36 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Du. C. C. Mii-LKii, Marengo, 111. 



The color of honey is lighter on high 

 lands than low; in the north than toward 

 the equator; on calcareous than on ferrugin- 

 ous soils; in a wet than in a hot dry season. 

 A peculiar fact is that a mixture of two hon- 

 eys is darker than either kind separate.— 

 Deutsche Imker, 308. 



F. DuNDAS Todd once criticised my pic- 

 tures, and I've had it in for him ever since. 

 Now's my chance. Nine of his pictures in 

 last Gleanings are bad— very bad. They're 

 nice pictures in other respects, but he made 

 that poor fellow stand all the while he was 

 doing his stunts instead of giving him a 

 comfortable seat. 



Christmas was a very bright day. At 1 

 P.M. cellar-doors were wide open, as they 

 had V)een for days, both day and night; tem- 

 perature in cellar, 40; outdoors, 30 degrees. 

 At the wall furthest from the door I read 

 fine print — easily. Bees had been in cellar 

 42 days. In four minutes two bees Hew out. 

 If the room had been closed up dark I sus- 

 pect more would have liown out — not because 

 dark, but because close. The moral is that 

 bees in a cellar that have not been confined 

 long w^ll stand much light if the air is pure. 

 Toward spring they will not stand light so 

 well. 



The discovery that bees eject water from 

 nectar while on the wing was a rediscovery 

 by A. I. Root, says Claude Deshommes, 

 L'Apiculteur, p. 456, the discovery having 

 first been made by M. Babaz in 18()8. [The 

 question has been raised whether bees ever 

 discharge water on the wing when gathering 

 nectar or sweetened w-ater from outdoor feed- 

 ers. It takes a little careful watching before 

 one can see this fine spray shot out from the 

 bees; but when he once sees it, he is able to 

 discover it in other bees as they start out on 

 the final flight for the hive; and while we 

 have not absolute proof that the spray is 

 made up of water, the facts point very strong- 

 ly that way. — Ed.] 



About that pie. Either the printer or I 

 chopped the head off that last Straw, p. 4, 

 and stuck it in as the fourth Straw\ No 

 matter. You seem to think, Mr. Editor, I 

 haven't stuck close to the text. You're 

 right. Let's get back to it. You said moths 

 were liable to lay eggs in S. D. House's 

 combs or his nice comb honey after either 

 has been taken from the hive. I supposed 

 his nice comb honey was in sections, so I 

 ventured the guess he never had an egg laid 

 in them after they were taken off, since the 

 moths don't lay eggs in comb honey here 

 after it's taken from the hives. .1. E. Crane 

 practically says they do with him. So you'd 

 better cut me a piece of the pie. The ques- 

 tion no^v is, whether my moths or Bro. 

 Crane's are the exceptional ones. If it's the 

 general rule, and especially if it's the rule 

 with Bro. House, then bring on the rest of 



the pie. [It is probably true that the moth- 

 miller is a more serious pest in some locali- 

 ties than in others. You of course know it 

 is unknown in Colorado, and, if we mistake 

 not, in all other high altitudes. — Ed.] 



On first reading what Arthur C. Miller 

 says, page 755, I said to myself, "I never 

 thought of it before; biit it seems clear that 

 those wing-stubs must hinder the queen 

 about laying." But on further thought I 

 recalled the thousands of queens I have had 

 with both wings on one side cut off about 

 half — fine layers, eggs placed regularly in 

 cells, no vacant cells, no superseding till 

 two or three years old, and it didn't seem 

 possible that clipping could do so very much 

 harm. Isn't is just possible that the queen 

 raises her wings when about to lay, just as 

 any other lady raises her dress when it is in 

 the way? Wouldn't the wings of a queen 

 show wear if they should "slide" over the 

 surface every time an egg is laid? We know 

 that the wings of a worker become ragged 

 with age, and I suppose that is from friction 

 with the air. If three or four weeks' friction 

 of the air makes the wings ragged, would 

 not three or four months of the greater fric- 

 tion of the comb make the wings still more 

 ragged? 



Louis Macey, p. 734, perhaps you don't 

 fully understand my attitude. I think my 

 queens average as good in their second year 

 as in their first — perhaps better. When 

 they begin to fail, I think the bees will su- 

 persede them, whether it be in the first 

 or the fourth year. So I don't need to su- 

 persede a queen unless she is poor, no mat- 

 ter what age. If others have bees that are 

 not so good in their second year, and the 

 bees themselves will not supersede them, 

 that's another story. Then there's one 

 thing you and I can't get away from: A 

 queen in her second year is forty times as 

 likely to swarm as in her first year. That 

 alone may be sufficient reason for some to 

 requeen annually. But annual requeening 

 and improvement of stock don't go well to- 

 gether. [There is one fact you have not 

 mentioned in favor of a young queen; and 

 that is, she will lay eggs in late summer or 

 in the fall when an old queen can be coax- 

 ed to do this only with difficulty by stimu- 

 lative feeding. We would say that colonies 

 having young queens in the fall of the year 

 stand a much better chance of wintering 

 through, because their hives will have a 

 large force of young bees raised late in the 

 season. Too many times queens stop lay- 

 ing after the main honey-flow; and the old 

 bees beginning to die off leave the colony 

 too weak to be in good condition for winter. 

 While it is true that some old queens are 

 too valuable to kill, we are coming more 

 and more to believe that the average bee- 

 keeper should aim to have young queens in 

 his apiary. — Ed.] 



