1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



WINTERING AT ROOTVILLE. 



We have all been interested in the results 

 of wintering bees at Rootville, both indoors 

 and outdoors, regarding it as a sort of ex- 

 periment station, you see; but it seems a lit- 

 tle queer that in a cellar too warm that the 

 weakest colonies should have died while the 

 strong ones suffered least. I have fancied 

 that weak colonies required a much higher 

 temperature to winter well than strong col- 

 onies, and on the other hand strong colonies 

 could endure a much lower temperature than 

 weak ones. As a strong colony generates 

 considerable heat I should suppose such would 

 be the first to suffer. Perhaps you can ex- 

 plain how this is. 



^• 



BOTANICAL TERMS. 



In Gleanings for April 15 is a very enjoy- 

 able article on ' ' honey-bees and cucumbers. ' ' 

 I was the more iTiterested, as considerable 

 quantities of bees have been sold from the 

 county in which I reside to go to the hot- 

 houses around Boston to assist the cucumber- 

 growers of that section in the production of 

 this vegetable. But the beauty of the arti- 

 cle is sadly marred by the blunders, or what 

 appear to be, of the writer. He seems to 

 have gotten stamens and anthers and other 

 parts of the flower mixed in some way. 



Near the top of the second column, page 

 509. he says, in trying to explain the process 

 of fertilization. "Take, for instance, an f.p- 

 ple-blossom. We find in it the stamens with 

 their corresponding anthers. While it is 

 true that the winds will, in a measure, carry 

 the pollen from the anthers to the stamens, 

 yet it is very imperfectly done." 



The anther is a part of the stamen, and 

 any amount of pollen carried to the stamen be- 

 low the anther would never produce fertiliza- 

 tion. It is necessary that the pollen be carri- 

 ed from the anthers to the stigma of the pistil 

 to produce fruitfulness. I thought at first 

 it must be a typographical error; but just a 

 little further on he says of the bee, " But as 

 it buries itself deep in the blossom it carries 

 on its downy body the fertilizing pollen, 

 which it transmits to the stamens," wh'ch is 

 absurd in the extreme. The bee transmits 

 the pollen to the pistil. 



Of course, any one familiar with this sub- 

 ject would know what was meant by the 

 writer or what he should have said ; but for 

 the many who may not have a technical 

 knowledge of the different parts of flowers 

 and their uses I feel that this correction is 

 due. 



THE value of spring FEEDING AS A PREP- 

 ARATION FOR THE HONEY-FLOW. 



The articles by E. W. Alexander have 

 proved very interesting and valuable, and I 

 hope they may be placed in permanent form 

 for easy reference. Aside from direct in • 

 formation on many subjects, the sidelight 

 thrown on some other points gives them 

 great value. We have wondered how he 

 could support such an immense yard of bees 

 in one place without overstocking. His 

 method of feeding, when flowers are not 

 yielding honey, in a large measure explains 

 the whole thing. To illustrate, take a clo- 

 ver section like the one where I live. Our 

 whole reliance for surplus is clover, which is 

 usually abundant; but unless bees get a good 

 start before it comes into bloom it goes by 

 before they can gather much surplus; but if 

 bees are fed so as to be strong when it be- 

 gins to yield honey, a good crop is secured, 

 and the number of colonies kept in one place 

 may be largely increased without danger of 

 overstocking, and the extra amount of hon- 

 ey secured will many times repay the cost 

 of extra feed. 



I remember some thirty years ago, before I 

 had learned the value of early brood- rearing 

 or the art of securing a strong colony in time 

 to gather the crop of hor ey as soon as it ap- 

 peared, nearly all my colonies were short of 

 stores, while many of them were weak in 

 numbers also. I thought that the strong 

 colonies could take care of themselves, but 

 the weak ones I must feed I fed them, but 

 left the strong ones to shirk for their feed. 

 When clover came into bloom I found those 

 that were strong early were almost without 

 brood, and fast getting weak, while those 

 that were weakest in early spring were my 

 best colonies, and gave me very much the 

 most surplus honey. Had I been a stranger 

 to the resources of our section I might have 

 thought we were overstocked. I believe 

 that, by judicious feeding when flowers yield 

 little honey, the number of colonies in any 

 given section may be very largely increased 

 — I think it safe to say doubled, without any 

 danger of overstocking. 



<3r 



DR. MILLER CORRECTED; WHY I USE PLAIN 

 SECTIONS. 



Under the topic of plain sections vs. bee- 

 way sections, Dr. Miller makes some good 

 points. There is quite a difference in differ- 

 ent colonies as to the evenness with which 

 they fill their sections. Especially is this 

 true in regard to a weak or strong colony. 

 There is also, as he says, a difference in dif- 

 ferent seasons; but Dr. Miller seems to have 

 misunderstood my position, and the editor of 

 Gleanings as well, judging from the foot- 

 notes on the article from my pen in the 

 Christmas number of Gleanings. I do not 

 use a simple slatted separator with parts to 

 engage the edges of the plain sections, but 

 use instead a separator with small projec- 

 tions on each side to engage the edges of 

 the plain sections, thus giving the bees a 



