1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



297 



wmm^m. 



FROM DIFFEREi 



•^^bK.«wS,,wh«itw''|'-' 



EARLY VS. LATE riTTlNG OF BEFP IN 



cellar; no-drip cleats on cor- 

 rttgatkd paper. 



rHE 



In reply to Dr. Miller's Straw, page 1292, 

 I beg to say, Nov. 25, 1904. I moved about 

 50 colonies of bees 3 J miles and put them in 

 the cellar Nov. 26 without a flight, as both 

 days mercury was about 15 or 20 above zero. 

 They were put in the cellar with about the 

 same number that were put in Nov. 15, that 

 were located there, in exactly the same 

 manner, and on my various visits during the 

 winter I found them as quiet as the others; 

 and along toward spring those put in on the 

 15th seemed to be more unea«y. There was 

 no difference in their condition when re- 

 moved from the cellar about April 10. and 

 not a single dead colony in the cellar, and 

 these latter ones built up just as readily as 

 those cellared on the 15th. These last-cel- 

 lared ones I bought at various places in the 

 country, and were hauled to my home yard 

 from two to four weeks prior to Nov. 25, 

 and had plenty of flights between the two 

 journeys. 



On page 1330, footnote to J. E. Crane's 

 article relative to packing comb honey in 

 corrugated paper, why not use the no drip 

 cleats on top of the corrugated sheet? 



Don't encourage the importation of sting- 

 less bees. We have English sparrows 

 enough here now. Elias Fox. 



Hillsboro, Wis., Dec. 29. 



[It would not be practicable to use no drip 

 cleats on corrugated paper, for the reason 

 that such supports present so narrow a sur- 

 face that the weight of the sections would 

 cause them to mash down the paper at the 

 narrow line of contact. To use a homely il- 

 lustration, I might say you can crawl alliga- 

 tor fashion over thin ice on a pond because 

 your weight is distributed over considerable 

 area of ice, when you can not walk on that 

 sime ice because your weight would be fo- 

 cused down on a few square inches under 

 your feet. When sectious are piled directly 

 on corrugated paper, every inch of their 

 bottoms is distributed over every inch of 

 that paper. If that weight be put on two 

 or three or four narrow lines of contact with 

 the paper, the surface of the paper next to 

 the line of contact would crush. 



You need not worry about stingless bees 

 In the northern States, at least, it would be 

 impossible to propagate them. We had one 

 colony that we managed to keep alive some 

 two or three months in warm weather; but 

 the first cool nights of September cleaned 

 them out. There may be differences in vari- 

 eties; but I doubt if there is any locality, 



except in the extreme southern parts of 

 Florida, Texas, or California, where they 

 could be kept through winter. The most 

 that we can say about stingless bees is that 

 they are interesting curiosities. I have not 

 been able to regard them thus far in any 

 other light. The English sparrow would 

 hardly be a parallel case, for the reason that 

 this bird came into a climate almost the 

 same as it left in mother England. The 

 stingless bees, on the contrary, when brought 

 to this country come into a climate very 

 different from what they have been accus- 

 tomed to —Ed ] 



HOW TO PREVENT BEES FROM CRAWLING UP 



THE TROUSERS LEGS; A FRAME-HOOK 



FOR A HIVE- TOOL. 



If you don't want to be bothered by bees 

 crawling up the inside of your trousers, 

 have the good wife cut the bottoms off the 

 legs of an old pair and sew them in below 

 the knees, letting them hang about three 



inches below the bottom of the trousers 

 legs. Tuck the false legs inside your socks 

 and let the pants legs hang outside. This 

 plan will keep the bets out, and also keep 

 dust and dirt from soiling the underclothes, 

 when working in a dusty place. Try it: you 

 will be more than pleased with the results. 

 I use the Hoffman frame, and think it the 

 best one on earth. I made a hive-tool of \- 

 inch round steel, with a double-edged knife- 

 blade turned on one end. The other end is 

 turned over to make a handle. The blade is 



about one inch long and f wide at the widest 

 part with a rather blunt edge on the upper 

 side; but the lower edge is keen, and will 

 cut as well as a jack-knife. The tool is 13 



