1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



571 



clip their queens? If the pan were set in front of 

 the alig-htiiig'-boai-d, the queen would pass in but 

 could not climb out, it being too smooth and steep. 

 The pan would have to be shaded, if the apiarist 

 could not be on hand. I should like to see it tried, 

 but I do not clip my queens. S. Heath. 



Rimer, Pa., June 37, 1888. 



Erieud II., our old friend father Quinby 

 developed the idea you mention in regard to 

 keeping the queens in what he called a 

 " queen-yard.' I do not know liowmuch it 

 is in use. We have not heard much about 

 it for some time. 



THE SQUAIIE- FRAME QUESTION FOR UOOL.1TTT.E. 



A. 1. Root:— I was greatly interested in Mr. Doo- 

 little's article setting forth the advantages of a 

 square frame, i should like to ask him if the Lang- 

 stroth frame would not meet his views admirably 

 as to the " springing " of bees, if they could be stood 

 on end'/ Would not the cluster be more nearly 

 "natural" in form than it would be in a hive carry- 

 ing the Gallup style of Langstroth frameV 



Des Moines, Iowa, June 19, 1888. J. M. Shuck. 



Mr. Doolittle replies : 



For a small cluster of bees, no doubt but that the 

 L. frame stood on end would do well, if only three 

 or four were used; but when the cluster came to 

 expand with its growth it would not accommodate 

 tnem as well as the Gallup. A hive a foot square 

 and a foot deep seems to come the nearest to the 

 natural wants of the bee of any yet devised, and 

 will give more swarms and more honey, if properly 

 managed, than anj- other form known; while by 

 contracting it, it can be made to suit the wants of 

 any thing. All there is against such a hive is that 

 it requires more worli to rightly manage it. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



A LET-ALONE HIVE, AND SOME OF ITS ADVAN- 

 TAGES. 



This part of Tennessee is along the foot of the 

 mountains, and is very fertile. The meadows and 

 roadsides are white with clover-blossoms, and the 

 ridges are lull of sourwood and chestnut. 1 never 

 saw such an abundance of white clover. 1 asked a 

 farmer whether it had been sown. "Sown!" said 

 he, indignantly, "it is the worst weed we have." 

 Just think of calling white clover a weed! Bees 

 seem to do vei-y well, but they are kept in hox- 

 hives, except in a few instances where the farmers 

 have " patent hives," made with swinging frames 

 and eight-pound glassed boxes in the cap. None of 

 the farmers ever open the brood-nest, and I do not 

 suppose that they could, as the combs must be 

 built in every direction. Still, they are willing to 

 pay f 3.00 for the advantage of a cap worth less than 

 50 cts. This has suggested to me the propriety of a 

 " Let-alone hive." What would a hive made of two 

 Simplicity stories, with slats like top-bars of 

 frames, nailed across the top of them for the combs 

 to be fastened to, and furnished with T supers in 

 upper story, cost? I know it seems wrong for a 

 bee-keeper to suggest such a thing, but such hives 

 would be better than box hives, and nearly as 

 cheap. H. R. Talcott. 



Williamsburg, Tenn., June 24, 1888. 



Such a " Let-alone '' hive as you mention 

 in your letter would cost about the same as 

 an ordinary hive— perhaps a little less. We 



would suggest to you, however, that a bet- 

 ter way would be to purchase a regular 

 movable-frame hive; and if you want the 

 frames fixed permanently, nail them down 

 and the bees can have it all to their own 

 sweet will, if they like. The reasons you 

 propose for tiie use of " a Let-alone " hive 

 are very good ; but a movable-frame hive 

 might be " let alone " just as long as the 

 bee-keeper chooses; but should occasion 

 demand it, its inside condition can be ex- 

 amined. 



DOES A VIOLENT CLAP OF THUNDER PREVENT 



QUEEN-CELLS FROM HATCHING? DOES IT 



HAVE A SIMIIyAR INFLUENCE ON 



DUCK EGGS? 



Hrtve vou over found in your experience, or 

 hear<l through others, whether violent claps of 

 thunder, such as accompany a discharge of elec- 

 tricity when it strikes, for instance, a tree near the 

 apiary, would injure queen-cells about the time and 

 just after thej- are capped? My reason for asking 

 you is, that about the first of this montli I had 18 or 

 ;J0 nice queeu-cells, some not quite capped over, 

 and some finished. A violent thunder storm came 

 up, and a large cottonwood-tree was struck about 

 300 yards from my apiary. The clap of thunder ac- 

 companying it was verj' loud and startling. Well, 

 only two of those cells hatched, and those two have 

 not laid up to date. The reason I ask the question 

 is, we have had another storm since, and I have 

 lost some more queen-cells. There is a current su- 

 perstition among the negroes here, that thunder 

 spoils duck eggs. A. W. Tufts. 



Musson, La., May 38, 1888. 



Friend T.. I do not believe that the thun- 

 der and lightning had any thing to do either 

 wilh the queen-cells or duck's eggs hatch- 

 ing. A good many times, when queen-cells 

 do not hatch, we have tried to get at some 

 reason for it ; and shaking, at a certain 

 stage, will destroy the vitality of the cell. 

 This fact prevents sending queen-cells by 

 mail, which matter comes up every little 

 while. The shaking must be quite violent, 

 however, to kill the queen At a certain 

 stage, the embryo queen may be taken out 

 of the cell, examined and put back again, 

 without any apparent injury. I do not be- 

 lieve that thunder and lightning injure 

 duck's eggs, for nature seldom makes a 

 blunder of that kind. 



SAWDUST FOR POLLEN, AND A REASON GIVEN AS 

 TO WHY THE BEES GATHER IT. 



Will you allow me to call your attention for a 

 moment to your editorial comments on pollen from 

 sawdust. May 15? You express a doubt as to its of- 

 fice. If you think for a moment, you will remem- 

 ber that one of the laws which govern the digestion 

 and assimilation of food liy the animal economj' of 

 man and beast requires that a certain per cent shall 

 be of some woody or fibrous substance, which pass- 

 es through the digestive organs unchanged, its 

 office seemingly being a medium of carriage of the 

 elements taken up by the secretive ducts; and as it 

 is passed along through the abdominal cavity it 

 carries with it the waste passed off by the organs 

 which act in this capacity. We have read that a 

 dog fed upon concentrated food, such as fine flour, 

 sugar, gluten, etc., will starve after a certain time; 

 also that animals transi)orted liy water, if deprived 



