224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1920 



HEADS OF GRAIN T DPelJi rDIFFERENT FIELDS 



Here is a Good I have recently made 



Frame-nailing a frame-nailing device, 



Device. which I find very con- 



venient and hope it 

 will prove valuable to readers of Gleanings. 

 It is made as follows: Take a board % 

 inch thick, outside dimensions to correspond 

 with total depth and length of a Hoffman 

 self -spacing frame, cut % inch in from the 

 end and 2% inches down from top at two 



Block Wxi^fe'^xy y 



Block tfe"x»it"A6>S" 



Block 3/l6X5//6"x2' 



-18%" 



Nailing device ready for frame. 



corners. Take two pieces % x % x 6^^ 

 inches and nail or screw to board just out- 

 side of end-bars of frame; take two pieces 

 % X 1% X 7% inches and nail or screw to 

 board just inside of end-bars of frame; take 

 two pieces 3/16 x 5/16 x 2 inches and nail 

 to board with one end to the % x % x 6% 

 piece. The board is now complete. 



Take the top-bar of frame and lay upside 

 down on the bench with the corner-cut 

 groove away from you; put on end-bars and 

 place in nailing device; turn the board on 

 edge with the top-bar down and nail the 

 bottom-bar; reverse the position of the 



Device with frame in place. 



board and nail thru the top-bar into the 

 ends; stand the board on end and nail thru 

 the ends into the top-bar; lay the staple 

 block on and drive the staple; grasp the 

 frame with the forefinger, with the thumbs 

 resting on the blocks inside of the frame, 

 and pull the fi'ame from the device. The 

 frame will be rigid with square corners. 

 West Chester, Pa. L. Clarence Coxe. 



=to ^^ap: 



Loss by Spray Poi- The majority of bee- 

 soning or -Milkweed? keepers here last 

 spring lost from 50 to 

 100 per cent of their bees, unquestionably 

 due to spray poisoning. In my own case I 



have not entirely lost any colony, but have 

 noticed a great reduction of bees in all of 

 them. 



I attribute my luck (for it it nothing 

 more than luck) to the fact that I had all 

 young queens in my hives, and also that I 

 fed a little to all colonies thru the spring. 

 My idea is doing so was to get a large force 

 of young bees in the hives by the first of 

 July. The result was that I had young bees 

 enough to maintain the colony, even tho 

 the field force were destroyed. 



This spraying is a serious thing for both 

 beekeeper and fruit-grower. If they don 't 

 spray, the fruit isn 't salable. Most or- 

 chards have a cover crop of alfalfa. 

 Whether it is the spray falling on the al- 

 falfa blossoms, or whether it is some sweet 

 substance in the lead arsenate, or whether 

 the lead is sweet enough in itself to attract 

 the bees to take the fatal dose, are the main 

 questions here. It is impossible to find a 

 cluster of milkweed without dead and dying 

 bees about it. The bees apparently haven 't 

 energy enough to free themselves from the 

 sticky milkweed. C. H. Pouting. 



Prosser, Wash. 



oc 



Secretion of Insect-pollinated flow- 



Nectar Not a ers, as alfalfa, white 



Matter of Chance. clover, and buckwheat, 

 may often secrete nee- 

 tar freely in one locality and not at all in 

 another; but this is not true of strictly 

 wind-pollinated flowers. The pollen of the 

 alders, birches, poplars, oaks, hickories, 

 beeches, and elms is carried by the wind, 

 and the flowers never produce nectar in any 

 part of the world. They are far better 

 served by the wind than would be possible 

 by insects; for the number of individual 

 trees is so large, the birches forming vast 

 forests, that the flower-visiting insects are 

 not numerous enough to perform properly 

 the work of pollination. Furthermore, as in 

 most of the species the stamens and pistils 

 are in different flower-clusters, in the ab- 

 sence of pollination no seed is produced, 

 since self-pollination is impossible. Thus 

 the secretion of nectar would be of no ad- 

 vantage to the bloom of many hardwood 

 trees, as they are compelled to rely on the 

 wind. 



This is also true of the windiiolliiiatod 

 grasses. Of the sevei'al thousand species 

 not one in any part of the world ever se- 

 cretes nectar. The number of flowers they 

 ])roduce annually is beyond the power of 

 imagination even to picture. It is fortunate, 

 indeed, for humanity that the cereals or 

 grains are wind-pollinated, for there are not 

 flower-visiting insects enough to perform 

 this service for the many millions of acres 

 of corn, wheat, oats, rice, barley, etc. 



Wind-pollination is older by many million 



