1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



789 



about. To thorouglily enjoy an apple, one 

 must be acquainted with it beforehand ; and 

 I am impressed again with the fact that it 

 is possible for us to go througli this world of 

 ours having eyes but seeing not ; and ears, 

 but hearing not ; and on the other hand 

 there are grand enjoyments provided for us. 

 even in this world, in the way of using our 

 eyes and ears and other senses intelligently; 

 and the only way to use them intelligently 

 is to get acquainted— to know by face and 

 to know by reputation ; and if we stay at 

 home there is no way in the world by which 

 we can know about and enjoy in the rkiht 

 way these things God has, in his wonderful 

 wisdom and love, provided for us. 



SLEEPY-HOLLOW^ BEE-NOTES. 



KANGE OF BEES. 



TTis undoubtedly true, that bees will sometimes 

 ^ forage at a distance of three or four miles 

 ^t from home; but I am fully satisfied that they 

 "*■ rarely go more than a mile and a half or two 

 miles, even when honey is very scarce. Last 

 spring and early summer, the bees nearest my 

 farm were exactly a mile and a quarter away. 

 Within a mile and a half there were si.vteen colo- 

 nies, and two and one-half miles away in a straight 

 line was an apiary of one hundred colonies. Dur- 

 ing the period of which I write, dry weather 

 prevailed and nectar was scarce. Every thing was 

 favorable to cause the bees to range a long way 

 from home. There were many flowers on the 

 farm, and many clumps of basswood bloomed pro- 

 fusely, but not a bee was seen on Sleepy-Hollow 

 Farm, though T looked carefully for m j- little friends 

 every day. At the distance of a mile and a half 

 from the apiary of one hundred colonies I saw an 

 occasional bee on the basswood, and at one mile the 

 trees fairly roared for two weeks. The bees from 

 the large apiary had every incentive to go further, 

 for their own territory was overlapped by that of 

 a still larger apiary only half a mile beyond. In 

 July I moved three colonies to the farm for queen- 

 rearing purposes, and during the remainder of the 

 season the goldcnrods and asters in the vicinity 

 received daily visits. My own bees, being Syrio- 

 albinos, were easily recognizable, since there were 

 none but blacks nearer than three miles. I never 

 saw one of these yellow bees more than a mile from 

 home, though that fact may be easily accounted for 

 by their having all they could attend to nearer 

 home. From what I have observed in my own vicin- 

 ity, T am satisfied that a country as diversified as 

 is this, by prairie, woodland, and meadow, will sup- 

 port with profit an apiary of 100 colonies every three 

 or four miles. I should not feel very uneasy about 

 doubling the number. 



PLEURISY ROOT. 



1 am loth to dissent from the opinion of the many 

 bee-keepers who are just now " booming " this plant 

 so vigorously, but the truth must be told. It grows 

 profusely on the prairies and meadows of this part 

 of Iowa; but during the past two years it has not 

 been visited \>y the bees, even occasionally. Butter- 

 flies hover over it by the thousand, but not a bee 

 troubles herself about it through all the long sum- 

 mer. It may be the seasons were not favorable. 

 On that point I will not be certain, for my observa- 

 tions do not go back further than two years; or it 



may be that there is something in our soil that 

 modifies the character of the plant. As the question 

 now stands, I would as lief invest in thistle seeds 

 with a honey crop in view as in the seed of the 

 pleurisy root. I speak for no locality but my own. 

 Here the ironweed is a thousand times to be pre- 

 ferred, for the bees are busy on it all day long, while 

 the pleurisy root beside it goes unvisited. 



Audubon, Iowa. Z. T. Hawk. 



Friend II., my experience in regard to the 

 distance bees work agrees so exactly with 

 yours that your opening sentence sounds 

 almost as if it were copied from something 

 I have written in reference to the subject. 

 I am well satisfied that our bees do not like 

 to go more than about two miles from their 

 home for stores. At the same time, I am 

 well aware that we have had abundant tes- 

 timony to the effect that they do, in other 

 localities, go more than twice that distance. 

 —Your remarks in regard to the pleurisy 

 root warn us that, if we undertake to raise 

 plants for honey alone, we may be rewarded 

 for our pains by finding no honey at all. 



HONEY -BOARDS. 



ONE MADE OF STRIPS OF UNPERFORATED METAL. 



R. ROOT:— Thinking I had not afflicted you 

 sufficiently this forenoon, I will give you 

 something new. While the idea may not 

 prove suggestive, it may perhaps be amus- 

 ing. Wishing to be able to make every 

 thing myself, and not to be compelled to send to 

 Mr. Root or any one else for every thing, 1 "con- 

 ceived and brought out " this queen-excluding hon- 

 ey-boai-d. You may not think the issue a very 

 healthy or promising one, but I can assure you that 

 it works, and is cheap. I make a frame of !4 x % 

 stutt', with pieces of same material crossing every 

 414 inches, upon which I tack strips of tin, zinc, or 

 galvanized iron. As I place my frames 1^4 inches 

 apart from center to center, I cut these strips 1% 

 inches wide, and as long as the frames. Now I tack 

 these on my frame, leaving a space -f^ of an inch, to 

 allow a passage for workers, but not for queen. If 

 I wish to make one for Carniolans I can leave a 

 space of i-j if necessary. The spaces in the honey- 

 board come directly over the spaces between the 

 frames, and the sections rest upon the H x f cross- 

 piece, every 414 inches apart, thus bringing the sec- 

 tions as near as possible to the brood-chamber, by 

 leaving only a bee-space between, of f inch (the 

 thickness of cross-piece). I can easily tack my 

 strips at a uniform distance apart, by putting two 

 pieces of iron between, 1^,, inch thick, and shov- 

 ing the strip up tight to these before tacking. I 

 can thus make a honey-board to fit any kind of bees 

 in a very few minutes, and at very little expense. 

 Kindly let me know what you think of the honey- 

 board. S. A. Russell. 

 Newmarket, Ont., Sept. 26, 1888. 



Such a honey-board has been described 

 before, if we are correct. It will probably 

 work, l)ut we don't think it would be as sat- 

 isfactory as one employing perforated zinc. 

 The greatest objection" to it is, that it would 

 be a very difficult matter to space each strip 

 of metal accurately, and still more difficult 

 to nail it so. Bear in mind, that only a 

 small trifle in variation would make such a 



