292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 15. 



ticated without bringing them here, and it 

 will be a mighty mean trick if Uncle Sam or 

 any other man turns them loose on southern 

 bee-keepers till it is first known they can be 

 controlled. 



A FEW DAYS AGO I ran out of new separat- 

 ors, and had to clean some old ones. I could 

 make pretty fair wages at it, but still I think 

 I'd rather have new. Then I tried cleaning 

 fences on a very small scale. With my pres- 

 ent attainments I know (if you will excuse 

 the audacity of the word ) that I can clean 

 plain separators more rapidly than fence, mak- 

 ing fences more expensive for me than plain 

 separators in the long run. 



That story on page 263 is good, friend 

 Doolittle ; but the question is, whether it 

 applies to you or "the other fellow." A. 

 Bridge says, in April C. B.J., that he used to 

 set out his bees on successive days, but learn- 

 ed it was bad policy, and now sets out all 

 together. The earlier lots would take their 

 cleansing flight, and then be ready to rob 

 those taken out later. He says the bees mix 

 when taken out together, but no harm comes 

 of it. 



D. N. RiTCHEY says, in Busy Bee, that 

 farmers hadn't had a crop of clover seed for 

 20 years till he moved in and bred his bees to 

 such a size they could work on red clover; 

 and now they get big crops of best seed. Bro. 

 Ritchey and I believe in breeding for long 

 tongues, even if some editors don't. [But 

 some of us have not seen those bees yet with 

 long tongues, notwithstanding all the talk 

 about them. Prove 3'our faith by your works. 

 —Ed.] 



"In comb HONEY, over half of the bee- 

 keepers of our country are trying to economize 

 by using only one super with 24 or 28 sec- 

 tions. Where are the bees going to be storing 

 honey while they are giving the finishing 

 touches to their sections? " — C. B.J., editori- 

 al. Rightly asked, friend Holtermann ; but it 

 doesn't really seem possible such a large pro- 

 portion of bee-keepers are doing any thing so 

 foolish. I should be surprised if there were 

 one in ten. [So should I. — Ed.] 



I WAS IKYING on the lounge (Mr. Printer, be 

 sure not to put a comma laetween the third 

 and fourth words) reading Gleanings, and 

 when I came to the longest item on p. 267 I 

 had to get up and walk the floor. May be 

 nothing in plain sections without separators, 

 but I'd like to try them. [W. K. Morrison, 

 who put that idea into my head, will have 

 something to say upon this question in an 

 early number of Gi<e.a.nings. I am not sure 

 but there is something in his idea. Well, I 

 will have more to say about it when he puts it 

 in his own words. — Ed.] 



You WANT ME to be consistent, Mr. Editor, 

 p. 248; and by that you evidently want me to 

 make it impossible for any one to be dishonest 

 who handles honey of my raising. I can't 

 undertake such a big contract — much as I can 

 manage to be honest my.self. But, say; if I 

 should use 2-inch sections as you suggest, 

 many of them would weigh less than a pound. 



[Very true. But two-inch sections will aver- 

 age a pound, \% square, nearer than your 1 %. 

 Say; look here, doctor, if we keep on talking 

 we shall find that, after all our squabble, we 

 are of the same mind on this mooted question. 

 Did you get on my side of the fence or I on 

 yours? Well, I don't care. — Ed.] 



My sub-ventilator got .stopped up, and 

 didn't work all winter. But the bees winter- 

 ed splendidly, less than two in a hundred 

 dying, and those that died were perhaps all 

 queenless. I'm just a bit afraid of the quality 

 of air that has traveled under ground. I had 

 no fire all winter. [You have been nearly the 

 only one, doctor, who has advocated the sub- 

 earth ventilator of late. About all the rest 

 seem to have gone back on them. If you 

 have left it because by accident yours got 

 stopped up, and your bees wintered better than 

 usual, it seems to me we have gained a valu- 

 able point in experience. Had no fire all 

 winter! Do you mean to imply that the stop- 

 ping-up of your sub-earth ventilators made it 

 unnecessary? So far as I now recall, you 

 have been about the only one of late who has 

 used fire in the cellar. — Ed. J 



Editor Hill shuts one eye, and looks 

 quizzically at that picture of eight sections, 

 and wonders whether it may not be that the 

 difference was caused, not by difference in 

 sections, but by crowding hard the bees in the 

 plain sections ; or, possibly, a difference in 

 comb-building traits of the two colonies. Evi- 

 dently, the thing to settle the question is to 

 alternate the two kinds of sections in the same 

 super, then something positive will be shown. 

 [It seems to me the question hinges on the 

 point whether Hutchinson picked out a fair 

 lot of either kind of sections as he finds them 

 on the market. Now, then, doctor, are you 

 preparing to fix up a super or two with the 

 two kinds of sections — on the one side the 

 plain section with fences and short cleats, and 

 on the other side bee- way sections with solid 

 separators clear across the faces ? — Ed ] 



Mr. Editor, please ask J. H. Martin why 

 under the sun he wants handholes if, as he 

 says, p. 249, he can carry a hive with more 

 comfort by grasping the bottom. I'd ask 

 him myself, but I'm not on speaking terms 

 with a man who talks that way about cleats. 

 A handhole is not so comfortable, and you 

 can take hold of a cleat at the part 3'ou like 

 best, and two can carry the same hive. The 

 room cleats take in hauling doesn't count 

 much if the weight is unchanged. A hive 

 has two cleats, and only the back one takes 

 extra room. If the cleats in a load took the 

 room of 20 hives, as friend Martin says, there 

 would be more than 500 hives in the load. I 

 didn't think Mendleson had such big loads. 

 [You and J. H. can "have it out." Glean- 

 ings will furnish the arena as usual. Let's 

 see. You and Doolittle and you and the 

 Rambler are going to fight it out with each 

 other. —Ed.] 



Dr. a. T. PeETE says in Revie7v that edi- 

 torial comments are of more value than any 

 thing except occasionally some rare article. 

 Everybody wants the editor's judgment. 



