1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



Santiago de Cuba has a few royal palms, 

 but they are mostly of the kind that are of 

 little or no value to the bees. 



CocoANUT Palm. —This is classed by both 

 English and Spanish writers as a good honey- 

 plant; but what I have seen of it (and I have 

 something like a hundred of them near by) 

 the bees pay but very slight attention to it. 



Vines.— The principal vines are the bell- 

 flowers. I think the bee-keepers in general 

 have a wrong impression of those plants. 

 For instance, in Gleanings for last August 

 a writer speaks of introducing the aguinaldo 

 into the North. This might be done with 

 the campanula marada, or, as some call it, 

 the aguinaldo marado; but the white bell- 

 flower, or Christmas pop, or, as they call it 

 in Spanish, "campamlla blanca" or "agui- 

 naldo bianco de la Pascua, " is a different 

 thing. You might just about as well talk 

 about growing cocoanut palms on the shores 

 of Lake Michigan. It is a plant that keeps 

 its foliage every month in the year, and 

 lives as long as the trees to which it clings. 

 I have a vine here near my door, a taffy- 

 colored twisting thing, which I find, on mea- 

 suring, is eight inches in circumference. 



" Bejuco tortugo " is a vine that can not 

 be depended on to blossom every year; but 

 by blooming the year that the Rambler was 

 at Taco-Taco it made it possible for him to 

 do what he did. The vine in appearance is 

 like a heavy ribbon that has had threads 

 drawn on each edge, causing the center, 

 which is longer than the edges, to alternate 

 back and forth in a series of cuplike hollows, 

 and on the bottom of each cup is a thorn. 

 It blossoms in the fall, causing the bees to 

 breed, swarm, and every thing else. 



I will also add, for the benefit of those 

 who advocate thoroughly ripe honey, never 

 fuss with tortugo honey. If left any length 

 of time in the combs it ferments, causing 

 the combs to look as though they had 

 "taken a trip on the hog, " and after you 

 get it in barrels you are still not sure of it, 

 as there is danger of its breaking loose 

 when you handle the casks. 



Casanova, Cuba. 



>»••••• ' 



HIVING SWARMS ON COMB OR FULL 

 SHEETS OF FOUNDATION A FAIL- 

 URE IN IDAHO. 



Plain Sections Not Popular. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



"With many there isn't one chance in 

 fifty of a swarm swarming again any way, 

 whether hived on combs or foundation." — 

 Stray Straw, page 531, 1904. May be; but 

 here in the arid West it is decidedly unsafe 

 to hive a swarm, either forced or natural, 

 on combs or full sheets of foundation, for 

 comb-honey production. For three years I 

 have persistently tested this on a large 

 scale, and I know that a large part of the 

 swarms hived on either combs or foundation 

 will soon be ready to swarm again. 



"More rapid progress is made" at clog- 



ging the brood-nest with honey, even with 

 the prolific Carnio-Itahans, while much of 

 this honey goes into the supers when the 

 swarm is hived on starters. 



However, if the swarm hived on combs or 

 foundation does not attempt to swarm again, 

 the results will be fairly satisfactory, as a 

 rule. Hiving on combs of sealed brood a la 

 Hall and Dr. Miller, is a failure here unless 

 with a ripe cell or a virgin, instead of a fer- 

 tile queen. Using the forced-swarm plan 

 largely, and hiving on starters, we have no 

 fear of the bees carrying black comb from 

 below to finish sealing sections. 



To make a success of hiving on starters, 

 the brood-nest for the new swarm must 

 never exceed eight frames of standard 

 size except for the first few days. About 

 six-frame capacity is very good, though we 

 usually contract by the use of two combs of 

 honey or honey and brood. 



The super must be so attractive that work 

 will be resumed in it as soon as the swarm 

 is hived; or, in other words, a super contain- 

 ing several bait combs, or one begun either 

 by the parent colony or any other colony, 

 must be used on the swarm. When Dr. 

 Miller establishes his bees on their summer 

 stands let him place the pairs several feet 

 apart and he will likely secure much better 

 results with the forced-swarm plan. Every 

 year I like the plan better, and every year 

 I place the hives further apart, or in some 

 other way make each location as distinct as 

 possible. I have a new plan to secure this 

 result, which I shall test, and, if satisfac- 

 tory, will illustrate it early in June. 



Mr. W. K. Morrison is badly mistaken in 

 thinking that the use of starters is neces- 

 sarily a step backward. Let Mr. Morrison 

 tell us how to prevent swarming profitably, 

 for comb honey in outyards, in this locality, 

 if he can; but don't dare to recommend his 

 pet manipulation as outlined in past numbers 

 of Gleanings, for such is worse than use- 

 less here; "hence any criticism based on the 

 (non) use of starters is worthless." Yes, 

 and tell Mr. Danzenbaker that the Danzen- 

 baker-Root-Morrison plan of reducing to a 

 single story full of brood, with a laying 

 queen and baited supers above, has not been 

 known to prevent swarming in a single 

 instance in this locality; but a surer method 

 to induce swarming can scarcely be devised. 



Now a word in regard to sections and 

 supers. I have never purchased a well- 

 made fence separator from any firm except 

 The A. I. Root Co. ; but even when properly 

 made they do not please me. I am discard- 

 ing both the 4 J plain and the 4X5 plain, in 

 favor of the old standard, the much-abused 

 "squatty old woman," the behind-the- times 

 old sections that a writer in Gleanings once 

 said should be taken and "stamped out of 

 sight in the mud." Foolish ? Never mind ; 

 our western markets all specify "no more 

 4x5 sections," etc., and I have other rea- 

 sons. The plain section with a plain cleated 

 separator may yet take the preference. 

 You have also taken a step in the right 

 direction by reducing the thickness of the 



