928 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



sympathy, no gratitude. The rule is, the 

 survival of the fittest. Any bee that can 

 not contribute to the material welfare of the 

 colony, and has no chance of doing so, must 

 be sacrificed.— Ed.] 



Rauschenfels tells with much circum- 

 stantiality in a two-page article in Bienen- 

 Vater of the wonderful effects of the leaves 

 and twigs of lemon {Citrus medico), as used 

 for many years in Calabria. Rubbed in the 

 hands and then thrown in front of an empty 

 hive they prove an irresistible attraction to 

 an uncertain swarm. Our California friends 

 can perhaps try it. [I do. not take much 

 stock in any kind of scent treatment to at- 

 tract a swarm of bees to any particular hive 

 or spot. The whole scheme looks too much 

 like the old-fashioned way of rubbing anise 

 seed inside a hive to make a swarm stay. — 

 Ed.] 



In Germany it is the practice with some 

 who wire frames to rust the wires first by 

 putting' them in salt water and allowing the 

 water to evaporate. The rusted wire takes 

 a stronger hold on the wax. [I certainly 

 would not encourage the process of rusting 

 the wire, as this would weaken it, and would 

 not, in my opinion, add very materially to 

 the fastening of the wire to the wax. Then, 

 moreover, it is my opinion that the bees 

 would take unkindly to the rust by showing 

 bare spots of the wire. The bright tinned 

 wire, as we know by experience, they will 

 bury completely, apparently paying no at- 

 tention to it. They might do so with a rust- 

 ed wire, but I should fear not. —Ed.] 



Bienen-Vater advises that, when freshly 

 extracted combs are to be directly returned 

 to the bees, they should be first dipped in 

 cold water. [This seems to me like a good 

 suggestion. I suppose the wash-water used 

 for cleaning combs may then be converted 

 into honey vinegar or be fed back to bees in 

 an outdoor feeder, or perhaps be converted 

 into the new product, denatured alcohol. I 

 should like to hear from some of our ex- 

 tracted-honey producers whether the scheme 

 of washing the combs as here suggested has 

 been practiced to any extent in this country. 

 If so, I have not run across it in my various 

 travels among bee-keepers, nor even heard 

 of it. Very likely some reader will point 

 out the exact reference. Well, let it come. 

 -Ed.] 



That extractor, page 883, has one thing 

 about it radically different from the one 

 tried at Medina. In the French machine 

 both sides of the comb are acted upon exact- 

 ly alike, while in the Medina machine they 

 were not. Whether that makes any differ- 

 ence in results, I don't know. I don't know 

 about expense; but it looks as though a 

 twelve-frame machine should be built for 

 not more than twice as much as a three- 

 frame one, making it comparatively inex- 

 pensive. The trouble with that Medina edi- 

 tor is that he has become so old and conser- 

 vative that he is prejudiced against any 

 thing new. [Your last sentence is a com- 

 fort; and if I thought you really believed it 



I should be happy a whole week. It seems 

 to me I remember a fellow up in Northern 

 Illinois who used to say I kept bobbing 

 round in new fields so much that he could 

 not keep track of me.— Ed.] 



G. M. DooLiTTLE, you're a comfortable 

 sort of customer. When I found 9 to 22 de- 

 grees more heat in an upper story than in 

 the open air, that only substantiated your 

 claim that no heat escaped from the cluster, 

 page 877. You seem now to hold that it's 

 all right for heat to escape from the cluster 

 when the bees stir. Of course, more heat 

 will then escape because they then make 

 more heat to escape. But according to your 

 theory they ought to hold the heat, even 

 when they do stir up, for you said, ' ' No, 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." On that day 

 the outside temperature was never above 58, 

 and surely the heat that escaped was need- 

 ed for the brood. However, I have tried the 

 experiment again in accordance with your 

 ideas. I arranged the upper story and ther- 

 mometer in the afternoon, so the bees would 

 have plenty of time to settle down, and at 9 

 at night I quietly looked, and the difference 

 was 8 degrees. You say there is a differ- 

 ence of 2 or 3 degrees between confined and 

 free air. May be in your locality; but un- 

 der the laws of lUinois, confinement doesn't 

 make a difference of a fraction of a degree. 

 But allowing 3 degrees for confinement, 

 please tell us how you account for the other 

 5 degrees. 



I don't SEE WHAT A. I. Root has been 

 thinking about that he hasn't told us about 

 the fireless stove. We just commenced us- 

 ing it at our house; but so far as we've tried 

 it, it's great. Grandmother Wilson has her 

 oatmeal 365 mornings in the year, and we 

 like to have it thoroughly cooked. Bring it 

 to a boil in the evening and put it in its bed of 

 excelsior without any fire till morning, when 

 it will be found most thoroughly cooked, and 

 still warm enough to eat. [We can go you 

 one better. At our house we have been 

 cooking our cereal foods by electricity. The 

 current goes off at about 10 at night, and 

 comes on anywhere from 4:30 to 5 in the 

 morning. We put the cereal inside of an 

 electric cooker, and turn on the switch be- 

 fore going to bed. If the switch is turned 

 on for half an hour or more before, the 

 cooking process is started. Automatically 

 the heat is applied when the current goes on 

 in the morning, and when we arise for break- 

 fast the food is thoroughly cooked and 

 steaming hot. A current necessary to heat 

 one of these electric cooking- pots is only a 

 little more than that for an ordinary incan- 

 descent lamp; and we figure it is really 

 cheaper than gasoline because it is automat- 

 ic. It is particularly nice in cold weather. 

 But where electricity is not available the 

 plan you give is excellent.— Ed.] 



It dazed me, just a bit, Mr. Editor, to 

 have you say, page 868, that you and I were 

 nearly together as to that virgin in the Egge 



