322 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



1)K. C. C. Mii.LEK, Marengo, 111. 



A CEMKNT BEE-STAND is advertised in 

 S'chivciz. Bztg. with a little trench around 

 the edge. Oil or water in this trench bars 

 out ants. Why not ? 



An average sample of honey contains 

 .008 ])er cent of formic acid. Tliat means 

 that in ooo jnirts of honey there will be one 

 part of formic acid. 



E. M. (iiBSON, ])a2;e 275, you're right; it's 

 easier to stand by a hive on a bench than to 

 stoop to one on the ground. But isn't it 

 still easier to sit by one on the ground? 



Cteo. W. Rich, ]>. 254, I suspect that you 

 will find your two queens will live in ])eace 

 if the old one is old enough — not otherwise, 

 liut I'm afraid yo^^ll find that two queens 

 will not i)revent swarming. 



F. (i REINER, it may be remembered, vig- 

 orously opposed the "use of full sheets of 

 foundation in sections. Now he frankly 

 says, B.-Vater, page 104, that he has gone 

 over to the enemy's camji, and for a cou])le 

 of years has used full sheets. 



A RIM OF HONEY above the brood in deep 

 frames is considered a bad thing, i)age 2oS. 

 Now, how deep must frames lie to have that 

 trouble? I don't ha\e that trouble with 

 Langstroth frames. [We have had it in 

 Medina. — Ed.] 



Two DOZEN ]iostofhces in the United 

 Stales are named after the bee. There are 

 9 named Jiee; 2, Beecreek; 2, Beehive; and 

 one each, Beebranch, lieecani]), Beeca\es, 

 Beegum, Beehouse, lieelick, Beelog, liee- 

 spring, Beesvill, Beetown, Beeville. 



A. G. White, your plan, \>. 258, will work 

 well if you put one frame of brood with the 

 queen in lower story filled out with founda- 

 tion, wit h excluder over the lower story. It's 

 the i)lan given years ago by (i. W. Deina- 

 ree, only I don't know that he ]>ut any brood 

 below. 



"Again, it is generally useless to under- 

 take shaking after the bees have got the 

 mania for swarming," jiage 288. I wonder, 

 now. [Don't you remember the reports that 

 showed that, after bees are well luider way 

 to swarm, it is almost useless to shake?— 

 Ed.] 



E. D. TowNSEND, i)age 277, i)ufrs a little 

 smoke in the hive-entrance as a jireliminary 

 step. I supposed every one did so; but lead- 

 ing writers in the British Bee Journal do 

 not do so, and raise the question whether it 

 is a common practice. How is it on this 

 side? [While we think the practice is all 

 right, the practice is not common on this 

 side of the line. — Ed.] 



A. T. Atwater uses three horizontal wires 

 in his brood-frame, and reinforces the jiart 

 where most of the sag occurs with two 

 splints four or five inches long, or for light 

 brood foundation four splints five inches 



long. "This not only prevents sag, but is 

 a very valuable reinforcement in extract- 

 ing." He fastens in the si)lints before put- 

 ting the foundation in the frame, pressing 

 down two splints at a time with a flat l)lock 

 worked by a lever. — Revieio, 105. 



Instructions for using bottom starters 

 are oftener wrong than right. As the bot- 

 tom starter is my baby, I'd like to see it used 

 right. Sometimes the instruction is to 

 leave a space of % inch or 1 inch between 

 top and bottom starters. That's a saving of 

 foundation and a double loss in honey, also 

 a hindrance to the work of the bees. If the 

 space between starters is small, the bees join 

 the two together the first thing they do. 

 Cut the starters of such size that the two to- 

 gether shall l:>e yi inch less than the space 

 to be filled. Then when ]nit in with a hot 

 plate the space between the two will be % 

 inch. The depth of the bottom starter is 

 nearly always given too small. E\en so re- 

 liable a book as the ABC and X Y Z says 

 X or ^ inch. It should never be less than 

 y&. My assistant is an expert at putting 

 in foundation, and she says it is twice as 

 much trouble to i)ut in a ^-inch starter as 

 to put in a y&. Besides, the bees are likely 

 to gnaw down too small a starter. If I were 

 using extra thin foundation, I would still 

 use thin for the bottom starter, and stick to 

 the y». [The matter has been marked for 

 correction in our next edition of the ABC 

 — Ed.] 



Formic acid, how does it get into the 

 honey? Some have thought through the 

 blood of the bee; others in some way through 

 the comb; and even the foolish idea that 

 the bees droi)ped it into the cells from their 

 stings has not been without its advocates. 

 In Leipz. Bztg.. 51, Dr. Rudolf Reidenbach 

 gives an exceedingly interesting series of 

 experiments which seem to ]irove conclu- 

 sively to the lay mind that the formic acid 

 is formed by the oxidation of the sugar in 

 the honeif. Dr. von Planta 'had found no 

 formic acid in freshly stored honey, and as 

 much as .0045 per cent in sealed honey in 

 old comb. But it diil not occur to him that 

 the honey itself was the original source of 

 the acid. Dr. Reidenbach reasoned some- 

 thing after this fashion: " If the acid is gen- 

 erated in the honey, exposure to the air out- 

 side the hive ought to produce it." So he 

 made honey slightly alkaline, exposed it in 

 a thin layer on a plate, and obtained .0068 

 percent of formic acid! After distillation 

 he rei)eated the exjjeriment three times, and 

 in the four series obtained a total of .0241 

 per cent of formic acid from the same mass 

 of honey. So it would seem that honey 

 makes formic acid sim))ly by rusting! F'or- 

 mic acid is such an im])ortant element in 

 honey that it will be watched with interest 

 whether others confirm Dr. Reidenbach's 

 conclusions. 



