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CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



cated in Buffalo Co., in the heart of the al- 

 falfa belt, and any man who wants to get 

 into the best farming and bee country on 

 earth can come in here and we will not com- 

 plain about being crowded. The president 

 of a large bank in this county told me they 

 had several hundred acres of alfalfa on their 

 farms, and they wished some bee-man 

 would locate near it to see if it would not 

 help the seed crop. T. J. Quail. 



Miller, Neb., Feb. 20. 



[We usually consider it bad practice to 

 shut bees up in their hives in the cellar un- 

 less a large amount of ventilation is given. 

 It would be my opinion that the result will 

 not be so favorable later in the season. I 

 should prefer to take the chances with light 

 rather than with closed entrances. —Ed.] 



kink is "the honest Dane," mentioned in 

 one of Rambler's articles. 



Wm. Muth-Rasmussen. 

 Independence, Cal., Nov. 3. 



SWEET clover; YELLOW NOT AS HARDY AS 

 WHITE. 



I bought some sweet-clover seed of you 

 last year, yellow and white. The yellow 

 came up a good stand, but died, root and all, 

 in July. The land would have made 800 lbs. 

 of seed cotton per acre— sandy land with red 

 clay subsoil. The white clover is on very 

 nearly the same kind of land, but is nearer 

 the branch. The frost killed it in December, 

 but the roots are still alive. It is starting 

 new growth below the top of the ground. I 

 did not use any manure or fertilizer on any. 



Seneca, S. C. R. L. Boggs. 



MAPLE SAP. 



In the spring if a maple limb gets broken 

 will the bees make honey of the sap that 

 flows ? Would it be of any value to feed to 

 a colony short of stores at that time— about 

 March 1 ? Harry Selders. 



Brookside, W. Wa., Feb. 11. 



[Yes, the bees will gather maple sap the 

 same as any other sweetened water. They 

 would invert it or modify it just the same 

 as they would the nectar of flowers, but it 

 would not be honey any more than sugar 

 syrup fed to bees would be Jioney. — Ed.] 



A LITTLE "kink" IN SCRAPING SECTIONS. 



While visiting a neighboring bee-keeper 

 recently, I told him during our conversation 

 how the use of salt in the manufacture of 

 comb foundation came about. "Yes," he 

 said, "valuable discoveries are sometimes 

 made through seemingly trifling circum- 

 stances. For instance, one day while scrap- 

 ing sections I went and cut off some bacon 

 with my scraping-knife, and then returned 

 to my work without thoroughly cleaning the 

 knife. Just try wiping your knife occasion- 

 ally on a piece of bacon skin, and see what 

 a difference it makes." 



Well, I have tried it and found it a decid- 

 ed improvement. No matter how gummy 

 the bee-glue may be, it does not stick to the 

 knife and fingers as before. The knife, of 

 course, should not be so greasy as to make 

 spots on the section. The inventor of this 



LIGHT-WEIGHT SECTIONS; FOUL BROOD. 



Foul brood caused my bees to fail me last 

 year, and they did not fill my few 4X5 sec- 

 tions to the thickness to give full weight. I 

 thought it was caused by fences not spacing 

 far enough apart. Do you think disease 

 might have had something to do with it ? 



De Land, 111., Jan. 23. F. W. Morgan. 



[A light honey-flow might result in scant 

 filling of the boxes ; however, if foul brood 

 were present in the hive it would weaken 

 the colony to an extent where it would not 

 crowd the sections as much as it might do 

 otherwise. —Ed.] 



VENTILATED BOTTOM-BOARD. 



The bottom-board illustrated is the best 

 one for hot weather that I ever tried. It 

 should be 10 or 12 inches from the ground 

 so the air can pass up through the screen 

 wire as shown. This screen allows the trash 

 to drop through to the ground, while the air 

 passes up to the combs. This does away 

 with swarming to a great extent. 



When gummed up it can be cleaned by 

 holding it over a blazing fire. 



It may be used in winter by tacking thin 

 boards over the screen. 



This bottom is not needed under a weak 

 stand of bees that might go up and leave 

 their combs exposed; but it is all right for 

 strong ones. Bee-keepers in hot climates 

 will soon see its good qualities. 



Potts, Va., Jan. 11. John J. Conelly. 



[Such a bottom-board would do very well 

 in warm climates; but it might be too much 

 of a good thing the greater portion of the 

 season in the central and northern States, 

 especially at night. For moving bees it 

 would be very useful. But the objection to 

 wire cloth under the brood-nest is that it 

 covers up with dirt from the brood-nest, 

 and, moreover, the bees will propolize it all 

 over. Of course it can be melted off as you 

 describe, but that is a lot of work. It would 

 be better to provide the bottom-board with a 



