870 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



but both seem to have given it up discouraged. 

 Wuest says ^Deutsche Illiistrierte Bienenzeit- 

 nng), it's a mistake to suppose that dry 

 weather stunting the growth of red-clover 

 blossoms makes hive bees get honey from 

 them; but it's the moist hot weather that 

 makes such an abundant flow of nectar that 

 the tubes are filled up within the reach of 

 their short tongues. 



"I FIND cows, wherever I go, eating it 

 greedily whenever they have access to it," 

 says A. I. Root of sweet clover, p. 838. Friend 

 Root, you mustn't talk that way. Lots of 

 places where they won't even eat it spariagly, 

 and I'm pretty sure you've been at some of the 

 places, only you didn't look. Come to Maren- 

 go, and you can see sweet clover untouched 

 where cows have been tied on it. But I believe 

 all can be taught to eat it. My horses are eat- 

 ing the hay, and I wish I had a mow filled 

 full of sweet-clover hay. 



" Equally plain is the inference that this 

 is the class of words to which I object, because 

 'a good many like it, ' " is a sentence on p. 

 831 so badly jumbled that it isn't worth 

 straightening. What I meant to say was that 

 " sass " and some other words used playfully 

 were the class of words to which Mr. Taylor 

 objected. [The passage in question should 

 have read : Equally plain is the inference that 

 this is the class of words to which Mr. Taylor 

 objects when he says, " Dr. Miller justifies 

 the use of the class of words to which I object, 

 because 'a good man}' like it.' " It was our 

 mistake, doctor, and not j'ours. — Ed.] 



W. C. GaThright, p. 807, thinks it more 

 important to have separators come % in. be- 

 low top of sections than to have passages in 

 center of separators. Has never seen sections 

 bulged at top, and bees finish up honey and 

 seal top row of cells better than with separat- 

 ors that come to top of sections. I'm anxious 

 to believe he's right, and I think he is. [Not- 

 withstanding I have been on the other side of 

 the fence, and that very recently, enough tes- 

 timony has come in to convert me to the be- 

 lief that it is important to have the separators 

 drop % inch below the top of the sections. 

 Our fences for 1899 will be narrow enough to 

 allow this space above and below. — Ed.] 



G. M. DooLiTTLE thinks 63^^'' Langstroth 

 frames, rightly manipulated, enough to enter- 

 tain the best queen to her fullest capacity. I 

 believe that would be less than 2500 eggs a 

 day. I think Doolittle says he has had queens 

 lay 5000 eggs a day. Would the fullest ca- 

 pacity of such a queen be less than 2500 a day 

 for three weeks or more? [See answer to 

 Straw in this issue regarding Dadant's state- 

 ment to the effect that queens will lose time 

 in hunting for empty cells. If G. M. Doolittle 

 follows the Doolittle method as we follow it, 

 many of his queens will want more room than 

 6^ L. frames would allow, or else his locality 

 is essentally different from ours. Will Doo- 

 little explain? — Ed.] 



Instead of using an introducing-cage with 

 candy for the bees to liberate the queen, a 

 writer in Centralblatt winds wrapping-twine 

 over the mouth of the cage, and the bees 



gnaw it open. Others make a cage of comb 

 foundation with holes pierced through. The 

 question is, whether candy makes bees kinder 

 to the queen when liberating her. I doubt it. 

 [I do not think it makes any difference wheth- 

 er string, candy, or foundation is used, so 

 long as it takes the bees from 15 to 20 hours 

 to release the queen, and that without any 

 disturbance from the apiarist. I have for 

 years believed it was bad policy for the bee- 

 keeper to help along the process of introduc- 

 ing by releasing the queen. In my experience 

 there have been fewer queens by considerable 

 killed when the bees did it themselves. — Ed.] 



C. P. DadanT thinks if a queen has just 

 enough room for her needs she'll lose time 

 hunting empty cells (p. 791). Looks reason- 

 able. And yet, no matter how much room 

 she has, doesn't she always keep her brood 

 compact ? and if so, what good will extra cell& 

 be? [Empty cells? If the brood circle in 

 each frame were filled with brood, I feel very 

 sure that, in our locality, some of our queens' 

 would commence filling brood- circles in 

 frames above rather than deposit more eggs 

 in the frames below. Very many of our 

 queens reared by the Doolittle method re- 

 quire more room than an eight-frame brood- 

 nest will allow them; but our queens reared 

 by the old plan would usually have about all 

 the room they required in the single brood- 

 nest. Of course, there are exceptions to both 

 cases. Empty cells? Why, an Italian queen 

 will seldom lay outside of the circle, even 

 though there be empty cells all around it; but 

 Holy Land or Cyprian queens will fill the 

 whole frame out, corners and all. There, per- 

 haps I have not covered your question. If so, 

 Mr. Dadant will do so. — Ed.] 



My good friend J. M. Hambaugh says, p. 

 839, that the most satisfactory feeder in his 

 experience is the Hill. Which makes me won- 

 der whether a Miller or a crock-and-plate feed- 

 er has ever strayed within the range of his ex- 

 perience. [Just so. But the greatest objec- 

 tion to these feeders is that they are too small. 

 Either the Miller or the crock-and-plate feed- 

 er is large enough to give all a colony requires 

 for winter at one feed. Something cheaper 

 still, and almost as good, is a common tin pan 

 and a sheet of cheese-cloth. Fill the pan with 

 syrup, and lay upon the syrup a strip of 

 cheese-cloth that has first been dampened in 

 water — the cloth serving as a float for the bees.. 

 I have known bees repeatedly to empty a pan 

 thus prepared, in a single evening. One diffi- 

 culty with this style of feeder is that when the 

 pan is emptied the cloth is pretty apt to be- 

 stuck down with sugar crystals — not a serious- 

 objection, however, because both can be scald- 

 ed clean. Speaking of the Miller feeder, per- 

 haps I ought to explain wh}' I prefer this to 

 any other. It is because the bees will take the 

 feed out of it when they would not go near a 

 tin pan. Then it is so constructed that the 

 warmth from the cluster can ascend centrally 

 through the feeder to the top of the opening 

 directly over the center of the cluster, permit- 

 ting the bees to take out the syrup when they 

 wouldn't go near a brt ad-pan or metal feeder, 

 -Ed.] 



