378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



ed ; but the boss printer says it is still "on 

 the hook ;" but it will be printed in this issue. 

 But the fact of the water being in the cellar 

 was mentioned, nevertheless. — Ed.] 



A. B. Anthony asks whether all our bees 

 may not properly be termed "wild." I don't 

 like to risk a very positive answer, but I 

 should think not. While I don't control any 

 single bee as I do a horse, taking a colony as 

 a whole it is decidedly under control, or, if 

 j'ou please, domesticated. If a swarm from 

 my apiary gets away from me and goes into a 

 hollow tree, it's wild. If you find it and take 

 it home in a hive, it's tame. If it deserts your 

 hive and goes to the woods, it's wild. It 

 might be an important matter sometimes, 

 legally, to know whether bees are wild or 

 t^aie. I don't believe you can make me pay 

 taxes on wild animals. 



D. W. Heise'S question, p. .'^44, suggests 

 that the Long-Idea hive is little known in this 

 country. It is, however, well known in Eu- 

 rope, and in extensive use for years. vSuch 

 hives are called "lager" hives in Germany, 

 and include the Thor-stock and the celebrated 

 " Bogenstuelper " of Gravenhorst. The Lay- 

 ens hive in France is also in the same class. 

 But somehow the idea doesn't flourish on 

 American soil. [I have been wondering, doc- 

 tor, whether the value of the Long-Idea hive 

 rested, not in the long idea itself, but in the 

 bigness of the colony. If that is the case, then 

 I am a Long-Idea man ; but instead of having 

 the "long" spread out horizontally, I would 

 have it spread out perpendicularly. — Ed.] 



A BRIGHT IDEA gives G. M. Doolittle in 

 American Bee Journal. In cutting founda- 

 tion, have a very thin knife. Then, instead of 

 heating the knil'e otherwise, make several rap- 

 id strokes in cutting, and the friction will do 

 the heating. Thanks, Bro. D. [INIy ! oh, my ! 

 I supposed everybody knew that ; but how 

 often it happens, as Doolittle has well said, we 

 may be using some little kink that we sup- 

 posed all the world knows of. Before we made 

 foundation by the new process, by which the 

 trimming is done by machinery, we recognized 

 the fact that drawing a thin .sharp knife quick- 

 ly across the wax a few times would generate 

 heat of itself ; but let me tell you, doctor, a 

 knife kept in boiling water, and drawn across 

 the sheet of wax rapidly, between times, is 

 better still. — Ed.] 



" Foul BROOD honey will be all right if it 

 is boiled for a period of four or five minutes," 

 p. ;>54. Wouldn't longer time be better ? Bac- 

 teriologist Mackenzie (Howard's Foul Brood, 

 p. 42) says spores grew after boiling 2 hours, 

 but there was no growth after 2'/< hours. If 

 that's all straight, wouldn't it be better to boil 

 2}4 hours? [I based my statement on the au- 

 thority of Cowan. I think he once told me 

 that boiling for 4-") seconds would kill every 

 spore. However, we never boiled any honey 

 that was infected with foul brood. We made 

 a short job by burning it up, brood-comb, 

 frame, and all. No one ever heard of a case 

 of foul brood resulting from the use of founda- 

 tion made from wax coming from an infected 

 hive, even though the wax had been subjected 



to a temperature much less than 212 degrees, 

 and for a much less period than 2%, hours. If 

 there is such a case, let's hear it. — Ed.] 



The wholESOMeness of honey is recogniz- 

 ed by physicians. A friend of mine is forbid- 

 den by physicians to eat any thing in the line 

 of sugar or starch, but is allowed pure honey. 

 I use honey with postum cereal because I 

 think it safer. But if the honey is best qual- 

 ity I like it as well as sugar. [It is a fact that 

 I know positively in my own experience — no 

 guesswork about it — that I can eat a certain 

 amount of honey without inconvenience ; but 

 cane sugars, maple sugar, candy, and all such 

 stuff, I am obliged to let alone. All these, 

 strangely enough, seem to bring about a sort 

 of sneezing catarrh ; and honey will likewise 

 do so if I take too much of it at a time. Now, 

 doctor, as an " M. D." I will ask you to ex- 

 plain ivhy the mucous membranes of my nos- 

 trils are affected more in one instance than in 

 another ? I have tried it over and over again. 

 One will cause sneezing in a day or two, while 

 the other is, for the same quantity, very much 

 less inclined to do so. Some day I'll give you 

 some of my observations along these lines ; 

 i. e., how cane sugars and starch affect otheis 

 in much the same way. — Ed.] 



Robbing is stopped thus by M. F. Chatelain: 

 Smoke the hive of (he robbers; in two or three 

 minutes close the entrance. Wait till the re- 

 turning bees crow«l outside ; open enough to 

 insert smoker- nozzle, and smoke. Open en- 

 trance wide, and let all go in. Then smoke 

 like sixty till bees rush out of hive. That 

 stops 'em. — L^Abeille et sa Culture. [The 

 plan would work tiptop providing the robbing 

 were confined to one colony, as it is some- 

 times. Whenever we get ready to move bees 

 from an outyard during the middle of the day 

 we give the entrances of the hives to be moved 

 a good smoking; and in about five or ten min- 

 utes give them another smudging. The effect 

 of all this is to prevent the bees from fl) ing — 

 that is, the}' stay at home, either because the 

 smoke makes them sick or because things 

 appear to be in bad shape at home, and need 

 "all hands to straighten things up." But 

 when robbing bees get started at our yard, 

 there are apt to fje more than a dozen colonies 

 having a hand in the fracas ; and if we do not 

 attend to things pretty soon, every colony in 

 the yard will be "in it." Robbing, like fire, 

 should be attended to at the start ; and I do 

 not know but Chatelain's method is as good 

 as any. But in the mean time I would slip 

 one of our mosquito-netting bee-tents right 

 over the hive. This prevents robbers from 

 getting in, and confines to the tent those go- 

 ing out. When robbing is quieted down I 

 sometimes let loose the robbers from the tent 

 after they have had time to sober down and 

 think over the error of their ways. — Ed.] 



" I DO not see how you and the rest of the 

 chaps put me on the same side of the fence 

 with Doolittle. I stipposed I was on the tip- 

 topest part of the fence." — Editorial footnote, 

 p. 336. O Ernest ! Just listen to what you 

 said. " At present I do not see any objections 

 to putting up honey in the manner Mr. D. 



