766 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



the wooden-nutmeg State might do; but I 

 sometimes get a move on me, out slips the 

 veil, and my neck looks as if I were a Grover 

 Cleveland Democrat. 



When using a veil I wear a broad -brimmed 

 hat to protect my face from the bees that 

 would like to poke fun at me, and to protect 

 my eyes from the sun. Like the young fel- 

 low at the dance, I have changed my mind ; 

 you need not make the veils longer. It is a 

 short job to fasten a three-inch strip of old 

 muslin or calico to the veil, when it holds po- 

 sition better than an extra- long veil would. 



In the second column, same page, I see you 

 recommend sulphuric acid for wax. As the 

 Dadants condemned it several years ago I 

 have never tried it. If the acid works satis- 

 factorily, that paragraph will be worth several 

 years' subscription to Gleanings to me. 



Grayson, Cal. W. A. H. Gilstrap. 



[At one time I know the Dadants did ob- 

 ject to the use of sulphuric acid for refining 

 wax, taking the ground that it destroyed the 

 natural odor of the wax that is so pleasant. 

 But at that time some of us were using a great 

 deal more acid than was actually necessary to 

 bring wax to a lemon color. We now use a 

 very small quantity ; and after refining, the 

 wax is of a beautiful color as well as retaining 

 that delightful honey smell that so many ad- 

 mire. A large foundation-maker in England 

 once wrote us, asking us what we put in our 

 foundation to give it such a delightful odor. 

 We replied that we put in nothing, but that 

 we refined all our wax with a little acid. The 

 natural odor was due to the fact that we had 

 not driven it out. — Ed.] 



AGAINST THE RAGE FOR COLOR IN BEES AND 

 QUEENS. 



I am glad some one has called a halt in the 

 color question, and turned attention to the 

 working qualities (p. 603). Does the av rage 

 man keep bees for the color, or for dollars 

 and cents ? I have a queen whose bees have 

 filled 112 sections, and have the third 56 nearly 

 full, this year. She is very dark leather-col- 

 ored. I have had her two years, and got her 

 second-handed. Her bees are dark (not 

 black) and fairly quiet. Yellow queens in the 

 same yard, that started as strong as she, have 

 made from 10 to 60 lbs. I don't want to sell 

 this queen, but I wanted to tell you that those 

 dark bees have made more honey by 50 lbs. 

 than any yellow ones in the yard, or, I think, 

 in the locality. C. W. McCoy. 



Mt. Erie, 111., Aug. 2. 



EIGHTEEN-FOOT-TO-THE-POUND FOUNDATION. 



You sent me a sample of 18-ft. foundation 

 last year, and requested a report on it. As 

 the honey crop was very light I did not get to 

 test much of it until this season. I put it in 

 one side of 4x5 sections, and in the other 

 side Root's and Dadant's extra thin. The 

 bees worked and finished both about alike. 

 Drone comb was built in the lower part of the 

 sections. After cutting and eating we find 

 the least gob, or wax, in the 18-ft. There was 



a good deal of bass wood bloom, but it yielded 

 no honey ; but white clover bloomed freely, 

 and yielded well, but very irregularly, from 

 June 11 to July 12. The flow from heartsease 

 and Spanish needle has just begun, and prom- 

 ises well. My scale colony, Doolittle's golden 

 Italians, net gain, is, for May, &}4 lbs.; June, 

 82}4 ; July, 61^' ; August (to date), 20. It is 

 run for both extracted and comb. I have a 

 hybrid colony that has brought in more cash 

 than the golden Italians run for comb. A 

 cold winter does not prevent a flow from 

 white clover in this locality. We had the 

 coldest weather here last February ever record- 

 ed — for two weeks, 10 to 28 below zero, and 

 no snow on the ground. M. E. Davis. 



Bethlehem, la., Aug. 29. 



[There can be no question but the light- 

 weight foundation will make less so-called 

 gob in comb honey. The only thing we fear- 

 ed was that it would sag in the sections, or be 

 so thin that the bees would gnaw it away. 

 Before we put it out we feel that we require 

 more reports. — Ed.] 



DISCOURAGING FROM BOARDMAN. 



Perhaps I might as well add another wail 

 of anguish to reports discouraging. My crop 

 of honey is very short. Sweet clover helps 

 me out after the basswood flow, so I shall 

 have some honey to sell, and my bees are in 

 fine condition at this date. My test of the 

 English rape for bee-forage was an entire 

 failure. I made several sowings, but the seed 

 did not grow. I think it was damaged. I 

 hardly think it can compare with sweet clo- 

 ver, which I think is the most valuable honey- 

 plant in the whole world when compared acre 

 for acre. H. R. Boardman. 



East Townsend, O., Aug. 15. 



THE 5% X 4X X \}i TOO THIN, AND WHY. 



As I have read a good deal on plain sections 

 and fences, I too am experimenting along 

 that line. I will send you a section of honey 

 that I have produced under the fence system. 

 This is a plain section, b%X^%X~L%. and it 

 is not quite to my satisfaction, the comb being 

 too thin. You will find in Gleanings, Dec. 

 15, 1898, page 915, written by J. E. Crane, 

 his query as to such a section. I had this 

 section made when I saw Mr. Crane's idea of 

 such a section. My aim was to get a section 

 of the right proportion to look well ; and that 

 I should not have to do any filling endwise in 

 the super, I tacked a rim on the super to 

 accommodate the height of the section. The 

 super holds 28 sections. This was given to a 

 prime swarm, and filled up in short order. 

 The outside sections were as well filled as any 

 of the rest. There were 28 sections, each lite 

 every other one. The weight of this section I 

 am sending is 12 ounces, weighed here. It 

 may leak before it reaches you. 



I for one am in favor of the fence and its 

 use. Louis Moll. 



Eudora, Kan., Aug. 23. 



[It is true that such a section is a little too 

 thin; but it presents a very large surface with 



