1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



43" 



one has told us that the way is to remove each 

 comb as soon as sealed or finished. Where 

 hut a moderate number of colonies are kept, 

 and the bee-keeper can give a good deal of 

 time to the work, it may be helpful to do so ; 

 but where several hundred colonies are kept 

 in several yards (it may be many miles apart) 

 it is impracticable to remove honey, as a rule, 

 only by finished supers; besides, we often find 

 large numbers of sections or combs discolored 

 as soon as finished, while on other colonies 

 the supers may remain for weeks or even 

 months without the combs becoming soiled or 

 discolored. 



Plain sections that were introduced a year 

 ago, it was claimed, would, with a fence or 

 open separator, produce whiter combs than 

 the old style sections with solid separators. 

 To this claim, doubtless, was due much of the 

 enthusiasm with which their introduction was 

 received. Valuable as these may prove, they 



be " un soiled by travel-stain, or otherwise." 

 Travel-stain alone being mentioned or called 

 by name, this, presumably, was considered 

 the most common cause of discolored combs. 

 Every bee-keeper is supposed to know just 

 what travel-stain is ; but I have sometimes 

 wondered if I do. I suppose it refers to that 

 slight tinge of color we find on or in the cap- 

 pings of surplus combs, slight near the top of 

 the section, and usually increasing toward the 

 bottom, where it becomes a light cinnamon, 

 or yellow or brown, or it may be more pro- 

 nounced in the middle of the comb, with less 

 at top and bottom. 



From the wording, the supposition is that 

 somehow the bees, in flying through the air 

 or alighting on a flower, or in passing through 

 the hive, get their feet dirty, and, in traveling 

 over the new white combs, soil them. To 

 prove this theory it may be noticed that the 

 lower part of the comb, where travel is great- 



• • • • •«•*«•* 



'*9>M » 



i*t> **+**$* 



COMB THAT HAS BEEN ON THE HIVE FOR MONTHS WITHOUT TRAVEL-STAIN. 



are not likely to eradicate wholly the evil of 

 soiled or discolored cappings. 



Before discussing the best means of secur- 

 ing the whitest combs, it may be well for us 

 to study the causes of the discoloration of 

 surplus combs. I might first mention pollen- 

 stains. Sometimes bees seem either to have 

 all the pollen they need in the hive, or have 

 some antipathy to certain kinds of pollen, and 

 refuse to gather into pellets all that adheres 

 to them while seeking honey, and return to 

 the hive pretty well covered with it, which 

 appears to stain the brood-combs and surplus 

 combs; also if they are built out and partly or 

 wholly filled. This is particularly observable 

 when there is little or no clover honey, and 

 bees work freely on white daisy. Fortunately 

 it does not matter so much, as the daisy honey 

 is quite dark, or inferior, and must be sold as 

 a low grade of honey. 



In the national rules for grading honey we 

 find in the first and second rules, honey must 



est, is usually colored or soiled the most.. 

 Now, I consider the whole idea of travt 1-stain 

 as a foul slander. The idea of our industrious 

 insects not being tidy is infamous. It is true 

 that, during winter, dead bees, chips of wax, 

 and perhaps bits of pollen, are allowed to 

 accumulate; but would it not be death to any 

 bee that should attempt to carry out these 

 accumulations, with the mercury at 32 or 40 

 degrees lower ? Do not the bees, with the 

 first warm days of spring, have a houseclean- 

 ing that would be creditable to any house- 

 keeper? Every nook and corner of the hive 

 is examined, and every particle of dirt re- 

 moved. Even then they are not satisfied until 

 in the warm summer days they can give the 

 whole inside of their hive a new coat of varnish. 

 But if this discolored condition of combs is 

 not travel-stain, what is it? That is just what 

 I have been studying for some time, and will 

 try to explain. Let us take a comb or section 

 of honey, with all the marks or characteristics 



