244 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aprii, 1. 



year round. If you take away part of the 

 frames at time of honey harvest, they must be 

 taken can^ of till later, and then they must be 

 got. back again, and it isn't certain that the 

 brood -nest will tie in a< good shape for winter 

 when combs are put in hite as when they have 

 been left there ihioughout the season. 



In the case of tiiose who allow natural 

 swarming, the case may be different. I can 

 not speak from actual experience. It certainly 

 looks as though for a tinu^ after being hived, a 

 new swarm with limited bi'ood room should do 

 excellent work in the super. I think this is 

 claimc d by those who ought to know. But it is 

 possible that some of tlie after-results are not 

 Just such as would be most ardently desired. 



I am also asked to tell the size of my frames. 

 The most of them are ISxi), outside measure. I 

 wish that they were •'« shorter and 'j, deeper — 

 not that I think any noticeable difference in the 

 working of the bees would result, but 17,?<x9}^' 

 is a standard size in this country. Iain gradu- 

 ally working into the standard size with Dove- 

 tailed hives. If I were in Scotland I should 

 likely use the standard British size, 14x81;,'. 



If i should give the address of my correspon- 

 dent. I am afraid there would be an exodus of 

 bee-keepers from this ^country to settle about 

 him. Just listen to this benighted hea — I mean 

 Scotchman. He says. " I am a Scotch farmer, 

 and work .W colonies of bees during spare mo- 

 ments from farm work. I never saw an apiary 

 but my own. and never had personal instruction. 

 What I know about bees is from reading. . . . 

 As I am situated among the bonnie heather- 

 clad mountains, my main crop is heather honey, 

 for which I get from Is. to Is. (5d. (25 to 37 cent's) 



per pound section I have never yet 



been able to supply all orders, and am therefore 

 sold out as soon as removed from the hive.'' 

 Just think of 2.5 cents a pound, with an unlimit- 

 ed market! Wouldn't I just like to pounce 

 down on that Scotchman some day, in his 

 mountain fastnessl C. C. Mili.ek. 



Marengo, 111., Mar. 2L 



[We reproduce the cut which appeared some 

 two months ago, in order that our readers may 

 more clearly understand the opiM-ation that Dr. 

 Miller is describing. Perhaps in answer to the 

 last paragraph we ought to state that it is not 

 practicable to make the Cowan a four-frame 

 extractor — at least, with frames as large as the 

 Langstroth. We have a two- pocket machine — 

 each pocket wide enough to take in two Heddon 

 combs. If any one desires a /our-frame Lang- 

 stroth reversible extractor, he had better pur- 

 chase the Stanley. In our opionion this is the 

 best automatic reversing extractor for four 

 Langtroth combs. For the majority of bee- 

 keepers the two-comb reversible Cowan would 

 answer every requirement. One has only to try 

 it to determine how much more rapidly it can 

 be operated than the ordinary two-comb non- 

 reversing extractor.] 



THIN VS. THICK. OLD VS. FRESH FOUNDA- 

 TION FOR SECTIONS, ETC. 



EXPEUIMENTS THAT ARE TO BE CONnUCTEI) BV 

 THE DEI'AKT.MENT OF APIC ULTURE, AT THE 

 MICHIGAN AGRICUI.TURAI- COLLEGE. 



It has seemed best that the experiments here 

 should be along the line of practical work in 

 the apiary. As bee culture has been my occu- 

 pation, and as I have never had the opportunity 

 of special scientific training, practical experi- 

 ments seemed to. me to opi'u the surest way in 

 which I might be of benefit to the bee-keepers. 

 Practical work in experimental science, or the 



practical proving and testing of scientific truth, 

 has been most valuable, especially when direct- 

 ed toward that great subject of recent scientific 

 research, agriculture, and its allied branches. 

 If the material development of bee cultuie can 

 be assisted by these practical expeiiments. it 

 seems to me that more will be accomplished 

 than if purely scientific— or. rather, theoretical 

 — lines of work be considered. 



With this in mind I have undertaken to work 

 this summer upon a number of experiments of 

 considerable practical interest. I have chosen 

 to speak first of the one described below, be- 

 cause preparation for it should be begun imme- 

 diately, and because I desire some help from 

 others. This subject is one in which I am 

 interested, and about which much more than 

 we now know might be learned. There are 

 many subjects in bee culture, our knowledge of 

 which is based on suppositions, on single obser- 

 vations, or upon dogmatic statements that are 

 allowed to be repeated continually in our bee- 

 journals. Our bee-keeping literature is so full 

 of this that we are nearly all continually falling 

 back upon these facts (?) to find a basis for 

 argument that often leads to seritms error. 

 There is much of this, it strikes me. in our 

 knowledge of the use and abuse of comb foun- 

 dation. The improvement in the methods of 

 manufacture, and in the perfection of this prod- 

 uct, have kept pace with our knowledge and 

 experience, and even gone further. It has been 

 supposed that the side walls of comb foundation 

 should be high and soft, and the base very thin; 

 and the manufacturers have accomplished this. 

 Again, when the flat-base foundation was intro- 

 duced, being much thinner than any before 

 made, it was said that, therefore, it was best to 

 use it. as less " fishbone '" in comb honey result- 

 ed. If foundation in sections is worked or 

 drawn out by the bees as much as is commonly 

 believed, why should there be more fishbone in 

 honey when the heavier foundation is used? 

 The experiment in Ontario last year with comb 

 foundation seemed to point with emphasis 

 toward the fact (?) that bees do not thin the 

 septum of foundation according to tradition. I 

 should like to see this experiment continued to 

 foundation 14 ft. to the pound, both natural and 

 flat base, and under more varied conditions of 

 climate and honey-flow. The flow in the e.x- 

 periment above was in all the cases, with one 

 exception, light, and in that case the flow was 

 artificial. The experiment that I have in con- 

 templation extends the work to flat and natural 

 ba.se foundation of both 11 and 14 ft. to the 

 pound, combining and alternating so that there 

 may be numerous checks upon the correctness 

 of "the work. The relative worth of these 

 weights and kinds of foundation will thus be 

 tested, not only to determine the comparative 

 extent to which the foundation is manipulated 

 by the bees, but to discover which variety gives 

 to the finished product the finest appearance 

 and best combs for shipping. In a poor season 

 we suppose some kinds of foundation are not 

 worked as readily as others, but are often 

 gnawed away to be rebuilt imperfectly if at all 

 during subsequent flows. 



Starters will be compared with full sheets of 

 foundation, and by i)hotograi)hs and measure- 

 ments the relative appearance of the finished 

 combs presented, as well as the weight or quan- 

 tity produced in each manner. 



Southern wax is said to possess certain prop- 

 erties peculiar to itself, rendering foundation 

 made from it more brittle, and thus less liable 

 to be drawn out by the bees. The attempt will 

 be made to discover whether this difference is 

 real, or whether it exists only in report. 



Old foundation is s^aid to dry or harden in 

 such a manner as not to be acceptable to the 



