346 



GLEANINGS IN i3EE CULTURE. 



Mav 



4. I never used honey-boards with wide frames, 

 just because 1 then knew nothing about Heddon's 

 slat houej-board; but If 1 were to use wide frames 

 now, I think 1 should use honey-boards. Whatever 

 Is placed immediately o\er my brood-frames, be it 

 honey-board, wide frame, or T super, i.s sure to 

 have bridg-es of comb built upon it; and if no hon- 

 ey-board is used, then this dauby comb must be 

 cleaned off either the bottom-bar of the wide frame 

 or off the bottoms of the sections. 1 would rather 

 L'lean off thfe wide frame. I may remark, in pass- 

 ing-, that J. B. Hall, one bf Canada's brightest bee- 

 keepers, uses top-bars to his brood-frames about an 

 inch in thickness, and claims that no brace-combs 

 are built over them. If 1 had not so many hives 

 made as to make a change an appalling matter, I 

 would certainly try these thick top-bars. 



5. This is an advantaife. It is not often, however, 

 that I cared to use it, although better men than 1 

 may do so. If I cared to use it at all, it was only be- 

 fore any sections were put alxivc the brood-frames, 

 so that I could have a few sections on, to get the 

 bees started, with little waste of heat, and I have 

 sometimes put these sections, thus started, in T 

 supers. 



Now for your questions. 1. If he expected, in the 

 future, to keep many colonies I should advise T 

 supers decidedly. The difference in the matter of 

 lifting a T super or a super of wide frames two 

 tiers deep is a big item; and if the latter are han- 

 dled frame by frame, the time consumed is a 

 big item. If he expects to keep only a few col- 

 onies and the saving of time and labor is of no con- 

 sequence, then he might do well to try both 



3. No. I would rather take sections out of T su- 

 pers; but it is quite possible there may be some 

 prejudice in the case. I have had more practice of 

 late with T supers; but my son, who has had more 

 practice with wide frames, can take sections out of 

 them easier than he can (possibly than I can) out 

 of the T supers. 



3. Tin being a good conductor, I suppose tin sepa- 

 rators may cool off the cluster sometimes a little. 

 Wood is not so objectionable. Then any thing that 

 separates the cluster may be a hindrance; but I 

 doubt if the amount of hindrance with wood sepa- 

 rators is a very appreciable quantity. 



4. With the T super you can, at a glance, tell 

 whether the section is sealed at the top, but must 

 raise one end, at least, of the super to tell if the 

 section is sealed at the bottom. With closed-top 

 wide frames you must lift out each frame to find 

 how the sections are. If wide frames have open 

 tops, and are only one tier deep, you can tell about 

 the sections in them just as easily as you can in T 

 supers. 



5. My wide frames never sagged. The bottom- 

 bars were % inch thick. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., April, 1888. 



Well done, old friend. I believe you have 

 covered the whole ground completely. I 

 agree with yon in the main. I, too, observ- 

 ed friend Hall's top-bars an inch thick, said 

 inch being used in order to push the sec- 

 tions so far away from the brood that the 

 bees would not build brace-combs. I am 

 well aware that tliis does away, at least to a 

 great extent, with brace-combs ; but does it 

 not at tlie same time lessen the amount of 

 honey or lessen the speed with which the 

 bees can work the wax when you push them 



further away from the brood-nestV And I 

 have always felt like making the same ob- 

 jection to the honey-board with the double 

 bee-space. Now, who will answer my ques- 

 tion V 



THE WASPS, ANTS, AND PLANT-LICE 

 OF CHINA. 



OUR OLD FRIEND WALKER TELLS US OF ANOTHER 

 KIND OF STINGS EXPERIENCED BY .MISSION- 

 ARIES ONLY. 



T f this is not much of a land for bees, it is quite a 

 |Mp land for wasps and ants, and some kinds of the 

 ji latter have stings like wasps and bees. There 

 is one small kind which, when disturbed, will 

 curve its abdomen upward and forward as If 

 it had a sting In its tail, like a scorpion ; and a mag- 

 nifying-glass seems to confirm this impression. 

 But there is another kind, half an inch or more in 

 length, which has an unmistakable sting in the end 

 of^its tail. It is somewhat poisonous, though not 

 so m uch so as a bee. 



Plant-lice abound, and there is one kind which 

 yields a kind of wax, but I have never observed it 

 in this part of China. Last autumn I noticed on an 

 orange-tree a warty -looking elevation of the bark, 

 over an inch long, and about half as broad as long. 

 On touching it I found it a very thin shell covering 

 a spot where the bark was gone. Inside were a 

 score or two of small black ants, and four or five 

 large plant-lice. They were about as In-oad and 

 long as a grain of wheat, but fiat like their name- 

 sakes. I found that I had broken into an ants' 

 honey-farm. There was fresh bark growing over 

 the wound in the tree, just as it would under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, so I don't think the ants were 

 responsible for the original injury, but the cover 

 looked as if they might have made it. 



There Is a species of ant, very common in the 

 south of China, that builds nests like the wasps, of 

 a paper-like substance. The paper is finer and 

 more flimsy than the fiber of wasps" nests, and the 

 nest is built around a limb instead of hanging from 

 it. 



On our retui-n to this place last November we 

 took down from a shelf a couple of books which 

 had been lying there several months with their 

 backs against a side piece at the end of the shelf. 

 They were stuck to the end of the shelf with pine 

 resin for a space of four inches or more. Exam- 

 ination showed that some insect, probably a wasp, 

 like the mud-dauber of America, had made its nest 

 in the three-cornered space formed by the round- 

 ed backsof the booksand the end board of the shelf, 

 using resin instead of mud. Year before la.st I saw 

 in Japan a roll of paper which had been stuck to- 

 gether in like manner with resin by a species of 

 wasp. 



I will now tell you about one of the little stings 

 of our work here. We had gone down the river 

 about Vi miles in a boat to spend the Sabbath, and 

 have a meeting with a few Christians. Their accom- 

 modations were so poor that we lived on our boat 

 and went ashore for the services. We received two 

 men to the church, one of whom especially pleased 

 us very much by his humble, earnest bearing and 

 intelligent answers when we were examining "aim. 

 Monday morning word came that a very poor, 

 aged, and feeble church-member living about 1}4 

 miles away had died early that morning. We all 



