798 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



but the first cold snap finds all the leaks 

 closed up tight with propolis. 



The spring here is a bad one. We had 

 plenty of rain through the winter, and the 

 first few days of spring opened nice and 

 warm. The bees in the old hives tore down 

 the propolis, and were flying beautifully 

 when suddenly a cold snap came, and I 

 could not help smiling when I saw how 

 quickly the bees fixed all the propolis joints 

 again. Do you see the point? The bees 

 can regulate the ventilation. IVIind I am 

 talking about strong colonies. If the bees 

 are weak when going into winter they will 

 require assistance; but with really good 

 queens, and provided you do not strike the 

 Isle-of- Wight disease, or any of his cousins, 

 your bees should not go into winter quar- 

 ters weak. 



Now, what are the objections to leaky 

 hives"? The bees fly out at you when at 

 work — that is if they are savage or badly 

 handled. The hives will not stand moving 

 about or else take a lot of packing, and 

 they look unsightly. They are not so easily 

 protected against robbers; but if you have 

 the right breed of queen you need not fear 

 robbers. .^ 



The breed of queens comes in again with 

 regard to loose vs. tight bottom-boards. I 

 used the latter up to twelve years ago, then 

 I changed all my hives to the former, and 

 I am now going back to the tight ones 

 again. 



The merits claimed for the loose ones 

 were : Easier manipulation ; easier to clean ; 

 and the hive more easily ventilated. Now, 

 if you have the right kind of queen you will 

 never have a dirty bottom-board ; and I 

 think that a colony that will not keep the 

 bottom-board thoroughly clean is no good. 

 My queens are not that good ; but they were 

 once, and I am doing my best to get them 

 back to that standard; but I am not having 

 much luck so far. 



Now with regard to manipulating. I 

 rarely need to lift the brood-nest and put 

 another under it. Take the Alexander 

 method of increase as an instance. He says, 

 find the queen and put her on one frame of 

 brood in another hive. Well, I don't. I go 

 to the hive, lift all the frames out but one, 

 shake off the bees, fill up the bottom-box 

 with frames of foundation or combs, and 

 put the excluder on. I put the brood into 

 a top box, and put it on over the excluder. 

 Looking up the queen is a lengthy process. 

 My method is not. How would a loose bot- 

 tom-board help me? 



Suppose you find that your queens per- 

 sist in laying above the brood-nest ; then you 

 can change the bottom for the top, and you 



can come around later and repeat the proc- 

 ess ; but you can do a lot better by pinching 

 the queen's head off and getting a l)ptter 

 strain ; because a good strain of Italians 

 will not lay above the brood-nest. The ob- 

 jection to lifting the brood-nest is that it is 

 full of good worker combs, and the chances 

 are that no other story is all worker comb. 



To sum up, I say that, with the right 

 kind of queens, the brood-nest need not be 

 interfered with from one year to another. 



S. Woodburn, N. S. Wales, Australia. 



THE WHITE-FLOWERED GOLDENROD 



Solidago Bicolor 



BY JAMES S. JOHNSON 



This plant is a perennial. It grows from 

 six inches to six feet high. It has from one 

 to twenty hard woody stalks in a bunch. It 

 is known by different names, such as stick- 

 weed and farewell weed during the latter 

 part of the summer, but its real name is 

 goldenrod. It is spoken of in the ABC 

 and X Y Z of Bee Culture as being very 

 scarce; but it grows here in abundance. It 

 comes up early in the spring, and grows 

 during the whole season, and begins bloom- 

 ing about the 10th of September, remaining 

 in bloom about two months regardless of 

 the weather conditions. Frost will not kill 

 it. The main stalk begins some distance 

 above the ground to branch out in every 

 direction, and keeps subdividing at every 

 leaf until it comes to a very fine point. 

 Small silverlike flowers are found near the 

 top. The nearest ones to the ground bloom 

 first, and so on up until the topmost one 

 has blossomed. 



This plant will grow on any kind of soil, 

 rich or poor, wet or dry, clean or filthy. 

 It grows along country roatlsides, in fence- 

 corners, thickets, on stony land that is too 

 rough to cultivate, in meadows and pas- 

 tures. All of our land seems to be seeded 

 to it. When Ave fail to plow a piece of 

 land one year, the next season it has a good 

 set of the plants. When it is in full bloom 

 one can not look in any direction without 

 seeing the snowlike flowers. 



The seed-receptacles are first filled with 

 a down-like fuzzy substance which is fast- 

 tened to the very small seed. About the 

 first of November these seeds loosen, and 

 are carried away by some breeze. Many 

 are scattered great distances. Nature has 

 arranged the seeds with this downy fuzz 

 in order that they may be disseminated 

 everywhere. 



This plant is not obnoxious. It makes 

 a good early pasture for any domestic ani- 



