370 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



not ready for it and I give no more supers 

 until they can draw it out. There is a great 

 difference between (hawing out the walls of 

 foundation and building new wax on tlieni. 

 Wax that is exposed to tlie light and air will 

 soon harden, and the bees will not work the 

 side walls over as closely as they would if 

 the wax were morei)liable; and, even though 

 they do work it over the inside is still harti, 

 so that, when the consumer eats it, he has 

 good reason to coniijlain, and he usually 

 does. Foundation should not go into the 

 sections until the bees are ready to draw it 

 out. I use full sheets cut % inch short of 

 sections fastened at toj) only, and I tlo not 

 allow it even to touch the sections anywhere 

 else. The sections are first i)laced in wide 

 frames which hold them i)erfectly square; 

 and when the foundation is fastened in 

 there is no binding to the sides; when foun- 

 dation binds on one side of the section it 

 will warp from the opposite side, this being 

 the usual cause of brace-combs to the sepa- 

 rator. 



The temperature of the foundation should 

 be about 5>0 degrees when fastened in the 

 frames. If fastened at a low temperature it 

 will expand and buckle when it reaches a 

 higher temiierature. In brood-frames the 

 expansion of the foundation draws it away 

 from the tight wire. The remedy is a slack 

 wire or a high temperature when the wire is 

 imbedded. 



Drawn-out combs in sections carried over 

 from the year before have clone more to de- 



ter the sale of comb honey than all the 

 manufactured -comb -honey canards ever 

 ])rinted. The wax, especially in the midrib, 

 has become so hardened and tough that it 

 is not eatable, and the consumer thinks he 

 has the bogus article sure. If such bait sec- 

 tions are used they should be at the outside 

 of the sujjcr. from which we usually get a 

 lower grade of honey at the best. A bait 

 section that has partially granulated should 

 never be used, as the new honey stored in 

 that coml) will very soon granulate also. 

 Camillus, X. Y. 



UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



BY H. J. WAKK. 



A SAMri,E OF THE I'KODUCTS OF THE FARM FROM AWAY OFF 

 IN NEW ZEALAND. SEE OUR HOMES. 



The conditions in this locality are very 

 unfavorable for a honey croj), the mortality 

 rate averaging about 20 per cent, and in 

 some apiaries as high as 50, with a large per- 

 centage of the remainder coming through 

 no stronger than nuclei. The long dry 

 summer and fall was, no doubt, the cause. 

 Many colonies died with an abundance of 

 honey and pollen in the hives, and in those 

 ai)iaries where disease was present, bul no 

 ai)iarist, there is apt to be a grand spread of 

 the same. 



Early in the sjiring, prospects looked very 

 favorable for a good crop, as weak as a num- 

 ber of the colonies were; but we had a lot of 

 cold cloudy weather with exceptionally cold 

 nights; antl, although 

 the strong colonies grew 

 stronger, the weak ones 

 barely held their own. 

 Then we had a few warm 

 days in which the st rong 

 colonies stored 10 to 20 

 pounds surplus of sage 

 honey; but the clouds 

 again came over, and 

 on May 14 some por- 

 tions of Southern Cali- 

 fornia were blessed with 

 what the weather man 

 calls a "freak shower," 

 the same amounting to 

 over an inch in some 

 localities; but in this 

 neighborhood all we got 

 was the cloudy weath- 

 er followed by several 

 days of hot dry winds 

 from the desert, which 

 put black sage beyond 

 ihe nectar-yielding 

 stage. L'nless we have 

 some heavy fogs or a 

 more local rain, the 

 chances for any surplus 

 of white sage honey are 

 very slim. Still, we 

 have hopes of an ex- 

 tracting off wild buck- 

 wheat. 



I am stating condi- 

 tions in this locality. 



