610 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



for a glossometer, the best of any thing I 

 have seen so far. I will try to show you a 

 picture of it in an early issue of Gi^Eanings. 

 —Ed.] 



The Revieiv critic refers to Gleanings, p. 

 422, and says: "Of Ranson's plan of ' bait- 

 ing,' the doctor says: 'It will probably work 

 all right with enough baits, providing colonies 

 are not equal in strength.' Will he explain 

 why it would not be better to have the colo- 

 nies all equally strong if there are enough 

 baits ? " I may say in reply that I didn't say 

 it wouldn't be better. But in that case Ran- 

 son's plan couldn't possibly work. The spe- 

 cial feature of his plan is to take the super 

 from a colony that has begun work, and give 

 it to one ready to begin work. If all were 

 equally strong they would all need baits at 

 the same time ; then how could he take from 

 one and give to another? 



To havp: best success with bottom starters, 

 it seems important to have the top starter 

 come down within less than % inch of the 

 bottom starter. Then the bees seem to tack 

 the two together about the first thing. If 

 there's much space between them, the bottom 

 starter topples over sometimes before it's 

 fastened to the upper one, and sometimes they 

 dig away the lower one, apparently to help 

 out the other. [Ah ! that explains. I have 

 had trouble with the bottom starters toppling 

 over. Then I thought I made my mistake in 

 having them too wide. It would now appear 

 that the trouble was not because the bottom 

 starter was )4 inch, but because the space 

 between the two starters was more than % 

 inch. Say, doctor, why didn't you give us 

 this kink before ? — Ed.] 



TH.A.T IDEA of having a section filled clear 

 out to sides and bottom to get it best filled is 

 doubtless all straight. The English Simmins 

 uses a section split on top and two sides, the 

 split being a V groove, so the split doesn't 

 show in the finished section. That allows the 

 section to be easily filled entirely full. [Yes, 

 indeed, English bee-keepers have various 

 styles of sections — some that are split clear 

 around. The idea seems to be to have founda- 

 tion held securely to sides, top, and bottom. 

 I think there can be no question but that bet- 

 ter filling is secured when the sheets touch 

 the section all around. But Mr. Danzenbaker 

 uses ordinary sections, a starter at top and 

 bottom, but said starters are wide enough to 

 reach clear out to the sides. If they do not 

 quite reach, he will not have them. It is 

 possible that herein lies the secret of the suc- 

 cess of having sections without corner holes. 

 —Ed.] 



"The highest chemical authority at the 

 Michigan State Agricultural College says they 

 are identical — beet sugar z.y cane sugar." — R. 

 L. Taylor, in Review. But does chemical 

 identity prove identity in all respects? Au- 

 thorities across the water, including so well- 

 informed a man as T. W. Cowan, say that 

 beet sugar is not cane sugar for wintering 

 bees. [We know that charcoal and the dia- 

 mond are chemically the same; but there is, 

 nevertheless, a vast difference between the 



two. While I have never been able to discov- 

 er any difference in taste or appearance be- 

 tween cane and beet sugar, there may, never- 

 theless, be a difference. Years ago when we 

 had nothing but cane sugar we did not winter 

 our bees as well as we do now when we are 

 supposed to have nothing but beet sugar. 

 Bvit this is not saying that the cane sugar was 

 the cause of the loss. Indeed, I do not be- 

 lieve it had any thing to do with it. Mr. 

 Cowan is a man for whose opinion I have 

 great respect, and I know he recommends, 

 for English bee-keepers at least, cane sugar 

 and not beet sugar. — Ed.] 



The thought of the editor, p. 588, is that 

 when hives are hoisted on four blocks the 

 bees' flight will be obstructed when working 

 over them or when walking through the 

 apiary. Evidently the thought at the bottom 

 of that is that the bees fly out and in at all 

 parts. One would naturally think so. The 

 fact is, my bees fly almost entirely in the 

 same direction they would if not blocked up. 

 They can use the back or side, but the simple 

 fact is they don't. If the hive were open all 

 around in early spring, the case would be dif- 

 ferent. But he's all right about the queen. 

 While most of the swarm comes out in front, 

 the queen's just as likely to come out else- 

 where. [I never tried hives raised up on four 

 blocks; and that bees would fly out from all 

 four sides was only my theory; but the more 

 I think of it, the more I can see that they 

 would go out just the way they were in the 

 habit of doing before the hive was raised. 

 But after the young bees have begun to hatch 

 I should suspect that they would fly out as 

 readily toward one point of the compass as 

 another. Or is it true that, like a flock of 

 sheep, they will follow their leaders? — Ed.] 



R. C. AiKiN thinks great stress can't be 

 laid upon retaining bees to build comb that 

 would otherwise go afield, p. 575. Not so 

 sure about that, friend Aikin. Don't bees 

 vary their work according to the demands? 

 Bees don't gather pollen till 16 days old, but 

 I've seen them bringing in pollen when five 

 days old when there was no one else to do it. 

 I believe bees will always be busy when there's 

 any thing to do; and any thing that takes off 

 work to be done in the hive means more 

 work done in the field. [Let's see. We 

 had quite a series of articles going to show 

 that worker- bees of various ages would per- 

 form all sorts of work — that is, old bees would 

 rear brood, and do general nurse-bee work; 

 and young bees, when there were none others 

 in the hive, and as soon as they could fly, 

 would go to the fields. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances there is a sort of division of labor 

 in the political economy of the hive. The 

 old bees do the field work, and the young 

 bees the nurse work, unless some stress of 

 circumstances causes them to do otherwise. 

 It was the veteran E. France who, three or 

 four years ago, made some quite elaborate ex- 

 periments, the results of which were as given 

 above. — Ed.] 



July 28 I started robbing by giving a sixth 

 story with a little honey, letting the robbers 



