1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



few hives by way of experiment, and, if my 

 memory serves me aright, they were daubed 

 up with propolis to a much greater extent 

 than were the tin ones. But they were not 

 discarded on this account, but because they 

 did not answer their purpose as well, when 

 used in connection with wide frames, as did 

 the tin. 



WHEN TO PUT FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS AND 

 FRAMES. 

 Question. — Would you please let me know 

 through Gleanings if it will be just as well 

 to fasten the foundation in the frames and 

 sections during the winter months, while I 

 have plenty of time, as to do the same just be- 

 fore needed, when I am crowded with the 

 summer's work ? If I could do so I could 

 have them all ready when the time conies for 

 their use, at a much less cost to me. But I 

 am told that the bees will not accept the foun- 

 dation as readily where it is put in the frames 

 and sections in winter, as it becomes dry and 

 hard by summer, so the bees can not work on 

 it to advantage. Is this a fact, or only some 

 one's " think so "? 



Answer. — During two years I experimented 

 largely in this matter, till I became convinced 

 that all the talk about old foundation being 

 hard and dry, and not worked as readily by 

 the bees, was a fallacy. To be sure, on these 

 cold winter days all foundation does look hard 

 and dry, and any thing but inviting to the 

 bees, or to myself either; but you just wait 

 till some hot day in June or July, and then go 

 up to the attic where it is stored away, or 

 where your frames are filled with it, or sec- 

 tions, may be, then look at it; and if it is not 

 too soft and pliable to handle easily, then your 

 attic and your experience will be different 

 from mine. Why I have alluded to an attic 

 is this : Cold foundation has a whitish, hard 

 appearance, while foundation in a heat of 100 

 degrees F. has a yellow , oily appearance when 

 it is pliable to handle and inviting to the bees. 

 Now take a piece of the foundation, fresh from 

 the mill, and take it into the cold room, and 

 you will at once say this new is more accept- 

 able to the bees than the old piece you are 

 comparing it with; but take the same new 

 piece into the attic, and hold it by the side of 

 the old, and you will conclude at once that 

 both are alike inviting to the bees. Now take 

 your old, on some cool day in June, when it 

 looks so uninviting, and lower a frame filled 

 with it down into the center of the brood-nest. 

 Leave it five minutes, then go with a piece of 

 that fresh from the mill in your hand; lift the 

 frame, when, pres o! the old and the new 

 have become alike again, and the bees have al- 

 ready begun to manipulate it. In other words, 

 when placed in the hive the foundation as- 

 sumes the same yellow, oily, soft, pliable na- 

 ture, after a moment or two, that it has in the 

 attic, or when first leaving the mill; and if this 

 is a fact, which I know it to be, will any one 

 tell me why it is not just as acceptable to the 

 bees as the new ? Under these conditions no 

 one can tell the new from the old, when the 

 different pieces have been shuffled together, 

 unless either has been marked in some wav. 



This matter of old foundation not being as 

 good as new is like many another matter 

 which has been started without due consider- 

 ation being paid to it; and, after being once 

 started, it keeps on its rounds through the pa- 

 pers and on mortal lips, going around and 

 around, as on an endless chain, year after 

 year, decade after decade, till nearly all the 

 world thinks it must be a. fact. To show that 

 I am not writing one thing while practicing 

 another, I will say that my last two days' em- 

 ployment before to-day, February 14 and 15, 

 has been that of putting foundation in sec- 

 tions and frames, and that said foundation for 

 frames was purchased in 1896, and that for 

 sections in the spring of 1898. 



And now I wish to say a word about taking 

 what any one says or writes as an established 

 fact. No man or woman should be only an 

 imitator of some one else. Set your own mind 

 at work, and it will prove to your own self 

 what is right and what is wrong, if you will 

 let your hands obey its teaching byway of do- 

 ing a little experimenting on a small scale. 

 Don't depend on what Dr. Miller, the Roots, 

 Hutchinson, Dadant, Doolittle, or any one 

 else tells you, unless it is right in line with 

 what you want, and proves as they say under 

 your manipulation. If you want something 

 different from what they do, please tell me 

 what there is to hinder your own self trying 

 what you want; and then if it proves, after 

 trial, to be just the thing for you, tell the 

 world about it, so Dr. Miller, Doolittle, etc., can 

 take advantage of your experiments, as you 

 have been taking advantage of theirs, all 

 along during the past, and thus shall come a 

 mutual benefit to the whole bee-fraternity. 

 Don't be afraid of a little experimenting on 

 your part; only take my advice and not go in 

 too heavy, for it is needless to sacrifice a whole 

 apiary to any single experiment, as many seem 

 prone to think they must, if they experiment 

 at all. Hutchinson would never have been a 

 Hutchinson had he been like a Doolittle, nor 

 a Miller a Miller, nor a Dadant a Dadant. 

 And herein lies one of the great blessings of 

 life; for this would have been only a very small 

 world had there been none but Doolittlesinit. 







WORMS IN BOTTOM-BOARDS ; INTRODUCING 

 QUEENS ; PLAIN SECTIONS A SUCCESS. 



I see by report of the bee-keepers' conven- 

 tion at Omaha that some of the bee-keepers 

 are troubled by worms that get into the bot- 

 tom-boards of hives, and ask for a remedy. 

 Did you ever try soaking the bottom-boards 

 in lime water? 



In introducing queens many persons advise 

 placing the cage with queen therein upon the 

 top of the frames, to let the bees get acquaint- 

 ed with the new queen, while some of the bees 

 eat the sugar- candy plug that is in the cage, and 



