700 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



just as nice and fine in quality as that from 

 The white; and it is legitimate and proper, 

 inasmuch as the name has become estab- 

 lished, to call it white sage. The black and 

 button sage yield the larger portion of the 

 honey. White sage, if I remember correct- 

 ly, comes on first. — Ed.] 



"My first crop . . . May 10 . . . sold 

 at 7 cts. How does this compare with bee- 

 keeping in the North?" page 64L Wonder 

 how much it will cost me to move down 

 into Texas beside my good friend SchoU. 

 Hold on, though; here's something on next 

 page — something about ' ' really the only 

 country here where honey-yielding flora is 

 productive" being bottoms subject to floods 

 which ' ' happen every few years ' ' to carry 

 off the hives, etc. Sorry, friend Scholl, but 

 I think I'll not come just yet. You see I 

 get quite a bit of honey up here on a nice 

 hill where I don't have to keep my bees on 

 scaffolds. 



Stop crying about the disappearance of 

 basswood, Mr. Editor, long enough for me 

 to give you a crumb of comfort. "The 

 furniture and box makers use a hundred 

 times as much of this valuable wood as the 

 manufacturers of bee-keepers' supplies," 

 page 668. Well, as soon as cost gets high 

 enough other wood will be used for furniture 

 and boxes, leaving the whole output of bass- 

 wood for sections, and we can stand a little 

 rise in cost, can't we ? [When basswood is 

 so scarce that it will not be available to 

 furniture-makers, it will be too high-priced 

 for sections; or, rather, to put it in another 

 way, the supply available will be so small 

 that the section-maker would not be able to 

 rely on a sufficient supply to take care of a 

 season's business. The fact is, the furni- 

 ture-makers will use this wood as long as 

 the section men do, I opine; and when they 

 can not get any, we shall not be able to 

 obtain it. — Ed.] 



"Without protection the bees will de- 

 sert the super entirely on cool nights, and 

 all work will stop for the time being," page 

 643. The implication is 4;hat we'll get more 

 honey by keeping supers warm. But really 

 will there be very much difference ? How 

 much more do you think the bees will gather 

 for having their supers blanketed ? Suppose 

 the bees are all driven out of the supers by 

 the cold to-night ; won't the fielders gather 

 just the same amount to-morrow ? That 

 will only make the nurse-bees hustle a little 

 more lively to do the super work next morn- 

 ing that they ought to have done in the 

 night; but if it makes no difference in the 

 gathering won't we get just the same 

 amount in the long run ? Or will the nurse- 

 bees strike if they're crowded too hard, 

 obliging a squad of fielders to be detailed 

 for home duty ? [Mr. Burt says he does 

 not guess, but knows, that he secures more 

 and better honey with the protection than 

 without. If the bees are out of the super 

 during the night because it is cold, the pro- 

 cess of ripening or evaporation is delayed 

 just that much. Possibly you will remem- 



ber A. I. Root contended years ago for 

 comb-honey supers inside of the Simplicity 

 hive, or what was virtually a double- walled 

 hive, or a winter-case, the same as Mr. 

 Burt uses. If you will turn back to the 

 early volumes you will notice where you and 

 the senior editor of this journal had an argu- 

 ment on this same point. This, I think, was 

 about the middle of the 80's. It is, no 

 doubt, true that locality has much to do 

 with this matter as well as the season. The 

 very warm nights, for example, that we 

 have been having for the last week would 

 render protecting-cases of no particular ad- 

 vantage. But sometimes we have fairly 

 good honey weather with cool nights and 

 hot days. It is then, if I understand Mr. 

 Burt correctly, that the winter-cases are 

 money-makers. — Ed.] 



Been trying a pair of those fingerless 

 gauntlets. I'd rather stand a sting now and 

 then than to wear any thing so warm on a 

 hot day. But I'm glad to have them, after 

 all; for there are times when bees are espe- 

 cially cross, and yet must be handled; and 

 then it's quite a comfort to be saved a lot of 

 stings on the hands and wrists. [You will 

 remember that the gauntlets I sent you 

 were fleece-lined to make them more sting- 

 proof. As I wrote at the time, we can fur- 

 nish you the same kind of gauntlet made of 

 lighter material; or, better still, you could 

 make them of mosquito- netting, which will 

 serve to protect the fleshy parts of your 

 wrists almost as well as heavier material. 

 Stings on the backs or palms of the hands, 

 or on the fingers, I do not care so much 

 about; but I do not want any bee up my 

 sleeves, whether it stings or not. Two or 

 three bad stings up the sleeve are apt to 

 make, in my case at least, a lame arm for a 

 day or two; while stings almost anywhere 

 else on my body leave no effect beyond a 

 sharp pain at the moment the sting is re- 

 ceived.— Ed.] 



Confusion is feared by friend Scholl if 

 "one brood" is used for "one frame of 

 brood, ' ' because he thinks the word ' ' brood ' ' 

 applies to all the brood in a colony. Of 

 course it does; but look here, Louis, did you 

 ever hear the brood of a colony spoken of 

 as "a brood" or "one brood"? So when 

 "a" or any numeral is used, we know that 

 a frame or a number of frames is meant. 

 In this locality the term has been so used 

 for years, and never the least confusion. I j 

 don't believe you can make any confusion ■ 

 if you try. Try. [I see no confusion that 

 can possibly come from the term ' ' one 

 brood" or "a brood;" and Gleanings will 

 be glad to adopt the term in its columns if 

 its correspondents will use it. If you set 

 the pace in your own Straws I will endeavor 

 to follow suit in the editorial matter. The 

 only possible objection I see is that begin- 

 ners or new readers might be confused. 

 They are confused as it is, because bee cul- 

 ture has a special nomenclature of its own. 

 When I say we gave a colony a "cell" or 

 a "virgin," what does that mean to a new 



