1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE GULTURP:. 



iisy 



taken up its residence nnder a Ijoanl. Init he 

 soon moved out. G. W. Ingkksoll. 



Remsen, N. Y. 



[We have had repoi-ts l^efore of how toads 

 would eat bees, and in some rare instances 

 actually depopulate a fair-sized colony. Of 

 course, the only thing to do under such cir- 

 cumstances is to make away with the animals. 

 But if one's sense of humanity is such that he 

 does not feel like killing them, he should hag 

 them and carry them away two or three miles 

 and let them kill insects, because toails are 

 the farmer's friend. — Eu.] 



TOOTHSOME GRAHAM BREAD USING HONEY. 



The finest recipe for graham bi'ead we 

 have ever seen, recently came into our fami- 

 ly: and since it is so good, moreover con- 

 taining honey, we wish to pass it on to our 

 l)ee-keeping and honey-loving friends. Bro- 

 ther E. R. has been allowed to sample it, so 

 we give him permission to add a footnote to 

 his fancy. 



Take one pint sweet milk, half a cup ex- 

 tracted honey, one-third cup sugar, one tea- 

 spoonful soda: salt: 2^ cups graham tlour. 

 Stir all into a batter in a vessel in which it 

 shall be steametl for three hours, then re- 

 move from the steamer and place in the oven 

 to bake half an hour. It will not last long 

 in the pantry if known to be there by one or 

 two members of the family. 



Sylvania, Pa. Richard Simmons. 



[I gladly testify to the toothsome qualities 

 of the graham-bread recipe here given. I re- 

 quested Mr. Simmons t(j send us the recipe, 

 which he has now done. I should be glad to 

 have our readers, especially those of the fem- 

 inine persuasion, test it and report. — Ed.] 



a warning to those who expect to try 

 THE alexandek :\iethod of building 



UP weak colonies. 

 It is not often I write any thing about 

 bees: but in this case I feel it my duty to 

 say a few words in warning to bee-keepei-s, 

 and would say to any one who expects to 

 try the Alexander plan of uniting or putting 

 weak colonies on top of strong ones, for the 

 purpose of benefiting the weak colonies by 

 securing the extra heat from below, and I 

 presume the assistance of some of the lower 

 bees to help take care of the brood in the 

 light or upper hive, that I tried this plan 

 with three of my light colonies, and followed 

 Mr. A.'s directions just as he gave them, and 

 in a week I looked for the light colonies, but 

 they were gone. I think the bees from the 

 strong or under hive came up and killed the 

 queen of the weak colony, and the bees that 

 were not also killed in the upper colony 

 joined the robiiers in the lower colony. Any- 

 how, all three of the colonies I tried were 

 served the same way. The lower colonies 

 made a clean sweep: and why shouldn't they 

 do so? It is natural. Bees nearly always 

 kill strange queens when they have a queen 

 that suits them. All the reason the bees in 

 the upper colony didn't kill the lower queen 



is because there was a larger army of bees 

 below to defend their (jueen. 



While I think there may be a few that 

 would l)e l)enetited by Mr. A.'s plan, I think 

 75 per cent of all who try it will lose their 

 queens in the weak colony, and lots of the 

 liees, which are killed in defending. There 

 ai-e many people who know things and write 

 them down that are not a fact: but any one 

 who «ill stop to think would know Mr. A.'s 

 plan in this case is not prai^tical. 



Now I will be a "smart Alec," and tell 

 you something that is so: i. e., a goosj or 

 turkey wing is the best bee-biiish out. They 

 kill no bees: and, another thing, to keep 

 your foundation from buckling leaves the 

 wires slack and don't let foundation touch 

 the bottom of the frame by ^ inch. 



Kearny, Neb. A. J. Snowden. 



[You are a little hard on Mr. Alexander 

 when you say, "There are many people who 

 know things and write them down that are 

 not a fact: but any one who will stop to 

 think would know Mr. A.'s plan in this case 

 is not practical." As Mr. Alexander is at 

 present a sick man, and scarcely able to do 

 any writing, I will take upon myself the re- 

 sponsibility of defending him 'against the 

 charge of not knowing what he is writing 

 about. In the first place, let me draw atten- 

 tion to the fact that I have been in his yard, 

 and have seen the "proof of the pudding, " 

 and knoiv that he is not theorizing or guess- 

 ing about this method of strengthening"'weak 

 colonies. You pro baldly have not failed to 

 notice in Gleanings a number of favorable 

 i-eports from those who have tested this plan, 

 and you have probably read other reports 

 where it seemed to be a failure. It failed 

 with us on the first few nuclei we tried it on. 

 When Mr. Alexander talks about strong col- 

 onies he means those that are fairly boiling 

 over with bees. Perhaps your estimate ol 

 what a strong colony should be is not the 

 same as that of Mr. Alexander. As soon as 

 he is able he will take up this matter of 

 strengthening weak colonies, in a later is- 

 sue. In the mean time we hope our friends 

 will defer criticism until he can go over the 

 matter, pointing out the cause of failure. — 

 Ed.] 



the alexandek method of building up 

 weak colonies: a case where the 

 weak colonies on top only 

 became weaker. 

 I was really enthusiastic, and believed that 

 I could see success and some really valuable 

 features in the Alexander method of uniting 

 weak colonies with strong ones: so upon re- 

 moving the bees from the cellar I had sever- 

 al four-frame nuclei with ycjung ijueens. 

 Then I selected out of 1.30 colonies at my 

 home yard one dozen of the strongest ones 

 that had an abunihmce of honey, and placed 

 a dozen of those nuclei on top of them over 

 queen-excluders : and, to make them as 

 warm as possil)le, I tacked heavy paper over 

 all cracks: but instead of the nuclei drawing 

 from the strong colonies, the strong colonies 



