664 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



I HAD FIFTY zinc hive-covers made to or- 

 der, double, with air-space, and having- 

 now had them in use about a year I find 

 them good. The Medina folks, however, 

 made an improvement not in the specifica- 

 tion, and it doesn't work well. Instead of 

 simply nailing- the zinc on at the sides they 

 nailed wooden strips over it. That's worse 

 than nothing, for the shrinking and swell- 

 ing of the wood throws the zinc above the 

 wood, and it can't get back into place. I 

 have torn off the strips and nailed on the 

 zinc, and now they're all right. If wooden 

 strips are nailed on at all (as when paper 

 or cloth is used), the cover should be made 

 enough narrower so that the entire width, 

 strips and all, shall just equal the width of 

 the hive, and the strips should come down 

 flush with the lower surface of the cover. 



Immediate introduction of queens 

 seems a desirable thing, and I think I've 

 come pretty near to it. Some one (who was 

 it?) said a queen was better received when 

 well wet. I carried the thing further, in 

 some cases drowning the queen till she 

 cijrled up, apparently dead. I put it to 

 this severe test: I made a full colony ex- 

 change queens with a nucleus, putting the 

 queen directly from one hive to the other 

 without any delay except the two or three 

 minutes to drown the queen. Each queen 

 went to work laying. I did the same thing 

 in two other cases, and the queens were re- 

 ceived all right in the full colonies ; but 

 when I looked next in the nuclei the queens 

 were missing. Possibly the thing may be 

 made alwaj's reliable by learning a few 

 kinks — whether to use warm or cold water, 

 how long to drown them, etc. Does the 

 drowning injure the queens? I don't know. 

 It doesn't seem to. 



Every four or five days we overhaul 

 the supers on the hives, taking off those 

 that are finished, and giving empty sec- 

 tions where needed. The empty super is 

 put below all the others; and as few have 

 less than 4, and many 5 and 6 supers, it's 

 a good deal of work to lift them all off for 

 the sake of putting the empty one under. 

 So in one of the rounds a week or so ago, 

 partly because it was easier and partly for 

 the experiment, we lifted off no supers, but 

 just put an empty super on top wherever 

 the upper super appeared pretty full. That 

 one experiment was enough. When we 

 made the next round, four or five days lat- 

 er, we found work not pushed so very hard 

 in the added super; but in the other supers 

 wax and burr-combs plastered everywhere 

 in wasteful profusion, built on to the sepa- 

 rators and between the supers, spoiling 

 the appearance of some of the sections be- 

 sides a waste of wax that might have paid 

 for the extra work. If only two supers had 

 been on the hive, so that the upper empty 

 super would have been nearer the brood- 

 nest, likely the bees would have begun 

 work in it more promptly, but the burr- 

 comb business would have been worse. 



By 



5? 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEE JOURNAL. 

 In speaking of this exchange, Mr. Chas. 

 Adams says, "It is getting to be quite a 

 good paper." Hardly. It has been that 

 from the first, so far as bee-keeping is con- 

 cerned. Mr. Morehouse has a new assist- 

 ant at the editorial helm. At last accounts 

 he had no first name. More house room 

 will be needed, probably. 



\i< 



Under the name of " idiotic drivel " Mr. 

 Morehouse quotes the following from the 

 Denver Times: 



The morning was spent in an informal discussion on 

 the training and education of bees. It is a well-known 

 fact that bees maybe fed so as to produce any flavored 

 honey that may be desired. In fact, they appear to 

 enjoy producing peculiar combinations. According to 

 the president ot the society, they have been known to 

 flavor their product with skunk oil. The great diffi- 

 culty with these experiments was in the naturally en- 

 ergetic bee growing so lazy under forced feeding that 

 he refused to hustle tor his master. The discussion 

 was consequently on the best ethical training for a 

 bee. 



The writer does not think it is beyond 

 the confines of charity to say that, as the 

 result of long observation, he concludes the 

 great herd of reporters for our leading 

 dailies are remarkable for only one char- 

 acteristic — opaque ignorance of practical 

 matters; or perhaps they are so devoid of 

 conscience as to prefer a garment of false- 

 hood if it be decked with a few spangles of 

 truth to make it plausible to the uninformed. 

 How did that idea about " skunk oil " orig- 

 inate? Probably the reporter heard skunk 

 cabbage spoken of as one of the earliest 

 sources of pollen; and, never having before 

 heard of that plant, substituted skunk oil 

 in its place. And yet such writers have 

 more to do in educating the people than all 

 the schoolteachers and ministers in the 

 land. Wh3' will people believe a manifest 

 absurdity sooner than a self-evident truth? 

 I am glad that Mr. Morehouse knows how 

 to head his criticisms with suitable lan- 

 guage. 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 The tmending views of British apiaries 

 in the British Bee Journal are a source of 

 pleasure to its readers. The odd-shaped 

 hives, the strange appearance of the build- 

 ings, the dense foliage, and the fine ap- 

 pearance of the men and women whose faces 

 appear in the half-tones, make up a fine 

 studj' for the American eeader. 



From July 15 to Sept. 19. 24 bee shows 

 are advertised to take place in England. 

 That speaks volumes for the interest taken 



