782 



GLEANINGS IN BEP] CULTUllE. 



June 1 



CARNIOLAN BEES; THEIR POINTS OF SUPERI- 

 ORITY; RECORD-BOOKS. 



I bought a tested Carniolan queen in May, 

 1904; and as there are no Carniolans here 

 but mine I have tried their many curious 

 ways, and find that you can not deal with 

 them or manipulate them along the same lines 

 of either blacks or Italians. I have the red- 

 clover Italians, the imported Italians, the Car- 

 niolans, and the pure blacks, and this is 

 how I grade them by their honey-gathering 

 qualities: 



Carnio-Italian cross, 1. Red-clover Ital- 

 ian, 2. Carniolan (Mr. Weber's) 3. Red- 

 clover cross and imported and improved 

 cross, 4. All sorts of crosses from these 

 above, 5. Pure blacks, 6. 



My Carnio-Italian colonies are the strong- 

 est in bees. I kept a record of my bees dur- 

 ing 1905, and will never try to keep bees 

 again without my book of record of my va- 

 rious manipulations of my bees as well as 

 any others I may care for. 



Harms, Tenn. J. A. Bearden. 



SOME EXPERIENCE WITH DIFFERENT FEED- 

 ERS; HOW TO HOLD THE ALEXANDER 

 FEEDER IN PLACE. 



My first feeder was of the Doolittle divi- 

 sion-board type. It is good in feeding weak 

 colonies, but is a nuisance in getting in and 

 out, and my Danzenbaker pattern at hrst 

 was useless because the oil-cloth brood-cham- 

 ber covering fitted so closely as to keep the 

 bees out of the feeder. Two or three half- 

 inch holes in the sides just below the top 



TWO HOOKS AND EYES TO HOLD ALEXANDER 

 FEEDER IN POSITION. 



gave proper access to the syrup, and cured 

 that defect nicely. 



Mr. Boardman's entrance feeder (I have 

 the quart size) has its good points; but my 

 bees do not seem to use it in cold weather nor 

 at night. It puzzled me mightily in ex- 

 changing a full for an empty jar to avoid 

 crushing bees beneath it; and I found it nec- 



essary to drive a staple to support the jar 

 away from the feeder Hoor. 



The Miller feeder is very good — at least 

 now I think it is; but I didn't when I hrst 

 tried to use it. 



Just at present the Alexander (or improv- 

 ed Simplicity) feeder seems to be in vogue. 

 But why aren't some brass hooks and eyes 

 included? Two would answer for those to 

 use who have their hives on stands or bricks. 

 Comparatively few, I fancy, are so situated 

 as not to require some form of fastener in ap- 

 plying the feeder. An amateur would ap- 

 preciate, also, a bit of wire screening to pi'e- 

 vent the bees coming out while he is putting 

 the feed in; but I suppose that is too much 

 to expect. C. G. Dickson. 



Kensington, Md. 



[The scheme of attaching an Alexander 

 feeder to the hive by means of hooks is very 

 simple and pi-acticable. — Ed.] 



THE ALEXANDER METHOD OF BUILDING UP 

 WEAK COLONIES; PROVIDING AN EN- 

 TRANCE FOR WEAK COLO- 

 NIES AT FIRST. 



I was much interested in your symposiuui 

 on Alexander's building up weak colonies as 

 given in Gleanings for March 15. I have 

 had some experience along these lines, both 

 pi'o and con. 



An hour or two before I put the weak col- 

 ony over the strong one, I take a double- 

 screened frame to the hive I have selected. 

 I quietly takeoff the cover, put on the screen, 

 and put the cover on over them At dusk I 

 bring the weak colony, take the cover off 

 the other colony, and set the weak one on 

 the screen. At the end of the screen a piece 

 is cut out of the end cleat, and the upper wire 

 is pressed down g inch for entrance to the 

 weak colony, which I leave on two days. 

 By this time the bees get the same scent, when 

 I take off the double screen, put on the queen- 

 excluder, close the outside entrance to the 

 weak colony, and all is peace between the 

 two colonies. At fii"st I was afraid that hav- 

 ing outside entrances, one over the other, 

 the bees might enter the wrong opening and 

 get killed; but no trouble ensued. 



Alpine, Cal. E. P. St. John. 



[Dr. Miller and others report favorably on 

 the use of the wire cloth.— Ed.] 



pronunciation of PROPOLIS; BKE-STING 



POISON, AND ITS RELATION TO 



RHEUMATISM. 



Let a new member of your large family in- 

 terject a few remarks anent the discussion of 

 the word "propolis." I am inclined to take 

 the Century Dictionary for my authority, 

 which gives the pronunciation of ])rop-o-lis. 

 Were it a Latin word, so that we could put 

 the accent on the penultimate syllable, pro- 

 po-lis, it would be vastly more euphonic; 

 but as it is Greek in its derivation, I suppose 

 we shall have to ])ro2). 



Another matter. I am getting ready dur- 

 ing this winter for my hrst invasion of the 

 bee-field; and seeing a mention lately that 

 queens sometimes fight through the perforat- 



I 



