1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



969 



were doing, and had the pleasure (?) of help- 

 ing him haul up his hay ; but when that clo- 

 ver-field bloomed for seed, those bees filled up 

 every thing tight ; and I was surprised, on go- 

 ing down one day, to find them so. Now, I 

 feel that that clover had something to do with 

 it. But the weakest colony taken down there 

 built up the strongest, yet could not have been 

 fuller of honey than the other five. 



J. Warren Arthur. 

 Beatty, O., Nov. 12. 



[It would appear that the clover on which 

 your bees worked so during the summer of 

 1898 was of the short-tube variety, because you 

 say that there was another field near by of 

 another clover which the bees would hardly 

 notice. If your father still has some of that 

 seed we should like to get som.e of it. What 

 you or your father can spare of it would proba- 

 bly be taken off your hands by bee-keepers. I 

 don't object to giving a free advertisement to 

 any one responsible and honest, who has a 

 short-tubed clover. We are fast getting the 

 bees with long tongues ; now let us reacli for 

 the short-tubed red clover. — Ed.] 



til something had to let go— either my fingers 

 or the wings at the sockets. — Ed.] 



CLIPPING BY HOLDING ONE WING. 



Friend Root : — There have been so many 

 queen-clipping methods given, and all the best, 

 that I am disposed to give mine, which I have 

 practiced for 16 years and never injured a 

 queen yet. When the comb is found contain- 

 ing the queen, I take hold of the center of the 

 top-bar with the right hand, so as to turn from 

 side to side readily, as is often necessary, and 

 with the thumb and fore finger of the left 

 hand I catch her by one wing and place the 

 comb in the hive, or set it by the side of the 

 hive. Then with a pair of old shears of small 

 size, worn down to slim points, I clip the loose 

 wings, and she is placed on top of frames, with- 

 out injury. I would not dare to catch her by 

 the thorax with the wire fork, nor even my 

 fingers, for fear of injuring her, which could 

 be very easily done, as it does not require very 

 much pressure to do so ; and unless one's 

 nerves were very steady there would be danger 

 of pulling a wing off with a dull knife. I do 

 all my clipping as soon as the weather is set- 

 tled in the spring, and carry the shears with 

 me for this purpose ; and when my yard is 

 gone over, all queens of past year's rearing are 

 clipped, hence it is not necessary to carry 

 shears all summer or do the jack-knife act 

 either. There have been complaints in the 

 past of the queen cramping when held by the 

 wing ; but I would pay a dollar to see one. 



Hillsboro, Wis. Elias Fox. 



[There would be more danger of maiming a 

 queen, from my point of view, by catching 

 her by one set of wings — much more so than 

 to catch her by dotk wings, and then hold her 

 by the thorax. It would take quite a strong 

 pressure at this point to do the queen injury. 

 Try the Miller plan outlined on page H'AS, Nov. 

 1, and you will be convinced that it is not so 

 bad as you think. I have tried catching 

 queens by one set (.f wings, and inviiiably she 

 would, with her strong legs, tug and twist un- 



HOW MANY POUNDS OF HONEY DOES IT TAKE 

 TO MAKE A POUND OF WAX ? 



This is an old question that every now and 

 then bobs up in a new phase, as in the exper- 

 iments reported by Dr. Miller in one of his 

 Straws, Nov. 15, made by editor Pender. I 

 think the conclusions from this experiment 

 faulty and unreliable. It is generally agreed 

 that wax is a natural secretion of the bees, 

 produced by the digestion of the food thty 

 consume, somewhat similar to the way that 

 the fat that lines the kidneys of a pig is pro- 

 duced by the food consumed and digested. 

 Bees may have the power to regulate the 

 quantity of wax necessary for them to pro- 

 duce ; but we don't know this, and perhaps 

 never will. But their instinct would certain- 

 ly lead them to consume the food necessary 

 to produce wax whenever it was likely and 

 imminent that wax would be needed, as in 

 the case of swarming out to make a new home. 

 There is no doubt in my mind that the bees 

 consume an extra quantity of honey in the 

 old hive just before they leave it, for the very 

 purpose of secreting wax, and that they have 

 a snpply of wax already accumulated on their 

 bodies before they leave the old hive for a 

 new home. 



If this is correct, it is very fallacious to es- 

 timate the amount of honey required to make 

 a pound of wax, simply by the amount of 

 honey the swarm carried away from the old 

 hive in their honey-pouches, in comparison 

 with the weight of the new comb they build 

 before going out after more food. Just as 

 well take a pig that has been well kept, and 

 make it fast for a few days, and then feed it a 

 certain amount of corn, and weigh its kidney 

 fat to find how many pounds of corn it takes 

 to make a pound of lard. 



More reliable experiments than this must 

 be made before it is proven that it requires 

 only four pounds of honey to make one of 

 wax. Thaddeus Smith. 



Pelee Island, Ontario, Nov. 24. 



[This is a matter that I wish our experi- 

 ment stations might take up. Prof. Gillette, 

 of the Colorado Experiment Station, who has 

 done such good work in testing foundation, 

 perhaps may see his way clear to take up this 

 line of work. — Ed.] 



FLAT CANS FOR CARRYING SYRUP TO OUT- 

 APIARIES. 



Friend Root : — You ask, in your Oct. 15th 

 issue, why I use a flat shallow can for carrying 

 sugar syrup to out-yards. Why, the best rea- 

 son in the world, as I think. Because a flat 

 can will ride so much better in a three-spring 

 wagon. A tall can carried over some of the 

 steep and rough roads I have to carry syrup 

 over would be in danger of tipping over, or at 

 any rate keep me in a constant worry for fear 

 of its getting upset. 



In feeding some 500 or 600 pounds of sugar 

 last year I do not know that I lost a pound by 

 granulation where vinegar was used in suffi- 



