GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



" Is the baby much sick ? '' Liira asked. 

 •' I declare ! I uever dreamed you had a child, 

 you look so young." 

 "I am not old enough to have very much 



"Oh! you really look so young; don't she, 

 Ida?" 



I looked around me. 



"Yes, I can't do my work and entertain com- 

 pany at the same time." I had no thought of 

 leaving these two women in that room alone. 

 " My husband is coming. I think he will want 

 his supper." 



"I expect we had better go, Lura," Ida sug- 

 gested. 



With much adieu they departed. I wished I 

 had been a large commanding figure about that 

 time. I felt I would at least make people un- 

 derstand I was not playing housekeeping. 



"What success?" the partner of my joys 

 asked when he came in. 



"Not much success, but I guess it will be 

 different to morrow." 



When I told him about the old man and the 

 jar of milk we had a good laugh together. 



I will get a good start in the morning, before 

 any one comes; and I did get the dishes wash- 

 ed when I heard a loud knock. I hastened to 

 the door. " I want to get some honey." 



" Yes, sir; come to the honey-house." 



The man followed, saying, " I am in a hurry." 



He sampled the honey, and bought a dollar's 

 worth. I was filled with new hope. I reached 

 the kitchen. A knock ? Yes. A girl wanted a 

 pound of honey. She came in and kept me 

 from my work. It was not long until I opened 

 the door and found a peddler. He tried to sell 

 me soap, or exchange for honey. At last I shut 

 the door in his face. 



Ti) be continued. 



DRAWN COMBS, 



COMB AND wax; THE MEI.TED-BUTTER ARGU- 

 MENT SIFTED; THE HEAVIEST BLOW 

 AT THE COMB -HONEY MARKET. 



By C. C. Miller. 



If I remember correctly, it was A. I. Root who 

 first advised taking a super or one or more sec- 

 tions in which bees were at work, and giving 

 them to another colony that was slow at get- 

 ting to work in sections. Bees and all were to 

 be taken. Then I think it was G. W. Demaree 

 who said bees would start work in supers if in 

 the supers were put a section each that was 

 partly filled with honey, no matter when it had 

 been filled, and no bees need be given with it. 

 Possibly I misunderstood him as to the necessity 

 of having honey in the section; but that was 

 the way I understood it, and it was not for some 

 time that I discovered, perhaps accidentally, 

 that neither bees nor honey was needed. All 



that was necessary was to have sections con- 

 taining comb that was partly or wholly drawn 

 out, and from that time I have always used one 

 such in the first super of the season given to 

 each colony, giving such section the name of 

 " bait" section, or merely " bait." 



Atone time there was a wide divergence of 

 opinion as to the advisability of using unfinish- 

 ed sections, some insisting that the bees would 

 commence on the raw foundation and fill and 

 seal the sections before the baits were filled, 

 that the honey was of poorer quality in them, 

 and so on. The character of those making these 

 objections was such that there was no doubting 

 that in their cases the objections were well 

 founded. The one objection I can easily under- 

 stand; for if in the bait the least speck of honey 

 from the previous season is left, the granulation 

 will affect the new honey stored. That the bees 

 would be slower at filling the bait sections than 

 the other ones, I can not possibly understand, 

 unless it be th|it the sections had been left on 

 the hives unused so late in the season of the 

 previous year that the bees had varnished the 

 foundation or comb with propolis. I have, un- 

 fortunately, had a large experience in deciding 

 which sections would be sooner accepted and 

 filled by the bees. In different years of failure 

 of the honey crop, I have put on supers con- 

 taining bait-combs, and the baits have been 

 filled and sealed, and the sections with founda- 

 tion left untouched. Not merely an occasional 

 case, but hundreds of them. Just the one sec- 

 tion in the super was filled and sealed, and the 

 others left as empty as when put on. 



I have seen it stated that, when unfinished 

 sections were used, they should be cut down or 

 leveled down until the cells were not more than 

 ^8 of an inch high, the idea being entertained 

 that B. Taylor used his Handy comb-leveler 

 simply for the purpose of having cells not so 

 deep. I think this Is an entire mistake. I am 

 not positive about it, but I think- Mr. Taylor 

 used the leveler for the sake of removing any 

 objectionable part, no matter how deep the 

 cells might be. If unfinished sections have 

 combs that are drawn out full depth, there will 

 be a variation as to depth; and when these sec- 

 tions are used over again there will be places 

 where the comb will come so near the separator 

 that the bees will bridge between. So the comb 

 is leveled down enough to avoid the possibility 

 of having the sections thus spoiled. 



Another reason for leveling down, and the 

 principal reason, perhaps, is that the unfinished 

 sections are those generally that have been on 

 somewhat late in the season, when bee-glue is 

 plentiful, and having been left on for at least a 

 short time after the cessation of the honey-flow, 

 the bees have laid a rim of glue about the 

 mouth of each cell. Such sections would be un- 

 fit to use without first removing this rim of 

 glue, and the removal is quickly effected with 



