708 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



cient." That wouldn't do in as cool a cli- 

 mate as this. The smallest space I've ever 

 found between combs filled with sealed 

 honey was % inch. More room is found, 

 and is needed, between combs of brood, I 

 think, because in so small a space as }i 

 inch there can not be enoug^h bees to keep 

 up the necessary heat. With new comb, 

 lJ4 spacing- would leave >s between brood- 

 combs, and with combs old enough there 

 would be only '4 space. [A l>s spacing 

 seems to be about rig-ht in this climate. It 

 is a very nice compromise between the wid- 

 est spacing- and the narrowest. A spacing- 

 of 1 '2 inches results in combs too bulky and 

 too much drone comb. Some years ag-o we 

 had quite a number of reports on this, and 

 the g-eneral consensus of opinion favored 

 1>^.— Ed.] 



" One of the most important secrets in 

 the production of comb honey," says W. K. 

 Morrison, page 673, " is to have no drone 

 comb in the brood-chamber, so that, when 

 sections are put out, the bees rush up in- 

 tending- to construct drone comb." He also 

 favors drone foundation in supers. In this 

 locality I shouldn't like to have the bees 

 think they could have drone comb in supers 

 unless there be some deeper secret about it 

 than I have yet learned. If the bees rush 

 up to build drone comb the queen will rush 

 up to lay there unless excluders are used, 

 and I'd rather avoid the trouble and ex- 

 pense of excluders. Even with excluders 

 there is an objection. If the bees get it 

 into their heads that drone brood is to be 

 reared above, they will hold cells open for 

 that purpose. I have known cases where 

 worker foundation did not entirely fill the 

 section, and a corner would be filled out 

 with drone comb kept empty, evidently 

 awaiting the queen, while all the worker 

 part was filled out with honey. 



On page 674 I am quoted as saying that 

 queens in a ball are never stung. I won- 

 der if I ever said that. I think I can make 

 bees sting a queen in a ball, always. All 

 I need to do is to poke them lively with a 

 stick in the effort to separate the queen 

 from the ball, or to blow hot smoke upon 

 them. I wonder if I didn't say that a 

 queen is never stung in a ball when the 

 bees are left entirely to themselves. Mr. 

 Martin "gave them a few whifi^s" of smoke. 

 If that was hot smoke I should most cer- 

 tainly expect the queen to be stung. [I 

 think I found nearlv all the references 

 bearing on this question; but in not one of 

 them is there a suggestion of a limiting 

 clause as given in your italics. Turn to 

 pages 224, 395, and 592. But I shall have 

 to make a little correction. It was not you 

 who were so positive in the matter. It was 

 our friend C. E. Woodward. But the evi- 

 dence already produced shows that bees do 

 sting the queen in the ball. I do not, how- 

 ever, agree with you that molesting the ball 

 in trying to save the queen makes the bees 

 any more anxious to kill her b3' stinging. 

 The reason why the queen is seldom stung is 



because so many bees are picking at her 

 that it is not possible for them to get their 

 stings to her. The heads all point to her - 

 in the same direction, and their efi^ort seems 

 to be to try to pull or tear her limb from 

 limb; and they do sometimes succeed in 

 pulling her legs ofl" and gnawing the wings. 

 —Ed.] 



Of 18 COLONIES shaken in the Wilson 

 apiary, just half made no off^er to swarm 

 afterward; 3 started queen-cells within 10 

 days, and upon these being destroyed they 

 started noqe afterward (which is, perhaps, 

 not an unusual thing in the experience of 

 some others) ; 4 have been found with queen- 

 cells about every 10 days; 2 were found 

 queenless 10 days after being shaken — 

 either they swarmed and lost their clipped 

 queens, or else the queens were accidental- 

 ly killed. Five were shaken in the Hast- 

 ings apiary, and every one of them swarm- 

 ed or tried to afterward. They were a 

 little more crowded for room in the Hast- 

 ings apiary. [At our Harrington yard we 

 had furious swarming; and yet of the colo- 

 nies we had shaken, I do not remember the 

 number, not one offered to swarm; and one 

 or two colonies that acted as though they 

 were about to swarm went quietly to work 

 after they were shaken, and behaved in 

 every sense as if they had swarmed in the 

 natural way. Did you hive on starters, 

 full sheets, or on combs? We used full 

 sheets, with the results already given. — 

 Ed.] 





pp^^;£:iJ 



After copying what has been said in this 

 journal about the destruction of our bass- 

 woods, a French bee-keeper says, in Revue 

 Internationale, that the governments of Eu- 

 rope have been obliged to take hold of the 

 matter and regulate the cutting of trees. It 

 is well known, he says, that the destruc- 

 tion of forests is attended with many evils. 

 He thinks the Americans should profit by 

 the experience of Europe. The destruction 

 of trees in Oregon and Washington, as now 

 going on, will soon, he warns us, bear bit- 

 ter fruit. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Concerning formalin, I copy the following 

 interesting facts from an editorial based 

 on information furnished by Schering & 

 Glatz: 



It is probably the most destructive germicide known, 

 although having little effect upon animals or man, the 

 fumes being breathed, it is claimed, with little incon- 

 venience. Yet it can hardly be a wholesome article 

 of diet, for the doctors of Chicago object bitterlj' to its 



