14-1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 16. 



Co., of Chicago. Que subscriber, seeing that, 

 immediately wrote them after this fashion : 



Mfisis. A'. A. Bill >u'// d--' Co. — l^a^i fall I had more 

 honey than I could .>-eU here at home, and wrote to 

 you, ieqiie.stiug you to sell it for me, nud lo learn what 

 your commLssiou was. You answered in this style — 

 that you would not advise me to ship to your over- 

 stocked market : that honey was not .selling for much, 

 and intimated that you did not want it any waj', so I 

 did not send it. How strange, you have sent clear to 

 California for a whole carload! to supply your over- 

 stocked market ! I suppose almost any thing is con- 

 sidered fair dealing for a commission merchant. How 

 f unnv ! I guess I shall have to jog Glk.^nings a little. 

 If you did not want my honey you could have just 

 said so, plainly, without adding something else, I will 

 not say just what. L. A. S., 111. 



Burnett & Co. forwarded this to us, adding, 

 "See what your kindness has got us into." 

 Knowing something of the deals referred to I 

 took it upon myself to write to Mr. S. direct, 

 and this is what I said : 



.Iff. L. A.S., ///.—Your letter to K. A. Burnett & Co. 

 was forwarded to us. The fact of the matter is, R. A. 

 Burnett &Co. handle several thou.sand pounds of hon- 

 ey per week ; and the deal that we referred to edito- 

 rially was only one out of many. The very fact that 

 R. A. Burnett "& Co. wrote you, advising you not to 

 ship the honey at that time, as the market was over- 

 .stocked, seems to us is evidence that they were acting 

 in good faith Such a policy is a most pleasing con- 

 trast to the way of some of the commission houses 

 who always invite shipment, adc.ing that the market 

 is good, and that honey will bring a good price ; then 

 when the honey is actually sold they make returrs of 

 a half, or even'le.ss, of the figure quoted. R. A. Bur- 

 nett & Co. were honest enough to tell the exact truth ; 

 but right here vou will doubtless wonder why they did 

 not take your honev, instead of sending clear off to 

 California for a carload. If they had offered you the 

 price they paid for that California amber — consider- 

 ably le.ss than 4 cents— you would have dropped them 

 like a hot potato. The fact was, they probably had a 

 demand for just that kind of honey ; and if they re- 

 ported to you that the market was overstocked, they 

 certainly implied, if they did not say so, that it was 

 for the kind of honey you proposed shipping. If we 

 are correct, R. .A.. Burnett & Co. handle annually hun- 

 dreds of tons of honev. Considering the magnitude 

 of their business, it is' a marvel to us that they get 

 along with almo.st no complaint : and in the light of 

 what we have said, your letter certainly can not be re- 

 garded as a complaint. 



I sent a copy of the above reply to Burnett 

 & Co., and they returned it, stating that the 

 facts as I have put them were essentially cor- 

 rect. 



THE NUMBER OF CELIvS OF WORKER COMB TO 



THE LINEAR INCH ; TELLING LIES AND 



BELIEVING THEM. 



It has been said over and over again in bee- 

 books and bee-journals that there are five cells 

 of worker comb to the inch, so that we have 

 come to believe it. This reminds me of the 

 story of the old Indian medicine-man who had 

 for so many years told his people he could 

 catch rifle-balls in his mouth that he actually 

 came to believe it ; and, accordingly, to prove 

 his assertion, he walked out within rifle-range 

 of the fort, and was shot down. The poor sil- 

 ly fool had told this lie so many times that he 

 really believed it. Lately we have been doing 

 some measuring of natural worker combs, and 

 the Indian story above came forcibly to my 

 mind. Is it possible we have told this five- 

 cell yarn so many times that we have come to 

 believe it also ? 



Years ago, when Mr. Weed made his honey- 

 comb he so arranged the dies that there would 

 be five cells to the inch ; but somehow or oth- 

 er it was just a trifle under it. Samples of 



this comb were sent to us, with the request 

 that we try it ; btit the bees would never breed 

 in it or use it. He finally settled down, after 

 many careful measurements, on ,-^|'|J'„ as the cor- 

 rect width between the parallel si(.les of a 

 worker-cell. Recently this question came up 

 again in this way : Mr. Weed showed me some 

 brood foundation that he had been making on 

 a set of new dies. 



" Why," said I, " I am afraid yon have got 

 that a little too large." 



I immediately produced my rule and began 

 measuring. 



" Wh}', yes ; don't you see," I said, " there 

 are a little more than 9>^ cells to the 2 inches?' ' 



"Yes," said Mr. Weed; "but you know 

 that the average worker-cell is a trifle larger 

 than 1 inch ?" 



"No," I said, and turned to Cheshire, and 

 found that even he assumed that there were .5 

 cells to the inch ; but, considering the shape 

 of the cells, he figured there would be actual- 

 ly 2SJi? to the square inch.* 



"Well," said Mr. Weed, "the best way is 

 to go to the bees." 



With that he went out into the apiary and 

 hunted up some pieces of natural comb, 

 brought them in, and measured them before 

 my eyes. Five cells measured all the way 

 from 1,',. to I's inches. In no case cotild we 

 find exactly h cells to the inch, measuring on 

 a line at right angles to the parallel sides. 



LARGE ENTRANCES .\ND DEEP SPACES UNDER 

 BROOD-FRAMES. 



Ix all my trips among bee-keepers I have 

 noticed a tendency toward larger entrances. 

 In the various correspondence that has been 

 coming in from time to time there have been 

 references to the value of freer and better pas- 

 sageways into the hives ; and you may remem- 

 ber that Dr. Miller only recently told us ( what 

 he had not done before) that he was in the 

 habit of raising his hives up on four blocks to 

 prevent the bees from clustering out, and to 

 discourage (but not necessarily to prevent) 

 swarming. Mr. Danzenbaker has for two 

 years urged the importance of deep entrances, 

 and he has accordingly had his hives con- 

 structed in that way — or, rather, I should say 

 they have reversible bottom-boards which, 

 when used one way, would give the regulation 

 3s-deep entrance, the full width of Ihe hive, 

 and the other ".s. We were not then willing 

 to adopt his bottom-board, for I had a fear 

 that the bees would build their combs down, 

 and make bridges of some sort up to the bot- 

 tom-bars of the brood-frames. He acknowl- 

 edged that they did so sometimes, but the 

 oases were rare — not enough to give an}- an- 

 noyance or inconvenience. 



AH of these things for years have been caus- 

 ing me to think and observe more and more 

 all along these lines. Accordingly, last .sea- 

 son, in our own apiary, experiments that I 

 conducted myself personally satisfied me that 

 entrances might be, many limes, enlarged with 

 advantage and profit ; and accordingly this 



* Cook is the only authority I have run acro.ss who 

 savs worker-cells are a little riiore than \ inch. 



