1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



325 



whether smoking' should be allowed on the 

 streets or not, I think you vvculd tind there 

 is almost as large a majority in favor of it 

 as there would be a majority against spit- 

 ting. That is not saying, however, that 

 majorities are always right. — Ed.] 



In Bavakia a man named Hofman put a 

 dish of poison out in his apiary in order to 

 destroy the neigboring bees that were both- 

 ering him. He shut up his own bees mean- 

 while for safety. The experiment was a 

 grand success, for in a short time eight of 

 the neighboring colonies were destro3ed. 

 The injured paries rushed into the yard, 

 found the poison, proved the identity' of that 

 and that in the dead bees, and brought him 

 to trial, where he was fined $75 and costs. 



W. H. Laws {Review) uses 100 to 150 

 bees, never more than 200, in his queen- 

 fertilizing nuclei. He lieeps xio permanent 

 nuclei. Two little trays, =i inch deep, \\)i 

 inches long, and \]i wide, hinged at the 

 bottom with leather strips, clamp tightly 

 between them a frame of the same dimen- 

 sions containing a comb of solid honey. A 

 five-sixteenths bit bores an entrance in the 

 end-bar, near the bottom. In this the 

 queenless bees, filled with honey, are fast- 

 ened ; and when they begin roaring, the 

 virgin is run in the entrance and the en- 

 trance closed. Afler a confinement of 24 

 hours or more the entrance is opened, and 

 a virgin of right age will be fertilized with- 

 in 24 hours, when excluder zinc prevents 

 the escape of the queen. When she lays, 

 all are emptied out, and 3. fresh lot of bees 

 given with another virgin. [Mr. Laws 

 and Mr. Pratt can probably make these 

 small nuclei work; but the average person 

 will probably make a failure of it. The 

 Laws plan, however, is as practicable as 

 any thing I have seen in print. — Ed.] 



E. F. Atwater has a simpler and better 

 hive-stand than mine, as I mentioned on p. 

 115. He writes me: " The funny part of it 

 is that, since 1898, I have used that kind, 

 and, until 1902, I thought I was using the 

 Dr. Miller stand pure and simple. I must 

 have misunderstood your directions for 

 making them." The question is: Am I to 

 be condemned for handling the English lan- 

 guage so bunglingly as to be misunder- 

 stood, or commended for securing thereby a 

 better stand? [Your language was plain 

 enough, I think; for when I first saw your 

 description I pictured out in my mind just 

 the hive-stand you are using. But I agree 

 with you that friend Atwater has improved 

 it by nailing the boards the other way, so 

 that the edges, not the sides, rest on the 

 ground. We have many hundreds of such 

 stands in use for single hives. They have 

 the advantage that the sharp edge will im- 

 bed itself into the inequalities of the ground 

 if the stands are set out in the early spring 

 when the ground is soft. The flat board 

 edges would not so adjust themselves. I 

 am inclined to think that jou would throw 

 away your hive stand if you would once try 

 the Atwater improvement. — Ed ] 



So YOU THINK, Mr. Editor, that I'm a 

 firm believer in some form of ventilation in 

 cellar, p. 285. That hardly expresses it 

 strong enough. Every year its importance 

 grows on me. During most of the past 

 winter one of the outside cellar doors 6X2^ 

 has stood wide open day and night, except 

 for a screen of wire cloth, and the door from 

 the outer room to the bee- room stood open 

 all the time, and I'm prett3'^ well convinced 

 that they didnH have enotigh ventilation. 

 The room was too crowded. "How do I 

 know? " Well, one way I know is that the 

 bees nearest the inner door, the ones that 

 had the first chance at the air, kept the 

 quietest in the cellar. This in spite of the 

 fact they had the most light — more light 

 than I think was good for them. Yes, sir; 

 give me lots of air, both for folks and bees. 

 [Our experience for the last two years has 

 been emphatically in favor of ventilation; 

 and I can not understand why there should 

 be some good authorities who favor little or 

 no ventilation. Perhaps they are deceived. 

 Possibly much more air gets through the 

 walls of their repositories than they sup- 

 pose. Bees are almost as highly organ- 

 ized as human beings. In summer they re- 

 quire a great deal of air, just as we do. 

 Cut off our ventilation, and what is the re- 

 sult? Disease and death. I believe the av- 

 erage beginner, at least, will be more suc- 

 cessful if he gives the bees air than if he 

 withholds it from them by keeping the re- 

 pository closed tight. — Ed.] 



Some time ago, when it was argued that 

 I would have brood to top-bar because 

 splints didn't allow sagging, and sagging 

 prevented queen laying up to top-bar at 

 Medina, the editor said measuring showed 

 there was no sagging there. A correspon- 

 dent reminds me of this, and asks me to 

 reconcile it with the position the editor now 

 takes, that wires must be loose to allow 

 sagging. Which goes to show how villain- 

 ously inclined some people are to want to 

 put a load like that on my shoulders when 

 I'm not over-strong at best. [If there is 

 such conflict (and I assume there is), it is 

 due to the lapse of time and a change of 

 conditions, not because I have necessarily 

 changed my opinion. As years go on, there 

 is a tendency toward a thinner and thinner 

 foundation in the brood- nest. The brood- 

 combs examined were probably built off 

 from foundation made some years ago, when 

 fewer sheets per pound were used than now, 

 and in consequence there would be less ten- 

 dency to sag. I remember the circum- 

 stances, and recall that they were taken at 

 random from those we had had in use for a 

 number of years. If you will compare the 

 foundation-lists you will find there are 

 more sheets of foundation per pound than 

 there used to be for the same grade; and it 

 is, therefore, necessary to provide for pos- 

 sible sagging, under some conditions at 

 least. Now, after saying this much I am 

 free to admit your splints would allow a 

 lighter grade of foundation than our hori- 

 zontal supports. — Ed.] 



