7^2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



That's suite a scheme, p. 756, introduc- 

 ing- two virg-ins at a time, and gains a lot of 

 time. I tried it once, accidentalljs in a 

 full colony, and the bees swarmed out with 

 the free virgin. Perhaps they never do 

 that in the case of a nucleus. [I referred 

 this Straw to our Mr. Phillips, and he 

 says that he makes it a regular practice 

 to introduce two virgins in strong colonies 

 as well as in nuclei. Of course, there are 

 times in the season when such a procedure, 

 say during the height of the hone^'-flow, 

 would force out a swarm. — Ed.] 



White sage is perhaps generally thought 

 by outsiders to be the principal one of the 

 sages; but Californians say it cuts no great 

 figure, the black and purple sages being 

 away ahead, both in quality and quantity. 

 [Yes, the average Easterner gets the im- 

 pression that white sage is the main honey- 

 plant of California, because all California 

 honey from sage is named white sage. The 

 black sage produces a great deal more, and 

 the purple or button sage comes in as a 

 close second. But white sa^e honey is not 

 misnamed, because it is white, and it is 

 sage, but not necessarily white-sage-Y>la.nt 

 honey. — Ed ] 



" It is a oriESTiON in my mind whether 

 the accumulation of propolis or bits of wax 

 along the edges of the top-bars does any 

 particular harm," quoth ye editor, p. 7o7. 

 I suspect that's because at Medina you sell 

 off colonies so constantly that 3'ou have no 

 combs of any great age, so there is no 

 chance for accumulation of wax. When 

 you get a good stock of burr-combs between 

 top-bars, 3'ou must move slowly or you will 

 kill bees; and later on you can not space 

 up to place without cleaning off the wax. 

 [Your point is well taken. It is true that, 

 in sending out nuclei as we do, we are con- 

 stantly renewing our combs, and perhaps 

 none of them get so very dauby with pro- 

 polis. But there is another point to be con- 

 sidered; and that is, the depositing of pro- 

 polis in Marengo is much worse than in 

 Medina. If I were in your place I would 

 breed non propolizers. — Ed.] 



For ONE D\Y of my life, at least, I had a 

 t i-»te of the life of a California bee-keeper, 

 w'.ien T spent the day at the home ranch— 

 njt the home, mind you. which was a good 

 mmy miles away — of L. E. Mercer; and 

 with such a host several of us had a most 

 enjoyable day. Mr. Mercer, unlike others, 

 does not rent, but owns the many acres oc- 

 cupied by his several apiaries, and the 

 season's product from all of them was 

 bunched in one pile in tin cans at the home 

 apiary. It toted up 100,000 pounds from 

 le^s than a thousand colonies, spring count, 

 and it looked like a good bit of honey. Al- 

 th)ugh every thing was on a big scale, the 

 apiary with its surroundings was a model 

 of neatness. [A few days among the bee- 

 keepers of California is a wonderful rev- 

 elation to an Eastern bee-keeper. But it 

 should be borne in mind that these big 

 yields cime only once in three to five years. 



The intervening years are apt to be off, and 

 the poor California honey-producer has to 

 live on his earnings made during the good 

 year, so alter all he has no very great snap- 

 Like the children of Israel of old in the 

 desert, he has to make the fat years take 

 care of the lean ones. — Ed.] 



I wonder if L, B., p. 764, had a Miller 

 staple-spaced frame before him when he 

 said, "the stoppers are very nice to sharp- 

 en the knife on." They're nail-spaced 

 rather than staple, but that doesn't figure. 

 When you have a frame before you, there 

 is little danger that you will deliberately 

 take the pains to run your knife into the 

 spacing-nails at the top, and there are none 

 at the bottom. You see on each side the 

 spacers are at only one end. [When I was 

 in one of the large California apiaries help- 

 ing to extract and uncap, I was thoroughly 

 convinced that anj' form of metal spacer on 

 extracting frames would be an intolerable 

 nuisance. I do not see how a ?iail will be 

 in any way better than a staple. I should 

 prefer a staple, because of its rounding top 

 as against a sharp nail-head or dowel-pin. 

 Sajs doctor, I hope that, before another is- 

 sue is out. you will be put through half a 

 day's experience in M. H. Mendleson's ex- 

 tracting-yard; and if you do not agree that 

 metal-spaced frames for extracting are not 

 to be tolerated for even one minute, then I 

 will furnish you all the nail spacers you 

 can use the rest of j'our days, free of charge 

 — or anj' other kind of metal spacers, for 

 that matter. — Ed.] 



A correspondent writes with evident 

 alarm, referring to the passage in Glean- 

 ings saying " the effect of the accumulated 

 poison may be serious in its effects in after 

 years, as it was in the case of Langstroth 

 and some others." I don't believe it is 

 worth while to raise unnecessary fear. My 

 private opinion is that Langstroth's spells 

 of mental depression had nothing ^vhatever 

 to do with bee stings. If they had, the ef- 

 fect of the accumulation of the past 42 

 years' stings ought to begin to appear in my 

 case, and I never had more buoyant spirits 

 in my life. [My, oh my! you have got a 

 wrong impression. I did not say, or at 

 least I did not intend to convej' the idea, 

 that bee-sting poison was responsible for 

 those distressing periods of mental gloom in 

 the last ten or twenty j'ears of Langstroth's 

 life. If you will remember, one or two of 

 his last articles told how, after he got over 

 these spells, he experienced a queer ting- 

 ling sensation about the eyes and nose 

 whenever he passed a hive at the begin- 

 ning of spring. At such times the bees 

 would elevate their stings, leaving a tiny 

 drop of the poison to show very distinctly. 

 The odor of it, Mr. Langstroth thought, 

 poisoned him. There were several other 

 reports that appeared at the time, and one 

 or two in late years from persons who ex- 

 perienced the same sensations. But grant- 

 ing all this, I agree with you that no one 

 needs to have unnecessary fears from the 



