550 



Gleanin tr-in Rpe Culture 



Dr. C. C. Millek, Marengo, 111. 



One-hole feeder for slow feeding, p. 483, 

 is all right; but why not also feed three or 

 four parts water to one of sugar, and make 

 the sugar go three or four times as far? 

 [If a syrup is too thin it will sour in the 

 feeder before the bees take it out. We can't 

 use any thing thinner than two of water 

 and one of sugar. — Ed.] 



H. Theen thinks it important, when 

 honey begins candying, to stir it daily with 

 a wooden spoon or handle. That gives it a 

 nice even texture. — Leipz. Bztg., 118. [Stir- 

 ring is just the very thing that will make 

 honey candy more rapidly. This is the 

 reason why extracted will candy quicker 

 than that 'in comb which has never been 

 agitated. — Ed.} 



H. Perkins, p. 495, says the substance in 

 bottom of queen-cells like peach-gum is 

 often nothing but residue. Residue of what ? 

 [Our correspondent probably meant residue 

 of cast-off bowel skins; but these look very 

 different from the peach-gumlike substance 

 found in the bottom of queen-cells after its 

 occupant has departed. Certainly the sub- 

 stance that we find in the cells at Medina 

 is evaporated royal jelly. — Ed.] 



"Keep BETTER BEES." That's the motto 

 I would urge every young bee-keeper to in- 

 scribe on his banner. The slogan of the 

 lamented Hutchinson, " Keep more bees," 

 appeals to many. "Keep better bees" 

 should appeal to all— to the beginner and 

 the veteran, to the man with five colonies 

 and tlie man with a thousand. [Indeed, 

 you are right. Not every bee-keeper has 

 experience or brains enough to handle 

 "■more laees;" but every one will profit by 

 getting better stock. — Ed.] 



I WANTED to take extra pains introducing 

 a queen. I removed the old queen, put an 

 empty hive on the stand, put in it three of 

 the frames of brood and bees, set the old 

 hive on top with the new queen in it in an 

 introducing-cage. Of course the field-bees 

 all went to the lower hive. A week later I 

 put the old hive down, returning to it the 

 three frames of brood. The point of safety 

 was that the queen was introduced to a 

 nearly full colony with no old bees, and it 

 is the old bees that raise a racket with a 

 new queen. 



I WONDER if ISIr. Perkins can be right, p. 

 496, about a queenless colony being the last 

 resort for queen-cells. I supposed there 

 could be nothing better than to start cells in 

 a strong colony made queenless when pre- 

 paring to swarm. [Mr. Perkins' statement 

 is correct if we consider an ordinary queen- 

 less colony; but a colony that has been 

 made queenless and broodless, such colony 

 having previously been kept up to a high 

 state of prosperity by daily feeding, we con- 



sider the very best for starting cells. The 

 cells they start do not need "regrafting." 

 The secret of getting good cells lies largely 

 in the science of feeding. The bees must 

 be charged with material for making pap to 

 make good cells — cells that will hatch vig- 

 orous queens. — Ed.] 



The STATEMENT has been made that if a 

 colony. A, is twice as strong as B at the be- 

 ginning of the honey harvest, it will store 

 three or four times as much. Morquin says, 

 L'Apicidteitr, 255, that often, especially if 

 there be only an early harvest, it will be 

 ten or twenty times as much. A has reach- 

 ed its maximum of strength at the begin- 

 ning of the harvest; brood-rearing begins to 

 wane, and the chief strength of the colony 

 is devoted to storing. Brood-rearing is con- 

 stantly on the increase in B, requiring near- 

 ly all the strength of the colony, and it 

 reaches the profitable point for storing only 

 at the close of the harvest. Perhaps it may 

 be safe to say that when A has a population 

 twice as much as B, it has a field-force ten 

 to twenty times as great. 



You THINK, Mr. Editor, I go to an ex- 

 treme, p. 484, when I say that here "The 

 rule is that no cells are started till after 

 work begins in supers." Let me tell you 

 how it is. I had my biggest crop in 1908, 

 and it was bad for swarming. Bees began 

 storing about June 3, and the flood was on 

 June 10. Of the colonies that started cells 

 for swarming, 35 per cent were found before 

 June 15, and 65 per cent on or after June 15. 

 In 1910, not a bad year for swarming, 12>^ 

 per cent were found before June 15, and 

 87 >^ on or after that. [Apparently you are 

 basing your statement on the year of your 

 biggest crop and on a year when you had a 

 light crop. The late' W. Z. Hutchinson 

 once said to the writer that he had observed 

 that the conditions that prevail in our 

 Southern States of diminished or no swarm- 

 ing, when a heavy honey-flow is on, are to 

 a great extent the same in the Northern 

 States. At first we were inclined to believe 

 that this condition was peculiar to Texas 

 and other Southern States; but the more 

 we have gone into this, the more we have 

 come to the conclusion that locality has a 

 great deal less to do with the general pcppo- 

 sition than many of us suppose; that is to 

 say, given exactly the same heavy honey- 

 flow^ that checks or stops swarming in the 

 South, there will be little or no swarming 

 in the North. It is, therefore, a condition 

 and not a matter of locality; but in the 

 North we don't have quite as strong heavy 

 honey-flows as are very often experienced 

 in the South. If you will go over your rec- 

 ords for a period of years, doctor, is it not 

 possible that you will find confirmation of 

 our original statement that brought out 

 this general discussion? — Ed.] 



