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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



po>(id to be cross, you will be able to avoid 

 stings almost entirely; in fact, the writer goes 

 through the season with very few stings. We 

 use exclusively in our apiary the pure Italian 

 leather-colored stock, not the five banded bees. 

 They are apt to be more or less cross. I am 

 careful to make slow motions immediately over 

 the open hive, and very often work day after 

 day without a single sting. There is no good 

 reason why anyone should be stung from six to 

 eight times a day.— Ed.] 



BUILDING COMB OX WIEE WITHOUT FOUNDA- 

 TION, A LA BOARDMAN. 



I have been somewhat interested in the ad- 

 vancement of apiculture for the past twenty 

 years, and am not a little surprised at reading 

 H. R. Boardman's article on page 160, March 1. 

 I had supposed that the most of the bee-keep- 

 ers of to-day were using wired frames. As far 

 back as 1880, when I lived in Wisconsin, we 

 wired all of our frames, using two wires hori- 

 zontally across the frame, but we found it was 

 difficult to get them taut enough without 

 springing the bottom-bar; and to obviate this 

 we substituted a strip of wood, about M inch 

 thicK, horizontally across the frame; but this 

 took up too much room. We now use wire, 

 and find the bees build more readily on them 

 than they do without. We use about an inch 

 of foundation for a starter, and we get as line 

 combs as one would wish to see. We have 1000 

 frames wired, and ready to be filled with comb. 

 This season we put our wire lengthwise of the 

 frames, running it from the end of the top-bar 

 to the end of the bottom-bar on the opposite 

 end of the frame, using two wires running in 

 opposite directions, and we find it stays the 

 frames, and the bees take readily to it. We 

 use No. 24 wire, but I think 26 or 28 would 

 be better, perhaps 30. In this climate, when 

 the mercury registers 120 we find that new 

 comb is pretty apt to fall down when it Is full 

 of brood and honey; whereas if it is wired it 

 would have to melt before it would fall, and 

 the wire does not seem to interfere with brood- 

 rearing in the brood-nest. 



Now, Mr, Root, perhaps I am behind the 

 times; but it sometimes seems to me, when I 

 am reading Gleanings and some of the other 

 journals (for I read every thing I see that says 

 b's b's b's) that there are others who are be- 

 hind the times a little as well as my unworthy 

 self. M. H. Dunn. 



Fullerton, Cal., Mar. 10. 



FASTENING FOUNDATION TO THE TOP AND 

 SIDES IN SECTIONS AS A REMEDY FOR ONE- 

 SIDED COMBS. 



I see in Gleanings there is considerable dis- 

 cussion about comb honey being stuck fast to 

 the separators, making a one sided comb. I 

 don't see how the foundation could swing to 

 one side if it is fastened to the top and both 

 sides. I use full sheets in sections, and fasten 



to the top and sides with melted beeswax, and 

 never have any such trouble. 



Perhaps these large bee-keepers use founda- 

 tion fastened to the top only. This, I think, is 

 a very poor way. One will find that most one- 

 sided combs come by the foundation swinging 

 to one side by a jar in handling the supers be- 

 fore they are put on the hive. That has been 

 my experience. Edwin Rickard. 



Schoharie. N. Y. 



THE NEW DRAWN FOUNDATION; IS THERE DAN- 

 GER THAT IT WILL REDUCE THE PRICE 

 OF COMB HONEY ? 



Your samples of deep-cell foundation came 

 to hand perfect. I congratulate you on your 

 success. It Is a veritable triumph of mechanical 

 skill, and will doubtess prove the same as a 

 business enterprise. There are some questions 

 in connection with it that have not been men- 

 tioned in the bee-journals so far, and which 

 time only m.ay determine. For instance, will it 

 increase our output without lowering the 

 price? Wm. Russell. 



Minnehaha Falls, Minn., Apr. 24. 



[I think there can be no question but that 

 the new product will enable the beekeeperto 

 produce more and better comb honey— more, 

 because the bees will enter the sections quicker, 

 and better because the sections will be better 

 filled out. It may possibly reduce the price; 

 but I hardly think so. because the price is 

 already too low to leave much of a margin. 

 The effect will be to make more profit, and the 

 better-filled combs will tend to increase the 

 price if any thing. — Ed.] 



FLIGHT OF BEES FOR HONEY. 



Please tell me how I can get my bees to go 

 about 2}4 miles where there is abundance of 

 poison oak that afl'ords quite an amount of bee- 

 pasture, and do not wish to remove the hives 

 there. W. C. Myer. 



Ashland, Or. 



[I can not imagine why you should desire 

 your bees to find pasturage on the poison oak. 

 If the tree is poisonous in its character there 

 will be a great liability of its affecting the 

 honey, rendering it a source of danger to bees 

 as well as human beings. Usually bees will 

 not fly over a mile and a half; but they have 

 been known to go not only two miles and a 

 half, but even five and ten miles; but the latter 

 distance was across a body of water. Such 

 cases as these are exceedingly rare. Our bees 

 have gone two miles and a half; but when the 

 honey flora gave out within a mile or a mile 

 and a half they extended the distance a little 

 further until they reached the distance named. 

 You can generally set it down as a rule that, 

 when bees find plenty of forage within a mile 

 and a half, they will not go further. — Ed.] 



I have a young queen a few days old. I see 

 no drones nor drone-cells. What must I do in 

 order to get her fertilized ? D. L. Perine, 



Good Hope, W. V., Apr. 15. 



[If there are other colonies in the vicinity, 

 there will be no trouble about the queen mat- 

 ing. There are always a few scattering drones 

 early in the season. — Ed.] 



