150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



their full length, then bent to place. [Yes, I 

 had the impression that you used the diagonal 

 nails; but I now recall that they were as you 

 state on the frame that you sent here.— Ed.] 



" I WANT THE FRAMES to stick together some," 

 says ye editor, p. 128. All right, have 'em stick 

 to your heart's content, but remember that 

 others, and possibly a majority, are still more 

 emphatic in the wish that they should not stick. 

 [I suspect that you do not get exactly the right 

 Idea of the little word "some." I did not mean 

 much sticking, but just enough to hold the 

 frames together without rattling while the hive 

 is carried across the apiary. I doubt whether 

 the majority who, when they have tested the 

 style of frames shown on page 94, will desire to 

 dispense with the slight sticking between the 

 end-bars altogether. — Ed.] 



If I UNDERSTAND you correctly, Mr. Editor, 

 side walls of cells % deep and .008 thick will be 

 reduced to natural thickness by the bees. Now, 

 do you know this to be the case during a flood 

 of honey? [Yes, you understood me correctly. 

 I based my statement on numerous measure- 

 ments made by Mr. Weed. There may be a 

 difference in some cases. As soon as deep-cell 

 foundation is given to the bees, they begin im- 

 mediately to thin down the walls to the natural 

 thickness. The cells are so near natural, and as 

 honey is coming in, the bees naturally conclude 

 that it is so little work to fix up this comb they 

 will commence on it beforeany thing else.— Ed.] 



Sugar is forbidden by the medical profession 

 in diabetic cases. A correspondent asks if 

 honey is equally proscribed. I think generally; 

 but isn't it possible that the proscription comes 

 from carelessly ignoring the essential difference 

 between cane sugar and honey? Mr. Editor, 

 can't you get a verdict from competent, consci- 

 entious medical authority that's fully up to 

 date? [We have a good many physicians among 

 our subscribers, and we should be glad to hear 

 from one or more on this point. As for my own 

 case, I know that I can not eat cane or maple 

 sugar, without trouble; but I have partaken of 

 honey quite freely, with no disagreeable effects. 

 Prof. Cook is certainly right, if ray case means 

 anv thing, that the bees do digest or prepare 

 nectar so that it shall be more readily assimi- 

 lated. Perhaps "digest" is not just the word; 

 but the bees do something, and that something 

 makes It "set" better with me.— Ed.] 



What A. I. Root says. p. 131, reminds me 

 that formerly physicians sent patients with 

 weak lungs to some points in the West, with 

 great results, while they don't get any such re- 

 sults from the climate nowadays. Formerly 

 they were weeks on the way in open wagons, 

 now they're shot there in a stuffy car. [Are 

 you sure, doctor, that patients with lung com- 

 plaints do not get benefit nowadays by a change 

 of climate? A stuffy car may have something 



to do with it; but as their duration there is so 

 very short (shot through space) it seems to me 

 it would make but little difference either way. 

 But if I had consumption I would stay at home 

 and gD on the beef diet. [ have seen it work 

 admirably in cases right under my observation, 

 so I have unbounded faith in it, provided the 

 patient does not wait too long. It will cure 

 nearly every thing providing the patient has 

 grit — that is, self denial— and does as he is told. 



DRAWN COMBS. 



how they hinder or prevent swarming; 



how they add one -third to the 



crop; a valuable article. 



By J. E. Henderson. 



I am very much interested in the subject of 

 drawn combs that is being discussed in Glean- 

 ings; and as the editor calls on others to write 

 I will give some of my experience. 



I have been using drawn combs for over 15 

 years, and I would just as soon think of doing 

 without them as I would think of doing with- 

 out bed-clothes on a cold night. They are the 

 most valuable property a bee keeper can have. 

 I am like the editor— I have tested this matter 

 of drawn combs very carefully, not only in my 

 own apiary, but iu some of the leading and 

 largest apiaries of other apiarists; and I find 

 from experience that bees will invariably take 

 to the drawn combs first, then to full starters 

 next. As yet I have never leveled down, but 

 will give it a test this season. 



I find there are several advantages in using 

 drawn combs. The bees will commence sooner 

 and finish sooner; and by their use the bees are 

 not so prone to leave the case on cool nights, 

 which is quite an item. I always place four 

 drawn combs in the center of each case as a 

 nest-egg, and I find these combs just as fancy 

 as those drawn from foundation. 



Ou page 79, J. E. Crane says if they are not 

 cut down the bees hesitate about sealing them, 

 and are apt to be dirty in appearance. The 

 brother's bees up there act differently from 

 mine. I find my bees work on sections of full 

 depth, and seal over much sooner than from 

 sections of full starters of foundation. If drawn 

 combs have had the proper care in the fall and 

 winter, I should much rather have them than 

 foundation. I don't think these combs are ap- 

 preciated by bee-keepers to the full extent of 

 their value. I also find, when cases are sup- 

 plied with drawn combs, and bees once fairly 

 at work in them, it lessens the desire to swarm 

 when put on eight or ten days before white clo- 

 ver comes in bloom. 



