354 



'HlPSl'^ 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Db. C. C. Mii.ler, Marengo, 111. 



I VOTE for a 24-section shipping-case, dou- 

 ble-tier, with three-inch ghiss. 



Hip! hip! hurrah! IlUnois has a foul- 

 brood law. [Then the insurgent bee-keep- 

 ers who have been fighting this law were 

 not successful. CJood! — Ed.] 



The open winter caused some anxiety 

 about white clover, but I never knew it 

 thicker than it is now. Of course, it is yet 

 to be seen whether it will yield any nectar. 



That fine type is all right. If any old 

 fellow can't read it so well, let him get "fresh 

 specs. Fine type gets in more stuff, and 

 you can't get in too much stuflf for us young- 

 er chaps who want to learn all we can about 

 bees. 



Fruit-bloom is no longer of so great im- 

 portance here, because it comes right in the 

 midst of dandelions which have now become 

 so plentiful. Still, it is of value because 

 yielding in the afternoon after dandelions 

 have closed up. 



Honey-butter, p. 298, is said to be gran- 

 ulated honey in bricks. The term has al- 

 ready been used to mean butter with an 

 ounce or more of honey to the pound work- 

 ed into it. Makes the honey taste better 

 and keep better. Try it. 



Is NOT this the way of it? A section fill- 

 ed and sealed out to the wood is less likely 

 to break in shipjnng than one with a row of 

 empty cells; but if it does break it is more 

 mussy. Also the full one is mussier when 

 cut out to put on the table. 



It seems that Standard Oil with all its 

 millions has to yield to the majesty of the 

 law at last. Now if Lorimer is properly 

 taken care of, the death-grip of the saloon 

 loosened from the throat of the nation, and 

 the honey-market bettered a little, this will 

 be a nice country to live in. 



F. M. Baldwin, I think cucumbers yield 

 a good quantity of honey; but other plants 

 yield at the same time, so I can say nothing 

 positively about its quality. I don't believe 

 it's better than the average fall honey, and 

 sections are varnished with something that 

 I'm afraid comes from cucumber. 



A correspondent is puzzled over a Straw 

 on p. 237, and I don't wonder. To prevent 

 after-swarms, it says put the swarm "on an 

 old stand," which would mean any old 

 stand. That "an" should be "the." Put 

 the swarm on the old stand, and put the 

 old colony close beside it. Then in 7 or 8 

 days move the old colony to a new stand. 



Trouble in Medina with a rim of honey 

 at the top in Langstroth frames, page 322. 

 Ever try foundation splints so as to prevent 

 stretching of the upper cells? [No. But do 

 you really think that that would remedy 

 the trouble? We used to have honey in the 

 upper row of cells when we used medium 

 and heavy brood foundation, that is, wax so 

 heavv that there would be no stretching of 



those cells. No queen or bees either ever 

 put brood clear up to the top-bar like the 

 Cyprian and Holy Land queens we formerly 

 had.— Ed.] 



The reasons given for having hives in 

 pairs, p. 319, are valid, but my chief reason 

 is that double the number can be kejit on 

 the same area. Place hives singly in a row 

 at a safe distance, thus: 







Now set another hive beside each of these, 

 thus: 



00 



00 00 



00 



00 



00 



and there will be no more danger of bees en- 

 tering wrong hives in the second row than 

 in the first. A bee from the first hive of a 

 pair will be more likely to enter the first 

 hive of the next pair than to enter the sec- 

 ond hive of its own pair. [You are right. — 

 Ed.] 



A correspondent says a drone is dwarf- 

 ed by being reared in a worker-cell, and 

 thinks an opposite cause should produce an 

 op])osite effect, and so would expect an en- 

 larged worker-cell to produce an enlarged 

 worker. That reasoning will hardly hokl. 

 In China small shoes make small feet. It 

 does not follow that large shoes make large 

 feet. When a boy I M-ent barefoot each 

 summer. My feet had all Otitcloors to grow 

 in, but they are not abnormal in size. Yet 

 the fact remains that prominent French bee- 

 keepers say that bees have been enlarged by 

 the use of cells larger than common. [We 

 can not help sharing your feeling of doubt 

 that bees are made "any larger by giving 

 them larger cells. — Ed.] 



Italians are claimed to be necessary to 

 clean up European foul brood. I suspect 

 that hybrids are just as good as Italians if 

 just as vigorous. Aug. 18, 1910, I caged the 

 queen in No. 105, which had European foul 

 brood, and freed her six days later. No dis- 

 ease has been found in No. 105 since, the 

 last time it was inspected being May 19, 

 1911. No. 105 is a colony of hybrids, "most 

 of the bees not having even one yellow stripe. 

 [From the general reports we have received, 

 hybrids are by no means as good as pure 

 Italian stock for cleaning out European foul 

 brood. But it is conceivable that extra vig- 

 orous stock such as you have, a cross between 

 blacks and Italians, might clean up the dis- 

 ease quite as well; and it is conceivable, al- 

 so, that some pure Italians will be no better 

 than most blacks. — Ed.] 



In a symposium of replies in Schweiz. 

 Bztg., 138, regarding the width of frame 

 stuff, one man prefers .984 inch, and the 

 rest want nothing less than 1.102 inches. 

 That's close up to the Miller frame with its 

 1.125 inches. [That is very close to the 

 average of the frame stuff put out by the 

 hive-manufaclurers of this country. It is 

 pleasant to know that the general consensus 



