552 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



the odor of cabbage or burnt rags in the 

 kitchen, although there may not be any 

 smoke. He says, also, "How do young 

 bees find their way back to their hives 

 when taken away a short distance?" I 

 should say they were guided by their bump 

 of locality or direction. A pig can find its 

 way back when taken from home, and so 

 can horses, dogs, and other animals. When 

 young bees are moved they must be con- 

 scious of the direction they are taking. If 

 they find their way back by scent then they 

 display a greater sense of smell than old 

 bees; for it is well known that, when a hive 

 is moved only a short distance from its old 

 stand, the absent bees coming from the 

 fields can not find it. I do not know for a 

 fact that young bees can find their way 

 back. I have observed young bees just 

 from the cells crawling in unchallenged 

 at the entrance of neighboring hives, and 

 wondered if young bees have not, like 

 drones, free access to any hive. 



Arthur T. Goldsborough. 

 Wesley Height, Washington, D. C. 



[You quite effectually dispose of the smell 

 theory on the part of your bees in locating 

 their hives when you say that the old bees 

 (which is a fact) will not be able to find 

 their entrance if the hive is moved a short 

 distance. By " short distance " I mean 20 

 or 3U feet or more. I see no reason why 

 the sense of smell should be any more acute 

 in young bees than in old ones. Indeed, it 

 is not definitely proved yet that young bees 

 will find their own entrance. 



Yes, it is a well-established fact that baby 

 bees, like drones, will be accepted at any 

 entrance.— Ed.] 



HOW TO ARRANGE A LEWIS FOUNDATION- 

 FASTENER FOR FASTENING IN BOT- 

 TOM STARTERS, AND CUT- 

 TING FOUNDATION. 



First take out the hot plate and grind or 

 file the end to a thin sharp edge. Next, 

 lower the block on which the sections rest to 

 a position about | of an inch below the hot 

 plate, so that, when a large piece of founda- 

 tion has been fastened to the bottom of the 

 section, the sharp edge of the hot plate may 

 be brought slowly forward, cutting off all of 

 the foundation except a stump about half 

 an inch wide, which is the bottom starter. 

 Invert the section on the machine and fast- 

 en the rest of the foundation, or that part 

 left after the bottom starter has been set, 

 and the work is done. 



When I cut my foundation I take a board 

 as long and as wide as the sheets of surplus 

 foundation, and rule it off with a pencil to 

 cut five s arters to a sheet, making the rul- 

 ings as much triangular as five to the 

 sheet will allow. Draw lines from the rul- 

 ings on either side of the board, and the 

 pattern-board is ready. 



Lay one, two, or three sheets of founda- 

 tion on the pattern and the marks will show 

 through enough to cut by. I use an old 

 kitchen chopping-knife, such as our mothers 



used for chopping meat for hash, etc. This, 

 knife is kept hot by hanging on a hook just 

 above the hot plate of foundation-fastener. 

 In cutting, the knife is rocked back and 

 forth over th • rulings on the pattern-board. 

 The children do most of the cutting, and 

 stack them up in neat piles. 



I have a hopper made of lath, holding, 

 when full, 1500 sections at a time, which, 

 with its inclining floor, feeds the last sec- 

 tion down within easy reach of the operator. 



The sections, when ready, are disposed of 

 by putting directly into supers when they 

 are emptied, otherwise they are put inta 

 crates near by. F. W. Hall. 



Hull, la., Feb. 9. 



[Although Mr. Hall has made use of the 

 Lewis fastener, we suppose that any of the 

 machines using a hot plate could be adapted 

 to his method by a little change. 



If we understand him correctly, in order 

 to put on bottom starters as well as the up- 

 per large piece, he first fastens the large 

 sheet in the ordinary way, then runs out the 

 hot plate, slowly, to cut off all except the 

 narrow stub for the bottom starter, and 

 finally reverses the section, fastening the 

 remaining large piece of foundation as usu- 

 al. He may have some good reason for cut- 

 ting the foundation with the hot plate, but 

 we do not see why this narrow piece could 

 not have been cut with a knife on some such 

 arrangement as his cutting-board, and then 

 the two could be fastened separately, in the 

 ordinary way, by simply reversing the sec- 

 tion, after the first piece is in, and put in 

 the second one. It seems to us that this 

 latter method would be quicker; but, even 

 if it were not, it would save the expense of 

 changing the construction of the machine. 



For cutting foundation into starters or 

 full sheets, we consider the miter-box, as 

 shown, ahead of any thing else we have 

 tried. Any one can make such a device, or 

 they can be obtained from any of the deal- 

 ers. The general principle of this method 

 will be apparent from the illustrations. 



