494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JULY 1. 



for what they are sure is real honey. It is the 

 distrust consumers have as to the purity of 

 Chicago extracted that keeps down the price. 

 —Ed] 



Please watch what bees do when the 

 queen is taken away, and see if they make the 

 mistake of choosing larvae more than three 

 days old, for queen-rearing. I'm watching, 

 and so far they have chosen only young larvae. 

 Here's what I think : That bees will never 

 select larvae too old if those of proper age are 

 present, but queenless bees are not satisfied to 

 stop with what they first start, and afterward, 

 for want of better, use larvae that are too old 

 for good queens. [If I were not so very much 

 crowded just now in the revision of our ABC 

 book I would watch ; so I shall have to let the 

 other fellows do it this summer. — Ed.] 



For end - spacers for brood - frames, I 

 thought nails driven in slanting would be 

 better than staples, because the slanting nails 

 would make the frames slide into place auto- 

 matically. For more than a year I've given 

 both kinds a thorough trial, and the staples 

 are away ahead. It's true, the nails let the 

 frame slide into place automatically, but they 

 also let it slide out of place automatically, and 

 it's a nuisance to have the end of the top-bar 

 drop down inside, which it can't do with 

 staples. [Your experience, doctor, is about 

 the same as mine, and that is the reason we 

 adopted staples in preference to a nail driven 

 in slanting, a la Boomhower. — Ed.] 



HERE'S the thing to try, Mr. Editor. On 

 half your colonies put supers with at least one 

 bait section in each. On the other half put 

 shallow supers and follow with sections after 

 your plan. After the bees are well at work in 

 these last sections, compare the work with 

 that in the other lot. If they're ahead on your 

 plan, and if one extracting-super will work for 

 six colonies, then I want to use your plan. 

 [No, you try it, doctor. I can not do it this 

 season. We have had such a rush of orders 

 for queens and bees, owing to the heavy losses 

 iti wintering over t'ie country, that we have 

 had to turn almost our entire apiary into a 

 mammoth queen-rearing yard — just had to do 

 it — and let all notions of comb-honey pro- 

 duction this season go to the winds. For all 

 that, I am stealing a few colonies in Draper 

 barns, and will have them in the basswood 

 apiary by to-night. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, you owe Niver an apology for 

 saying (p. 473), "when he gets his tongue 

 balanced." Niver doesn't have to get his 

 tongue balanced. It's always balanced. I 

 slept in the same room with him at the Buf- 

 falo convention, and, no matter what time in 

 the night Niver woke up, his tongue was al- 

 ways on balance. You can't tell how Niver 

 talks by seeing what he says in print. There's 

 a charm in the way he says a thing that the 

 cold types can't show. [That is true; but I 

 had one of our men snap a kodak on Niver 

 whilehewasin an animated discussion, his 

 hand keeping time with his "balanced 

 tongue," his eyes fairly twinkling with en- 

 thusiasm. Yes, and the picture took in your 

 humble servant at the same time. Well, in 



our next issue I will try to give you a view of 

 Niver and me in one of those " delightful con- 

 fabs;" for we had lots of 'em. — Ed.] 



I notice that, in his article in this issue, 

 J. M. Hambaugh speaks of hive-covers as 

 "lids." Some little time ago S. T. Pettit 

 argued in favor of short expressive terms, and 

 asked w T hat objection there was to the use of 

 the word "floors" instead of the long term 

 " bottom-boards." Personally I like both of 

 the short names, and would not object to hav- 

 ing such terms used in Gleanings. Why not 

 "lids" for "covers"? why not "supers" for 

 "surplus-honey receptacles"? and why not 

 " floors" for "bottom-boards"? Such changes 

 as these would save the use of more type than 

 the short spelling adopted by the American 

 Bee Journal, and yet would offend the taste of 

 none. Gleanings is in favor of the short 

 spellings, but does not yet see its way clear to 

 adopt them; but it can see no objection to the 

 use of "lids," "floors," " unqueen " or "de- 

 queen," and other short expressive terms. 



FruiT-Trees, especially apple-trees, make 

 fine shade for bees. But orchards, especially 

 in some parts of the West, are rather short- 

 lived, and forest-trees are better. I visited 

 one of Adam Grimm's apiaries that was in a 

 clump of young lindens, and it was fine. I'm 

 not sure but I like better a clump of burr- 

 oaks in which my Hastings apiary is located. 

 It's just about ideal. [While you were about 

 it, doctor, why didn't you say that your pref- 

 erence was for trees instead of shade-boards ? 

 Although you have never stated your prefer- 

 ence, yet from the very fact that two of your 

 apiaries that I saw were located among shade- 

 trees I am led to believe this is your belief 

 and practice. I spoke of fruit-trees, especially 

 apple-trees, because there is usually a grove 

 of them near or in the rear of most homes. At 

 our basswood apiary the hives are shaded by 

 lindens. But in any case I would not care to 

 have the trees too large: for then when swarms 

 come out they are liable to get on the topmost 

 branches beyond the reach of ladder or climb- 

 er. In such cases, all one can do is to let 

 them go or try the efficacy of a shotgun, a la 

 W. F. Marks.— Ed.] 



G. M. DooeitteE says, in American Bee 

 Journal, " I never saw a single worker-bee 

 from an imported queen that had any yellow 

 on it at all. The color was always a maroon, 

 chestnut, or leather color, not yellow." My 

 imported queens, or those that I bought for 

 imported, have always had workers that I 

 called yellow. Now the question is, Have I 

 been swindled, or has some one been working 

 off maroon bees instead of yellow on Doolittle ? 

 I don't believe I ever saw a dozen imported 

 Italian queens, and I doubt whether Doolittle 

 has seen many more than I, for I've been buy- 

 ing since he thought no more importations were 

 needed, and at Medina you've had perhaps 

 more imported queens than at any other place. 

 Please tell us, are the workers of an imported 

 Italian queen yellow or maroon? [I do not 

 know where friend Doolittle gets his notion 

 of colors ; but if he will consult his good wife 

 I feel sure he will have to revise his idea some- 



