1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



931 



A FIELD MEETING OF SCHOOLTEACHERS AT 



MEDINA. 



We had a little field day meeting at Me- 

 dina on Saturday, July 7. Prof. E. F. Bige- 

 low, of Stamford, Ct. (so well known to 

 our readers), had been lecturing at a summer 

 school of schoolteachers assembled from all 

 over the United States at Wooster, O. On 

 the 7th he brought with him a delegation of 

 150 strong of these pretty schoolma'ams and 

 manly schoolmasters. He put this aggrega- 

 tion of novices through some stunts in han- 

 dling bees that fairly made my hair stand on 

 end. You see he had more confidence in our 

 bees and the nerve of the schoolma'ams 

 than L I worked the camera; but every 

 minute I expected a stampede of bees, 

 feminine beauty, and masculine strength all 

 mixed up in wild confusion. No dire calam- 

 ities happened, fortunately, and every thmg 

 went off like clockwork. 



MRS. ANNA B. COMSTOCK. 



Something like 25 years ago, through an 

 old college chum, E. H. Sargent, then at 

 Cornell, I learned of J. Henry Comstock, 

 professor of entomology at that university. 

 Through this friend, the professor became 

 interested in bees, and it was not long be- 

 fore some very pleasant correspondence 

 sprang up, during the course of which he 

 sent me a copy bt "A Manual for the Study 

 of Insects; Designed for Use in Colleges. By 

 J Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford 

 Comstock," his wife. In relation to the 

 last- mentioned personage, Prof. Comstock 

 says that, " although the chief work of the 

 junior author has been with the pencil and 

 graver, many parts of the text are from her 

 pen " and that the "plan of the book was 

 changed after she finished her writing." It 

 appears, then, that Mrs. Comstock, besides 

 being an entomologist, is an expert wood 

 engraver. The many beautiful engravings 

 all through this work testify to her ability in 

 this line. Some of the plates, indeed, will 

 equal if not surpass some of the work of the 

 best wood engravers of Germany. 



In the mean time it appears that Mrs. 

 Comstock began to study bees with her hus- 

 band; and the measure of her enthusiasm, 

 and success as well, may, perhaps, be under- 

 stood when we take into consideration the 

 fact that she is the author of one of the 

 most charmingly interesting books on bees 

 that was ever written, entitled "How to 

 Keep Bees. ' ' * One would naturally suppose 

 it to be on the scientific order; but so far 

 from being a work of that nature its every 

 page gleams with practical bee lore enliven- 

 ed with a catchy enthusiasm. The book 

 does not pretend to be an authority, but de- 

 lightfully portrays the experience of a lover 

 of bees. It is written especially for the be- 

 ginner. A review by A. I. Root appears on 

 page 743, 1905. 



* For sale at this office, $1.00 postpaid. See further 

 notice on page 959. 



We are glad to give a half-tone of Mrs. 

 Comstock on the front cover page of this 

 issue, and I think we may indeed class her 

 among the leading women bee-keepers. She 

 is the only woman, so far as I know, who has 

 ever written a book on bees; not only that, 

 her articles have appeared in a number of 

 the leading magazines, accompanied by some 

 beautiful illustrations. 



We requested her to give us an article on 

 the subject of "Women and Bees," which, 

 owing to lack of space in this number, will 

 be given in our next. It is so bright and 

 breezy (like all of her writings) that our 

 readers, especially those of the feminine 

 persuasion, will wish to read it. 



CoDvcrsations 



DRONE COMB, ETC. 



" Say, Doolittle, I am in trouble. Can you 

 help me out?" 



"Well, 1 can tell you better when you tell 

 me what your trouble is. ' ' 



"It is like this: I had the misfortune to 

 lose quite heavily in my business last winter, 

 and so I did not feel able to purchase comb 

 foundation for my new swarms this year. 

 For this reason I concluded to have my 

 swarms build their own comb this season; 

 but they are making a sorry job of it, in 

 that half or more of the comb which they 

 build is of the drone size of cells. Can you 

 tell me why my bees build this size of cell, 

 and what I can do to avoid their doing so?" 



" Allow me to ask you a question. What 

 has been the honey-flow since swarming 

 commenced?" 



' ' Excellent. I never knew it better. ' ' 



"That is as I expected." 



' ' What has that to do with the drone- comb 



"Let me explain a little. All observing 

 apiarists know that, as the day for swarm- 

 ing draws near, the queen ceases her prolif- 

 icness, so as to be able to fly and go with 

 the swarm ; so that, when the swarming does 

 occur, said queen is scarcely larger than a 

 virgin queen. Nature has so ordained things 

 for two reasons, the first of which is that 

 the queen can fly and go with the swarm, 

 for, if taken from the colony when no such 

 preparation has been made, she can not fly 

 at all, as she is so heavy with eggs. The 

 second reason is that the queen need not be 

 damaged by an over- accumulation of eggs 

 before there is time for the bees to con- 

 struct comb in the new home for her to de- 

 posit her eggs in. For this reason we find 

 that all good queens do not become fully 



