1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1231 



zucht is published by Theodor Weippl. a cel- 

 brated bee-keeper, in Vienna, No. 10 Leo- 

 poldstrasse. 



Schweizerische Bienen-Zeitung. This is 

 the most beautiful foreign bee journal we 

 pet so far as its printing is concerned, and 

 its cor tents are excellent. It is edited by 

 (ioldi-Braun, Altstatten, Canton of Saint 

 Galle, Switzerland. 



Pfaelzer Bienen-Zeitung is edited by Ph. 

 Reidenbach, in Reyborn, Prussia. 



Leipziger Bienen-Zeitung is a very promi- 

 nent German bee journal in its twelfth year. 

 As its name indicates, it is printed in Leip- 

 zig. Germany. 



Rheinische Bienen-Zeitung. I believe this 

 is the o dest bee journal in the world, being 

 now in its 56th year, making it about a doz- 

 en years older than the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. It has a very fresh appearance, how- 

 ever, and is an excellent journal. It is ed- 

 ited by Anton Schulzen, Viersen, Prussia. 



Concerning the total number of bee jour: 

 nals published, I append the following, just 

 handed me by the senior editor, A. I. Root: 



Now, friends, suppose you guess how many periodi- 

 cals there are in this world of ours, devoted to bee cul- 

 ture, honey, etc. Well, as you will never guess right I 

 will tell you. There are 83 in all. Only 7 of the 83 are 

 published in the United States, and there is only one in 

 Canada. The others are published across the water. 

 The above statement gives us an idea of how little we 

 are. There are almost if not quite a dozen periodicals 

 published in regard to navigating the air, but not one of 

 them is published in America; and it is a little sad to 

 think that, with all these publications, some having run 

 for fifteen or twenty years, the first real flying that 

 was ever done was right here in America, and yet we 

 have not even one journal devoted to air navigation. 



Probably not over half of the above num- 

 ber reach us. A list of all not so far men- 

 tioned will appear in our next issue. 



WHICH WAY SHOULD COMBS RUN IN HIVES? 



" Say, Mr. Doolittle, I came over to have 

 a little chat with you regarding the way 

 combs should run in the hives. Have you a 

 little time for such talk?" 



" Yes. But which way do the combs run 

 in the hives you are using?" 



' * They run toward the entrance. ' ' 



" Very good. And is not that the way 

 they should run?" 



" I had supposed so till lately. The past 

 fall I cut several bee- trees and found that 

 the combs almost universally ran crosswise 

 of the entrance, while a day or two ago I ex- 

 amined some old box hives I had stored away, 

 from which I had transferred bees a few 

 years ago, and to my surprise I found that 

 the most of the attachments where the combs 

 had been were on the sides of the hives, or 



to that part of the hive, each side of the en- 

 trance, rather than to the front and back 

 part of the hives. Since I have seen these 

 things I have been wondering if we were not 

 making a mistake in having the combs run 

 toward the entrance as we do. It would 

 seem that, if the bees place their combs 

 crosswise the entrance while in a natural 

 state, it would be right for us to do the 

 same. Would it not?" 



' ' Your experience has been different from 

 mine in this matter, for in the cutting of a 

 dozen or more bee- trees, and in transferring 

 bees from box hives by the score, I have 

 found that the bees built their combs at any 

 and all angles to the entrance, where there 

 was nothing in the tree or hive in the way 

 of little projections to start them building 

 their combs in a certain direction. Where 

 there is some little projection of wood down- 

 ward from the top of the hive or tree, h'^'-v- 

 ing a knife- like edge, the first comb is al- 

 most sure to be started on that; and as runs 

 the first comb, all the rest are likely to fol- 

 low, unless, perchance, there are some other 

 like projections running angling, or in an op- 

 posite direction from the first started on, in 

 which case the combs are likely to run in 

 any and all directions throughout the tree 

 or hive. ' ' 



' ' That part of the matter is something I 

 had not thought of, and, come to think of it, 

 the box hives I examined had strips across 

 the top, with openings between these strips, 

 so that the bees could more easily enter the 

 supers when they were put on." 



"Exactly. And thus you have only the 

 trees to hold up your ideas, for the bees 

 would build on the strips with a hive fixed at 

 the top, as you say; and as I have found the 

 combs in trees running in all directions, it 

 would seem that nature has no choice in the 

 matter, and, if so, then we are at liberty to 

 do as we please unless we have better reasons 

 for running the combs one certain way of 

 the hive instead of any other." 



" You may be right. If so, why do most 

 of the apiarists have the frames in their 

 hives run lengthwise to the entrance?" 



"I think this matter has been discussed 

 during the past to some extent; but I do not 

 now recall just what the reasons were that 

 were given for having the entrances at the 

 ends of the frames." 



' ' But you must have some reasons for 

 having yours run that way." 



" Yes." 



" What are they?" 



" First of all, if our bees are to thrive 

 the water from rains and snows should not 

 be allowed to go inside of the hive any more 

 than they should be allowed to run all over 

 the floors of our houses in which we live. 

 Our houses are provided with doors and 

 thresholds, but this can not well be provid- 

 ed for a bee-hive; hence to overcome this 

 water matter we set the hive on an incline, 

 or give it a pitch toward the entrance, so 

 that, should any water beat in there, it would 

 immediately run out and away from the hab- 

 itation of our pets. ' ' 



