550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



many of our half-inch bottom starters did curl 

 over. If they had been }{ inch I am afraid 

 they all would have done so. Perhaps our 

 foundation was ^oo light. — Ed.] 



Do YOU REMEMBER how some vigorously 

 protested that wired brood-combs would be a 

 failure, and challenged the production of a 

 single wired comb with brood all over the 

 wires ? It makes one smile after seeing hun- 

 dreds of such combs, and I'm wondering a lit- 

 tle whether some of the protests against drawn 

 foundation will not turn out the same way. 

 [When the wiring of combs was first talked of 

 it was before my day in active bee culture ; 

 but I have no doubt that what you say regard- 

 ing it is true. Why will human nature be so 

 obtuse and contrary? — Ed.] 



A LUBRICANT by B. Rietsche is as follows: 

 Put 2 oz. soft soap in a little sack. Stir the 

 sack in 5 quarts of warm water till the soap is 

 dissolved, then add 5 quarts cold water. The 

 plates of the Rietsche press are plunged into 

 this liquid, and by this means loO sheets of 

 foundation are now made in an hour. I 

 should want section foundation well rinsed. 

 [If the Rietsche press must be immersed in a 

 fluid every time a sheet has to be taken from 

 it, I should question very- much whether there 

 is more than one man in the world who could 

 get off anvwhere near 1-50 sheets per hour. — 

 Ed.] 



J. B. Griffin writes that foundation was 

 shipped to Georgia from Medina, and the 

 paper slipped to one side, leaving a margin of 

 }4 inch wthout paper. The papered part was 

 all right, but that V inch was one solid piece 

 8 inches thick. That settles it that founda- 

 tion must be papered to stand great heat in 

 shipment. The time of A-ear may have some- 

 thing to do \^^th it. But I'd feel safer with 

 the paper for the vSouth. [I have been talking 

 with young Louis Dadant, of Dadant & Son, 

 regarding the ad\-isability of leaving paper out 

 of foundation. He shook his head very decid- 

 edly, adding that they could never think of 

 doing it. We never considered the matter 

 seriously, an}- more than to hold ourselves in 

 readiness to ship without paper to those who 

 specificalh' requested it. — Ed.] 



Did you ever notice that an old black comb 

 will start robbing much sooner than a snow- 

 white section ? In a harvest, when you can 

 safely leave a super of sections exposed all day 

 long, it isn't best to have brood-combs stand- 

 ing around. [I for one never noticed that old 

 black comb would start robbing quicker than 

 honey in sections; but I have noticed that 

 honey and brood together would start the bees 

 much quicker than either alone; and when 

 once started the bees are far crosser than when 

 robbing from hone}- alone. I have observed, 

 also, that the mutilation of brood, for instance 

 the uncapping from drone brood, vers^ often 

 makes the bees decidedly savage. When de- 

 stroying drone brood I am careful to have the 

 smoker well going, and work rapidly enough 

 to prevent bees robbing. — Ed.] 



A SECOND STORY of brood-frames filled with 

 foundation was put over colony No. 63, so the 

 queen could occupj^ it for brood. Instead of 



that I found eight frames of honey sealed solid 

 from top to bottom. I said, " I'll have that 

 in sections." I uncapped the honey and 

 alternated the frames of honey w-ith the frames 

 of brood, then put sections over. What do 

 you think ? Those pesky bees coolly sealed 

 that honey all up again! [Without trying 

 exactly the same experiment, I should be in- 

 clined to believe that the putting-in of the 

 frames of foundation in alternation would 

 have a decided tendency to cause the bees to 

 do exactly what they did do. If it is not too 

 late, suppose you tr}- the experiment of leav- 

 ing out frames of brood, and putting a super 

 on top. While I do not know that they would 

 carry the honey above, they would not, I 

 opine, be in as great a hurry to cap it up again 

 in the same combs. — Ed.] 



I'm not overstating, I think, when I say 

 the clover bloom was 50 per cent greater this 

 year than ever before. But I'll get no crop in 

 proportion. Two of my three apiaries have 

 suffered from drouth. [Wherever there has 

 been some drouth, the crop of clover honey 

 ■will, of course, be diminished in proportion. 

 There has been no drouth in this vicinity; and 

 yesterday, July 22, when I was at the out-yard, 

 and at Mr. Vernon Burt's also, the bees w-ere 

 bringing ii: honey heavily. A good portion 

 of it was probably coming in from red clo\-er; 

 but frequent rains have seemed to give even 

 white clover a new start. A week ago I sup- 

 posed the honey season had closed, or at least 

 it ought to have stopped; but in the mean 

 time bees have taken supers of the drawn 

 foundation, filled them with honey, and cap- 

 ped them over. Supers containing foundation 

 only have scarcely been touched. This goes 

 to show that the flow from clover is light. — 

 Ed.] 



O. O. POPPLETON rightly objects, p. 517, 

 to wide bottom-bars -w-ith a space between 

 comb and bottom-bar. Biit I'm getting my 

 combs built down solid to the bottom-bar, and 

 so far am well pleased with bottom-bars l}i 

 wade. I've been told that, in time, the bees 

 will dig out a space between comb and bottom- 

 bar — a prophecy which I'm hoping may turn 

 out to be false. [I do not know but yoii may 

 think I am fickle ; but since the question of 

 wide and narrow bottom-bars has been brought 

 up I have been watching the matter very 

 closely. In answ-er to a correspondent in an- 

 other column I expressed myself as believing 

 that it w-as a mistake to change from narrow 

 }i bottom-bars to wider ones, but at the same 

 time admitted that the one objection to the 

 narrow bars was that the bees would build 

 clear past them to the first set of frames below. 

 Well, yesterday, July 22, when I was at the 

 out-apiar}' I took hold of an extracting-super, 

 eight-frame, full-depth, and attempted to lift 

 it off the hive. To my surprise it seemed to 

 be fastened down with burr-combs. I tugged 

 and pulled until I got it loose. Quite by ac- 

 cident half the frames on the one side of the 

 super contained tiarrov.' bottom-bars, and the 

 other half were regular 3_|'-inch-w-ide bottom- 

 bars. Examination showed that burr-combs 

 had been attached to every one of the frames 

 first mentioned ; but there was not a burr- 



