184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



J. T. Hairston is quite right, p. 151, in 

 saying that whiter sections would be se- 

 cured over new than over old combs. Jesse 

 Oatman once told me that he seriouslj' 

 thoug-ht of melting- up all his old combs and 

 having new built for the sake of whiter sec- 

 tions. The bees carry bits of the old combs 

 to help cap the sections. But they don't 

 carry them any great distance, and thick 

 top-bars make the distance so great from 

 the combs to the sections that it's nearly or 

 quite as good as having new combs. 



I'm afraid, Mr. Editor, that you concede 

 too much to G. H. Place's plan of increase, 

 p. 159, when j'ou say he can make increase 

 that way, especially as he wants to increase 

 " to the extreme limit of ability." With a 

 hive 24 inches deep, and combs built only 

 three-fourths down, there is very little prob- 

 ability that the queen will go up and laj' 

 in a story placed over. [You have read 

 more into what I said than what I intend- 

 ed, for you hitch on to what I wrote a state- 

 ment of Mr. Place. I said he could make 

 increase on that plan, and so he could, aft- 

 er the combs were built down. But I went 

 on to say that there was a better way. — Ed.] 



The advice of the editor to the inexperi- 

 enced, p. 145, to rear queens during swarm- 

 ing time, is equally good advice for the ex- 

 perienced bee-keeper who rears only for his 

 own use. Only the man who rears queens 

 for sale, and so can not rear a sufficient 

 number during swarming time, needs to 

 take the extra trouble to rear them at other 

 times. For the up-to-date bee-keeper, how- 

 ever, it's not the best thing to trust to 

 swarming-cells Take your colony with 

 best queen, build it up very strong by add- 

 ing brood from other colonies, then un- 

 queen it, and you'll have a lot of cells as 

 good as swarming-cells, and all from best 

 stock. 



Another suggestion as to that fertilizing 

 tent. p. 132. Let the entrance of the nucle- 

 us having the virgin queen be half in the 

 tent and half out, the outside part having 

 excluder zinc, and the part opening into the 

 tent being closed at all times only when de- 

 aired to have the young queen fly. Then 

 when the queen would try to get out through 

 the excluder she would not fail to get over 

 the edge of it into the tent. [Yes ; but 

 why shouldn't the workers get into the hab- 

 it of getting into the tent as well as through 

 the perforated metal? If the workers min- 

 gle with drones inside of the tent, they 

 cause confusion. We are told that the suc- 

 cess of the plan depends on keeping the 

 workers out. — Ed.] 



R. Rhomberg, in an able article in Bie- 

 nen- Vater, reports investigations as to ven- 

 tilation. He put a straw mat over a hive, 

 filled the hive with smoke, then watched 

 the smoke escaping upward. It came 

 through the needle-holes, the wrinkles in 

 the binding, and especially along the crack 

 where the cushion lay on the hive, but nev- 

 er a bit came through the straw. That the 

 straw is impermeable is further shown by 



the fact that it becomes damp. If air pass- 

 ed through it, then the moisture would pass 

 through and settle on the outer surface, - 

 leaving the mat dry. If he is right, and I 

 suspect he is, then we are a bit off in think- 

 ing that cushions are good because the air 

 passes through them. They are good be- 

 cause they are non-conductors, keeping 

 warm. The air must be allowed to escape 

 through little holes or cracks, and the un- 

 der surface may be water-tight, only so it 

 is warm. [There is something in this, I 

 believe. Absorbents will take up water; 

 but if they would allow air to pass through 

 them, that water would be evaporated, but 

 it is not. The common practice now is 

 to put a sealed cover over the brood-frames 

 in winter, and then the so-called absorbents 

 on top, not to "absorb," but to provide a 

 non-conductor of heat. — Ed.] 



W. Matthes {Deutsche Biene?i-Freund) 

 claims that a bee, for all its thousands of 

 eyes, doesn't see as well as a man. Like- 

 ly he's right. Although they work in the 

 dark, they can do that by the sense of feel- 

 ing. But they can't get around outdoors 

 without a lot more light than is absolutely 

 necessary for a man. Bees don't sting as 

 much in a house-apiarj% because thej' can't 

 see so well. In the evening, when it is 

 still light enough for you to see quite dis- 

 tinctly, throw a bee in the air and it will 

 never find its hive. When a cloud comes 

 up on a bright day, the bees hustle home 

 for fear it will get too dark for them. [That 

 is true. Bees do not seem to see clearly. 

 To get rid of a lot of bees when I had sud- 

 denly brought on an onslaught, I on one oc- 

 casion dodged behind a post, dropping 

 down low. The bees bumped into the top 

 of the inanimate thing just as if the}' thought 

 they had got their man; but as soon as they 

 struck they flew off, concluding they had 

 made a mistake. In the same way a lot of 

 bees will follow one up to an open door; 

 but just the minute he steps inside, they 

 will stop and hover around, for apparently 

 it is blank darkness to them. It is probable 

 that all the operations in the hive are per- 

 formed more by feeling and smelling than 

 by sight. — Ed.] 



A. I. Root's report shows Cuba ahead 

 of this region as to some phases of the 

 drinking business. Now I'd like to know 

 whether treating is as common there as it 

 is here. Take away screens, and stop 

 treating, and you will cripple the saloon 

 business no little. [Right you are. We 

 are forced to get rid of the saloon by de- 

 grees, and as soon as public sentiment will 

 back up the law. One of the first laws we 

 ought to have is one that will prevent 

 screens in front of any place of business ex- 

 cept, perchance, legitimate restaurants, 

 banking-houses, and other businesses of 

 that character. Why does the American 

 saloon have a screen in front of it? Simply 

 because it would not do to have its acts be- 

 hind subject to public gaze. " Thej' love 

 darkness rather than light, because their 



