1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



889 



caused those bees to alight there? I had to 

 go to the house and have my wife brush and 

 smoke them off. I believe the Giver of all 

 good gave the bees this way of telling their 

 own. F. P. Stowe. 



Seymour, Ct., March 8. 



[The scent of a queen or queens that have 

 been killed between the fingers or mashed 

 on the clothing as described is very readily 

 transmitted to those parts, often to the an- 

 noyance of the apiarist. Better keep the 

 queens off the clothing; and when the scent 

 has been transmitted to the fingers it can 

 be removed by rubbing them through the 

 grass and on the ground.— Ed.] 



HYBRID bees; DRONES IN COLONIES WINTER- 

 ED OUTDOORS. 



If Dr. Miller could not, page 345, keep 

 pure Italians, how does he manage to keep 

 his special strain of cross crossed bees pure 

 enough so that they are worth while? 



You mention, Mr. Editor, page 348, that 

 outdoor-wintered bees are more likely to 

 have a sprinkling of drones. I can not re- 

 call having seen this stated before. Why is 

 it not mentioned as an objection to the out- 

 door plan in the discussion on that subject? 

 and, by the way, why is it that outdoor win- 

 tering produces drones in excess of cellar 

 wintering? Possibly I am rehashing an old 

 question, but I just want to know. 



Wilmette, 111. D. D, Farnsworth. 



[You have read more into the language 

 on page 348 than I really intended or the 

 exact words convey. I do not know that 

 outdoor bees would have more drones than 

 colonies in the cellar; but here was the 

 point: Drones from the latter would not be 

 available, while those from the former, on 

 any good flying day, would be. That was 

 all the difference. 



In answer to your first question, I do not 

 think Dr. Miller did any thing more than to 

 breed from his best queen, which was a hy- 

 brid. -Ed.] 



CAUCASIAN BEES AS S WARMERS; WOULD A 



FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR CARRY THE 



DISEASE? 



There are two subjects to which I wish to 

 call your attention. I may be wrong in my 

 opinion, and hope I am. First, are the Cau- 

 casian bees great s warmers? That is just 

 the trait we do not want; and if it is added 

 to the vindictiveness of the blacks and Ital- 

 ians (hybrids), when shall we get through? 

 I have been working several years in trying 

 to breed out the black bees, or, rather, try- 

 ing to Italianize, and quite a number of my 

 friends have bought Italians. Now, if I or 

 any one else gets Caucasians, all this work 

 and expense of Italianizing will be lost. 



Second, if the foul-brood inspector finds 

 some diseased colonies in Brown's apiary, 

 and doctors them, then comes to my bees 

 and infects them with foul brood (which I 

 fear he would) , what shall I do? It looks 



as if I should be out of the bee business in 

 a short time. Seward Steffy. 



Glouster, O. 



[In all that has ever been said concerning 

 Caucasian bees I do not remember that the 

 claim has ever been made that they were 

 great s warmers. Is it not possible that you 

 have the Caucasians mixed up with the 

 Carniolans? 



Any foul-brood inspector who would be so 

 careless as not to disinfect himself when 

 going from a diseased to a healthy yard 

 ought to be summarily removed from his 

 position. As these bee-inspectors receive 

 their appointment through bee- associations 

 largely, or through the recommendations of 

 local bee-keepers who are in position to 

 know of the man's competency, it is not 

 likely that such appointee would be the 

 means of spreading the disease from one 

 yard to another. I am personally acquaint- 

 ed with many of the inspectors in the coun- 

 try, and I know of no person who would be 

 guilty of spreading the disease in the man- 

 ner stated. The very qualifications neces- 

 sary to fit him for that position would be 

 such that he would know the importance of 

 extreme care.— Ed.] 



CLOTH OVER THE SECTIONS. 



Is it proper to put a cloth on top of the 

 sections under the wood cover? Could any 

 harm come from it, or can I get more honey 

 with just a board cover on super? 



Tunkhannock, Penn J. F. Cooper. 



[Cloth does no harm; but it has this dis- 

 advantage, that the bees will propolize it 

 down to the sections, making streaks of 

 bee-glue along the edges of the sections. 

 The general practice is to leave a bee-space 

 above the sections; then put the quilt or 

 protecting case right over the super-cover 

 that is just a bee-space above. —Ed.] 



WHAT does the DISTANCE OF THE SOURCE 



OF HONEY HAVE TO DO WITH THE 



AMOUNT GATHERED? 



I have an outyard IJ miles from the home 

 yard, in a good basswood location. What I 

 want to know is, why do the bees at the 

 home yard, IJ miles from the basswood, 

 gather as much basswood honey as the bees 

 that are located right in the shadow of the 

 bass woods? There are no basswoods closer 

 than the outyard. Who can answer this? 



Burlington, Texas. W. M. Jones. 



[I can not explain your conundrum unless 

 you are mistaken in supposing that both 

 yards of bees are gathering basswood hon- 

 ey. The tree does not yield nectar every 

 year, and sometimes only sparingly. A lit- 

 tle smattering of basswood mixed with clo- 

 ver will very easily give the impression that 

 the honey is all basswood unless the apia- 

 rist is an expert in the taste of the two 

 honeys. If, as I suppose, your bees in both 



