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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



By joining the National Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation you can secure a pamphlet giving 

 the law relative to bees in all the States, as 

 well as the common law where no special 

 statutes are in existence. To become a 

 member of the Association, write to the 

 General Manager, N. E. France, Platteville, 

 Wis., inclosing one dollar. — Ed.] 



DRAWN COMBS VS. FULL SHEETS. 



I should like to know if a good strong col- 

 ony of bees will gather more honey if given 

 full-drawn combs than if you give them 

 some drawn combs and some full foundation 

 to draw out. If so, what becomes of the 

 wax which would be emitted through the 

 wax-glands for comb-buildings ? 



Providence, R. I. William Seale. 



[It is generally stated that bees will gath- 

 er more honey with drawn combs than with 

 foundation and drawn combs, although there 

 are conditions when foundation may be giv- 

 en with practically no loss. It is a mooted 

 question whether bees secrete wax when 

 they do not need it; but I think the best au- 

 thorities are of the opinion that, when there 

 is no comb-building, there is no waste of 

 wax scales. In fact, none are secreted in 

 the first place. If this is true, then drawn 

 combs would enable the bees to furnish act- 

 ually more extracted honey than frames 

 containing merely foundation. As a matter 

 of fact, more extracted is actually produced 

 in the generality of cases when drawn combs 

 are used. This would be a proper subject 

 for the experiment stations, and I here offer 

 the suggestion that the general government 

 have this matter tested. — Ed.] 



V^^OftMS ATTACKING THE UNHATCHED BEES. 



Not long ago I had a hive of Italian bees. 

 I failed to put the zinc queen-excluder on 

 the hive; and the consequence was, the 

 queen laid eggs and took my sections for her 

 nursery (I use a 3-lb. section, and find my 

 bees take well to them). Upon examination 

 of this particular hive I decided to allow the 

 brood time enough to begin hatching well, 

 and then put on the excluder and put the 

 queen below, which I did. Not long there- 

 after I noticed signs of web-worms, and on 

 opening the section-case I found lots of 

 hatched bees had gone below, but scores of 

 brood in patches as large as the palm of my 

 hand were alive, but still in their cells la- 

 boring to get out. I also noticed some that 

 had gotten out had cut wings and small 

 pieces of web on them. I found that small 

 worms had gone in and had not only fasten- 

 ed these bees to their cells but were feast- 

 ing on them. Scores of them were in the 

 comb at the base of the cells, and looked 

 like the small web- worms we usually see, 

 but longer. I made a fire and burned them. 

 They did not attack the honey at all, as the 

 regular web-worms do, but imprisoned ma- 

 ture brood and ate them. I rid the hive en- 

 tirely of them by cutting that part of the 

 combs infested with them, and now that 



hive is in good condition, with no signs of 

 them. Please tell me if this is an old ene- 

 my or a new one, as I never had any experi- 

 ence with them before. 



L. L. Brockwell. 

 Edlow, Va., July 25, 1905. 



[The case described is nothing more nor 

 less than the old familiar moth-worms that 

 have built galleries and webs into the work- 

 er brood. They very rarely make any dep- 

 redations in hives having Italian blood, and, 

 consequently, we advise introducing Italian 

 blood into every colony. For full particu- 

 lars regarding this bee enemy, see under 

 heading of "Bee-moth," in our A B C of 

 Bee Culture.— Ed.] 



RED-CLOVER STOCK— WHAT IS IT? 



In your issue for August 15 you speak of 

 your red-clover breeder being dead. Will 

 you kindly tell your readers, the majority of 

 whom, I fancy, could not tell exactly what 

 a red-clover queen is, just what kind of bee 

 your and other red-clover bees are, anyhow? 

 Are they pure Italians, golden, leather-col- 

 ored, three-banded, or what? 



R. Stuehck. 



Arlington, Oregon, Aug. 23. 



["Red-clover" is the name applied to a 

 strain of bees direct from Italian imported 

 stock which shows a disposition to work on 

 red clover when other bees will do little or 

 nothing on it. By this it is not claimed that 

 the bees of all the queens of this blood will 

 work on red clover every season and every- 

 where. In some localities red clover appar- 

 ently yields no honey at all, and it is equally 

 true that some of our red-clover bees may 

 be no better than ordinary Italians. This 

 strain is also quite remarkable for the 

 amount of honey it will gather from any 

 source. The bees of the original stock had 

 tongues iVtr of an inch long ; that is to say, 

 they had a tongue-reach of that length. 

 While this is not long enough to reach to 

 the bottom of some of the longer red-clover 

 tubes, it is sufficient to reach the nectar in 

 some of them. — Ed.] 



SHOULD A COLLEGE GRADUATE TAKE. UP API- 

 CULTURE FOR A LIVELIHOOD? 



Having just graduated from college I am 

 now casting about to find a permanent busi- 

 ness that will be to my liking, and result in 

 large remuneration. I should appreciate 

 greatly any information that you may be 

 able to give concerning the profits that are 

 now being made in large apiaries. In case 

 I should desire to go into this business I 

 should like to know that money could be 

 made in raising bees on a much larger scale 

 than the general average. 



F. L. Bennett. 



Rochester, N. Y., Sept. 4. 



[I desire to be entirely frank with you, 

 and say that the average college graduate 

 could probably make more money pursuing 

 some other calling than that of bee culture; 



