152 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Dr. C. C. Miixeb, Marengo, 111. 



Rev. L. p. Holmes writes that he also 

 had a live drone from a queen-cell. It was 

 in 1908, the cell was extra large and fine, he 

 caged it, and after the usual 24 days a drone 

 of ordinary size emerged. Last year he had 

 a queen-cell caged, and several days after it 

 should have hatched he opened the cell, 

 finding a fully developed queen, dead, with 

 its head toward the bottom of the cell. 



The bumble-bee seems in danger of be- 

 ing thrown out of its job as a pollinator of 

 red clover. The Country Ofntleman reports 

 an invention said to do the work better 

 than the bumble-bee. It consists of a huge 

 brush with about 200 vulcanized-rubber tips 

 to the square inch, which is driven over the 

 clover-field, carrying the pollen from one 

 blossom and depositing it upon another. 



To GET HONEY out of cappings, put them 

 to drain in a container with holes in the 

 bottom; when they will no longer drain, 

 put them in a damp cellar, where they will 

 attract moisture, and the thin honey will 

 drain out to be used for vinegar or bee-feed. 

 Or, instead of taking them into the cellar, 

 put them outdoors in a long box with one 

 end raised, and turn the box end for end as 

 often as the bees dig the cappings down 

 level. 



Larv.e. Nearly had a fit the other day 

 on learning that this word should be pro- 

 nounced lar-vee when all my life I've been 

 saying lar-t;a^. I refrain from adding that 

 it may be also called lar-way, lest it throw 

 most of the readers of Gleanings into fits, 

 [The pronunciation here will depend on 

 whether one uses the Roman (or continen- 

 tal) pronunciation for Latin words, or Eng- 

 lish. When we were taking Latin at school 

 we had the English pronunciation, and the 

 final syllable of larvce would have the long 

 sound of e. Later on in college, we had the 

 Roman pronunciation; then the same final 

 syllable would have the long sound of a. 

 Either way is right. — Ed.] 



Samuel Simmins thinks beekeeping in 

 this country has retrograded on account of 

 the use of so shallow a frame as the Lang- 

 stroth. He says, Canadian Bee Journal, 

 10, " Editor E. R. Root states that the aver- 

 age yields, taking the United States all 

 over, would probably be 35 lbs. of comb hon- 

 ey, or 75 lbs. of extracted. Has bee culture 

 so degenerated that even to-day the results 

 from the old let-'em-alone style of beekeep- 

 ing can not be exceeded?" But where is 

 the degeneration shown, friend Simmins? 

 You don't for a minute think that the old 

 let-'em-alone style yielded 35 lbs. of comb 

 per colony, do you? Although there are 

 still enough let-'ein-alones mixed with the 

 up-to-dates to bring the average down to 35, 

 that average is probably better than it ever 

 was before. [If our friend Samuel Simmins 



were more familiar with conditions as they 

 are in the United States he would not make 

 such statements. For instance, he says our 

 Langstroth frame is responsible for two- 

 thirds of our winter losses. When expert 

 beekeepers all over the United States and 

 Canada using Langstroth frames do not 

 lose during winter to exceed five per cent of 

 their bees, and usually not over two per 

 cent, the Langstroth frame, we may con- 

 clude, is doing pretty well. It could hardly 

 do better. Some of the former advocates of 

 deep frames for winter are now using Lang- 

 stroth frames. See reply to F. P. Clare, p. 

 179.— Ed.] 



D. M. MacDonald, British B. ./., p. 514, 

 concludes that I give hybrids a bad reputa- 

 tion because I practically say that nine- 

 tenths of the weaklings are hybrids. My 

 good friend, however bad hybrids may be, 

 that statement doesn't charge them with 

 badness. Nine-tenths of the weaklings are 

 hybrids, and so are nine-tenths of the 

 stronglings, because nine-tenths of all the 

 bees are hybrids. See? Allee samee, the 

 average hybrid is inferior to the Italian — in 

 my opinion. You ask why, for 50 years, I 

 clung to such bad bees. I didn't — not to 

 average hybrids. I bred up a strain of hy- 

 brids that were better than Italians. More 

 fool I. If I had stuck to pure Italians I 

 might have had still better bees. 



G. M. DooLiTTLE thinks no need to have 

 bees closer than two or three miles from pas- 

 ture. Out west, if I remember, the authori- 

 ties advise that in orchard regions bees 

 should be not more than a mile apart, so 

 they need travel only half a mile or so. 

 Likely both are right. In hot weather bees 

 can go two miles just as well as half a mile 

 to gather honey; while in the cool and catchy 

 weather during fruit bloom half a mile may 

 be enough. Yes, I once thought two miles 

 apart was well enough for orchards. But 

 I'm older now. [This is a question of local- 

 ity. Where bees can fly from a hill over a 

 wide valley, so as not to encounter woods, 

 they go much further than over perfectly 

 level country. We have traveled over a very 

 large portion of the United States where 

 bees are kept, and wherever we have gone 

 we have asked the question, "How far do 

 bees fly?" For level country the general 

 response is, "Not more than a mile and a 

 half; usually not over a mile." While their 

 bees will, of course, fly further, the claim is 

 made that they do not work to advantage. 

 In hilly country, such as we find in New 

 York, bees will sometimes fly five miles to 

 gather buckwheat honey. This has been 

 demonstrated very conclusively at the Alex- 

 ander apiary, at Delanson, N. Y., and in 

 other places in that State where we have 

 traveled; but we think that in most places 

 in New York bees will not go much over a 

 mile and a half to advantage. — Ed.] 



