1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



239 



summer it evaporated down to a thick syrup, 

 and now is clear as crystal, and thick, with no 

 granulation. Syrup made by boiling will gran- 

 ulate more or less. 

 Syracuse, N. Y., Feb. 9. 



[Two years ago when I visited Boardman he 

 was the only one around who secured any 

 honey, and he attributed it to the fact that he 

 fed them up to the honey-tlow. (illing the brood 

 combs, so that the first and all the honey hud 

 to go into the supers. This seemed to be a big 

 thing, and I can'c quite give up that it is yet. 

 However, one of our neighbors, M. G. Chase, of 

 Whittlesey, O.. has tried the plan and succeed- 

 ed no belter than you; at all events, he thinks 

 he can't afford to do it again. 



Let's have more reports from those who tried 

 the plan, for many did try it. If nearly all 

 made it a failure then we must give up. 



Regarding the cold process of making syrup, 

 Mr. Salisbury is the man who gave us the plan. 

 This is surely a success. Our bees have had 

 this syrup for two winters, and they never win- 

 tered better. To go back to the old mussy way 

 would be like goiug back to box hives. A Mr. 

 Laing, of Ontario, who visited us recently, said 

 this idea alone was worth to him several years 

 of Gleanings.— Ed] 



CHIPS FROM WOODCHOPPER. 



BEES GATHERING POLLEN IN THE MORNING, 

 AND why: a VALUABLE ARTICLE. 



R. C. Aiken says bees gather more pollen in 

 the morning than later, and wonders why. 

 Well, they do, and then again they don't. It 

 depends upon the kind of things they are get- 

 ting it from. Some plants yield a somewhat 

 sticky pollen which they can pack all day: and 

 unless the supply is exhausted before night they 

 will bring it all day; but corn, ragweed, and 

 plants of that class, yield a very dry powdery 

 pollen which can not be collected at any other 

 time of the day than early morning, so they 

 simply take advantage of the best time to pack 

 it, which they can't do after the sun has been 

 shining a few hours, while they will bring near- 

 ly all kinds of tree pollen until dark, if the 

 weather lets them work so late, unless the sup- 

 ply is exhausted sooner. 



CAUSE OF FOUNDATION BEING ATTACHED TO 

 SEPARATOR, OR GETTING OUT OF PLUMB. 



It is caused by the weight of the bees more 

 than any thing else. If the bees come up and 

 fill the whole super en masse at once, there will 

 be no trouble; but if, as is generally the case, 

 they begin in a cluster in the middle, and en- 

 large the cluster as they get more in earnest, 

 the outside bees in the cluster will, by taking 

 hold of the lower edge of the foundation, and 

 hanging to it while other bees hang to them and 

 to the separator next nearest to the center of 

 the cluster, and other bees working at the foun- 

 dation, mostly from inside nearest to the center 

 of the cluster, it will slowly swing out of plumb; 

 and as they draw it out it becomes permanent, 

 and the result is a defective section. The same 



thing and the same reason hold good in full 

 sheets of foundation in the brood-chamber, un- 

 less the frames are wired, and I get rid of the 

 trouble by turning the frame around, when it 

 will soon draw back and nearly always become 

 self-supporting before it gets too far back the 

 other way. But I like Dr. Miller's plan of bot- 

 tom starters much better than putting on a few 

 sections at a time, as Manum does. It's less 

 work, and makes a better job of filling down to 

 the bottom every time, and so it ships better, 

 and the sections weigh a little more. And, Dr. 

 M., if you will use medium brood for the bottom 

 starter, and make them only two rows of cells 

 wide, you won't be troubled with their tipping 

 over as they do if made from thin foundation, 

 and the bees work them just as well. But, Dr. 

 M., aren't you drawing on your imagination 

 when you talk about a hive being two inches 

 out of plumb? If one of my hives tipped over 

 that much I should think it might be trying to 

 roll over and crush me (but there would not be 

 much danger of the crush unless they get heav- 

 ier than they have for the last two years). 



BEES STOPPING TO FILL UP CRACKS BEFORE 

 PUTTING HONEY IN. 



It depends entirely on circumstances whether 

 they do or don't. If they are up in the sections 

 some days before they begin to work they will 

 chink them up; but if the weather is hot, and 

 the honey -flow good, they are just as apt to All 

 and seal them before doing any waxing at all, 

 and they sometimes used to fill and cap entirely 

 the large wooden boxes which I used to make 

 before sections came in vogue. I frequently 

 made the top out of two pieces, and they would 

 shrink so that I could see down, and I saw them 

 filled and capped, so that I could look right 

 down between every sheet of honey after taking 

 them off and getting the bees out, and not a 

 particle anywhere; but if left on long after 

 they were filled they would put in propolis; 

 while if the weather was cool, and they wanted 

 them warmer, they would fill them with white 

 wax, the same as they used in making comb. 

 But, doctor, it made me laugh just a little to see 

 you cite Doolittle to a case of bees storing honey 

 in extracting-combs with a crack 12x>^ inch 

 over their heads. Now, doctor, haven't you 

 been around bees long enough to find that they 

 never stop up a crack that they can go through 

 freely ? But may be your bees can't get through 

 a half-inch hole— must be some dorsata about 

 them. 



SIZE OF SECTIONS AND LOW PRICES. 



In answering a question as to the merits of a 

 tall section over a square one, one writer makes 

 a point which I think is a good one; viz., that 

 it is a detriment to bee-keepers when they 

 adopted the panel sections, and says the price 

 of honey would not have been lowered if we had 

 stuck to the large section, and he is right; and 



