January, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



61 



a rHEADS"~OF GRAIN T PMO rDlFFERENT FIELDS 



Winter and the New Year* 



BY GRACE ALLEN 

 Such rest is here, and peace, and quiet breath, 

 I scarcely know if this be sleep or death. 

 There is no sign of anything alive, 

 So solemn and so still is every hive. 

 No murmur here, no eager flash of wing 

 That thru the summer made our hearts to 



sing, 

 But every hive is still as some old tomb 

 Of desolate dead dreams and withered bloom. 



The earth itself is white and still and cold 

 And either dead or very, very old. 

 This bare dry twig was once a leafy vine 

 Whose sap went mounting like some racy 



wine 

 That somehow made a miracle of green. 

 Is this, then, all the miracle shall mean, 

 This brown, unlovely, lifeless-looking thing? 

 If so, why should we ever smile or sing? 



Yet smile we shall, and sing, because we 



know 

 A brave New Year is coming o 'er the snow, 

 A fair New Year to wake the earth from 



sleep, 

 And heal, perhaps, the hurt of hearts that 



weep. 

 And all life 's ancient gifts this year shall 



bring. 

 Of youth, and hope, and bees that hum in 



spring; 

 And strange new beauties never known 



before. 

 And some year shall bring peace forever- 

 more. 

 * See Cover picture 



Late Cell You will be interested 



and to know that an ob- 



Comb Building servation hive of bees 



shipped here from Me- 

 dina started a queen-cell, and after the cell 

 was sealed I took the hive clear across the 

 city on a surface car and still it hatched. I 

 put it in a hive of bees on the roof of our 

 building here where I am handling some bees 

 for your Chicago retail disj^lays. As a 

 queen-breeder I consider this rather remark- 

 able, for not the least of my trouble is to 

 get cells to hatch when they have been han- 

 dled a little roughly. If you know anything 

 about Chicago surface lines you know what 

 a nice smooth ride they had. 



I noticed in the Oct. 1st Gleanings Dr. 

 Miller says bees "will build it as late as 

 they can gather any surplus providing they 

 need it for stores." Speaking of comb, if 

 I had you and Dr. Miller here on the roof I 

 could show you comb one-half Hoffman size 

 hanging from an inner cover, and built dur- 

 ing the past week when there woi-e no days 



when bees could fly. Part of the bees have 

 been taken out in observation hives, and the 

 rest remaining in the hive built the comb 

 when they were unable to secure any out- 

 side honey at all, let alone storing surplus, 

 and when they could scarcely cover the re- 

 mainder of the frames in the hive. After 

 Dr. Miller is hit like that I imagine he will 

 smile and say "locality." 



Kennith Hawkins. 

 Plainfield, 111., Oct. 12. 



[While the condition is a little unusual, 

 yet we are prepared nowadays to expect al- 

 most anything. If we were to try to bring 

 about this result of getting a cell that would 

 hatch in this way, we should have to try 

 a good many times before we succeeded. 



With regard to the comb built from a 

 cover, we know that bees will sometimes 

 build comb this way between two brood- 

 combs, when a space is left between; but 

 we never knew them at the time of the year 

 of which you speak to build combs outside 

 of the brood-nest — that is, on the outside of 

 the outside combs. — Ed.] 



My Plan of I never have the least 



Getting Eid of trouble in getting rid 



Laying Workers of these pests. I use 



only the old process of 

 removing the whole colony to a spot 30 or 

 40 yards away, shaking out all the bees, 

 and returning the hive and combs to the 

 old stand, leaving the bees to find their way 

 back as best they can. I shake on to a 

 sheet, because sometimes the bees have an 

 old queen that has become a drone-layer. I 

 always leave in the hive any brood that the 

 bees may have, then give one good comb of 

 worker brood, which I place in the center. 



I do not recall a failure by this plan. The 

 theory is that a drone-laj^er never goes out- 

 side the hive, and consequently will not 

 know her way back to it if taken some 

 little distance away and shaken out on to 

 the ground. My experience proves that this 

 theory is correct. Major Shallard. 



S. Woodburn, N. S. W., Australia. 



Why the Min- In the diagram show- 



erals in Honey ing the chemical com- 



Are Valuable position of honev, p. 



1010, Dec. 15. 1915, is 

 undetermined matter — iron, lime, sodium, 

 sulphur, magnesium, potassium, manganese, 

 phosphoric acid, and so on. These minerals 

 and salts are all found in the human body, 

 and are obtained from the food we eat. 

 If they are obtained of the apothecary, and 

 taken in the inorganic state, they are not 

 assimilated. They are injurious. The only 



