GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



Not content with making a success of 

 the Irish Bee Journal, its jovial editor, Rev. 

 J. G. Digges, now sends out the first number 

 of Bee-keepers' Gazette. It isj beautifully 

 gotten up, but has one bad spot, where it 

 says Gleanings is a bi-monthly. Instead 

 of appearing only once every two months, 

 Gleanings appears four times as often, be- 

 ing a semi-monthly. 



"Laying wobkeks do not lay in each 

 cell, do they?" page 772. No; they scatter, 

 laying here and there, as often as not more 

 than one egg in a cell, and, likely as not, 

 sticking the eggs on the sides of the cells. 

 A queen-cell is their first choice, in which 

 they may lay a dozen eggs; next they prefer 

 drone-cells. But I have known at least one 

 case in which the eggs were laid as regular- 

 ly as a queen would lay them. 



Franz Koehler, D. Irnker, 326, finds 

 that worker-cells built by the same colony 

 vary in size from Ylh to 20 in 10 centimeters 

 (4.44 to 5.08 per inch), and drone-cells vary 

 from \^% to 16 in 10 centimeters (3.43 to 

 4.06 per inch). The central, first-built 

 combs of a swarm have the largest cells di- 

 minishing in diameter as the work ad- 

 vances. So he thinks uniform foundation 

 not just the thing. I wonder. 



"The staples space only the top-bars 

 and not the end-bars," p. 25. Surely they 

 can space the end-bars, and ought to. [We 

 had in mind the kind of staple-spaced frames 

 usually sold by dealers. There is nothing 

 to prevent any one from putting additional 

 staples in the sides of the end-bars or in the 

 bottom-bars. In either case the staples 

 would have to be driven the right depth in- 

 to the wood to secure the right spacing. — 

 Ed.] 



J. E. Crane, p. 84, I'm with you in pre- 

 ferring hot syrup; but the right kind of "per- 

 colator feeding " takes ever so much less 

 time and labor than hauling syrup ten miles 

 away. Here's the way I've done lots of it: 

 I took to the out-apiary dry sugar in bags; 

 put the dry sugar into Miller feeders on the 

 hives, leaving them uncovered; then poured 

 a pint or so of water, hot or cold, into each 

 feeder, still leaving them uncovered (no 

 robbing ever started) ; then filled up with 

 water, covering each feeder as I went. 



Editor Hutchinson says, Eevieiv, p. 25, 

 that he would never think of producing 

 comb honey without honey-boards. I used 

 them for years; and for years, with thick 

 top-bars, I have done without them, and I 

 wouldn't think of going back to them. It 

 is true that some comb will be built between 

 top-bar and section; and it istrue, as hesays, 

 that "cleaning off the burr-combs in tlie 

 spring does not prevent the bees from build- 



ing another set." But if cleaned off every 

 year, or even once in three years, they will 

 never be very bad, whereas if never cleaned 

 off they will become worse every year. Be- 

 tween top-bars and honey-board they be- 

 came so bad I had to clean them off"; and if 

 never cleaned off I think they would become 

 so bad that in time the bees would build be- 

 tween the honey-board and sections. 



My assistant says: " Does Mr. Hutchinson 

 know what he is talking about? Why, I 

 wouldn't go back to honey-boards with the 

 killing of bees, the solid mass of honey, and 

 the dripping, nasty, sticky, mussy mess — 

 oh!" But I can't give the disgusted ex- 

 pression on her face. 



Old combs should be melted up if the 

 cells have become too small for the young 

 bees, p. 60. That does not assume that the 

 cells do become too small, it is true; but 

 what I'm afraid of is that the beginner will 

 understand that it is a possibility. Indeed, 

 I happen to know that a common question 

 among beginners is: "How soon should 

 combs be renewed because the cells are too 

 small?" and it is of some importance that 

 they know the truth. If there is any such 

 thing as the cells becoming smaller, the 

 process is gradual; and if they are too small 

 when twenty years old they must be small- 

 er at ten years than when first built, and at 

 least a little smaller when a year old; and so 

 for the very best results combs should be re- 

 newed annually. Now, what I have been 

 taught to believe, and what the beginner 

 should know, is this: Cells do not become 

 smaller with age. The bees dig away the co- 

 coons at the side; but there is a constant ac- 

 cumulation at the bottom of the cell, so that 

 the septum may become yi inch thick or 

 more. That would make the cells shallower; 

 but to compensate for this the bees constant- 

 ly prolong or build out the cell-walls, so that 

 there never is any need tomelt combs because 

 the cells are too small. Melting combs on 

 account of foul brood is a matter entirely 

 aside. [Some years ago, when this matter 

 was up for discussion, Mr. R. Wilkin, just 

 before he died, said that he had combs that 

 were thirty years old, and that the bees 

 reared from them were perfectly normal in 

 every respect; that he had never melted up 

 any of those combs; and that he prized the 

 old ones because they were strong and tough. 



And yet, on the other hand, there are 

 those who say that some strains of bees will 

 not remove the excess of cocoons, and that, 

 consequently, the bees are cramped in their 

 growth. We believe, however, that we may 

 safely tell beginners that they do not need 

 to melt up their combs. 



There is a question, however, whether 

 bees tear out the cocoons at certain intervals 

 or whether they gnaw the combs down, wax 

 and all, and reconstruct them. While we 

 incline strongly to the tear-out theory, Mr. 

 Cavanagh, of Hebron, Ind., with whom we 

 talked after the Indianapolis convention, 

 said he oelieved the bees gnawed the combs 

 down, wax and all, and rebuilt. — Ed.] 



