448 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



tivated and cleared for growing potatoes; 

 and there is not as much wild land (where 

 willow-herb is found) as in some of the oth- 

 er counties. One of the speakers at the 

 convention thought raspberry was of more 

 value than willow-herb. He said the tim- 

 ber had been cut off so as to leave about 80 

 acres close by his apiary that was almost 

 covered with wild red raspberry; and as 

 the period of blooming and ripening is 

 much longer than further south, he said it 

 yielded honey more or less for six or eight 

 weeks. The seasons are shorter in North- 

 ern Michigan than where you are, unless 

 it is close by the lakes or other bodies of 

 water. This tends to make the falls later 

 than in the interior of the State. Our own 

 apiary of two hives secured, last season, 

 honey from early in the spring until up 

 into October, and I do not think there was 

 a single day when honey would have been 

 disturbed if left on the tops of the hives. Of 

 course, I did not get a very large yield, for 

 I did not- give them very much attention. 

 That thousand bushels of potatoes kept me 

 too busy, and I was not trying to see what 

 could be done with the bees. I would ad- 

 vise you or any one else who contemplates 

 making a change of locality to take a trip 

 first and visit the bee-keepers in the vicini- 

 ty where they had thought of moving. — 

 A. I. R.] • 



WHY HOLTERMANN'S FERTILIZING-TENT 

 DID NOT WORK. 



I have read with interest Mr. Holter- 

 mann's article (p. 94) concerning the fertil- 

 izing-tent that he erected last season; also 

 your and Dr. Miller's comments on the 

 same, in different issues of Gleanings 

 since. 



Somehow it seems that both you and Dr. 

 Miller have failed to suggest a remedy for 

 Mr. Holtermann's trouble, or guess the 

 cause of his failure. In the first place, I 

 will say that Mr. Holtermann expected his 

 queens to do a very unnatural thing — that 

 of taking their wedding- flight from an en- 

 trance that was entirely unused by the 

 worker bees of her nucleus. 



Instinct seems to teach the queen that the 

 future welfare of the colony depends wholly 

 on her making this trip in safety, and in 

 rare instances will she depart from her 

 hive through any but the entrance that is 

 used freely by the other bees (workers and 

 drones) of her colony. This is why, I 

 think, in Mr. Holtermann's case, the queens 

 put forth all their efforts in trying to pass 

 the guarded entrance, and not because they 

 were attracted there by the noise of the 

 bees in the apiary, as lie rather intimated. 

 If you will turn to Mr. Holtermann's arti- 

 cle you will find that he used a separate 

 hive for his queens and drones. 



This I would not do. Arrange it so that 

 each nucleus will have quite a quantity of 

 drones. By allowing the drones to fly from 

 the nucleus at the time of day the queen is 

 expected to take her flight, the entrance 

 that led to the inclosure will be used almost 



as freely by the drones as is the guarded 

 entrance used by the workers. Therefore the 

 queen will have no choice of entrance. If I 

 could not arrange to have drones reared in 

 the nucleus I would supply the necessary 

 number bj' trapping them from my choice 

 drone-rearing stock, giving them to the nu- 

 cleus a few days before the virgin queen 

 was expected to come forth, and allow them 

 to fly, for a short time each day, through 

 the entrance that led into the tent. 



Almond Weaver. 

 Nicklow, W. Va., Mar. 6. 



a handy section-press. 

 I am using a section-press like the one 

 here shown. I have used it for about ten 

 years for thousands of sections. It works 

 to perfection. It can be used more rapidly 

 than any other press I have seen. No. 4 is 

 a lever by which the section is compressed; 

 2 is a movable wedge, this to be moved only 



at slight variation of sections; 5 is the dove- 

 tailed end of section; 3 is a board at the 

 back to which the section is held with the 

 left hand while being compressed. Fig. 1 

 is a spring by which the lever is alwa3's 

 held open. 



Do you think there would be a demand for 

 the machines? And could it be patented? 

 Anton G. Anderson. 



Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



[The principle of this press, while very 

 good, is quite old. We illustrated one very 

 much like it in 1879. Its general design is 

 simple, and any mechanic can make' one. — 

 Ed.I 



SMOKER fuel; ashfs around hive-en- 

 trances. 



What is the matter with cotton rags to 

 burn in syiokers? I find coal ashes make 

 an excellent stand for bees. Raise the hive 

 about 6 inches; make a nice door-yard in 

 front with the ashes well packed clear up 

 to the entrance. It's the best thing I find 

 to keep away black ants. 



Rev. J. W. Wilson. 



E. Springfield, Pa. 



[Cotton rags are excellent, but too expen- 

 sive. Rotten wood, punk, peat, planer- 

 shavings, sawdust, dry leaves, or any com- 

 bustible material, cheap and slow-burning, 

 may be used. As a rule we prefer to have 

 excelsior or planer-shavings. Get a barrel 

 or two, and keep them in a dry place, and 



