114 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



there be more formic acid in buckwheat? 

 Perhaps it requires more of it as a preservative, 

 for indeed this acid is a strong antiseptic. — 

 Ed.] 



That new spelling on page 77 so " aston- 

 isht" the Medina printers that if'knockt" 

 'em clean out. They got that straw badly 

 " mixt," and the last two lines of the page have 

 " swapt "places. [The " swap '' was discovered 

 in our office after it was too late to swap back 

 again. As the lines now stand they make Dr. 

 Miller say just what he did not want to say; 

 yet I hope most of our readers "'ere able to 

 recognize the discrepancy.— Ed. 1 



A former editor— one who had snap too— 

 writes that in the list of defunct bee-journals I 

 ought to have included some that are dead but 

 still appear regularly. Perhaps he thinks it 

 might be said of them as v?as said by the Irish- 

 man of the turtle which walked around long 

 after its head had been cut off: " The crayture's 

 dead, but it's not sinsible of it." [Yes, perhaps 

 there are one or two that might very properly 

 be classed as dead so far as any influence or 

 effect they have upon general bee-keeping is 

 concerned. But, say — if you had mentioned 

 their names, I rather imagine you would have 

 found they had a spark of life left.— Ed.] 



I'm wondering what sort of Miller feeder 

 Wm. G. Hewes has when he says, on page 84, 

 "Unless it fits the super very snugly, many 

 bees will be drowned." What's a super on the 

 hive for? and how do the bees get in the feed ? 

 There's no possibility of my bees getting 

 drowned unless they get under the cover from 

 the outside. How is it in Medina, Mr. Editor? 

 [No trouble about bees drowning in the Miller 

 feeder, at our yard. In fact, it is absolutely 

 impossible for the bees to get at the feed except 

 through the narrow passageways; and in them 

 the bees can not by any possibility be drowned. 

 Perhaps friend Hewes did not use them in 

 closed supers. — Ed. J 



I've been using frames with top-bars )^ inch 

 short at each end, like tho*e on p. 94, and I 

 think it's a fine improvement. I've been using 

 that gauge on p. 95 for two years, and like it. 

 But I like the end-spacer I sent you better, I 

 think, Mr. Editor, than staples. [Yes, indeed. 

 For the last two years a number of letters have 

 passed between Dr. Miller and ourselves re- 

 garding the advantages of having a bee space 

 around the ends of the top-bars; and his ex- 

 perience has been exactly our own; namely, 

 that it is indeed a "fine improvement." But 

 until this year we did not decide to list it in 

 our regular hive combinations. The "end 

 spacer that Dr. Milller refers to is simply a 

 wire nail driven through the end of the projec- 

 tion of the top-bar from tne top, diagonally, into 

 the end bar. This feature will be illustrated a 

 little later on; but it seems that friend Boom- 



hower has been using this device for a num- 

 ber of years. For further particulars see edito- 

 rials.— Ed. 



"In examining sections in their various 

 stages of progress we invariably find them on 

 both sides alike, drawn out and filled, or so 

 nearly alike that a swinging one way or the 

 other, by greater weight on one side, could not 

 be caused."— G. C. Greiner, page 86. Friend 

 G., it must be you never have weak colonies or 

 poor harvests. I've had lots of sections fasten- 

 ed to separators by lop-sided building. But 

 since using bottom starters I've no trouble. 

 [Dr. Miller uses square sections. In fact, I be- 

 lieve he always has used them; so the trouble 

 with comb being fastened to the separators 

 would be little if any worse with tall than with 

 square ones. Dr. Miller very truly says, a 

 bottom starter would remedy that. See Dool it- 

 tie's article in current number.— Ed.J 



How TO BAKE honey-jumbles is inquired 

 about by "Texas." We bako 'em just like 

 cookies. Mix together the honey, molasses, 

 and lard. Add the salt. Dissolve the soda in 

 the water, and stir thoroughly into the mix- 

 ture Add the vanilla. Stir into the mixture 

 a part of the flour, reserving the rest to roll out 

 with. Roll about half an inch thick, and cut 

 out with a doughnut or jumble cutter, which 

 leaves a hole in the center. Grease the pans 

 before putting in the jumbles, and bake in a 

 meaium oven. [The complaint at our house in 

 regard to making jumbles is that the dough is 

 rather too sticky to handle easily; still, the 

 women-folks around Medina seem to make 

 quite a success of the jumbles. Every once in 

 a while an employee will lay upon my desk 

 samples of his wife's make, and they are all 

 good. This goes to show that the recipe is a 

 success, and that any good cook can make good 

 jumbles. The home-made will be better than 

 the bakers', because, as a rule, a finer article of 

 honey will be used.— Ed.] 



I have a great deal of faith in the bee-sting 

 cure for rheumatism, having suffered a num- 

 ber of years, and since I have kept bees it has 

 disappeared. Whether the stings did it, or 

 whether eating honey did it, I can not prove; 

 but I am inclined to give the bees the credit. 



Ottawa. Ont., Jan. 11. J. Fixter. 



WOOD splints for frames of foundation. 



Gleanings for Nov. 15th reached me here. 

 Referring to your editorial comments, that 

 wiring would be more expeditious than setting 

 of foundation with wood splints, I would state 

 that about 130 frames per hour can be easily 

 filled by experienced hands ready for the bees 

 to begin work upon, using 7 splints per frame, 

 which is a sufficient number of splints for me- 

 dium brood foundation. B. F. Avebill. 



Middletown, Mass., Jan. 1. 



