1446 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. lo 



are then put in the little wooden apparatus 

 lo the right, and cut into slices 1.8 inches 

 square. This gives yovi a block of honey 

 3X1.8X1.8, exactly i lb. The blocks are 

 then covered with two papers, the outside 

 one printed with the name and address of 

 the producer. These small honey blocks 

 have taken immensely here, the grocers pre- 

 ferring to sell it all ready in paper, and the 

 housewife also preferring it in paper to dig- 

 ging it out of a bottle. 



One great feature of honey cut into blocks 

 is that it looks clean and attractive, and the 

 wrapper costs next to nothing — hence a great- 

 er demand for honey. The inventor of the 

 honey-cutter is Mr. James Allan, of Wynd- 

 ham,'Otago, New Zealand, president of the 

 most southern bee-keepers' association in the 

 world. Robert Gibb, 



Sec. Southland Bee-keepers' Ass'n. 



Tuturan, New Zealand. 



[I do not know of any reason why this 

 machine would not work as stated by our 

 correspondent. We should be glad to have 

 some of our reailers try it and report. — Ed.] 



THE SIDE ENTRANCE; ITS EFFECT ON OUT- 

 DOOR- VV'INTERED COLONIES. 



I noticed in May 1st issue of Gleanings 

 that you had sorne trouble with some of 

 your ijees that you wintered outdoors. You 

 seem to think the trouble was due to having 

 the entrance opening at one side. That 

 might be so at Medina, but here in Bairds- 

 town and Bloomdale the side entrance has 

 no bad effect, as I always use one piece for 

 (^losing the entrance, leaving the opening at 

 one side; but I also reduce the entrance to 

 I inch depth. I note you had yours | inch 

 deep. Another thing I do is, I always have 

 the front of my hives face the east, and leave 

 the opening on the south side, which is 2 

 inches wide; and, by the way, there is an- 

 other thing I have noticed in the way I have 

 the entrance closed; and that is, the bees 

 nearly always start brood-rearing in the 

 north side of the hive. 



A. J. Oberlitner. 



Bairdstown, Ohio, May 17. 



A DRONE-LAYING QUEEN; CAN SUCH A QUEEN, 



BY FEEDING EXTRACTED HONEY, BE 



MADE OVER INTO A GOOD QUEEN? 



1 have just noticed, on p. 1129, the criti- 

 cism by Dr. Brunnich, of Zurich, Switzer- 

 land, of a statement made by me on page 

 1239 of the year 1905, in regard to the queen 

 pui-chased from The A. 1. Root Co. in 1903. 

 For the benefit of the doctor— or any one 

 else who may be interested — I wish to say 

 that that statement was literally true in 

 every particular. If I had not known it to 

 be true I might have guessed at it, and asked 

 for information; but I didn't. Soon after 

 she was introduced and had commenced lay- 

 ing one wing was clipped, and I was so 

 greatly interested in her and the results th'at 

 she was watched during her whole life. The 



hive was filled with frames of worker comb 

 built on full sheets of foundation. The cen- 

 ter of the inside frames was occupied with 

 hatching brood, more than two-thirds of 

 which were drones. These frames were 

 shown to a couple of my lady-friend bee- 

 keepers, and their expression was,'' Isn't 

 that too badV She looked thin — in fact, 

 "spring poor," and of a rusty color; but aft- 

 er carefully feeding the bees with good hon- 

 ey for a few days she commenced to fatten, 

 look plump, and assume her rich golden col- 

 or again; the drone eggs disappeared, and 

 in midsummer I made four nuclei from her 

 colony. Late in the season she commenced 

 laying drone eggs again in worker-cells, and 

 I reluctantly superseded her. This singular- 

 instance tends to explain to me a principle 

 in parthenogenesis which has puzzled even 

 scientific investigators, and, if I'm not mis- 

 taken, is not yet fully settled; namely, the- 

 cause or manner of fecundation of the egg as. 

 it passes along the oviduct. This is a very 

 interesting subject to me, and it would give- 

 me great pleasure to read the opinions of 

 close observers on the subject. If the matter 

 is under the control of the queen, why drone 

 eggs in woi'ker-cell and afterward to work- 

 er eggs only? 



THE VALUE OF THE PROTECTING CASE FOR 

 SECTIONS. 



I note with interest what Mr. C. D. Farrer 

 has to say on page 1118, and your comments 

 thereon regarding the necessity of protection 

 of outside sections, and the use of cushions 

 over cases, etc. This matter of protection in 

 our northern localities I have considered 

 very important, and have practiced iD always. 

 It is one of the considerations which make 

 the kind of hive I use so valuable. There is. 

 a dead-air space under the cover of this hive, 

 even with the cushion on. They are kept on 

 my hives except in the very hottest weathei', 

 and, some seasons, all summer. 



Lake Geneva, Wis. Wm. M. Whitney. 



[Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the United States. 

 Department of Agriculture, has probably 

 given this subject of parthenogenesis, so far 

 as it relates to bees and queens, more thought 

 and study than any other late investigator. 

 We should be glad to hear from him on 

 these points. — Ed. J 



SWEET CLOVER A BIENNIAL. 



Referring to the first Straw, p. 1167, please 

 look into this matter further and see if sweet 

 clover {Melilotus alba) is not a biennial, the 

 nature of which is to die after seeding. This 

 may help to account for Dr. Miller s obser- 

 vation. However, the constant cutting may 

 still be true for young plants, while old ones- 

 will die of themselves. E. J. Wickson. 



Berkeley, Cal., Oct. 1. 



[Prof. Wltrkson, dean and acting director 

 of the California Agricultural J^xperiment 

 Station, is correct, entirely so, and we hasten 

 to offer (nir apologies for the implied state- 

 ment to the contrary on 110,7. — Ed.] 



