694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



utes, and it would take a long time to spread 

 sections out on the grass and then gather them 

 up. Generally they don't need any wetting — 

 only the few, if any, that have been left over 

 from previous year. 



Some things are to be discussed at the 

 Nebraska State convention. Four of the 

 topics are: "Some things I don't know;" 

 "Some things I know;" "Some things I 

 should like to know," and "Some things 

 •every one ought to know " about bee-keeping. 

 [You ought to be there, doctor, to discuss the 

 first of the quartet of subjects. — Ed.] 



C. H. DiBBERN says the plan spoken of in 

 a former Straw, of putting a cone escape on 

 the mother hive, will surely prevent after- 

 swarms; but in 12 days hardh' a bee will be 

 left. The bees eat up all the unsealed brood, 

 either from thirst or alarm at the field-bees 

 not returning. I don't know how long Isaac 

 Lundy leaves the escape on ; but would it be 

 necessary for more than eight days ? Or how 

 would it do to put it on in six or seven days 

 after the first swarm, and leave it on three or 

 four days ? 



F. A. GEMMitL, in Canadian Bet' Journal, 

 says he has had success wintering on solid 

 sealed combs of honey, and quotes McEvoy 

 as indorsing him. Others in same number 

 object to it. [We have made a practice for 

 years of giving solid sealed combs of hone}-, 

 and putting them right into the brood-nest for 

 winter stores. The fact that our loss for a 

 number of years does not much exceed two 

 per cent is pretty good evidence that the 

 practice is not as harmful as some people 

 think.— Ed.] 



Th.A-T CORRECTION, p. 669, as to the way 

 the queen makes the piping noise, is all right, 

 and should have been corrected in ABC about 

 ten years ago. But the other correction 

 won't stand. According to the authorities, 

 the bees laboriously masticate the wax with 

 salivary secretion, which agrees with the 

 statement of A B C. The only way they could 

 get acid from the poison-sac would be through 

 the sting. [Yes and no. Well, I don't know. 

 I never saw a queen pipe yet but there was a 

 decidedly tremulous motion to her wings. — 

 Ed.] 



" We expect to make our hives next year 

 so that the entrances will be an inch deep, 

 and the full width of the hive. — Gleanings, 

 .p. 661. Good thing! Could hardly make it 

 better, unless with every hive j'ou give a 

 township right to hoist the hive on four }'^- 

 inch blocks. But, say! How are you going 

 to enlarge the entrance? If by cutting away 

 part of the front of the hive, I object. All 

 my life I've had hives with entrances cut out 

 of the hive; but since learning the comfort of 

 dovetailers that will sit on one another bee- 

 tight, no more of the old kind for me. [Hives 

 will be left intact, and the entrance will be 

 formed by the construction of the bottom- 

 board, the same as formerly. — Ed.] 



The Northwestern Association, which 

 formerly held such successful conventions at 

 Chicago, is to be revived. Urged by a num- 



ber of bee-keepers, and indorsed heartily by 

 the editors of the American Bee Journal and 

 Reviezu, a call has been issued for a conven- 

 tion, Nov. 10 and 11, at the New Briggs House, 

 Chicago. As that is during the fat-stock show, 

 also the horse show, fares will be low, and a 

 good meeting expected. Say — who's coming 

 from Medina? [I might come with some 

 coaxing, but I can not tell positively at this 

 early date whether I can leave then. — Ed.] 



" Comb honey was never known to sell as 

 low as it is now, and it is the farmers and 

 small bee-keepers that have ruined the price 

 by selling at the stores at anj- price they were 

 offered." — Frisbee, Gleaiiings, p. 655. "The 

 farmers and small bee-keepers are our best 

 friends," is the teaching attributed to Bro. 

 Abbott, p. 670. All who have had your mar- 

 kets improved by poor honey thrown on the 

 market at low prices, please hold up your 

 hands. [The way you have placed the two 

 ideas over against each other almost puts Bro. 

 Abbott into the shade ; but after our friends 

 get through holding up their hands, I wish 

 Bro. Abbott would stand up and explain more 

 fullv whv the farmer bee-keeper is his friend. 

 —Ed.] 



M. H. MendleSON writes that he practices, 

 with entire success, first putting on extracting 

 supers, then sections. "The darker honey is 

 extracted ; by that time your hives are boil- 

 ing over with bees, and are forced to go into 

 the sections. The brood-apartment is gener- 

 ally crowded with brood." [I have been 

 preaching that thing myself, and I am glad to 

 know that I have such a ' ' big gun ' ' as Men- 

 dleson to back me up. My object in using 

 extracting-supers to start was not to get rid of 

 dark honey, but to get the bees started in 

 supers. I find that they will go into extract- 

 ing-supers sooner than into sections ; and if 

 they once get into the notion of going above 

 they are more apt to keep on going up, even 

 when the surplus arrangement has been chang- 

 ed to something thev do not like quite so 

 well. —Ed.] 



A discission is on in the American Bee 

 Journal as to the value of the bee-space. 

 W. C. Gathright thinks where shade is scarce 

 the bee-space protects against the sun. He 

 says, " I once put out some hives facing south, 

 and in almost every one the comb next to the 

 wall of the hive on the west side of the hive 

 melted down. I then turned the hives with 

 the entrance to the east, and had no further 

 trouble. The space between the end-bars and 

 the end of the hives served almost the same 

 purpose as a double-walled hive." [I have 

 watched the discussion myself ; and after 

 looking over all the arguments on the other 

 side, I fail to see one good reason why a bee- 

 space should not be used ; and on the other 

 hand there are many reasons why it should be 

 used. To abandon this bee-space in this day 

 and age would seem to me like going back to 

 the flail to thrash our wheat rather than to 

 use the modern steam thrashing-machines. 

 The most convincing fact to me is that those 

 bee-keepers who use the bee-space produce as 

 much honey per colony right along as the one 



