 

 roads this summer, and have seen the stock 

 trying to get their feed from the brown 

 pastures parched with drouth, and then 

 have noticed the rank growth of sweet clo- 

 ver beside the road, I have wondered how 

 long it would be before the farmers would 

 learn that a veiy much smaller area of 

 sweet clover with its long deep tap-roots 

 would furnish an abundance of feed for 

 their stock during the long drouths we have 

 almost evei'v season. 



UPPER ENTRANCE PROVIDED BY TIN TUBE. 



On p. 599, Sept. 1, Dr. Miller says, " In 

 America no one seems to think of a hive 

 entrance anywhere except at the bottom, 

 summer or winter." I believe, doctor, you 

 are wrong, for I have used an upper en- 

 trance for many years on nearly all of my 

 hives. I began using them so long ago that 



