632 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1917 



TTEADS OF~GMlNn i?PQJigrD^FE RENT FIE LDS 



Knitting 



BY GRACE ALLEN. 



Knitting — I, whose awkward liands have never knit 



before, 

 Putting needles in and out and thread around and 



o'er — 

 But oh I think such blinding thoughts of battles 



overseas. 

 Knitting here where summer air is murmurous with 



bees. 

 Knitting with a soft white thread, but oh how can 



I say 

 What tragedy of crimson stain it soon must wipe 



away — 

 What bitter need of pads and wipes and bandages 



and socks — 

 Knitting here today beside my tall pink hollyhocks? 

 Knitting, knitting — all we women, tliru this stern 



July — 

 Tell me, what is sending all our young men out to 



die. 

 Is it righteousness, and vision? (how the roses 



nod ! ) 

 Is it something deathless in our hearts that we call 



God? 

 If the roses could but answer ! If the bees could 



only say 1 

 But roses keep their silences and bees their ancient 



way. 

 Knitting, knitting — but, dear God, while men die 



overseas, 

 Have I a right to roses and pink hollyhocks and 



bees? 



C£= 



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Questions on Three Dr. Miller says, Sept. 

 Plans for Comb- 15. 1915, p. 746, that 



honey Production th.^ Fowls plan, July 



15, 1915, p. 574, won't 

 do for comb honey. Mr. Doolittle, Aug. 15, 

 1915, p. 661, gives a plan which seems to be 

 about the same thing for comb honey. From 

 the last four or five lines I judge the bees 

 will start queen-cells after the hives are 

 reversed. 



1. Are these plans alike? If not, please 

 explain the difference. 



2. Will bees start queen-cells above an ex- 

 cluder with or without supers between? 



3. What is the reason for the following 

 statement which I have often read, but 

 never understood; viz., that you cannot push 

 back the second story a little and the third 

 story forward to allow a current of air to 

 pass thru all three, when running for comb 

 honey? 



4. When using the shaken-swarm plan 

 without increase, for comb honey, would it 

 be practical to hive on empty combs and 

 extract if the bees stored in the brood-cham- 

 ber, or would this require a good deal of 

 looking-over of those shaken on to combs 

 that way? 



5. If I placed a hive of brood without 

 bees over a colony, with a super of sections 

 and an excluder between the two hives, and 

 left the brood on top ten days, would the 

 bees go up and start queen-cells? 



6. Would they, as the brood hatched, 



carry the honey up there if the super had 

 only foundation and six or seven "drawn" 

 sections ("baits") ? 



7. I am trying to develop a plan when I 

 have 50 colonies or more to use some sec- 

 tions, but mostly shallow extracting-supers, 

 for bulk comb honey and extract a little to 

 fill up the pails with. Please advise me a 

 good way to do it, with no increase. We 

 have good early fruit bloom, crimson clover, 

 and eight weeks of white clover. Last year 

 one hive made 112 sections. 



Lincoln City, Neb. C. A. Cotell. 



Miss Fowls, to whom we submitted the 

 above, replies: 



Altho we have raised quite a little comb 

 honey in the j^ast, still at present we are 

 engaged almost entirely in the production 

 of extracted honey, and therefore do not 

 consider ourselves authorities on the former 

 subject. 



1. From the little that Mr. Doolittle has 

 given of his method, Aug. 15, 1915, p. 661, 

 I should say that the two plans are decidedly 

 unlike. Twenty days before the honey-flow 

 he puts on a second ten-frame story of 

 combs with queen-excluder intervening. At 

 the beginning of the season he reverses the 

 hives, putting a case of sections above the 

 queen and excluder. Ten days later he 

 shakes seven of the upper combs and sets 

 the upper hive on the new stand. 



Our plan is this: Whenever capped cells 

 are found, they are torn out, leaving the 

 uncapped ones; and the hive is replaced with 

 one of foundation or empty combs, one of 

 the central frames being exchanged for a 

 frame holding the queen and a small patch 

 of unsealed brood. Above this is placed the 

 excluder and two full-depth or three shallow 

 supers of empty combs, and, on top of all, 

 the old hive of brood. Then at the end of 

 seven or eight days the upper story is moved 

 to a new location. 



We understand Mr. Doolittle 's plan is 

 applied twenty days before the season opens 

 quite regardless of the presence or absence 

 of any swarming tendency, while ours is 

 used only in case of capped cells. He has 

 only one shallow super intervening between 

 the hives of brood while we have at least 

 three. In his lower story the brood-nest is 

 not started at all, and he might also have 

 quite a little honey there, to both of which 

 conditions we would object. But, above all 

 else, I would call attention to the fact that 

 neither his old nor new swarm is in a natural 

 condition. Our attempt has been to follow 

 nature as closely as possible. For this 

 reason we would strongly object to shaking 

 bees from that upper story, as it would leave 

 the old swarm so weakened that there might 

 be danger of chilling the brood in ease of a 

 cool night, and it would also leave many 

 young bees with the new swarm — a state 



