1886 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



447 



rata yield might hold good; but whoiv would the 

 bees come from for wintering? Strong- eolonics at 

 the time of the honey-flow is about the only thing: 

 that can give the apiarist any assurance of success. 

 Because the Syrian race of bees will not build up 

 with me before the honey-harvest, and commence 

 to breed rapidly as soon as it docs come, so that 

 they work on the same phin as does a small colony, 

 is the reason for my discarding them. That the 

 Italians will give more bees at just the right time, 

 and less at all other times than any other varietj-, 

 is the reason for my preference for them. 



MOTH-WORMS. 



Lately I have been reading- that moths "will nev- 

 er breed in combs that contain no bee-bread," the 

 idea being- advanced that, if no jiollen is contained 

 in our section honey, we need have no fear of the 

 larva of the wax-moth injuring- the nice cappings 

 of the combs. I wish that such were the case, for 

 then no one need fear the moth in section honey, as 

 those containing- pollen could be left with tlie bees 

 to care for till late in the season, or treated with 

 burning suljihur. Quiuby says, page 144 of his 

 "Mysteries of Bee-Keeping," " Worms work only 

 on the surface, eating: nothing- but the sealing- of 

 the cells;" again, " JT'a.r, not honey, is their food" 

 and tells us all about how we must destroy these 

 worms, unless we would have the nice cappings of 

 our cells destroyed. From former years' experi- 

 ence I know that boxes of surplus honey have had 

 all the sealing to the cells eaten otf bj' the moth-lar- 

 vR', when not a cell containing- pollen was to be 

 found, while a friend had nearly one-half of his 

 surplus honey ruined for mai-ket in 18T4 by not 

 knowing that he must look after the worms. I 

 have seen moth-larvai thriving- both between sheets 

 of fdn. and cakes of wax; and I know that this 

 pollen theory regarding the wax-moth is not— but, 

 hold on ! At Deti-oit, at the National Convention, 

 this same theorj' was advanced in a discussion of 

 this question, to which I listened very attentivelj-. 

 One brother stated that he had found worms living 

 in a box of wax, when the strongest advocate of the 

 pollen matter told us that there was no wax on the 

 market, or to be found, which did not contain pol- 

 len. So it would seem that there is no use for me 

 to say any thing regarding what I am certain of, 

 for there is pollen everywhere, so it matters not 

 whether side-storing or top storing is adopted, as 

 there is pollen enough in the wax of our comb to 

 breed moths. I wish to say, however, that, as a 

 rule, I get more cells of pollen in the boxes at the 

 top of the hive than I do in those at the sides, and 

 in neither place do I get pollen enough to be seen 

 or tested in more than one section out of 300. One 

 thing I am glad to say, which is, that we have little 

 trouble in this locality now with moth-worm to 

 what we did ten or fifteen years ago; and had 

 Quinby lived to Avrite his book at this time, instead 

 of lH(i5, that chapter concerning the ease of box- 

 honey, to keep it from the moths, would pi-obably 

 never have been written. Still, it is always well to 

 keep a good lookout for this pest, and I give this 

 warning in time, so none need be "caught naj)- 

 ping." G. M. DooLiTTi.E. 



Borodino, N. Y., May, 1880. 



Friend I)., if I have ever taken the posi- 

 tion that a nucleus would store as much 

 honey as a full colony, I think I must have 

 been oft from the track. Circumstances, 

 however, might haye something to do with 



it. If a nticleus were made of frames of 

 brood taken from a full colony, there might 

 be a period when the bees from this brood 

 would be of just such an age that they would 

 gather honey etpial to a full colony, "in pro- 

 portion to their numbers. At such a time, 

 when a young ([ueen commences to lay, be- 

 fore they have larvie to nurse, I do not 

 know but that they might, for a few days, 

 gather more honey "than a full colony. I 

 have often noticed weak colonies, however, 

 that became weak from spring dwindling 

 (when there were not bees enough to prop- 

 erly care for the brood) that would gather 

 hardly enougli stores to keep them from 

 starving, wlien full colonies were working 

 heavily in boxes. I remember one spring 

 when the bees were so cross, just before the 

 fruit-bloom, we could hardly open a hive, 

 or do any thing with them. Well, fruit- 

 bloom, came out and every thing was lovely 

 — bees were gentle, and easy to handle. 

 But one day I came suddenly upon a colony 

 that was so ugly it seemed to me they could 

 not have had notice of the abundant yield 

 of honey evident in every other hive; and, 

 come to get the combs out, sure enough 

 there were sa few bees that could be spared 

 to go into the fields they had hardly a drop 

 of new honey, and were as cross as if none 

 had come at all. 



In regard to moth-worms and pollen, I 

 feel quite well satisfied that moth-worms 

 are a good deal worse in combs containing 

 some pollen, although I presimie likely they 

 often work to some extent in combs where 

 little or no pollen is visible. I have never 

 seen moth-worms on combs of newly made 

 foundation ; but one of our customers re- 

 ports finding moth-worms among sheets of 

 foundation laid away in a box. In this lat- 

 ter case it is evident they were feeding on 

 beeswax : for if any pollen should stay in 

 the wax through the operati(m of melting 

 and dipping, it must certainly be in ex- 

 tremely minute quantities. 



SUB-EARTH VENTILATION". 



SOME FACTS IN THE MATTER BY ONE WHO HAS 

 PRETTY THOROUGHLY GONE OVER THE GROUND. 



fKIEND ROOT:— I see that you and a number 

 of your correspondents are considerablj- ex- 

 ercised over the subject of sub-earth ventila- 

 tion. Mr. C. C. Miller has an inquiring and 

 suggesting article in April Gleanings, pages 

 258-'9, in which he is investigating- the matter by ex- 

 periment. This ground was all explored years>go 

 by Prof. John Wilkinson, whose place of residence, 

 some six or seven years ago was in Brooklyn, N. Y. 

 Prof. Wilkinson is a civil engineer, and he patented 

 a process of warming- buildings V)y a system of sub- 

 earth ventilation. He applied his system to dairy- 

 i-ooms, stables, and barns, and proposed introducing 

 it into dwellings. In fitting- up a dairy cellar, to 

 get the most perfect results the walls were insulat- 

 ed by studding- inside, and lining- with building- 

 paper, thus creating a deadair space betwoon the 

 paper and walls. The depth of the ventilating-pipQ 

 varied from 5 to 12 feet. In New York, and lati- 

 tudes further nortli, 5 feet was deep enough for 

 summer xentilation for a dairy-room. In the lati- 



