244 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Millee, Marengo, 111. 



Speaking of the best time to cut bee- 

 ti-ees, if the bees are what you are after, cu! 

 in fruit-bloom; if you care only for the 

 honey, cut in fall — the earlier the better 

 after the flow is over. 



" There is no doubt that the Italian bee 

 does not excel as a ' comb-honey ' bee," 

 says L. S. Cranshaw, British Bee Journal, 

 79. They don't do so bad for me, L. S. 

 One colony of three-banders last year gave 

 me 390 sections — nice sections too. 



Gr. M. DooLiTTLE says, p. 167, it's better 

 to bring bees out of the cellar a little before 

 soft maples bloom. " In this locality " I 

 never yet thought soft-maple bloom too late 

 for bringing out bees; but once or more I 

 have thought it too early. Still, I may be 

 wrong. 



Ip you want to provide a watering-place 

 for bees so as to keep them from being 

 troublesome at pumps, watering-places for 

 horses, etc., be sure to do it early, before 

 any habit is formed. After they have once 

 started at the wrong place it's almost im- 

 possible to change them. 



Young fellow, let me hand you a piece 

 of advice that will be worth dollars to you 

 if you follow it. Lay your plans right now 

 to keep close tab on every pound of honey 

 each colony stores this season. Then you'll 

 know which to breed from, and which 

 queens to replace because poor. 



John E. Roebling, p. 232, pardon me, 

 but I don't believe that your clipping 

 queens in late spring has a thing to do with 

 prevention of swarming. For many years 

 I've clipped at that time all queens I could 

 find with whole wings, and so far as I 

 observed they swarmed as much as those 

 clipped at other times. 



The question is asked, p. 232, Avhether 

 '^ heavy nurse bees " in a removed colony 

 would " train down and become field bees or 

 remain nurse bees to the end." There is 

 such a thing as bees continuing nurse bees 

 beyond the usual time, but only where there 

 is a scarcity of young bees. In the case in 

 question, some of the nurses would become 

 field bees in 24 hours, some in 2 days. :> 

 days, and so on, until at the end of abont 

 16 days all would be fielders. 



C. S. Newsom, p. 181, says, " The bees 

 that cluster on the outside of the hive are 

 mostly young ones liardly able to fly." and 

 ye editor says. " Tlie cluster outside may be 

 composed of field bees largely." Those two 



views are a long way apart. Some of you 

 wide-awake young chaps watch next sum- 

 mer, and tell us which is right', or wheth"i' 

 the truth lies between. [What we intended 

 to imply was merely that the bees clustering 

 out may be old bees or young bees, or bees 

 of mixed ages. — Ed.] 



Hasn't " The Outlaw " struck on a rather 

 original way of getting wax, p. 223? At 

 any rate, it looks good. I know it's the case 

 in my sujiers that, when a section is not 

 entirely filled with worker foundation, the 

 bees are about sure to fill the vacancy with 

 drone-comb, and I'm likely to find that 

 drone-comb held open for the queen to lay 

 in. AlloAV no drone-comb in the brood- 

 chamber, and use a queen-excluder, and 

 there ought to be a fair chance for the finest 

 virgin drone-comb. 



Replying to your question, p. 20ri, Mr. 

 Editor, I mean that European foul brood 

 is a blessing in the way of eliminating the 

 careless, haphazard beekeeper. As to the 

 other part, I don't care to say much, for 1 

 believe it to be to the interest of beekeep- 

 ers in general to introduce best Italian 

 blond to help fight European foul brood. 

 Nevertheless, I must say that in my own 

 ajnary I am not sure there is any distinction 

 between darkest and lightest bees. My bees 

 are now mostly Italians, but European foul 

 brood has not made them so. 



i WISH George M. Huntington had given 

 rs fuller particulars, p. 215. He says by 

 time of alfalfa bloom strong colonies have 

 the queen crowded for room in the brood- 

 chamber; but he doesn't say whether supers 

 ar-^ on or not. Unless his bees do different- 

 ly from mine there will be no crowding of 

 the brood-chamber with supers on. If no 

 supers ai'e on at tliis early time, and tlie 

 brood-chamber is clogged, then extracting 

 will give the queen room. Later, when the 

 full flow is on. I have given empty combs, 

 only to have them promptly filled with 

 honey. Wlien Alexander talks abovct ex- 

 tracting in May or early June the sujiers 

 ai'c not yet on. and then clogging witli 

 honey is fatal to best results. Answering 

 the question whether extracting two or three 

 frames from tlie brood-chamber would stoy) 

 work in the supers I would say tliat earhi 

 it will interfere not at all; later, in the full 

 flow, as I have said, the emptied combs will 

 be filled with honey, and, of course, that 

 would interfere with super-work, at least 

 temporarily, for later it may be that the 

 brood will crowd out the honey. 



