620 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



when manipulating the brood-chamber. Try 

 it, friend Hutchinson, and you will have less 

 trouble in robbing time. 



CLIPPING QUEENS. 



On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 

 March 27 — 29, we examined colonies for 

 queens, brood, and honey, clipping queens — 

 something unusual for us in Maich. If bee- 

 keepers would thoroughly rub propolis over 

 their fingers before touching a queen, no evil 

 results would occur from foreign odors. 1 

 catch a queen in the right hand, then take 

 her between the thumb and finger of my left, 

 holding her by the upper and lower side of 

 the thorax; then clip her with any thing from 

 a fine pair of scissors to a sheep-shears, so 

 long as they will cut clean and not pull the 

 wings. Cut the wings on both sides evenly. 

 We have clipped many a queen with sheep- 

 shears. 



EXTRACTORS. 



Last week I visited a progressive and in- 

 telligent bee-keeper, who was for years pres- 

 ident of our county bee-keepers' association 

 — Mr. Chris. Edmanson. He has a large re- 

 versible honey-extractor, and in a reminis- 

 cent way said, "When I think of the time I 

 used a smaller machine, and particularly a 

 non- reversible, it makes me smile and shake 

 my head. Nothing could induce me to go 

 back to that way of extracting." This is my 

 experience, and the experience of many oth- 

 ers. Give me a machine of less capacity as 

 a gift, and it would not pay me to use it. 

 The same way with the inside strainer as de- 

 scribed in Gleanings last year. One who 

 has once used it would not do without it. 



BASSWOOD POLLEN. 



Self-fertilization in blossoms is "the fertil- 

 ization of a flower by pollen from the same 

 flower and without outer aid." — Webster. 

 The male and female blossoms must at least 

 be in the blossom, and both mature at the 

 same time. If a basswood blossom could 

 produce fruit without pollen, the princijile 

 (that is the word I used) of reproduction by 

 seed without males would have to exist in 

 plants. It is needless to say I do not think 

 such is the case, and basswood "must produce 

 pollen, even if it cannot be detected by the 

 naked eye — see page 163. 



FLOWERS THAT GIVE LIGHT AND HEAT. 



J. C. Beard, in Sunday Magazine, writes: 



Not only do growing plants emit light, but, strange 

 as it may appear, they send out heat as well. Lamark 

 more than a hundred years ago discovered that the 

 European arum " in opening grows hot, as if about to 

 burn." By the application of an instrument of ex- 

 treme sensibility used to determine slight difterences 

 of temperature, the thermopile, the warmth generat- 

 ed in any cluster of blossoms is made perceptible. 



The development of heat in tropical plants is most 

 marked where a multitude of flowers are massed to- 

 gether under a crommoa covering "hood or spathe. 

 The temperature in this case appreciably increases in 

 the afternoon like a paroxysm of fever and passes 

 away as evening approaches; the greatest heat always 

 comes during the shedding of the pollen. 



It may be added that the best time to witness flower- 



fire is in July or August, Just after sunset, when the 

 air is dry and clear. If there is a dense atmosphere, 

 or it is after a rainy day. nothing can be seen. It is 

 much better to have a whole bed, or cluster of the 

 flowers, than a single specimen, under observation. 



How much, there is that we do not yet 

 know about plant life! 



CONDITION OF BEES. 



Reports generally indicate that bees have 

 wintered a little below the average. Those 

 fed sugar syrup in the fall are all right; oth- 

 ers show a more than usual amount of dys- 

 entery; the outlook at present writing, how- 

 ever, is good in every way. 

 ^^ 



FLYING APIARIES. 



The American Magazine for April contains 

 nine pages, with illustrations, of the Wright 

 Bros.' Hying- machine. This is the machine 

 described by Mr. A. I. Root in Gleanings 

 last year, and Mr. Root's name is mentioned 

 in the article. The Wright Bros, have trav- 

 eled through the air at a speed of 50 miles 

 an hour. In the no distant future I believe 

 we shall move out-apiaries on these flying- 

 machines — perhaps start out in the south in 

 spring and follow the bloom as it opens up 

 north. Those will surely be strenuous times. 



THIN OR EXTRA-THIN SECTION FOUNDATION. 



J. A. Green, page 468, rather opposes the 

 editor as to the advisability of using thin in- 

 stead of extra-thin section foundation. I 

 fancy the difficulty in the past has been from 

 using foundation thicker than the </w» grade. 

 I have known bee keepers over here to put 

 brood foundation in their sections — not very 

 often, of course. With the extra-thin foun- 

 dation, unless the bees draw it out and build 

 walls on it at once, I have found them more 

 liable to gnaw holes in it and eat the wall 

 down, enabling them to build drone-cells. 

 Another thing, do the bees not take hold of 

 the heavier grade a little more readily? I 

 think so. 



.^ 



POLLEN-CLOGGED COMBS. 



In the report of the British Bee-keepers' 

 Association conversazione, British Bee Jour- 

 nal, page 431, 1906, Mr. Arthur Teach said, 

 with regard to pollen-clogged combs, he 

 would like to ask if any gentleman present 

 had tried the Canadian system of cutting 

 away the comb to the base or mid-rib, by 

 which means all the pollen clog was removed. 



It is news to me that this is a Canadian 

 system. Mr. Paul's method, on page 431, be- 

 ing a report of the same convention, appears 

 to me a much better method. He said, "Soak 

 them in water for a little while, and then 

 turn the garden hose on them." He simply 

 held the comb in front of the hose, when the 

 pollen was readily washed out. 



Where there is no system of waterworks 

 the combs may be placed in a damp cellar. 

 In warm weather the pollen soon ferments 

 and swells. The least resistance is toward 

 the open cell-mouth. When these combs are 

 then brought out to dry, the pollen lumps dry 



