250 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. Ly 



Iiive at the bottom. When moving bees 

 the cleat is a downright nuisance. In those 

 immense loads that Mr. Mendleson moves, 

 those cleats would take the space of twenty 

 hives. Anybody can see at a glance that the 

 handhole is a decided improvement — neat, in- 

 expensive, and out of the way. Bee-men out 

 this way want handholes in their hives, su- 

 pers, shipping-cases, and cases for cans. The 

 cleat is decidedly a back number, and Dr. 

 Miller ought to k)io2(.< that. [I smoled anoth- 

 er big grin when I read this. I hadn't thought 

 of it before, but those naughty cleats must take 

 tap much valuable room at times. — Ed.] 



You would not expect that much unripe 

 thin honey would be produced. You would 

 naturally expect that a bee-keeper would 

 think it for his interest to produce honey of 

 the very best quality; but the contrary i^ too 

 often the case in this State. Here are the 

 excuses put forward by those who persist in 

 producing unripe honey. 



1. Thin unripe honey is a grade lighter in 

 color than it would be if it remained on the 

 hive until it becomes ripened. 



2. We get more of it. 



3. There is no uncapping, and it is less 

 work. 



That these reasons are fallacious the follow- 

 ing will show: 



Thin honey is liable to sour, and more or 

 less of it will be a dead loss. The flavor is 

 raw and unpalatable, and people who buy it 

 once will not l)uy it again. 



If more gallons are produced it is lighter in 

 weight, occupies more cans; better let it ripen. 



It is certainl}- easier work to extract co;nbs 

 that are not capped, but your cappings will 

 give you good returns for the labor in the 

 beautiful wax produced. 



To get right down to the bottom facts of 

 the case, it is pure shiftlessness to produce 

 unripe honey. 



I have a great respect for anybody who lives 

 in my native State of Nert" York. They do 

 things about right back there; but somehow 

 that Coggshall way of managing bees (see 

 page 17(1) does not seem exactly right. There 

 is a careful way and a rough way to do things, 

 and in these times of wars and rumors of wars 

 the careful way is considered the most civil- 

 ized. Now, we guarantee that a careful bee- 

 man would get just as much honey from his 

 apiary, the surroundings would look better, 

 the hives last longer, and the man feel better. 

 The difference between the careful ^nd rough 

 handling of bees is often noticeable in this 

 State, and our most successful bee-keepers 

 are the ones who use a considerate amount of 

 care. And now, Mr. Editor, I wish to ask if 

 you really enjoyed such management, and are 

 you going to run your apiary on the tip-over- 

 kick-over plan hereafter? Another matter, 

 there must have been thousands of bees in the 

 honey; do j'ou think it was improved thereby? 

 Order is the first law of heaven, and it applies 

 in the running of bees as well as in other 

 places. I hope that Mr. C. will not shy one 

 of those kicks at me. [I gave the Coggshall 

 method without prejudice or favor. No, I 



don't think I'd like to work that way. It 

 seems to me he would get as much honey 

 with almost as little labor not to use the kick- 

 over plan. — Ed.] 



BROOD-COMBS. 



Old Renewed by Bees ; Spacing, etc. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



Much has been said about the age of brood- 

 combs, and as to when they should be renew- 

 ed. There seems to be a prevailing opinion 

 that combs can be and are used twenty — yes, 

 forty or fifty years, and still be good. I am 

 not going to say to what age a comb ma}' be 

 used without renewing, for I do not know. 



In melting old combs I have noticed fre- 

 quently the cell bases were very thick, while 

 the side walls seemed never to increase in 

 thickness to any thing near the same degree. 

 I have sometimes wondered why this was so. 

 I could see some reason for an accumulation 

 in the bottoms of cells while a bee was grow- 

 ing therein, but I could not understand why, 

 under the law of gravity, such accumulation 

 did not settle more to the toivcr side rather 

 than to the midrib, or cell base, nor why the 

 bees did not rake out all such accumulations 

 as soon as the cell was vacated. 



At this point I stopped writing, and spent 

 some time in dissecting some old brood-comb. 

 A simple cutting through the comb, exposing 

 the cells so as to be viewed from the edge of 

 the comb, showed very clearly that the bases 

 of the cells were from two to four times as 

 thick as the side walls. Eor rensons that will 

 presently appear I expected to find that these 

 thick bases were made up largely of small cup- 

 like sections of cocoons, the top part or side 

 walls of the cocoons having been removed. 

 Having no magnifying-glass and delicate tools 

 to handle these very fine films composing the 

 cocoons, I was unable to determime fully this 

 point ; and while there appeared to be some 

 such construction, the principal thickening 

 seemed to be caused by deposits of some sub- 

 stance much like pollen — I suppose the excre- 

 ment of the maturing bee, or a residuum of 

 the food with which it was nourished. While 

 I could not determine its composition, there 

 was no trouble at all to see that it was not all 

 cocoon filament. This excrement or residu- 

 um in the bases was evidently deposited there 

 during the larval state of the maturing bee, at 

 least before the spinning of the cocoon, so 

 when the cocoon was finished the substance 

 was beneath, and could not be removed with- 



