1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



101 



nice and good. Let bee-keepers like myself, who 

 have more time than cash, try my plan and see if 

 they are not well paid for their trouble; for I think 

 it does not pay a bee-keeper, who buys all his fdn., 

 to melt up a piece of comb that is four or more 

 inches Square. W. H. H. Stewart. 



Gait, 111. 



Friend S., we used to do the same thing 

 years ago ; in fact, we used to save every bit 

 "of comb two inches squaie, and patch them 

 up to make combs for extracting. Of late 

 years, liowever, I believe that most bee- 

 keepers prefer to stand the expense of a 

 sheet of foundation rather than fuss with 

 l)its of comb, and have patched-up combs, 

 even then. Quite a number, and friend 

 Doolittle among them, declare that a sheet 

 of thin foundation docs not give honey quick- 

 er or nicer than sections partly tilled with 

 comb of the previous year. The matter will 

 be well tested during the coming season. 



SHALL WE SUPPORT A MIM8TER WHO USES TO- 

 BAC<!0 V 



You and I exactly agree with reference to tobac- 

 co, for I so despise the use of it. It is with the 

 greatest reluctance that I contribute to support 

 a preacher who uses it. It is impossible for me to 

 give him anything cheerfully. Am I doing wrong 

 to give unless I can give cheerfully? I don't think 

 that the people do you justice, for they charge you 

 a great deal of your time, and means too, for doing 

 right. They ought to do right for nothing. They 

 are at liberty to charge you for nothing but their 

 labor, and not for doing right. 



L J. Blankenship. 



Corsicana, Mo., Dec. 31, 188". 



Friend B., if you want my opinion in the 

 matter, I should say, by all means contrib- 

 ute to the support of the minister, just as 

 freely as you would if lie did not use tobac- 

 co. Show respect for the office he occupies, 

 at all events; but in the meantime labor 

 with him the best you know how, and ask 

 other good people to i)reseut the matter to 

 him likewise. Very likely he knows he 

 ought to give up its use, arid perhaps a few 

 words of exhortation from his people, to- 

 gether with their prayers, would induce 

 him to shake off: the shackles. No one likes 

 to be driven, especially in regard to matters 

 of conscience. 



bee-moth; THE OLD STOIIV OF KEEPING IT OUT. 



A friend tells me his method of keeping out the 

 Tjee-moth is to bore a haU'iiich hole three or more 

 inches from the bottom of the hive, then insert a 

 piece of elder that will project about six inches. 

 The bees will find their wav in and out, but he says 

 the moth can not find the passage. Is there any 

 thing in it? S. H. Haskell. 



Portersville, Cal., Sept. ;J7, 188T. 



Friend H.. the above is all an exploded 

 humbug. The bee-moth can go anywhere 

 the bees do, if it wants to ; but we have 

 pretty good evidence that it has other plans 

 for getting eggs into the combs than crawl- 

 ing into the hives. .\ great many times the 

 eggs are laid wlien tliere are no bees on the 

 combs; and it has been suggested tliat bees 

 sometimes carry eggs in on their legs. They 

 get dropped into the combs. Of late, how- 

 ever, little attention has been paid to this 



matter; for a progressive bee-keeper, up 

 with the times, has no trouble or anxiety 

 about the moth whatever. A very little 

 sprinkling of Italian blood banishes them so 

 nearly that most of us have lost all interest 

 in the subject. 



UNFAVORABLE TO THE SIMPSON PLANT. 



I have read all or nearly all that has been said in 

 favor of the Simpson honey-plant, and it does not 

 please me. 1 got 10 plants of it from a bee-keeper, and 

 they grew 9 or 10 feet high, and there were plenty 

 of hornets, yellow-jackets, and flies on them, but I 

 saw only 6 bees on them the whole season. When 1 

 rubbed out the heads in the lall I saved a good deal 

 of seed. While doing so a good deal was scattered 

 on bare ground in my garden, and in the spring it 

 came up very thick. I had a fine large Simpson 

 plant growing beside a large burdock bush, and 

 both were in bloom at the same time. I should 

 think there might have been as many as 30 bees on 

 the flowers of the dock, but there was not one on the 

 Simpson. Bees get both honey and pollen from 

 burdock, although I don't approve of it as a plant 

 to cultivate. 



THE RANGE OF FLIGHT OF BEES. 



I have read of bees flying great distances for hon- 

 ey. I was so situated that I went a mile along a 

 road from raj- house, frequently, and the nearer I 

 approached home (where the bees were) the more 

 numerous they were on the dandelions and white 

 clover. 



MICE IN COMBS OF A HIVE. 



I examined some hives last night in the cellai-. 

 In one hive, mice had got in, and there was about 

 half a pint of comb that they had cut to crumbs at 

 one corner of the bottom-board. I have found 

 mice-nests before now in raj' hives. 



John Dawson. 



East Dayton, Tuscola Co., Mich., Jan. 26, 1S88. 



Friend 1).. the reason you did not find the 

 bees on tlie Simpson honey-plant was be- 

 cause they had not learned to work on it. A 

 year or two ago one of the friends reported 

 he had quite a large patch of the Simpson 

 honey-plant, and there would not a bee 

 touch it --only wasps and yellow-jackets. 

 Soon after, the basswood failed, and a soli- 

 tary bee. during a single afternoon, found 

 there was honey in the cups of the Simpson 

 plant. In an hour more, there were more 

 bees on that patch of Simpson plant than our 

 friend ever saw before on so small an area. 

 If I understand it you had only ten plants, 

 and one more standing by the burdock. A 

 little larger area, at a time Avhen the bees 

 are not getting ])lenty of honey from some 

 other source, and yoii will see bees on it to 

 yoiu- heart's content. Please do not under- 

 stand me. however, to claim that it will pay 

 to cultivate the plant for the lioney alone. 

 1 do not think it will, nor any other iilant.— 

 You must not have the entrance to your 

 hives wide enough to let the mice in. 



WINTERED IN CELLAR. 



All the bees are wintered, up in this <'ool north- 

 west, in cellars or in caves. Mine are in thc'eellar 

 also, and arc taking it quiet. I have ^[not given 

 them any more air than they get from where they 

 go in the hive. D. R IfoYT. 



Princeton, Minn., Dec. 2fi, 1887. 



