1316 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



or kind they have been accustomed to, thus 

 more perfectly fulfilling the spirit of the law 

 than would otherwise be the case. I believe 

 all or most persons wh"o bottle honey desire 

 to put up as nearly the same grade or quali- 

 ty from year to year as possible; and their 

 name stands for that grade. So far as I 

 know, it has been the practice for producers, 

 when they wished to distinguish their own 

 honey from their neighbors', to use the 

 phrase "produced by " or "from the apiary " 

 of so and so, which would seem to differen- 

 tiate their own from all others sufficiently 

 where such differentiation is necessary. 



THAT VACANT SPACE. 



"Have vou the bees ready for winter yet, 

 Mr. Doolittle? " 



" Not entirely, Mr Sanders" 



"Why do you answer that way? I sup- 

 posed that, when you got them readjr at all, 

 they were to be gotten entirely I'eady." 



"Well, sometimes it is that way; but more 

 often they are mainly gotten ready in August 

 or the first half of September, and the ' en- 

 tire ' part put off till the latter part of Octo- 

 ber or the first of November." 



"Mainly in August! What can you do 

 about getting bees ready for winter in Au- 

 gust? " 



"Know that they have a good queen, and 

 stores enough for winter, with the combs all 

 in good repair, and the hive in the best pos- 

 sible shape so that the bees can fix their hon- 

 ey and hive all tight and tidy while it is still 

 warm weather. In this way they have their 

 stores all fixed as to sealed honey, and that 

 in open cells all about the cluster, in just the 

 shape they desire it when cool and cold 

 weather comes on." 



"What is the dift'erence in this matter? I 

 do not fix mine till I get ready; and then if 

 one colony has more stores than it needs, 

 and another not enough, I take from the one 

 and give to the other, no matter if it is in 

 November. Does this do any harm? " 



"Allow me to ask you if it would make 

 any difference with you if some one were to 

 take the roof off your house in November 

 and carry your vegetables which you had 

 stored in your cellar up to the attic, and re- 

 move your pantry and dining-room into the 

 parlor, and all such like things, leaving doors 

 and windows open, and unstopped cracks 

 all about the walls of the house." 



"Well, I should think it would. But you 

 do not think the bees would suffer as I would, 

 do you ? ' ' 



"Excuse me; but I think more." 

 "How could it be? " 



" You would keep a fire to dry out things, 

 and keep you warm till you could repair 

 things; but the bees could not repair things 

 till it became warm again; and while they 

 were waiting for the warm weather they 

 mvist consume honey as fuel to keep warm, 

 and often to an extent above what they oth- 

 erwise would, to bring on dysentery and 

 death. Late disturbing of bees often brings 

 about serious results, especially where the 

 bees are wintered on the summer stands and 

 the season proves one of continued cold so 

 as to prevent winter fiights." 



' ' I had not thought of that, and I guess 

 you are right." 



"I believe this to be right, and nearly if 

 not all of our best bee-keepers are in accord 

 with these views What was your crop of 

 honey the past season?" 



"Quite poor. Not more than about 50 sec- 

 tions to the colony, on an average." 

 "I call that good for this year." 

 "Did you do better than that with your 

 plan for working at the out-apiary?" 



"Only a little. The average was about 67 

 pounds, which is the poorest of any late 

 year. ' ' 



"That was considerably better than 1 got. 

 But I had lots of unfinished sections this year 

 — much more than usual. Did you have 

 many? " 



"No— the least I ever had." 

 "That makes me think. Are you going to 

 answer Dr. Miller's question he asked you on 

 page 1127." 



"I do not remember what he asked me." 

 "Have you Gleanings handy? " 

 "Yes, here is the September number." 

 "This is what Dr. Miller writes: 'Bees are 

 believed to hustle in with greater energy to 

 fill a vacant space made between partly filled 

 sections than they will do where they are 

 allowed to have their own way of working, 

 or continually adding from the outside, p. 

 1075.' Yet, Bro, Doolittle, I understand that 

 you have lately come to the conclusion it is 

 always best to add empty sections over the 

 others. Please tell us why. " 



"I do remember now about this matter, 

 but had forgotten it." 



"Yes; but are you going to answer it?" 

 "Well, yes, perhaps, some time." 

 "Well, if you are going to answer it you 

 might as well do so right here and now." 

 "Why do you say thus?" 

 ' ' Because Sanders wants to hear the ans- 

 wer. That is something he wants to know 

 about as well as Dr. Miller." 



"You said you had lots of unfinished sec- 

 tions this year, did you not?" 

 "Yes." 



" Why did you have so many?" 

 "Because the season was poor, I suppose." 

 "But I had the same poor season, and do 

 not have enough unfinished sections for baits 

 for next year." 



' ' I see you are trying to work some racket 

 on me." 



