66 



GLIiANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jak. 



wooden separators ; Dr. Tinker suggested 

 the idea that one advantage wooden sepa- 

 rators possess over tin is, that the bees 

 could climb up the separators instead of 

 walking over the capped comb honey, and 

 soiling the white capping with their foot- 

 prints. If the separators are tin, the bees 

 would slip so much they would prefer to 

 travel over the capped honey. The wood, 

 however, gives them a better foothold than 

 the smooth wax. If this be true, we get 

 whiter and cleaner honey by the use of 

 wooden separators than by using the tin sep- 

 arators. 



At the Chicago Convention. Prof. Cook 

 gave us one of his happiest talks in regard 

 to the feet and legs of the honey-bee, with 

 enlarged drawings. He showed us the ap- 

 paratus the bee has for climbing either 

 rough or smooth surfaces. The bee first 

 tries his sharp claws ; and if with them he 

 can get a good sure foothold, all right. If, 

 however, he is trying to walk up something 

 very hard and sniooth, like a pane of glass, 

 he discovers that the claws are " no good," 

 as the boys say. Well, what does he do 

 now V Why, he throws out a sort of glutin- 

 ous fluid, not from the palm of his hand, 

 but from the palm of his foot, and this glu- 

 tinous fluid adheres to the glass suftieiently to 

 allow him to walk right up safely and-rapidly. 

 Let a bee walk up a very clean pane of glass, 

 and then look carefully witli a magnifier, 

 and you will see these footprints, not unlike 

 those made by the children, sometimes, 

 across mamma's clean floor. Well, it is 

 these footprints that soil and damage the 

 appearance of our white comb iioney, if left 

 too long in the hive. Now, will our friends 

 see if this theory is true in practice, that 

 wooden separators give us whiter comb 

 honey? 



Friend B. also declares with Dr. Mason, 

 that sections partly filled with empty comb 

 the year previous are not inferior to full 

 sheets of new foundation. Even though the 

 Chicago Convention gave a vote so nearly 

 unanimous on the above, they think it a 

 mistake. Friend B. practiced liiving new 

 swarms on empty frames, even before he 

 got the idea from friend Hutchinson ; and 

 lie has an original plan in connection with 

 this, of continually cutting the new combs 

 out of the brood-frames as fast as the bees 

 build them in, even cutting them out once 

 every 24 hours wlien the bees are building 

 comb rapidly. This new wliite comb he 

 fastens into the section boxes, cutting the 

 pieces large enough to nearly fill the boxes 

 if he can. If eggs have been laid in this 

 new comb he lays it on the grass in the sun 

 until the eggs have lost their vitality. The 

 bees then remove them, and he gets the 

 finest and most rapid work from these natu- 

 ral starters. He admits, liowever, that the 

 honey is more likely to break down in ship- 

 ping, than where thin sheets of foundation 

 are fastened into tlie sections both at the 

 top and bottom. I shall have to defer until 

 another issue, mentioning the points made 

 by our excellent secretary, Frank A. Eaton, 

 Dr. Besse, C. E. Jones, 'A. A. Fradenburg, 

 A. S. Goodrich, and several others. 



To be continued. 



Gleanincs in Bee Culture. 



Published Setni-Monthly. 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



♦o*-40« 



TERMS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POSTPAID. 



> ♦ • ! 



For Clubbing Bates, See First Page of heading Matter. 



ivdiEiDi:^-^, T-^3sr. IS, laes. 



A riKhteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the ten- 

 der mercies of the wicked are cruel.— Prov. 12 : 10. 



I EXPECT to attend the York State Convention. 



GLEANINGS AND ABC CLUBBED. 



We will club one year's subscription to Glean- 

 ings with a cloth ABC, postpaid, for $2.00; or pa- 

 per bound for $1.75. 



don't send any more back numbers. 

 Our notice for back numbers of Gleanings has 

 brought us an avalanche, and we can not use any 

 more at present. We can not, therefore, pay for 

 any more after this notice goes out. 



AT WHAT temperature DO BEES FLY? 



I KNOW exactly, for I have just been out this 6th 

 day of January, and watched the bees which were 

 pouring out of the hives in different directions. As 

 the sun did not shine at all, and there was no wind, 

 I had an opportunity of getting a pretty fair test. 

 A few started out when the thermometer stood at 

 .")0°, but there was not a general flight until it stood 

 at about 55. Had there been sunshine it would 

 have made a vast difference; but as it was, they 

 flew from entrances pointing to the north just as 

 freely as if they were facing the south. 



WHERE shall THE FIRST NEW HONEY COME 

 FR(>M ? 

 Mr. Editor;— I sent you a bunch of roses and tiekl-tloHers 

 during the holidays, as a holiday present. I see to-day many 

 heads of white clover in bloom also. Grasshoppers and but- 

 terflies are sporting in the warm sun. and 20 bees per minute 

 went into one hive, heavily laden with pollen. But little win- 

 ter yet. ' .1. W. Winder. 

 New Orleans. La.. .Tan. 8, 1888. 



Thank you. old friend. The roses, etc., were 

 s(unewhat dried up, but they were a curiosity for 

 all that. Is it not unusually early for white clover, 

 even in your locality? It seems to me you stand a 

 good chance of being able to report the first new 

 white-clover honey on the market, unles.s, indeed, 

 some of our Florida friends can do a little better 

 still. I should be very glad indeed to make you a 

 vi.«it just now if it were possible. 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



The first numbei- of the Brc-Keeprrs' Review has 

 come to hand. A careful perusal assures us that 

 our friend W. Z. Hutchinson has earrieii out the 

 plan which he outlined in the advertisement which 

 appeared in this journal. It is emphatically a re- 

 view on the subject of bees. In the first issue, the 

 subject of disturbing bees during winter is discuss- 

 ed by R. L. Taylor, E. M. Hayhurst, James Heddon, 

 J. H. Robertson, H. R. Boardman, J. H. Martin, 

 Eugene Secor, Dr. A. B. Mason, and others. The 

 editorials are carefully written, and contain a good 

 many valuable suggestions. Friend Hutchinson is 

 a terse, able writer, and a practical bee-keeper, if 

 he can carry out the plan he has outlined as well as 

 he has done in the first number, his journal will 

 surely fill a"niche"in apicultural literature. We 

 wish him every success. 



