June, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



441 



very beginning of tlie flow from clover or 

 basswood. Of course, it is not necessary to 

 have these drawn combs in every super; but 

 for the best success the tirst super put on 

 sliould have them if possible. If not pos- 

 sible, then the first super should have the 

 row of sections at eacli outside, and that in 

 the middle filled with such drawn combs. 

 After once in the supers the bees will gen- 

 erally continue to the end of the season. 

 Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolitti.e. 



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wife 



Home, June 1, 1917. 

 Dear Sis: 



If it has been raining as much and as 

 long with you as it has with us, I pity you! 

 I wonder if the pent-up energy of your 

 three boys would ecjual that of my one 

 boy and a man ! Billy is always a problem 

 during a rainy spell, but this time I've had 

 Rob on my hands as well, and it has been 

 a great relief to have the sun come out and 

 stay out. Ten days of steady drip Avith 

 only short recesses made Rob like a caged 

 lion ; he was so wild to be out in the apiaries, 

 and to have the bees flying again, that be 

 could scarcely contain himself. He was 

 extremely busy everj^ day, however, for he 

 knew that these rains keep the bees in the 

 hives, and that swarming would be bad just 

 as soon as they could fly. Such an inter- 

 ruption as this in the work is hard to bear. 

 It is one of the uncertainties of a beekeep- 

 er's life that has to be counted upon. 



Ko man who is not a good gambler should 

 ever be a beekeeper. You know they all 

 always figure on a " bumper crop," but 

 there are so many factors upon which the 

 crop depends that it really is a gambler's 

 chance. A beekeeper can control his bees 

 to a certain extent — have them free from 

 disease and in good condition for gathering 

 - — but he cannot control the clover crop, nor 

 the flow of nectar in the clover, nor the 

 weather. 



Rob is really philosophical, for he says 

 that if the weather holds from now' on we 

 will have a bumper crop this year anyhow. 

 The rains made a fine growth of clover and 

 I never saw so much of it. 



I wish your boys had been here to see the 

 swarms we had one day right after the 

 rainy spell. It was the worst swarming 

 time we have had for years, and the fun 

 has just begim ! This swarming happened 

 here in the home apiary. One colun\' start- 



ed and the others seemed to catch the swarm 

 spirit and followed suit. Such a time as 

 we had hiving them, with five swarms in the 

 air at a time ! We caught all but one with 

 an undipped queen that lodged high in tlie 

 big oak that the swing is on. Rob couldn't 

 get to it, and in despair resorted to throw- 

 ing stones, hoping to dislodge it so that it 

 might settle again in a more convenient 

 S23ot. Instead it flew off to the woods and 

 we had our hands so full that we couldn't 

 follow it. 



Six swarms settled one after the other 

 on the little pear tree in the middle of the 

 yard, which makes Rob more firm than ever 

 in his conviction that it is odor which 

 attracts bees in swarming. He thinks the 

 odor left on the tree by one swarm attracts 

 another, and that the swarm odor in the 

 yard excites bees from other colonies to 

 swarm. 



Rob always feels discouraged if swarm- 

 ing sets in, altho he knows that it cannot 

 always be controlled. He seems to think he 

 is to blame and has failed in his beekeep- 

 ing practice. I told him, in an effort to 

 cheer him, that bees are still wild animals, 

 and if they have not been domesticated in 

 all these centuries, he needn't think he can 

 do it. He replied impatiently that he does 

 not expect to tame them, but he does think 

 it is about time that scientists found out 

 the cause of swarming so that there would 

 be a sound basis for methods of control. 

 At that. Bill spoke up and said, " Why do 

 you wait for somebody else. Daddy? j'ou 

 could find out for yourself." Rob looked 

 thoughtful, and a little shamefaced, as he 

 replied, " Billie, I believe you are right. 

 We can't expect the men in the laboratory 

 to find out these things. It is the men who 

 know bees thorol}' that will have to learn 

 scientific exiDerimenting and do it them- 

 selves." 



So do not be surprised if we set up a 

 laboratoi*y next ! We shall not look for you 

 until we hear that Howard is better. Poor 

 little chap ! I do hope that it is not whoop- 

 ing cough. Our fresh country air will do 

 him lots of good, I feel sure. With love 

 4o all of you. Your loving sister, 



Mai-y. 



Concrete Workshop and Honey-House 



I have a concrete honey-house with a bee- 

 cellar underneath and a workshop on the 

 north side, where I make hives and brood- 

 frames. I have a Barnes saw-table that is 



