1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



41 



Mr. Snowden, probably, in placing the weak 

 ■colonies over the strong, used smoke, or in 

 some way started the bees lighting. The 

 best way, I think, is to mark your weak col- 

 onies and get the strong ready by placing a 

 queen-excluder on top under the cover, then 

 wait till night, and quietly remove the cover 

 of the strong colony, and carefully place the 

 weak over it, but do not disturb the bees 

 with smoke or in any other way. If you 

 think your bees are too cross, use the follow- 

 ing method that some one described in 

 Gleanings: 



"Over the queen-excluder place a piece of 

 burlap or mosquito-wire, leaving it between 

 the colonies for 4S hours; then remove it 

 quietly, and the bees will not fight, and, by 

 the way, this is a good way of getting rid of 

 laying workers in a neglected colony. I 

 would not advise feeding the upper colony. 

 l)ut, rather, give them a frame with honey 

 before uniting: but if you think you have to, 

 remember that Mr. Alexander tells us to give 

 them only a few spoonfuls in a comb next 

 to their lirood: for if you give them more you 

 will start the bees below robbing from the 

 weak, and consequently you lose your queen. 



I wish you would convey my thanks to Mr. 

 Alexander for his splendid articles on sim- 

 plified bee-keeping. Cakl O. Jokgensen. 



Dorchester. Mass. 



DID THE BEES MOVE THR EGGS '! 



I believe if our friend Stachelhausen could 

 see what I saw in the spring of 1905 his skep- 

 ticism with regard to eggs or larv;e being 

 moved by the bees would be removed. That 

 spring I purchased some queens from a 

 Southern breeder, receiving them the 5th of 

 May, and introduced them in colonies of 

 black bees. On examining the colonies on 

 the 11th I found a queen-cell on an empty 

 comb containing a larva about two days old. 

 The cell was on the opposite side of the comb 

 from the l>rooil-nest. I cut off the cell, as I 

 wanted them to, accept the queen. In look 

 ing over them alwut ten days later I found 

 alK)Ut half of the bi'ood in the hive was 

 drones, and, to my surprise, they had two 

 nice queen-cells on an empty frame with an 

 empty comb Ijetween it and the brood-nest. 

 I hatched these cells in a nucleus. They 

 were from the Italian (jueen. I did not kill 

 the (|ueen, as I should have done, Init the 

 bees did it for me in the next few days. 



Elvaston, 111. C S. Caldwell. 



[While it is probable that the bees moved 

 the eggs, there is no positive proof that they 

 did.^ED.] 



THE JIOTH AND THE FLAIME. 



Like many others I have often wondered 

 why the moth Hies to the Hame; and it was 

 when I found that a bee which got shut into 

 the hintse just before dusk would lly at a 

 lamp, just as it would at a window-pane in 

 the ihiy time, that I began to see light. For 

 the l)ee, light meant an opening for exit: 

 darkness, an enclosure or obstacle; and then 

 as I watched moths, and experimented with 



them, I found that it was the same way with 

 them. I think I have found the solution of 

 the problem of "the moth and the Hame." 

 and it was the "busy little bee'' that gave 

 me the clue. J. E. Walkek. 



Shaowu, Fookien, China. 



[I confess the above is new to me. I had 

 often wondered why moths, bluebottle Hies, 

 and other insects, so persistently bump their 

 heads against the chimney of a lamp or the 

 electric glol^es: and since our brother suggests 

 it, it seems to me very likely he is right, that 

 they regard the bright light as a plaice of 

 exit, exactly as they would Hy to a knot-hole 

 throitgh the boards in a darkened room. 

 Friend W. has an article on the same subject 

 in the Scientific Amcricdii for Sept. 1, 1906. — 

 A. I. R.] ' 



live bees as a food for CHICKENS. 



The note on chickens and live bees in the 

 November loth Gleanings interested me. I 

 should like to know whether any of your 

 readers have ever tried the experiment of 

 feeding live bees to young chickens which 

 had been kept enclosed away from the bee- 

 yard so that they would have little chance 

 to acquire experience with the bees. 



New York, Nov. 27. M. A. Bigelow. 



Fastening starters in sections by the 



USE OF A sheet OF MICA DIPPED 

 IN HOT WAX. 



As you are continually on the lookout for 

 the best way of doing all kinds of bee work 

 I should like to have you try my way of put- 

 ting foundation in sections. If we get a large 

 per cent of fancy honey we need to have the 

 foundation part just right — not pretty nearly 

 right. If we do the work with the hot-plate 

 method, and have the sheets as varial)le as 

 they will l^e, not every section will be satis- 

 factory: that is, some sheets will be a little 

 too near one one side and some a little too 

 short to be fastened to the bottom. It is not 

 difficult to cut up the sheets the right size. 

 What we want is to have them stay the same 

 size when fastened in the sections, and as 

 near one side as the other. That is what I 

 am able to do now, since I discovered that 

 a piece of mica (such as is used sometimes in 

 the doors of coal-stoves) is just the right sub- 

 stance to dip in a little dish of melted wax 

 to fasten the foundation to the sections. 

 Spacing-blocks to tit inside of the sections 

 should be used, and of the right thickness to 

 have the foundation in the center oi the sec- 

 tion. These blocks should be nailed on a 

 board so as to be right for one section-holder 

 of sections at a time: then when tilled they 

 are taken off the blocks, a holderful at a 

 time, and put right in the supers. 



Have several boards with spacing-l)iocks 

 and I'leats arranged to hold four sections at a 

 time. I \v<n\ two small helpers, and all I did 

 was to sit at one corner of the tal)le and fast- 

 en in the foundation while my helpers placed 

 them for nic: then when they were cool enough 

 they turned them right side up and tilled the 



