140 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. I 



finish them more quickly. I'm almost sure 

 that little harm would come from the lack 

 of separators in building combs so thin and 

 of so little height, and I fancy the bees 

 would feel just a bit more comfortable to be 

 allowed to build combs of a thickness they 

 naturally choose, and with no separators in 

 the way. 



"Die Europaeische Bienenzucht auj 

 Amerikanischer Grundlage" (The European 

 Bee Culture on American Principles). How 

 is that for the name of a new bee-journal? 

 The editor and publisher is Herr A. Straeu- 

 li, Pastor in Scherzingen (Thurgau, Switzer- 

 land) , a man who for years has consistently 

 advocated American methods. The first 

 number is a fine specimen of typography, 

 and its contents are entirely in keeping with 

 the name of the journal. Herzliche Gruesse 

 aus dem "wild and woolly West," Herr 

 Straeuli. 



D. M. Macdonald quotes in British Bee 

 Journal the advantages I claim for bottom 

 starters, and asks: "Does not the use of 

 full sheets secure all this without the labor 

 of double fixing?" Not by a long shot in 

 this locality, my good Scotch friend. I had 

 much experience with full sheets fastened 

 only at the top. The comb was not so fully 

 built to the bottom — sometimes not at all, 

 and, as a consequence, not so fully filled out 

 at the sides. When honey was coming in 

 slowly, one side of the section was filled 

 faster than the other, and that made the 

 comb swing over to one side so much that 

 sometimes the lower edge of the foundation 

 was fastened to the separator. If you will 

 give bottom starters a fair trial, I think you 

 will find that they will work all right in 

 Scotland. 



"Revolutions don't go backward; look 

 out for the Sucker State next time." That 

 is what I said in last Straws. I meant look 

 out for what would be done by the next leg- 

 islature. Here's an item from a Chicago 

 daily that shows the trimmers are beginning 

 to see the handwriting on the wall : 



Representatives who, at the last session of the legis- 

 lature, voted against the local-option measure, now are 

 begging quarter of the Illinois Anti-saloon League. 

 State Secretary E. H. Curtis, of this city, has received 

 during the last few days letters from fifteen legis- 

 lators who voted against the bill, promising that, if the 

 League will not oppose their renomination and election, 

 they will vote in favor of the measure at the next ses- 

 sion of the legislature. 



[The same thing is going on to a greater 

 or less extent in other States. The time 

 was. and is in some States yet, when legis- 

 lators were willing to curry favor with the 

 brewers and liquor-dealers. It is one of the 

 signs that the millennium is coming when 

 some of these same legislators seek the sup- 

 port of the temperance and church people. 

 Fere in Ohio there is a good prospect that 

 ont or more important temperance measures 

 will be passed, for one of the issues in the 

 late campaign was the Anti-saloon League 

 of Ohio, with the result that the League 

 was vind'-cated by over 40,000 majority. 



1 1 * ' But when we have 



I a triplet box we intro- 



I I duce a complication, 

 I I because we are com- 



i I palled to get one pair 



' ' of holes pretty close 



together," p. 69. Not if you make 'em this 

 way. [Y-e-s, and perhaps I shall have to 

 confess you have the best of the argument 

 on this point if we consider that alone. But 

 there is one feature that I did not mention, 

 and that is this: The two- compartment mat- 

 ing-box is a perfect cube. The division- 

 board in the middle is very thin. The two 

 little clusters of bees will form in the shape 

 of two hemispheres when cool nights or cool 

 weather comes on, one on each side of the 

 division, making one compact cluster, ex- 

 cept that a thin board of only yV inch passes 

 between. Now, then, when you divide the 

 mating-box into three compartments you 

 make it oblong, and the result is that the 

 two stronger clusters of bees will form hemi- 

 spheres on each side of one division, leaving 

 the other cluster of bees high and dry. This 

 is not mere theory, but was proved by our 

 experiments last fall. Briefly stated, my 

 objections to a three- compartment mating- 

 box are that it departs from the shape of a 

 cube, and is liable to result in one of the 

 clusters being left without the advantage of 

 the combined heat of the cluster on the side 

 next to it. — Ed.] 



"Come, now, doctor, will it not pay you 

 to rear pure Italian queens, and requeen ev- 

 ery colony that does not have pure yellow 

 blood?" quoth ye editor, page 68. I have 

 thought a little of getting pure Italians, not 

 for the sake of having less propolis, but be- 

 cause my hybrids are so outrageously cross; 

 but just now, when I read your question to 

 my assistant, she promptly replied with 

 some warmth, "Not much, Mr. Ernest, we 

 have worked too hard all these years to 

 bring our bees up to their present standard 

 to throw it all away for a little bee- glue or 

 a few stings. " If you'll send me a queen 

 of pure stock that will store within five per 

 cent as much as my present stock. I'll pay 

 for the queen and give you a commission be- 

 sides. [Tell me, doctor, what your present 

 stock will do; and if I can not pick out pure 

 Italian stock that will average as well as your, 

 'er, well— mongrels, then I will consent to 

 let you go on wit'n your bee-glue and your 

 bee-stings. But I see no reason why the same 

 intelligent care in breeding will not produce 

 as good honey-gatherers from pure Italian 

 stock as from a mixture of blacks and Ital- 

 ians. If you really want stings and bee- 

 glue, why not have a mixture of cross Cyp- 

 rins and Punic bees? But, joking aside, is 

 it not true, doctor, that the records of some 

 pure Italians are better than the records you 

 have been able to obtain with your mixed 

 blood? I have never really believed the doc- 

 trine that it is necessary to have cross bees 

 in order to get good work. We have had 

 too many examples of gentle bees being 

 good workers to make me think otherwise. 

 -Ed,] 



