GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



made by the tin become in time level full of 



Sropolis. But it takes two or three years to 

 11 them up, and with the right kind of tool 

 it does not take very long to clean them out; 

 and up to the time they are level full the 

 frames work, oh so much easier than on the 

 plaini wooden rabbet! 



Foul- BROOD spores, in honey, germinate 

 in warm weather, S. Simmins, p. 808. Is it 

 not the general teaching that spores remain 

 indefinitely in honey without germinating? 

 [Most if not all of our scientific men would 

 support your contention. The spores of al- 

 most any disease that afflict the human fam- 

 ily have been known to lie dormant for a 

 good many years; and yet when given favor- 

 able media in which to grow they showed 

 as much vigor as the original disease ever 

 makes at any time.— Ed.] 



I WONDER if this is the only locality where 

 downwardly projecting cleats are heartily 

 despised. They make the cover unnecessari- 

 ly long, and take much more time to put on 

 without killing bees. [How this may be, I 

 do not know; but the downwardly projecting 

 cleats stiffen the cover, because the cover- 

 board is slipped inside of a groove that holds 

 it true without the mere dependence on the 

 nails. Then, as I explained in Gleanings, 

 this downwardly projecting edge can be used 

 very conveniently to support supers, the bot- 

 toms of which are covered with bees.— Ed.] 



I don't think I would adopt Joseph 

 Egge's plan for keeping down increase, page 

 825; but I feel pretty sure, Mr. Editor, that 

 your footnote objection is not valid. You 

 are quite right in understanding that, when 

 a yotmg queen is reared in a hive, she is 

 likely to put the old lady out of commission. 

 But the case is different here. The swarm 

 has been in full tide of progress for a week. 

 The bees are satisfied with their queen, and 

 don't want any other. Enters a strange 

 virgin from another hive. Death-penalty, 

 sure. Even if the young queen should su- 

 persede the old one, wouldn't the plan still 

 be a success? [Why, doctor, it seems to me 

 you and I prettly nearly agree here. Read 

 my footnote again and you will see I did not 

 say the plan would not be a success.— Ed.] 



Stimulative feeding is a rather mixed 

 business; and the replies of the editor con- 

 cerning it are, accordingly, somewhat mix- 

 ed, if not contradictory, page 828. He says, 

 "Unless the bees have stores in super, or 

 more honey in the brood-nest than is usually 

 found, stimulative feeding in the spring pays 

 and pays well. . . . Yes. avoid f eedmg 

 when you can. It is a far better practice 

 to give combs of sealed stores laid away 

 from the previous season than to stir up a 

 colony by giving it liquid food if the nights 

 should be at all cool. " All of which will be 

 made sound and consistent by dropping the 

 word " stimulative " out of the first sen- 

 tence quoted. Feeding usually pays well in 

 spring; stimulative feeding, seldom. Feed- 

 ing is always needed when abundant stores 

 are not present. Stimulative feeding is 



needed only when in favorable weather a 

 dearth is likely to curtail brood- rearing. My 

 bees have often needed feeding. I'm not 

 sure that they have ever needed stimulative 

 feeding. [Look here, doctor, you are not 

 fair. You are leaving off the qualifying 

 clauses, both before and after the first- quot- 

 ed sentence in a way that makes the sen- 

 tence following directly contradictory. Tak- 

 ing into consideration the qualifying clauses, 

 it seems to me our ideas of the correct prac- 

 tice are practically the same. No, I would 

 not leave out the word stim,ulative, for there 

 are certain conditions under which it would 

 not be advisable — the very conditions that 

 you name, if I understand you aright. —Ed.] 



A FLOCK of chickens was enclosed in a 

 bee-yard by Mr. Hillebrand {Leipz. Bztg.), 

 and they learned to stand at the hive en- 

 trances and snap up the drones as they came 

 out, but never a worker would they touch. 

 He thinks it was because of the sharp smell 

 of formic acid in the workers. But do 

 chickens go much by smell? [We have had 

 quite a number of other reports of precisely 

 the same thing in this country. Is it in- 

 stinct, or what is it, that teaches the chick- 

 ens to pick up the big clumsy bees without 

 any sting? It is hardly conceivable that, if 

 a young chick has picked up a live bee and 

 got stung, it would ever repeat the experi- 

 ment with either worker or drone. Some 

 observations that I have made on various 

 kinds of dumb animals convinced me that one 

 "experience " is enough to last them a life- 

 time.— Ed.] 



I wouldn't for a minute encourage a 

 growth of grass and weeds at the entrance 

 of a hive. But isn't it putting it pretty 

 strong for Bro. Doolittle to say, p. 824, "I 

 find that, where badly tangled, the colonies 

 in such hives will not store more than two- 

 thirds as much honey during a good bass- 

 wood yield as with those having a free 

 flightway"? Unless there is something I 

 don't understand in the case, the only loss is 

 the loss of time from the alighting of the 

 bee until it enters the hive. Now, if one- 

 third of the crop is lost by that hindrance, 

 there must be always found struggling at 

 the entrance one-third of the bees that are 

 outside the hive. I suppose it would not take 

 a very strong colony to have a field force of 

 9000. Did any one ever see as many as 3000 

 returning fielders all sprawling about on the 

 grass at the entrance at the same time? 

 [There is one factor that you do not take 

 into consideration, doctor. The bees, in 

 struggling to get through the tangled grass 

 and weeds at the entrance, tear their wings 

 more or less, and this results in a certain 

 positive loss in bees when the colony needs 

 them the very most. Worker-bees wear 

 out fast enough; and when the wings become 

 badly torn they are put out of commission 

 that much the sooner. When you consider 

 the actual loss of bees to the colony that 

 might be honey- gatherers, perhaps you will 

 find Doolittle's estimate not farwronjr.— 

 Ed.] 



