1288 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C^ULTUKE. 



Oct. 15 



tight-fitting cover. The material to be cook- 

 ed must be brought to the lioil and kept 

 there until entirely heated through, then 

 quickly put into the box and covered up. 

 Oatmeal put in at night will be hot in the 

 morning. At dinner to-day I ate chicken, 

 cooked in the hay-box, that was delicious. 

 It was put in about 8 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, taken out just before dinner, floured 

 and browned in butter in the frying-pan. 

 [From the number of favorable reports I 

 have seen of this fireless stove, I should say 

 it was an unqualified success, and a great 

 fuel-saver. We are planning to have one 

 put in our house. — Ed.] 



An interesting sight I saw this morn- 

 ing, Sept. 21. A bee that appeared to be 

 quite young was busily digging away at a 

 dandelion blossom; but its rather deliberate 

 movement attracted my attention. At first 

 I thought it might be a sick bee; but looking 

 closely at it 1 saw that it was using its tongue 

 all the time. I touched it with my finger, 

 but it paid no attention to it. I pushed it 

 around two or three times; l)ut as soon as I 

 left it, it liegan digging away again. After 

 watching it about a minute 1 laid my watch 

 on the ground to time it. It seemed to be 

 cleaning away the pollen a little; Init I could 

 see nothing accumulating in its pollen-bas- 

 kets. After 14 minutes it flew away. Dan- 

 delions were rather plentiful; and, timing 

 other bees, 1 found they spent from 8 to 30 

 seconds on a flower — a longer time than I 

 had supposed. Was that the first blossom 

 my young bee had ever seen? and did it sup- 

 pose none was to be found elsewhere? 



I don't want to injure the man who in- 

 vented the revei'sible bottom-board: l)ut in 

 comparing it with bottom-racks I think Bro. 

 Doolittle omits some points, p. 1234. With 

 the rack, two or three times as much air- 

 space is allowed under the bottom-bai's, and 

 I count this of so much importance that it 

 would settle me in favor of the rack if there 

 were no other advantage. If I understand 

 him rightly, Bro. Doolittle favors reversing 

 because it obliges him to heft the hives "by 

 which we know which require feeding if any 

 do." Why, bless yoiir heart, Bro. D., can't 

 I heft it just as well with the liottom-boaixl 

 on, lifting it only once instead of your twice, 

 saving the drawing and nailing of staples 

 and adjusting of hive on bottom-ljoard ''. But. 

 really, I count depending on hefting (done a 

 very slipshod way of doing things. You 

 can't trust it within several pounds. A hive 

 is a good deal heavier when you're tired 

 than when you're fresh. I don't generally 

 raise the hive when 1 heft it. If I pull enough 

 to know that it feels as if it were nailed to 

 the ground, and feel sure that it is away be- 

 yond the danger-point as to weight, then 

 nothing further is needed. But if there is 

 any sort of question about it, then it must 

 be actually weighed. The scales may show 

 it 5 pounds over the necessary weight; but 

 hefting will not tell me Jor sure whether it 

 is over or under. [We do not depend on 

 "hefting."' Before putting the bees up final- 



ly we examine every comlj, then mark on 

 the record the amount of feed, if any, that 

 will be required to give the necessary stores. 

 —Ed.] 



I AM HOPEFUL that Mr. Warden has given 

 us the true secret of failure when putting 

 weak colonies over strong ones, p, 1229. It 

 looks reasonable that allowing the weak col- 

 ony to remain over the strong one some time 

 before any intermingling of bees would Ijc 

 conducive to good fellowship, for the same 

 reason that a strange queen is caged on In- 

 troduction. I have puzzled no little over 

 that sentence at the top of the page whii-h 

 tells of partly lifting the cover, and have 

 come to the conclusion that the semicolon 

 after "partly" has no business there, allow- 

 ing us to lift entirely the cover which was 

 partly sealed to the excluder. Why would 

 it not make a still surer thing to have wire 

 cloth between the two colonies for two or 

 more days in advance? or. perhaps, combine 

 the plan for uniting that originated in this 

 locality? Put a piece of heavy manilla pa- 

 per under the excluder, having in it a hole 

 large enough for one bee to pass. [You are 

 right. The semicolon should not have been 

 there. It was not in the copy, and after it 

 (^rept into the type it was marked out, but 

 got overlooked. 



Your suggestion of putting some sort of 

 barrier lietween the upper and lower story 

 is all right. It occurred to me that perhaps 

 it might be test in the case of some bees, at 

 least, to put a wire-cloth screen between the 

 xipper and lower story for a couple of days, 

 then replace with perforated zinc. This 

 would prevent the bees from getting together 

 too soon. — Ed.] 



Anothek "if" might well be added in 

 that Cuban discussion, page 1282. "If" it 

 turns out that Cubans can send in duty-fi'ei' 

 honey at prices with whic^h we can not com- 

 pete, what then? W^ell, if they can, let "em. 

 Bee-keepers are not the only people in the 

 world; and if it will be better for the coun- 

 try at large to import its honey than to pro- 

 duce it, we l)ee-keepers can make a living 

 some other way. But I have no real fear 

 that I should get a cent less for honey if 

 Culm should become one of us. Besides. 

 Culia is not going to be annexed. [We do 

 not need to be afraid of that last "if," even 

 should annexation l)ecome an accomplisheil 

 fact. The poor seasons that Cuba has l^een 

 having for two or three years back have put 

 l)ee-keeping in her bordei"s in a decidedly 

 bad way. Thousands of colonies have die<l 

 out from neglect or starvation; disease ha.s 

 killed other thousands, and it will be a lonji' 

 time liefore the bee business recovers itself 

 in Cuba. The time was when there had not 

 l)een a Itreak in the good seasons for many 

 years. If Cuba, like California, is to have 

 only now and then a good year she will nev- 

 er he able to break the market in our great 

 cities any more than California has been able 

 to do in its good years. When the Golden 

 State does have a good season she is able to 

 produce honey as cheaply as Cuba, and <le- 



