1006 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



but a small part of that two pounds may have 

 been nectar, being nearly all bees. Color is 

 given to that view by the expression, ' ' then 

 a storm caught us." A sudden clouding up, 

 an inrush of bees, and none going out, and 

 there would be a rapid accession of weight, 

 even though not a drop of nectar was com- 

 ing in. [Mr. Southwood's point is well tak- 

 en.— Ed.] 



For late feeding, 2 parts of sugar and 

 1 of water, page 955, wouldn't it be just as 

 well to have 2| of sugar to 1 of water, as in 

 ABC? Remember, it's late feeding. [There 

 will practically be but little difference be- 

 tween the 2J and 2. I merely spoke of two 

 parts of sugar as being an easy thing to re- 

 member. If you will refer to late editions 

 of the A B C I think you will find we prefer 

 numbers 4 to 3 and 1 to 1. If there is a 

 possibility of the bees ripening it I should 

 prefer to give the thinner syrup. Years 

 ago, when we had the 2J proportion, we had 

 a good deal of sugar go into crystals in the 

 combs; but in later years we use nothing 

 stronger than equal parts, and feed early. — 

 Ed.] 



As HAVING a possible bearing on the pa- 

 per-section question, p. 959, I may mention 

 that I have had, from Germany, I think, a 

 sample of paper queen-excluder, the paper ap- 

 pearing to be so treated that bees would nut 

 gnaw it. But even if cheap enough to be 

 used for queen- excluders it might be quite 

 too expensive for section boxes. [I can not 

 conceive of any kind of paper excluders that 

 would for all time resist the gnawing on the 

 part of the bees like zinc. When it comes to 

 a matter of sections, there is urgent need of 

 a cheaper material because of the quantity 

 of lumber required. But in the Une of ex- 

 cluding-boards the amount of material used 

 is very small comparatively, and that ma- 

 terial will last a lifetime; hence I can see no 

 advantage in trying to cheapen queen- exclud- 

 ers by trying to use sonie other material 

 than zinc. —Ed.] 



Editor Root is of the opinion that far- 

 mers or beginners should have a frame that 

 will space automatically and exactly right, 

 p. 954. Yes, and so should others, at least 

 until they have had 40 years' experience, or 

 more. Mr. Hutchinson, page 953, seems to 

 think he doesn't need automatic spacing, for 

 he has in his "mind's eye" a | measure 

 which he uses "when putting the frames in 

 the hive, just as the self- spacers would use 

 nails driven into the sides of the frames." 

 Now look here, friend Hutchinson, I suspect 

 I have spaced more loose-hanging frames 

 than ever you did, and probably had as good 

 a I measure in my mind's eye; and one of 

 the things that I know is that I can't begin 

 to work that | measure with the same ra- 

 pidity nor with the same exactness as the 

 spacing-nails. You say it often happens that 

 the ability to make a variation of J inch is 

 an advantage; to which may be added that 

 much oftener it is a disadvantage. 



It dazed me when I read, p. 964, that if 

 dead bees would not clog the entrance you 



would prefer an entrance, Mr. Editor, not 

 more than one inch wide and J high, for out- 

 door wintering. That would be only J of a 

 square inch, and I had supposed that would 

 be entirely too little. But your experience 

 greatly exceeds mine, and I am thankful to 

 be corrected. Now, if such a small entrance 

 is desirable providing it can be kept open, 

 how would it do to have it two or three inch- 

 es above the bottom, giving plenty of room 

 for the dead bees to fall to the floor without 

 clogging the entrance? [Having the en- 

 trance a little above the bottom might help 

 the matter somewhat; but not having tried 

 it I suspect that a good many bees would 

 come to the entrance and become chilled, 

 dying because of their low vitality. I feel 

 very sure of this: We need no more entrance 

 than will allow of the slight renewing of the 

 air and the egress of certain bees whose dis- 

 eased condition would be a menace to the 

 well ones or to the stores left in the hive. I 

 am of the opinion that stores soiled with 

 dysentery have a tendency to bring on dys- 

 entery on the part of bees that would other- 

 wise be healthy if they could have clean 

 stores. —Ed.] 





Bee Keeping among the Rockies 



Look out now for the colonies that n^^ed 

 feeding. A great many, e-:pecially of the 

 new swarms, will need help or they will 

 starve this winter. 



^r 



It is sometimes a real misfortune for a 

 man to have two or three good seasons at 

 his start in bee-keeping. He is building on a 

 false foundation. It takes several years to 

 find out what an average is in bee-keeping. 

 When disaster comes, as it is sure to sooner 

 or later in the shape of a poor season, he is 

 not as well prepared to meet it as if his ear- 

 lier experiences had been less flattering. 



AMOUNT OF HONEY TO THE ACRE. 



The amount of honey that an acre of hon- 

 ey-producing plants may yield is a very in- 

 teresting subject that has been guessed at a 

 number of times; but since it is difficult to 

 get any accurate data on which to base the 

 estimate, the results have not been very sat- 

 isfactory. A recent attack on the problem 

 from an unusual direction is at least interest- 

 ing. This is contained in ' ' Bee-products in 

 Arizona," a part of Bulletin 51 issued by 

 the Arizona Experiment Station. "Their re- 

 sults "were obtained by selecting typical 

 plants or areas, estimating the number of 

 blossoms, and determining the sugars in 

 samples of average flowers. ' ' They calcu- 



