1488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



food? And do you think they can change 

 your "two pounds of sugar to one of water " 

 as easily as they can syrup as thin as nectar? 

 Besides, the " 2 to 1" sometimes granulates in 

 the combs unless acid is added (sometimes it 

 does then), and are you sure that you can 

 add the acid quite as well as the bees can? 

 [If Mr. Beyer will test this matter thorough- 

 ly and watch carefully he will see that the 

 two-to-one syrup will probably granulate in 

 the combs, just as Dr. Miller says, while the 

 one-to-one product will remain liquid so long 

 as the bees require it; and, what is more, it 

 it has been inverted, chemically speaking — 

 that is, digested. Do not understand us to 

 say that such product will be honey. It will 

 have some of the characteristics of honey, 

 but it will be very quickly detected by the 

 chemist, as it should be. — Ed.] 



In the dual plan with virgins, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, p. 1448, if "the second queen should not 

 be caged more than two days prior to the re- 

 moval of the first one," and said second 

 queen emerges from her cell a week prior to 

 that time, what are you going to do with her 

 in the meantime? Seems to me that, if you 

 limit the time of her imprisonment to two 

 days, you cut out the chief advantage of the 

 plan. I've been caging them much longer, 

 and never discovered the harm. What is the 

 harm? [You ask what is the harm. A vir- 

 gin loDg caged in a nucleus or colony is too 

 often unfavorably received; and, even though 

 she may be accepted, she may be minus a 

 wing or a leg, and otherwise give evidence 

 of having been through a struggle. The re- 

 sult is, she is not and will not be what she 

 would have been had she been kindly re- 

 ceived at the start. The case you suppose is 

 quite possible; but where queens are reared 

 in large numbers, one can, with a perfect 

 system, establish a proportion so that the 

 second queen, with favorable weather, shall 

 not be caged more than two days prior to the 

 removal of the first one. Where only a few 

 queens are reared, such proportion could 

 not be so easily maintained. — Ed.] 



"The intelligent and up-to-date or- 

 chardist does not now spray (because he 

 knows better) during the time tne trees are 

 in bloom," p. 1421. Beg pardon, Prof. Sur- 

 face; but "in this locality" he does— at least 

 he is intelligent and up-to-date in all other 

 respects. [With due apology to Prof. Sur- 

 face, we should state that the quotation is 

 not the exact wording used by him, but our 

 summing-up of his statement on the point as 

 we heard him deliver it at the convention. 

 Since that time we have seen a copy of the 

 paper, and we find his exact wording is as 

 follows: "In general, no fruit-grower who 

 knows how and when to spray ever sprays 

 any thing while the blossoms are open. ' ' Ad- 

 mitting that he does spray while the trees 

 are in bloom in your locality, doctor, we 

 would still insist that he is not intelligent 

 and up to date. This may be due largely 

 to the fact that one manufacturer of spray- 

 ing-outfits in your State, who, either because 

 of ignorance or because he has a grudge 



against bee-keepers, has sent out thousands 

 of pamphlets with his spraying-outfits, ad- 

 vising every one to spray while the trees are 

 in bloom, notwithstanding the experiment 

 stations everywhere, as well as scientific men 

 in general, protest that such practice is wrong 

 in theory as well as in practice, damaging 

 to the bee-keeper and hurtful to the delicate 

 blossoms.— Ed.] 



J. E. Hand is quite right in saying, page 

 1436, that I would not wish to go on record 

 as saying that bees in Illinois are as likely 

 to store their surplus below the brood-apart- 

 ment as at the sides and above it; and I am 

 sorry that any one should so understand me 

 on p. 948. Undoubtedly their general pref- 

 erence is to store above the brood; but the 

 exceptions I have met certainly (;o n t war- 

 rant the statement that they cover store be- 

 low it. If Mr. Hand has neve • had any ex- 

 perience of this kind I cheerfully accept his 

 word for it; but that does not change the 

 fact that it occurs elsewhere. He says his 

 "statement has reference to bees in a normal 

 state unrestricted by the hand of man." I 

 am not sure just how far that "unrestricted " 

 is meant to apply. I suppose we all do a 

 good deal of restricting — certainly 1 should 

 say Mr. Hand does. But let me give illus- 

 trations of cases that have come under my 

 notice. One year I put under colonies in 

 ten-frame hives hive-bodies of empty combs 

 for the bees to take care of. To my surprise, 

 at that time, the bees did not leave them emp- 

 ty, as Mr. Hand says, but stored honey in 

 them. For a number of years I've used bot- 

 tom-boards 2 inches deep, with a false bot- 

 tom, during harvest time, about ^^ inches 

 deep. A good many times the bees have 

 built comb in the space at the bottom of the 

 hives, filled and sealed it, and I'm not sure 

 they ever had brood in it. They were no 

 more restricted than they always are, having 

 abundance of room in the supers. Neither 

 did the bees "quickly remove" this honey, 

 and combs were found unemptied when the 

 false bottoms were taken out in October. 

 With these new facts before you, friend 

 Hand, I think you will hardly want to go on 

 record as saying that bees never store honey 

 below the brood. ^. 



Editor Hutchinson endorses the idea 

 that oflicial documents of the National ought 

 to contain no electioneering. Review, 301. 

 Right. In the same paragraph he seems to 

 endorse the idea that on Oct. 1 "the General 

 Manager, and one other disinterested mem- 

 ber, should count the votes " for nominations 

 of candidates. Wrong. The General Man- 

 ager is not a disinterested member, and send- 

 ing the votes to him gives him an undue ad- 

 vantage. Neither is it fair to send the votes 

 to any ofiicer about to go out of ofiice. Mr. 

 France is the man for Manager, but he ought 

 not to be placed in such an unpleasant posi- 

 tion. And while I am about it I may say I 

 doubt the wisdom of the rule which says the 

 two persons receiving the highest number of 

 votes for a certain office should be the only 

 candidates for that office. Let that prelim- 



