GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



We find absolutely no trouble from rob- 

 bing. The queens are fertilized readily, and, 

 what seems to be apparent, even more readi- 

 ly than they are in larger nuclei where there 

 is so much cubic capacity to warm, and where 

 the brood area may be scattered over a large 

 surface. This morning, Sept. 9, when it 

 was quite cool, we opened up several of the 

 little boxes without smoke; and, while the 

 bees were ready to offer attack, those covers 

 came off so easily that the bees very soon 

 accepted the situation, without protest. It 

 is our intention now for next season to dis- 

 card entirely all standard Langstroth-frame 

 nuclei, and use these little boxes containing 

 two frames that are just the right size so 

 that six of them will go inside of a Lang- 

 stroth frame. 



will take a hand in the fracas, balling the 

 new comer. The scent of the bees is very 

 acute— probably as much so as that of a dog, 

 that can trace his master over a pavement 

 that has been walked over by hundreds and 

 possibly thousands of people, the scent of 

 whom is all different. 



CLEANING SECTIONS ON WIRE CLOTH; A GOOD 

 POINTER FOR PLAIN SECTIONS. 



Mr. C. a. Olmsted, in the Revieiv, is cred- 

 ited with the idea of cleaning sections of pro- 

 polis by rubbing them over a piece of coarse- 

 mesh wire cloth stretched tight over a wood- 

 en frame. The cloth cleans every thing ex- 

 cept the beeway, where, of course, the wire 

 can not reach it. Does not this argue pretty 

 strongly for the no-beeway section? By the 

 way, it seems to me some one has already 

 spoken of this matter in this columns, but I 

 do not remember when nor where. Will 

 those who have tried it please report? 



INTRODUCING WITH THE OLD QUEEN IN THE 

 hive; SCENT OF BEES. 



I THINK it was Mr. E. T. Abbott, of the 

 Modern Farmer, who has for some time 

 been saying that it was not necessary to 

 make a hive queenless two or three days be- 

 fore introducing another queen; to put a 

 queen, as soon as received, into the hive, 

 taking out the old queen at the same opera- 

 tion, or a day later if more convenient. 

 Many facts go to show that Mr. Abbott is 

 right. Indeed, our own experiments indi- 

 cate that one can keep both queens in the 

 hive at the same time, the old queen to lay 

 right along up to within a few hours of the 

 time when the new queen is to be released. 

 She is then to be taken out, and the other 

 queen will be accepted just as if the old 

 queen had been taken out several days be- 

 fore. Nor is there any thing strange about 

 this. Dr. Phillips has shown that bees rec- 

 ognize each other entirely by the scent. If 

 this is so, it does not make any difference 

 how long the old queen is in the hive, pro- 

 viding there were not two loose at the same 

 time. If the new queen has acquired the 

 scent of the bees of the hive she is just as 

 much a part of the colony, and will be ac- 

 cepted as readily, as though she had been 

 in the hive as long as the old queen. So far 

 as the bees are concerned, they would toler- 

 ate both queens; but when the two come to- 

 gether, there is a combat, and the one that 

 is victor is allowed to be the reigning queen. 

 But if the new upstart does not have the 

 same scent as the old queen, then the bees 



IS A BICYCLE SUITABLE FOR VISITING OUT- 

 YARDS? 



A CORRESPONDENT in the Bee-keepers' 

 Review says when a man "goes to an out- 

 apiary on a bicycle, he has done a good day's 

 work before he gets there." This is not ac- 

 cording to my experience, and I therefore 

 judge that the correspondent in question had 

 never ridden a bicycle enough to toughen 

 his muscles to the point where riding is a 

 real pleasure rather than a wearisome exer- 

 tion. I have ridden repeatedly to our out- 

 yards on a bicycle, and have done a good 

 day's work on arriving at the yard. I have 

 sometimes been very tired from working in 

 the yard, feeling as if I could not drag my 

 feet around any more, when, presto! as I 

 got on my machine a new set of muscles 

 were brought into play in a different way; 

 and on arriving home it is an actual fact 

 that I felt refreshed and rested. Why don't 

 I go to our outyards now on a bicycle? Be- 

 cause the automobile is quicker, and enables 

 me at the same time to carry along extra 

 stuff. 



When I visited Mr. Coggshall, his gang of 

 men were in the habit of going to the out- 

 yard on bicycles, and he would go around 

 with a wagon carrying the necessary supplies 

 and bringing back the honey. The boys 

 could do up one yard, and then in a short 

 space of time go to another very much 

 quicker than it would be possible for them 

 to go with a horse, enabling them thereby 

 to accomplish very much more. 



Perhaps some of my readers may not un- 

 derstand how it is that, when one is tired, 

 he can do another class of work and become 

 rested. Let me give an illustration: 



When my boy and I were doing the St. 

 Louis exposition we found that a slow stroll 

 among the exhibits was very tiring; and 

 sometimes when we had quite a distance to 

 go we found that, by walking briskly, or 

 taking a slow "dog trot," it would bring 

 into play another set of muscles, bringing 

 about a sort of rest that was very agreeable, 

 almost equal to sitting down for a few min- 

 utes. The change of work in a bee-yard is 

 so very different from the work of riding a 

 bicycle that one feels rested after a ride. 



I said a while ago that perhaps the corres- 

 pondent for the Review had not ridden a 

 bicycle enough to toughen his muscles. I 

 know of quite a number of my friends who 

 have taken up bicycling for two months or 

 so, and abandoned it. Why? Because push- 

 ing the machine tired them too much. That 

 was somewhat my experience at the very 

 start; but after one has learned to economize 

 his strength, and has given Nature a chance 

 to rise to the emergency, he finds that what 

 was once an exertion is now a pleasure. 



