640 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



difference is located. As I tried to explain, 

 half an inch added to your ample girth would 

 not make so much difference as half an inch 

 added to the end of your nose.— Ed.] 



I don't know why a side entrance should 

 be more unfavorable for wintering than a 

 central entrance, p. 568; but here's a guess 

 at a thing that might make quite a little 

 difference. The central entrance is likely to 

 be nearer the brood-nest, and so there is 

 likely to be a little more change of air than 

 with the side entrance. [Your suggestion 

 is pretty nearly the correct solution. In a 

 private letter received from Allen Latham, 

 who has given this matter considerable study, 

 he inclines to the same opinion. In this is- 

 sue you will see what Mr. A. K. Ferris has 

 to say on the subject of bees clusterirgover 

 entrances; and this general tendei^cy shows 

 that they do it for a purpose; and this pur- 

 pose is, doubtless, to get better air and to 

 allow the moisture to escape more directly. 

 -Ed.] 



M. E. Tribble is accused of being afraid 

 of bees because he has his veil on while the 

 other veils are lifted, p. 585. Not the right 

 reason. Mr. Tribble can see all right with- 

 out taking off his veil, because it is black. 

 The others can not see well through their 

 light-colored veils. [M. E. Tribble being 

 accused of being afraid of bees? Read the 

 text again, p. 585, and you will see that that 

 was just the very thing he was not accused 

 of doing. But you are correct when you 

 surmise that those with white veils were 

 compelled to raise them for the simple rea- 

 son they could not see with them on. Quite 

 by accident last summer I happened to try 

 a white veil in comparison with a black one. 

 The only merit of the former is cheapness, 

 and it is a question with me whether we 

 ought not to take it out of the catalog. - Ed. ] 



It was a puzzle to me to understand why 

 Mr. Doolittle should put an empty hive over 

 his colonies. May 20, p. 522. It would seem 

 much warmer to put the empty hive under. 

 Possibly the key to the puzzle may be found 

 in the views expressed by him in American 

 Bee Journal, p. 364, that the crust of bees 

 is almost a complete protection against the 

 escape of heat. He says, " The bees are al- 

 most independent of the hive, only so far as 

 it gives them protection from their enemies 

 and the winds and storms." That sounds 

 hke heresy; but he gives some good proof 

 for it, and I suspect that he is nearer the 

 truth than the rest of us. But I am not 

 quite prepared to go as far as he does when 

 he says "the heat from the cluster is not 

 allowed to pass up into an upper hive, at 

 any time when that heat is needed for the 

 brood within the cluster of bees." 



Ye editor uses the word "shooking. " p. 

 568. That's an improvement. Better coin 

 a new verb, shook, shooking, shooked, than 

 to have bee-keepers appear such a set of 

 ignoramuses that they don't know the cor- 

 rect form of th? past participle of shake. 

 [The word "shook," as an adjective derived 

 from a verb describing a certain kind of ar- 



tificial swarm, has become so thoroughly 

 engrafted into the nomenclature of bee-keep- 

 ers that it seems utterly impossible to choke 

 it out of literature; so Gleanings has decid- 

 ed to allow the use of the descriptive word 

 when applied to swarms either shaken or 

 brushed. But, on my word, I did not think 

 you would sanction the term "shooked" 

 swarming. Seriously, doctor, I am not 

 worrying that bee-keepers will appear as a 

 set of ' ' ignoramuses ' ' who do not know the 

 English language. It is the editor and pub- 

 lisher that would have to suffer if any. I 

 am willing to take my chances.— Ed.] 



Interesting to learn from Dr. Boelte, p. 

 590, that the same bees make repeated trips 

 to the water. I don't believe he will find 

 that they are nurse bees, but a special detail 

 of field bees. I wonder if pollen-carriers 

 are not divided off the same way. Wait a 



minute Just been out watching at 



a hive. About one bee in three is carrying 

 pollen. Each bee has a big load or it hasn't 

 any. Of course, the proportion of pollen- 

 gatherers varies greatly; but there is always 

 the sharp distinction between carriers and 

 non- carriers. [To-day, May 5, I noticed 

 there was not one in 500 that carried pollen, 

 and this is accounted for by the fact that 

 the other bees were gathering nectar from 

 fruit-bloom. Bees are provident. They will 

 gather pollen when they can not get any 

 thing else. It seems to be their nature to 

 store a little ahead; and when nectar comes 

 in they will spend all their energies in the 

 storage of honey. When that is not to be 

 had and pollen is available they will lay by 

 a store of it. —Ed.] 



"Is it not a fact that, the older we 

 grow, the less inclined we are to adopt new 

 devices?" So ye editor, p. 579. Y— e— es, 

 as a general rule. As years advance, inter- 

 est gradually fades in all directions. The 

 cooking of to day is not up to what mother's 

 cooking used to be. Old ways are better, 

 and any deviation from the old way is looked 

 upon with suspicion. But are not bee-keep- 

 ers an exception to the general rule? To-day 

 I was out looking at the bees busy on the 

 dandelions and plum-blossoms. I think I 

 watched them with just as keen interest as 

 I did 45 years ago. 1 think I take just as 

 keen interest now in studying up something 

 new as I did then. My assistant complains 

 bitterly at my wanting to try so many new 

 things that may interfere with the honey 

 crop. A queen-cage that a certain old f ogy- 

 ish editor still retains I have cast aside for 

 something new, and many a half- hour is 

 spent studying over some new plan. No, it 

 is hardly a fact that, the older he grows, the 

 less inclined the genuine bee-keeper is to 

 adopt new devices. [I began active bee- 

 keeping in our yards, and to study bee-jour- 

 nals, when I was 14. I am now nearly 44. 

 During these 30 years I have had an oppor- 

 tunity to study bee-keepers both at Medina 

 and those in various parts of the country, 

 coming into face-to-face contact with them, 

 and if I am any judge your last sentence is 

 hardly in harmony with the facts. Bee- 



