560 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



allow combs to lie around till they become a 

 breeding-nursery for thousands of these pests 

 is something that many of our apiarists who 

 are practical in other ways are guilty of. In 

 the apiary of a man who raises honey by the 

 ton I once saw combs by the score literally 

 filled with moth-webs and cocoons, moths be- 

 ing raised to go out and curse the bee-keeping 

 world all about. Let us not be guilty of these 

 things. 



HONEY SEASON NOT SATISFACTORY. 



The honey season has not been satisfactory 

 with me. Clover yielded only moderately — 

 enough to give our bees a good start in the 

 sections. Now basswood is out in bloom ; but 

 our bees are killing off their drones, and the 

 honey season seems at an end. I can this year 

 record what in all my experience I have never 

 been able to before — not one swarm in June. 

 Even the 4th of July passed by without one 

 swarm coming out. 



Other parties, within three or four miles of 

 me, and others at a greather distance, I hear 

 speak of a very fair yield, but only few swamis. 

 A good deal of buckwheat is sown here this 

 year as usual, and the rains are bringing it on 

 wonderfully. This may help us out; at any 

 rate, we are making great calculations on it. 



Of course, we intend to go to Buffalo, and 

 we hope to see a number of the noted bee- 

 keepers of the land there. Especially do we 

 hope to see as many of the inhabitants of 

 Rootville as possible. 



Friedmann Greiner. 



Naples, N. Y., July 19, 1897. 



DRAWN COMB VS. FULL SHEETS OF FOUNDA- 

 TION. 



I am now taking off the Hilton supers filled 

 with white-clover honey. I am using them on 

 the new Dovetailed hives. It is just fun to 

 handle them, for they come off as clean as 

 the}- went on — no burr-combs on sections nor 

 on tops of brood-frames. I don't see how Mr. 

 Danzenbaker can do any better than this with 

 his complicated arrangement and paraffine pa- 

 per to l)oot. I say as I have said regarding 

 the new .self-spacing Hoffman frames, " If this 

 is not the best arrangement for comb honey, it 

 is certainly good enough." For extracting I 

 should want four dovetailed bodies full of 

 comb for each working colony, allowing the 

 queen the exclusive use of the two lower ones. 



Drawn combs in sections have fallen a notch 

 in my estimation this season. I had quite a 

 lot of them, and put them on first; bvit I am 

 compelled to confess that they were not filled 

 and sealed as promptly, nor does the finished 

 section look nearly as well as those filled from 

 full starters of extra -thin foundation. Now, 

 why is this? Well, in a good steady honey- 



flow, such as we have had, the bees need noth- 

 ing better than foundation in order to fill and 

 seal their sections promptly. Give them combs 

 with cells of any depth, and they will fill them 

 up with their unripe hone}-, and have to wait 

 so long before it is ripe enough to seal that 

 those furnished with starters are finished first 

 and look best. I know that drawn combs are 

 useful sometimes, and I have used a great 

 many of them; but given such a season as this, 

 with such a honey-flow, I do not want them 

 at all. As far as coaxing bees up into the sec- 

 tions is concerned, I never had to do it yet. 

 If 3'ou have a populous colony and a good 

 honey-flow at hand, they will take immediate 

 possession of the super without the aid of bait- 

 combs. 



Without those two factors there is little use 

 of trying to work for comb honey. My expe- 

 rience has led me to the conclusion that drawn 

 combs are not so all-important as some would 

 make ovit. H. L-\Throp. 



Browntown, Wis., July 12. 



[The drawn comb referred to nmst not be 

 confounded with drawn foundation, which is 

 another thing. That to which Mr. L. refers 

 was comb, as I take it, drawn out from foun- 

 dation of the previous season. He does not 

 say whether it was leveled down a la Taylor 

 or not. As between drawn comb and drawn 

 foundation, there would probably be little dif- 

 ference. If the latter were made 15 ft. to the 

 lb., as we have made it, with walls only one- 

 eighth inch deep, the comb honey would be 

 of a finer quality so far as the comb is con- 

 cerned than that built from foundation in full 

 sheets running from 12 to 13 feet to the lb. — 

 Ed.] 



SPORTS 

 ^ENCOURAGif 



DISH RIGHT SIDE UP. 



I find my sections are all nearly filled now, 

 and basswood, the source from which I usually 

 get my entire honey crop, will be blooming in 

 four or five days, and I shall not be in readi- 

 ness for it; therefore I order by express. Bass- 

 woods will be fuller of bloom than I ever saw 

 them, and the prospects for a good honey-flow 

 are very flattering indeed. I want to get my 

 dish right side up. T. K. Massie. 



Tophet, W. Va., June 30. 



BEES FILLING SUPERS AS IF BY MAGIC. 



The bees are almost getting ahead of me 

 this time. I got 3000 sections and 20 lbs. of 

 super foundation of j-ou this spring, and had 

 2000 sections on hand from last season, of 

 which 1000 were filled with drawn comb from 

 last season, and I am just about caught up 

 now. I never saw such an abundance of white 

 clover as we have this year. The bees are fill- 

 ing supers as if by magic. About half of my 

 bees have swarmed up to date. 



Trail, O., June 24. Amos MillER. 



