264 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April L 



ease was actually present in the hive, and how 

 to treat the same. There are many competent 

 bee keepers, but only a few, comparatively, 

 who understand how to handle foul brood. In 

 favor of a law like that just now in force in 

 Wisconsin, by which one inspector is appoint- 

 ed for the whole State, and receives $4.00 a 

 day and other expenses, it may be urged that 

 this person can be and probably will be the 

 best man in the whole State ; and foul brood 

 has scarcely ever made such headway in any 

 other one State that oae person could not get 

 to see every affected yard. 



The county plan is in force in Colorado, and 

 I believe it is giving general satisfaction. The 

 plan of having one inspector for the whole 

 State is giving excellent results in Wisconsin. 

 Taking everything into consideration, I be- 

 lieve I should be in favor of this kind of law ; 

 for an inspector who gave a large percentage 

 of his time would make it his business to find 

 foul brood wherever it existed, and stamp it 

 out by the most approved methods. It would 

 be a matter of pride to show some results from 

 his labor. 



All things considered, it strikes me that 

 our friend Mr. Smith rather went back on 

 his bee-keeping friends. The present foul- 

 brood law has been in existence since 1881, 

 and that notwithstanding the disease has been 

 making headway throughout the State. Those 

 who favored the new bill on the lines of 

 the Wisconsin law probably felt that some- 

 thing better should be on the statute-books ; 

 for then one man yvo\x[difeel the responsibility 

 of the situation, and see that something was 

 done. I am inclined to think, friend Smith, 

 that the bee-keepers of your State will be after 

 you with a sharp stick ; and on the other hand 

 I can see how you acted honestly and from 

 the best of motives. — Ed] 



DO QUEENS LAY IN OUEEN-CELLS ? WATER- 

 BEES. 



1. Do queens lay eggs in old queen-cells, or 

 do bees move them there when they want to 

 rear a queen ? A few days ago I put a frame 

 of eggs in a queenless hive, and on looking in 

 later I found an egg in an old queen-cell that 

 was empty when I put it in (they matured the 

 egg to a queen). 



2. Do bees have regular water-bees, or do all 

 go for water? If they do, how do they water 

 the queen and drones ? Chas. Long. 



Fowler, Cal., Feb. 16. 



[1. Under some circumstances queens will lay 

 in queen-cells ; but I believe that, as a general 

 rule, the cells are supplied by the bees, with 

 eggs or young larvte removed from worker- 

 cells. The circumstance you relate is not an 

 uncommon one. 



2. I never supposed there were regular wa- 

 ter-bees, although this may be true: Some 

 bees in a colony will make a specialty of buck- 

 wheat, others of white clover, still others of 

 pollen, and perhaps others of water. It is 

 possible that all of these perform all the differ- 

 ent kinds of work named. Some one made 

 observations along these lines a few years ago, 

 and the results of these investigations were 



published ; and, if I mistake not, the writer 

 believed certain bees performed certain kinds 

 of work — that in other words there was a di- 

 vision of labor among them. I would suggest 

 those who have observatory hives make this a 

 matter of observation. In order to arrive at 

 any thing like satisfactory results, there should 

 be only one nucleus or colony of bees in the 

 locality. — Ed.] 



greasy sections due to the oueen ; a 

 case in point. 



I have read the articles in the March 1st issue, 

 on greasy sections. Having kept, for the past 

 20 years, from 50 to 200 colonies of be<-s, and 

 most of them run for comb honey, I have had 

 some experience "along that line," as Doolit- 

 tle would say. I remember one colony in par- 

 ticular, the bees of which would insist on soil- 

 ing the cappings of the honey, making it ap- 

 pear watery and greasy. This particular colo- 

 ny was a well-marked Italian, with a very yel- 

 low and prolific queen. AU the hone)' in the 

 brood-chamber had the same greasy appear- 

 ance. As this was one of my best honey-gath- 

 ering colonies I was loath to part with it ; but 

 it made no difference whether the flow of nec- 

 tar was slow or fast, the honey had the same 

 greasy appearance. I finally put on two sets 

 of combs, and used them for extracting. The 

 honey was very ripe and heavy, weighing fully 

 12 lbs. to the gallon. If any of the fraternity 

 have any queens to dispose of because their 

 bees do not make cappings with an air-space 

 between the honey and cappings, I am willing 

 to pay the cost of mailing and caging such. 



Rochester, Mich., Feb. 7. J. M. Kinzie. 



GREASY sections DUE TO CONDITIONS OF 



WEATHER. 



I see " Greasy Sections " are being held up 

 to view. Well, let us investigate. This is an 

 interesting subject. Dr. McLean and I do 

 not materially differ. I have not passed 

 through any thing but hot dry seasons, and, 

 of course, could note nothing such as he 

 speaks of in the mountains: but any thing 

 that retards a honey-flow gives riper honey 

 and will produce the result. Mrs. Barber 

 says her "yellow" queen gives bees that get 

 more honey in the same time, and white cap- 

 pings. Well, that tends to prove my position; 

 i. e., that the more rapidly the honey is gath- 

 ered and capped, the less likely it is to be 

 greasy, other conditions being favorable; but, 

 on the other hand, we find the greater num- 

 ber of bee-keepers who say that the black bee 

 caps honey whiter than the Italian. Now, all 

 these different opinions have been more or 

 less jumped to without careful, continued in- 

 vestigation, after taking into account all the 

 conditions which I think are more varied in 

 bee-keeping than in any other rural pursuit. 



Kankakee, 111. W. M. Whitney. 



sweet clover in texas ; is it a " bad 



weed" on the farm? 

 I had about 30 acres of my farm in sweet 

 clover in 1898, and it paid me over $3.00 per 

 acre, which is a good rent for average land 



