166 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



W. C. Murdin, Gladstone, Manitoba, Can., and some of the products ol his 

 bee-pollinated melon vines. 



HOW TO AVOID SPRING DWINDLING 



A Scheme for Helping the Weak Colonies in the 

 Spring to Hold their Own 



be close enough to- 

 gether so that they 

 will overlap. Fasten 

 a half sheet of foun- 

 dation to the bottom 

 of this trough, and 

 then fasten the whole 

 thing in an empty 

 frame, a bee space 

 from the t o p b a r . 

 Bore a hole through 

 the topbar for a fun- 

 nel to use in filling 

 the troughwith syrup. 

 Place this feeder 

 frame with its foun- 

 dation beneath be- 

 tween two empty 

 combs in the hive, 

 and always keep the 

 feeder full. 



For the last fifteen 

 years I have saved 1*7 

 per cent of my weak 

 colonies in the spring 

 by this plan. The 

 point is this: A very 

 small cluster can not 

 keep up the necessa- 

 ry heat if there is a 

 cold comb dividing it into two parts. Let 

 this handful of bees cluster all together and 

 you will be surprised at the results. 

 Beeville, Texas. 



BY WILL, JENSEN 



In the spring of 1896, after much loss and 

 many sad experiences in losing weak colo- 

 nies, I was almost ready to give up. I had 

 tried to be successful by following the ex- 

 periences of others, and I had read every 

 text book that I knew of that had any thing 

 to say about spring dwindling, but still my 

 fine young queens were left with a mere 

 handful of bees in their hives. While I 

 was thinking the matter over, a plan oc- 

 curred to me one day which I proceeded to 

 try at once. 



For every weakUng that I had, I got ready 

 an empty comb, a frame containing half a 

 sheet of brood foundation, and a comb of 

 honey. I put the eitipty comb by the hive 

 wall, the frame with the half sheet of foun- 

 dation next, and finally the comb of honey. 

 After lacerating that one comb of honey so 

 the bees would be bound to load up, I filled 

 the rest of the hive with empty combs and 

 closed the entrance so that only four bees 

 could come out at once In ten days I was 

 surprised to see what wonderful progress 

 these weak colonies had made; for on both 

 sides of the foundation there was sealed 

 brood. At this time I lacerated the comb 

 of honey again. 



If there is no comb of honey on hand, rip 

 from a 2 X 4, just the length of a frame in- 

 side, a piece two inches deep by the width 

 of the topbar; bore this piece full of holes, 

 starting the bit on one of the narrow edges 

 but not boring clear through. Let the holes 



THE VALUE OF BEES AS POLLINATORS OF 

 MELON BLOSSOMS 



BY W. C. MURDIN 



To my way of thinking, gardening and 

 beekeeping should always go together. 

 From the time the vines begin to blossom 

 until the frost kills them, the bees work on 

 them and we have more melons, citrons, 

 cucumbers, etc., than we ever had before we 

 started to keep bees. Last year our vines 

 were all loaded; in fact, some of them had 

 almost too much fruit, and I am sure it is 

 on account of the bees pollinating the blos- 

 soms. The bees seem to work on every 

 thing in the garden. Even potatoes, when 

 they are in blossom, are visited. 



I have heard complaints from some that 

 bees will "eat " fruit; but they do not both- 

 er us in this way. We can not find that 

 bees are troublesome in any way, in fact. 

 Our garden is close to the main road where 

 teams are passing only a few yards from 

 the bees, but I have never heard of any one 

 getting stung. I have found that bees are 

 generally harmless if left alone. 



In my work around the hives I have nev- 

 er used a smoker. When I want to do very 

 much work, such as extracting, etc., I se- 

 lect a time when the weather is warm and 

 the bees good-natured. I use gloves and an 

 Alexander veil, however. This veil, by the 

 way, I regard very highly. It is nice and 

 cool, is good protection, and yet one can see 

 easily to do any kind of work. 



