1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TURE. 



489 



YEIvLOW SWEET CLOVER. 



I have demonstrated that yellow sweet clo- 

 ver is not an annual, as some writers have 

 claimed, but a biennial, the same as the white 

 variety. I have now a small plot of the yel- 

 low in my garden, which is two feet in height, 

 and will soon be in bloom. It blooms from 

 two to three wetks earlier than the white, 

 which is a desirable feature. It grows a finer 

 stalk, but not so tall as the white. My plot 

 of the yellow was all destroyed, except one 

 root, in Feb., 1899, by the hard freeze; but 

 whether it is less hardy than the white I can 

 not say at present. I can say this, however, 

 that it would be a difficult thing in this local- 

 ity to make the average farmer believe that 

 the white variety ever winter-kills. 



M. M. Baldridge. 



St. Charles, 111., May 23. 



SHADE FOR BEES ; A NEW WAY OF CUTTING 

 FOUNDATION. 



I have been very much interested in the dis- 

 cussion of several topics — shade for bees, and 

 foundation in sections being of particular in- 

 terest to me, for I think I have solved the 

 problem of both. I want my bees to be where 

 the sun will shine on the hive all day. I 

 paint my hives white, and have the entrance 

 facing east. With the division board on the 

 south side of the brood-chamb.r, and the fol- 

 lower on the south side in the super, and a 

 shade-board the size of the hive cover on top, 

 I have alrhost a double-walled hive except on 

 the north side, which never receives the direct 

 rays of the sun. Hives prepared as I have de- 

 scribed above will stand 112° of heat, and will 

 never melt down combs of honey or founda- 

 tion starters, and will give several more pounds 

 of surplus honey per colony than if they were 

 put under some bare tree where they will be 

 in the shade most of the day. A very small 

 tree might do tolerably well ; but I should 

 prefer only a shade board on top of my hive. 

 In supers filled with plain sections and fences 

 1 nail a six-inch board to one side of the shade- 

 board to protect the south side of the super in 

 the absence of a solid follower. 



There seems to be quite a difference in opin- 

 ion as to how much foundation to pui in sec- 

 tions. I have tried inch starters, two inch 

 starters, and full sheets. I find that bees will 

 begin drawing full sheets much quicker than 

 starters. Last season I contrived a new way 

 to cut foundation for full sheets so as to have 

 it fastened to both top and bottom of the sec- 

 tion, one sheet of super foundation filling four 

 4!4^X4j4^ sections with scarcely any waste. 

 The accompanying drawings* illustrate the 

 knife for cutting, also the manner of cutting 

 and fastening into sections. I fasten with a 

 Parker fastener, placing the upper edge of the 

 foundation under the press first, then turn the 

 section upside down with the other side toward 

 the press, and fa.sten the small projection in 



* No. 1 shows a full-sized sheet of foundation ready 

 to fasten into the section. No. 2 shows the blade of 

 the knife for cutting foundation. No. 3 shows a cross- 

 sectional view of foundation after fastening it in the 

 section. No. 4 shows how one sheet of foundation is 

 cut. 



the same manner. There will be an opening 

 left in the foundation at the top of the section; 

 but the bees will fix this up so you will never 

 know that an opening ever existed. I had 

 several pounds of honey, built on foundation 

 as above, on exhibition at four county fairs 

 last fall, and secured three first and one sec- 

 ond premiums. The greatest advantage gained 

 by cutting foundation this way is having the 

 combs of honey securely fastened to the bot- 

 tom of the section. I hauled several supers 



WASTE \ /wAS'r; 



full of honey a distance of six miles in a lum- 

 ber-wagon, over frozen roads that were as 

 rough as I ever saw, and not a pound of honey 

 was broken loose from the section, nor a drcp 

 of honey leaking from any section. Really, I 

 expected to find it pretiy much jammed ; but 

 I was agreeably surprised when I took the 

 sections out. E. F. Pittman 



Cantril, la., April 23. 



[I am not sure but your method is all right; 

 but I do not see how it is you do not have 

 bulged foundation. If you use extra thin I 

 should feel almost sure it would bow out — at 

 least sometimes. However, it costs but very 

 little to try the plan, and I hope our bee-keep- 

 ing friends will give it a test. — Ed.] 



What makes my bees kill their drones now, 

 when there are so many flowers, and the bees 

 have plenty of honey ? E. P. Prink. 



Plover, Wis. 



[If there is a light flow of honey, and it is 

 suddenly cut oif, even though there are flow- 

 ers in bloom the bees will be likely to kill off 

 drones. The very fact that honey-bearing 

 flora are in bloom is no evidence that they are 

 also secreting nectar. — Ed.] 



