JUNE 1, 1916 



457 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



11 IK BACKLOT Bl'ZZKR 

 RY J. H. DONAHEY 



Uncle Jeremiah Motherwort is doing a lot. of wor- 

 rying this spring. He read in the bee-book that 

 extra-fancu sections were to be evenly filled and all 

 combs firmly attached to the four sides. He says he 

 don't know how he is going to hand the information 

 over to the bees. 



The Bee 



Thou risest ere the rosy hands of morn 

 Have brushed the glowing dew-drops from 



the thorn, 

 And on thy wings of frailest gossamer 

 Thou fliest far where rarest blossoms are. 

 Across the fields of clover dost thou pass, 

 Across the wild sweet flowers in the grass. 

 Across the apple orchards pink and white, 

 Across the garden riotously bright. 

 Thou gatherest from every bud and bloom. 

 And, in the hive's secluded, dusky gloom 

 Where thou hast fashioned with omniscient 



art 

 The cells in whose design man had no part, 

 Thou blendest all the sweetness thou hast 



brought 

 Into a harmony beyond man's thought. 

 Thou soon must die; but, oh thy great be- 

 quest, 

 Field, garden, wood, in one great thought 



compressed! 

 Thou teachest man to draw the best earth 



yields 

 Of wholesome wild and cultivated fields, 

 To blend all knowledge in a thought sublime. 

 And, dying, live in his bequest to time. 

 Brunswick, Ga. Annie O 'Conor. 



The Fowls Method of Swarm Control. 



I read the editorial, July 15, "A New-old 

 Method of Swarm Control, ' ' inviting dis- 

 cussion relative to the Fowls plan, but I 

 have seen nothing in Gleanings about it 

 since. 



Taking the hint from the first Fowls arti- 

 cle I tried a few colonies last summer. The 

 main objection I had to it, with my very 

 linuted trial, was that the queen did not get 

 sufficient support during the time that treat- 

 ment was in progress; in fact, none in some 

 cases, which is not to the best interest of 

 the colony. 



There is no denying the fact that the old 

 hive with combs and brood has a great at- 

 traction — in fact, more than the queen with 

 one frame as mentioned in the plan and 

 under new conditions that it makes. This 

 attraction is stronger in some colonies than 

 others. I remember once placing the queen 

 with one frame of brood in a prepared hive, 

 and setting it on old stand. I shook about 

 half of the colony in front; put the rest of 

 them on top with a wire separating-screen 

 between, and gave a small back entrance. 

 The bees practically abandoned the lower 

 for the upper. It was a sight to see them 

 string around to that small back entrance. 

 Imagine the support this colony would have 

 given the queen under the plan in question. 

 If the queen gets little or no support, and is 

 removed from the parent hive a distance of 

 two supers or more, as advised, and she ceases 

 laying, it then resolves into about the same 

 condition as having her caged for the time, 

 and the caging of the queen has been prac- 

 ticed and advocated as swarm prevention. 

 Then in the end the plan means division, 

 and division in any manner has a very mark- 

 ed effect on swarming, which is not ques- 

 tioned. 



If the Demaree plan or its modifications 

 (which these all are) has any advantage 

 over the shaken-swarm plan relative to 

 swarm control, the placing of the excluder, 

 an obstruction to the free movement of the 

 queen, and lack of support from her bees on 

 account of attraction above, can lay a pretty 

 strong claim for the difference. Of course, 

 if, finally, division is made, it is an added 

 factor. 



Galena. Kan., Jan. 31. J. P. Brumfield. 



[The Fowls plan was either so good that it 

 required no discussion, or it was no good at 

 all. We hold that it is good. We would like 

 to know who tried it and with what success. 

 —Ed.] 



"Water-soaked" Wax. 



Some of my neighbors are having trouble 

 in rendering wax from old black brood- 

 combs. They melt the combs (with water) 

 in five-gallon cans. Part of the wax crum- 

 bles and looks like cornmeal, and will not 

 stick together. 



