412 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



out about the same way." [You forget, 

 doctor, that I was almost constantly with 

 A. I. Root when the experiments to which 

 you refer were being conducted. I remem- 

 ber perfectly as though it were yesterday 

 the whole thing. But the plan that he car- 

 ried out was quite different from the one 

 outlined on p. 348 He was trying to make 

 the bees fly inside of a greenhouse or warm 

 room. If you will read again what I said 

 you will see we ar« attempting nothing of 

 the kind. The hives and nuclei only are 

 kept in a warm room, but the bees are per- 

 mitted to fly outdoors whenever it is warm. 

 In this way you will see that we hope to 

 bring about the conditions similar to those 

 of normal colonies outdoors about a month 

 later. Whether we can steal a march on 

 nature of a whole month remains yet to be 

 proven.— Ed.] 



Gleanings has learned to talk French. 

 In other words, a new bee-jcumal is pub- 

 lished — L' Apiculture Nouvelle, which re- 

 peats the contents of Gleanings, only giv- 

 ing them in French. With this journal in 

 French, and Europxische Bienenzucht giv- 

 ing American methods in the German lan- 

 guage, Europeans ought not to be in the 

 dark about what's going on in bee-keeping 

 on this side the water. Now don't get the 

 big-head because you're an American bee- 

 keeper. Without the things we've learned 

 from other countries, bee-keeping in this 

 country would not stand where it does now. 

 The address is 142 Faub'g St. Denis, Paris. 

 [Bee-keeping on the continent of Europe is 

 ]ust beginning to have an awakening. While 

 we freely acknowledge that we have learned 

 much in point of pure science from our Eu- 

 ropean cousins, yet we feel that they have 

 something to learn from us in the practical 

 management of bees. —Ed.] 



E. F. Atwater, in Review, has given, 

 perhaps, the key to something that has been 

 a puzzle to me. Editor Root said that, with 

 Langstroth frames, there wa-^ an amount of 

 honey in the upper part of the combs that I 

 knew was not to be found in mine; for often 

 my combs have brood clear up to the tcp- 

 bar. Mr. Atwater says that foundation 

 sags in the deep frames, at the upper part, 

 "to such an extent that there was very lit- 

 tle brood reared within, perhaps, two inches 

 or more of the top-bar." With horizontal 

 wiring I can easily believe that would be so. 

 With vertical foundation splints in my own 

 frames there is no more sagging at top than 

 bottom, giving me, in that respect, the ad- 

 vantage of shallower frames. [Score a point 

 in favor of splints in place of horizontal 

 wires; and I am not sure now but it was a 

 mistake to change from vertical to horizon- 

 tal wires, for which I was largely responsi- 

 ble, if I mistake not. But when we adopted 

 thick top bars it did not seem practicable to 

 use perpendicular wires. The best solution 

 of the whole problem yet, in my estimation, 

 is very fine iron wires incorporated in the 

 foundation by the maker. We have worked 

 on the problem for years, but have not 



yet been able to solve it. Mr. Van Deusen 

 has succeeded with a flat base. You may 

 ask what the objection is to your splints. 

 They are too large, and yet the diameter 

 can not be reduced. What I should prefer 

 would be fine perpendicular wires laid right 

 into the foundation in the first place, the 

 wires about two inches apart.— Ed.] 



Referring to p. 355, I think, Mr. Editor, 

 your idea of uniting colonies immediately 

 upon taking from the cellar will work even 

 better than later. The trouble, however, is 

 that, at the time of taking out, you can not 

 tell so well just which the strong and weak 

 ones are. [What you say is true; but last 

 winter we put our colonies in with marks 

 of identification to indicate their relative 

 strength in stores, so we could have some 

 idea of them, and what their condition would 

 be or ought to be by spring. I know it 

 seems hard to get a very good idea of the 

 strength of colonies when taken out. Doo- 

 little recommends putting a wet rag over 

 the entrance to shut bees in. A handful of 

 snow when obtainable is equally good. With 

 a pry loosen the cover; use a little smoke to 

 keep the bees down, and I think you can tell 

 very quickly whether the colony is strong 

 or weak. You can not always detect the 

 medium from the strong, but you can al- 

 ways determine when a colony is weak, and 

 these are the ones that should be united 

 with the strong, or, better, the medium 

 strength.— Ed.] 



I thank you, Mr. Editor, for your ans- 

 wers, p. 345, to my questions about breeding 

 from hybrid stock. I think we are entirely 

 agreed, except in one thing. You think I 

 can get pure stock that will store as much 

 as my hybrids. I don't— at least, not easi- 

 ly. We will try to settle who is right. You 

 are to send me (I paying for it) a queen of 

 the right sort. I will queen a number of 

 colonies with her royal progeny, and com- 

 pare their work with that of the hybrids. If 

 the new comers store most, you beat. If 

 you do, it will be to me a real pleasure. 

 [But look here, doctor; that is not going to 

 be a fair test. My idea was for you to get 

 a breeding queen from each of four or five 

 different queen-breeders, and then select 

 from that lot the one that shows up the 

 best in honey. You might have to try this 

 out on two or three different years. I feel 

 satisfied that, if you work on that basis, one 

 of the queens in due course of time would 

 equal or excel your mixed blood. The fact 

 is, breeders are not going to sell their best 

 queens— I mean their breeding queens— and 

 will part only with the daughters of those 

 queens. Owing to the fact that they are 

 unable to control male parentage as they 

 would like, it is seldom that the daughter of 

 a breeder will be the equal of her mother. 

 Take, for example, our old $200 queen. 

 There was not one of her daughters that 

 was quite the equal of the old original, al- 

 though we had some very good ones. Say! 

 we would give $500 quick if we could get 

 that old queen back.— Ed.] 



