228 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



ter of seeing to how much greater an ex- 

 treme one could run than his predecessor. 

 And this craze went so far that some put 

 forth a half-pound section, and cried 'Eure- 

 ka! ' over it. Mind you, the bee-keepers 

 were doing this— making themselves four 

 times the work of the past, that one could 

 get a little ahead of the other on a small- 

 sized section, without a single consumer 

 asking them to go into such folly of quad- 

 rupling their work. This has always been 

 one of the wonders to me." 

 t " But the half-pound section did not come 

 into general use, did it? " 



' ' No. The bees ' kicked ' against being 

 cut up into quite so small clusters, and 

 would not work to so good advantage as in 

 the pound section, and so all seemed to set- 

 tle down on the latter; and after the con- 

 sumer got used to these small pound sec- 

 tions the call for two-pound sections ceased 

 although there were some in New York city 

 that called for the latter some time after 

 they ceased to appear in market." 



"Well, if the bees kicked on the half- 

 pound why not on the pound and on the two- 

 pound, to a proportional extent?" 



"It would seem that they should; but 

 from practice I find that, so far as the yield 

 of honey is concerned, as much can be pro- 

 duced in these smaller sections as in any 

 thing larger." 



' ' Do you still use tin separators ? ' ' 



"Yes." 



' ' But is not the claim made that fences 

 are better?" 



' ' Yes. Theory argues along the same 

 line that you are doing, that all the ' traps ' 

 used in modern bee-keeping are a hindrance 

 to the bees; and so the fences have been 

 put forward to overcome this partially by 

 allowing the bees to pass through between 

 the boards, and thus allow of a greater cir- 

 culation of heat and bees than was possible 

 with the old whole- tin separator." 



' ' And does this not prove correct in prac- 

 tice?" 



"Not with me. If it did, the Betsinger 

 arrangement, with wire c\oth having meshes 

 of a size to admit bees freely, used as sep- 

 arators, should as far surpass the fences as 

 daylight does moonlight ; but after a thorough 

 trial of both, I can not see enough in favor 

 of either, over and above my old tin separa- 

 tors, which have been in use since the latter 

 seventies, to pay for an exchange. Yea, 

 more! I can not see a particle of difi'erence 

 as to yield, perfect capping, or perfect fill- 

 ing, in favor of either, when mixed up in 

 any super on the same colony, or, under like 

 circumstances, with like colonies. If a colo- 

 ny is in good condition to produce fancy 

 comb honey with one of the plans, it will 

 produce equally nice with either plan. But 

 I am well aware that theory, and reasoning 

 from man's standpoint, would say that the 

 greatest success would be given where the 

 wire cloth was used, as with this the bees 

 are inconvenienced, apparently little, if 

 any, more than they were in the days of our 

 fathers with their 25-pound box." 



"Well, I am surprised at this. But how 

 about the queen-excluding honey-boards? " 



" When these first came before the public 

 I tried them slowly, as I did the sections 

 with separators, using more and more each 

 year, till, so far as I am able to see, I can 

 say that, with me, and in my locality, they 

 do not decrease my crop of comb honey. 

 But I am not speaking for others, only to 

 advise them to do as I have done in testing 

 the matter, if they think there is a chance 

 that, in their locality, these would not work 

 the same. The old saying, 'Prove all things, 

 hold fast that which is good,' is as valuable 

 to you as to any one, and as good to-day as 

 it ever was; and if you have doubts in this 

 matter, this is the thing for you to do. 

 However, he who can commence where the 

 best bee-keepers of to-day leave off has the 

 advantage of those who have gone all the 

 way proving these things for themselves— 

 at least their financial success may be great- 

 er. 



CleanincsfrS' the Pacific Coast 



By Prof. A.J.Cook: Pomona Coluece. Cal. 



GLEANINGS FROM THE PACIFIC COAST. 



If I need to make any apology for this 

 heading, I will just say that Gleanings 

 from its start has always interested me 

 very much, and I acknowledge to a partiali- 

 ty toward the word. The word is also quite 

 appropriate, as I propose that these notes 

 shall be gathered up from some of the best 

 experience and practice of our Pacific Coast 

 bee-keepers. I shall be very grateful to 

 any who may contribute to these gleanings 

 from the best pages of their experience. 

 FOOD OF bees. 



I was surprised to see the statement re- 

 garding the large amount of proteids to be 

 found in honey as given in one of Dr. Miller's 

 Straws. I suppose it was an error of the 

 types. It would be very rare indeed to find 

 more than a fraction of one per cent of 

 proteid elements in any sample of honey. I 

 quite agree with the editor that this proteid 

 in honey is entirely unnecessary. We know 

 that it is the work of the stomach-mouth, 

 that interesting organ at the lower part of 

 the honey-stomach, to remove the pollen, 

 the only source of proteid in honey, from the 

 nectar before it is stored in the comb or 

 passes to the true stomach. I am sure that 

 all experience shows that bees winter just 

 as well if not better on honey from pure 

 sugar syrup as that which comes from nec- 

 tar gathered from the flowers. The natural 

 source for proteid food is in the pollen, or 

 bee-bread, and the bees need not get this 

 from the honey. Indeed, I believe it were 

 better if all of the proteid were removed 



