530 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JCTLY 15 



the comb without any sensation of midrib, as is 

 present when the comb is built from full sheets 

 of ordinary foundation. Upon eating the comb 

 I could not see how anybody could think it was 

 more gobby than ordinary comb honey. Strange 

 as it may seem, our household do not ordinari- 

 ly care very much for honey; but Mrs. Root 

 remarked how nice and tender this comb was. 

 The whole section had delicate comb, and they 

 all pronounce it fine— even the youngest, who 

 sits by "papa." 



Now, I do not believe that T am prejudiced; 

 and if any one thinks I am, I hope such person 

 will try the experiment of blindfolding two dis- 

 interested persons, placing before them samples 

 of comb honey. That will surely eliminate the 

 element of prejudice which is so decidedly pro- 

 nounced on the part of a few of those who have 

 seen fit to oppose the new article. One man 

 condemned the new drawn foundation severely, 

 even before he had tried it. Now, after having 

 tried it on a small scale (three samples from 

 our first dies that were very inferior to our 

 present ones), on the principle of " I told you 

 so " he condemns it just as severely again, say- 

 ing that bees would not accept it, and that it 

 had an " awful gob "to it. His experience is 

 so opposed to our own. In the case of dozens 

 of samples I have seen, that I must believe 

 bis prejudice quite ran away with his judg- 

 ment. A few condemned ordinary foundation 

 when it was first Introduced into this country. 

 They condemned it beforehand, and then con- 

 demned after they had tried it, saying that the 

 bees would not accept it, etc. It is not at all 

 strange that one who has condemned severely 

 the new drawn foundation should do so now, 

 after having tried it. 



It is hardly time yet for reports to come in 

 from the general field, for, in fact, we have not 

 solicited them, except in a general way; but 

 here is one just received from Mr. F. A. Salis- 

 bury, and it speaks for itself: 



Ernest B. Boot;— This afternoon I looked at the 

 case of sections of drawn foundation that were 

 placed on an average colony on the 8th inst., and 

 find tliat all the sections were accepted by the bees, 

 and drawn out still more by them, and filled partly 

 with fresh honey. I took off one section and mark- 

 ed (in the hive 48 hours) to show bee-keepers. It 

 looks nice. I shall take off another one on the 13th. 

 I think you have a good thing if the price is not so 

 high as to prohibit Its use. I wish you would send 

 me about 1 lb. more by express. I will test it al- 

 ternately with foundation. This case was put on 

 with all drawn comb. I did not think about alter- 

 nating them when I placed them on. 



F. A. Salisbury. 



Syracuse, N. T., July 10, 1897. 



Mr. Salisbury has been requested to place 

 samples in alternation with ordinary founda- 

 tion, ani we shall await with interest the result 

 of his further experiment. There are hundreds 

 of others who have been testing the new article, 

 and, of course, we shall be glad to hear from 

 them too, whether their reports are good, bad, 

 or Indifferent. In the mean time I might add 



that we have heard from Mr. Vernon Burt, 

 who has been trying half a pound of the new 

 foundation. He reports that it is a good thing; 

 that it has only one fault; namely, he can not 

 get enough of it. 



:Mr. John Iper, who has a few colonies out of 

 town, has also been trying the new drawn foun- 

 dation, with the result that he finds a decided 

 preference on the part of the bees for the new 

 articli'. Said he, "The bees begin to store 

 honey in it immediately; and then after the 

 comb of the drawn foundation is filled and well 

 under way they bpgin on the starters, in the 

 ordinary way." He has not yet tested the eat- 

 ing quality of the two kinds of comb honey. 



Mr. M. G. Chase, owning some 125 colonies 

 seven miles from here, at Whittlesey, has also 

 been testing the new product. He placed in 

 one super a row of sections of drawn comb of 

 the previous season of full depth, a row of the 

 Weed drawn foundation Ji inch deep, with a 

 piece at the top and a piece at the bottom of 

 the sections; also a row of full sheets of com- 

 mon foundation. The full-depth comb was en- 

 tered first of course, then next the drawn foun- 

 dation. After the work was well begun in 

 these then the bees drew out the common 

 foundation. If the drawn comb had been lev- 

 eled down to the same depth as the drawn 

 foundation, the bees, he thought, would have 

 taken one as quickly as the other. 



To-day, July 13, he brought me up represent- 

 ative samples showing each of the three lots. 

 Sections after being completed, containing 

 either the drawn comb or the drawn founda- 

 tion, weighed from one to two ounces more 

 than sections that contained full sheets of com- 

 mon foundation. I have the samples in our 

 office now, and shall be glad to show them to 

 any one who wishes to see them. One thing 

 that is quite marked in favor of the new drawn 

 foundation in sections is that the bottom of the 

 section is built on to as solidly and as perfectly 

 as the top. This was owing no doubt to the 

 fact of the bottom starter of the new article. 



OUR OWN APIARY. 



Never, in all the time that I have had to do 

 with bees, unless it was during that remarkable 

 year of 1870, when I was too much of a lad to 

 know much about bees, do I remember of such 

 a remarkable honey-flow as we are having from 

 white clover. Our hives, especially at the out- 

 yard, are stacked up two and three stories high. 

 At this writing, July 12, honey is still coming 

 in from clover, although it is evident, from the 

 brown heads that have gone to seed, scattered 

 through the fields far and wide, that nectar 

 from this source, at least, will soon cease. 



I stated in our last issue that basswoods 

 would probably be a failure in this part, as no 

 buds appeared on the trees; but it seems as if I 

 must have been partly wrong, for the bees are 



