558 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jui,Y 15. 



five wires have any particular advantage over 

 the four, because the combs built from light 

 brood foundation on the four wires are very 

 nice Fi-om some careful experiments we have 

 bi'en mailing. w(> find that medium brood foun- 

 dation gives rather better combs than the light 

 brood under the same conditions. We there- 

 fore recommend four horizontal wires and me- 

 dium brood foundation for tlie Langstroth size 

 of frame. This brings the wires about two 

 inches apart. Try the experiment yourself; 

 and if von can get more perfect combs in any 

 other way, we should like to know it. Those 

 we have are as smooth and even as the surface 

 of a board. 



Perhaps some of our readers would like to 

 know how thick-top frames are doing as re- 

 gards presence or absence of burr-combs. Some 

 of them have been in use now for three years, 

 and they are perfectly clean to-day. so far as 

 spurs of wax are concerned, although they are 

 soiled, as a matter of course, with propolis. It 

 is such a comfort to pull off the cover of hives 

 having these frames inl The bee keeper who 

 has tried the two kinds of frames in hives side 

 by side, the old burr-comb frame and the non- 

 biirr-comb, we are sure will declare that he will 

 never, never go back to thin and narrow top- 

 bars. 



Pkospects for a honey crop, according to the 

 reports we are receiving from various parts of 

 the country, have improved very much during 

 the last ten days. The season has been very 

 late, and consequently many bee-keepers were 

 discouraged, fearing the honey would never 

 come While a couple of weeks ago we were 

 getting reports almost daily, to the effect of 

 ^No honey," "'Season a total failure," etc., we 

 are now receiving reports more of this charac- 

 ter- "Bees just booming;"' "Basswood prom- 

 ises big;" "We are extracting our first honey; 

 "Never saw such an immense amount of bass- 

 wood bloom." And even clover at this late 

 date seems to be making a tremendous effort to 

 make up for lost time, in furnishing nectar at 

 the eleventh hour. Clover is folloivimj bass- 

 wood in our locality this year. General indica- 

 tions are. that in the basswood regions there 

 will be a very heavy flow of honey. 



RASCALITY WHERE IT BELONGS. 



It seems to me that there has not yet been 

 sufficient emphasis put upon the fact that the 

 adulterated honey which Prof. Wiley supposed 

 came from Mr. C. F. Muth was not Muth s 

 honey at all. You will notice the labels read. 

 '■ Muth'sCalifoi'nia Machine-extracted Honey." 

 Now friend Muth writes us that he never had 

 any labels in the world with '• California" on 

 them: and the evidence is plain and clear that 

 some rascally adulterator, having found out 

 that Muth's name and reputation are worth 

 more than any thing else he could say in a few- 

 words used this means to sell his spurious 

 trash.' and. of course, this exoni'rates friend 

 Wiley He supposed, of course, that the honey 

 on the market, labeled as above, was horn C. F. 

 Muth, of Cincinnati. Ohio. Now, then, can t 

 somebody find out where packages bearing the 

 above label came from? and then let us make 

 it as hot for the real rascal as we can. and 

 teach him. if possible, that the way of the 

 transgressor is harih^ A. I. R. 



STARTING BEES TO WORK ON BASSWOODS. 



During the last week or so of June we had 

 been expecting, for nearly every day, that the 

 bees would start on clover-blossoms; but for 

 nearly ten days they seemed to be on the verge 

 of starvation, and some nuclei required to be 

 fed We finallv became discouraged, and made 



up our minds to feed them anyhow. The bees 

 had inst started a little on basswood: but we 

 had little faith that any thing would yield 

 honey this year, so we told the boys to go ahead. 

 Well, it seems the bees had been working on 

 basswood more than we supposed; and al- 

 though it was pretty well toward evening after 

 they had been given the big feed, the stimulus of 

 the syrup just given them started them out in 

 a perfect I'oar on the young hasswoods. The 

 result is, that they worked on the trees till late 

 in the evening. The poor bees, like ourselves, 

 had probably become discouraged, and did not 

 believe there was any honey in the basswoods; 

 but the sudden supply of stores made them 

 think there must be honey somewhere, and out 

 they rushi'd for the trees. Some of our older 

 readers will remember our experiment of years 

 ago. how, when we fed the bees, they would 

 immediately rush out and buzz around the 

 honey-house door, where they had at one time 

 been robbing heavilv. 



AUTOMATIC SWARMERS. 



The Pratt automatic swarmers are still doing 

 good work. Sincp the two swarms came out. 

 and were successfully hived, as reported in our 

 last i-ssue, the swarmers have captured several 

 others, and the bees have gone to work in dead 

 earnest in their new quarters. As an illustra- 

 tion: On Sunday morning, the 10th, Huber. 

 our small brother, you know, came rushing 

 over, saying that a swarm of bees was out. We 

 very leisurely made our way to the apiary, and 

 contented ourselves with the assurance that it 

 must be from one of the colonies rigged up for 

 swarming, H iff Pratt, and would therefore re- 

 quire no attention. We looked over a number 

 of hives, but could not determine from which 

 one the swarm came. The bees finally alighted 

 on a grapevine, and to hurry things along we 

 smoked them off'. After circling about a few 

 minutes they began to pour back by the hun- 

 dreds into the hive from which they came. On 

 Monday, the next day, examination showed 

 that they had not only gone into their new 

 quarters but had drawn out eight frames of 

 foundation and deposited honey therein, leaving 

 one or two frames in which the queen deposited 

 eggs. There was nothing but young bees in the 

 upper story, and that nervous hum that indi- 

 cated th(>y felt that they were queenless. The 

 swarm below must have drawn out eight combs 

 and gone a long way towtud filling them with 

 honey in about thirty-six hours ; because the 

 night before— that is. on the evening of the 9th — 

 the empty hive with frames of foundation was 

 giviM) them. 



Although we have had excellent success with 

 the automatic swarmers. we advise all to go 

 slow. One. two. three, or even a dozen swallows 

 do not necessarily make a summer. 



BASSWOOD AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



It is now something like twelve years since 

 we planted a row of basswood-trees on the 

 north side of our ranch: and we have been 

 watching these trees season after season, to 

 learn what we could about the growth of them, 

 the secretion of honey, etc. During this present 

 year of 18UI'. when my mind was occupied a 

 good deal on other matters, my attention has 

 been called to the basswoods by the exceedingly 

 profuse bloom and loud roar that greeted my 

 eyes and ears every morning about sunrise, or 

 a little after. It was not the ears and eyes 

 alone that were delighted either, for the per- 

 fume of ten thousand opening blossoms was 

 quite a prominent part of the enjoyment. 

 Every tree that was large enough has been for 

 several days back just bending under its load 



