1584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



center. Are those worker-cells or drone- 

 cells?" 

 "Drone." 



"And what are those a little higher up?" 

 "Worker." 



"And what does that tell you?" 

 "That says that the upper starter came 

 down only half way; and I see now that that 

 accounts for the trouble." 



Of course I can't be sworn that in all cases 

 Mr. Pryal uses upper starters only half depth, 

 but I can take my "affydavy" that in this 

 one case, either because the upper starter 

 was short when first put in, or because in 

 some way the bees tore down some of it aft- 

 erward, the foundation came down no fur- 

 ther than to the place where the drone-cells 

 began. With a space of 1| inches or so be- 

 tween the two starters, the bees would length 

 en each starter, the upper one downward 

 and the lower one upward, and when the 

 lower one became high enough why should 

 it not lean over? 



Some one may reply, "But I had bees 

 build upward once, and although the comb 

 was built up more than 2 inches high it was 

 strictly perpendicular." 



Yes, that's true, too. If you want to see 

 bees build upward, put on an upper story at 

 the beginning of the honey-harvest, with no 

 frames in this upper story — entirely empty. 

 Instead of clustering up against the cover 

 and beginning to build there you will most 

 likely find that the bees will think it too re- 

 mote a business to begin 9 or 10 inches above, 

 but will start to build up from the top-bars. 

 But in every case that I have ever seen, the 

 bees never built a comb in a straight line — 

 always in a circular form. The wise little 

 creatures seem to know that a straight comb 

 built upward would not be stable, so they 

 build in a curve. Not slightly curving, but 

 curving enough to make a circle no larger 

 than the top of a bowl or a tea-cup. With a 

 straight bottom-starter there is no chance 

 for a curve, and so when the bottom-starter 

 is high enough, over it goes. 



One of the difficult things is to follow out 

 in minute detail any heretofore untried plan, 

 and sometimes what may appear to be an 

 entirely unimportant detail may make all 

 the difference between success and failure. 

 When so bright a man as W. A. Pryal makes 

 a slip in this direction, it becomes the rest 

 of us to take warning. At the same time, 

 he is to be thanked that he has told us of his 

 failure, and if this were oftener done the 

 fraternity at large would be the gainer. 



Reference to the first paragraph on p. 143 

 of "Forty Years Among the Bees" will give 

 the missing link that, 1 think, accounts for 

 our friend's failure. It there gives the depth 

 of the top-starter as 3^ inches, and the bot- 

 tom-starter f . Add the two together and you 

 have 3|, and with 4 inches as the inside 

 depth of the section there is left a space of i 

 inch between the two starters. Always the 

 space will be in reality a little more than that, 

 the hot plate melting down each starter a 

 trifle. 



When a section is given to the bees, the 



space between starters is so small that one 

 of the first things they do is to connect to- 

 gether the two starters. Even if a bottom- 

 starter should occasionally topple over, the 

 upper starter is so near the bottom-bar of 

 the section that in the finished product no 

 balk is seen. 



One statement in the paragraph quoted I 

 must repudiate, and excuse it on the ground 

 that when I wrote it I was younger and less 

 experienced than now. It is this: "More- 

 over, I think the deeper the bottom-starter the 

 more promptly the two starters are fastened 

 together." According to that, if the bottom- 

 starter were 3 inches deep the two starters 

 would be fastened together with exceeding 

 promptness; whereas the lower starter would 

 be sure to fall over before the bees could 

 have time to knit the two together. Any one 

 so inexperienced as to write such nonsense 

 as that should not undertake to write a book. 

 I should have said, "The smaller the space, 

 the prompter the fastening." 



Mr. Pryal, in closing, speaks of the comb 

 being fastened to the separator. Instead of 

 causing this, the bottom-starter, rightly used, 

 is a sure preventive. When I used no bot- 

 tom-starter, the comb was swung over and 

 fastened to the separator with unpleasant 

 frequency when honey was coming in slowly. 

 There is no possibility of such a thing hap- 

 pening when the two starters are fastened 

 together. 



I earnestly hope Mr. Pryal may find the 

 plan work "to a charm" if he will give it 

 another trial. 



Marengo, 111. 



THE NATIONAL BEE KEEPERS' ASSO 

 CIATION. 



How Should the Officers be Chosen? the 

 Harrisbura: Convention. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



Taking the train at 4 : 50 a.m., Oct. 29, and 

 with a run all the afternoon among the Al- 

 legheny Mountains, and crossing and recross- 

 ing the Susquehanna River and its tributa- 

 ries, 1 reached Harrisburg, Pa., about 5:30 

 p M. The season of the year added to the 

 beauty of the mountain scenery, and remind- 

 ed me of the days of my childhood spent in 

 the county of Renfrew, Ontario, and my trip 

 was thoroughly enjoyed. 



It has been my privilege and pleasure to 

 see the National Association pass through 

 many stages, also to be its secretary, vice- 

 president, and president, and to attend its 

 conventions, among them Rochester, Detroit, 

 Columbus, Chicago (twice), Albany, Wash- 

 ington, Toronto, Brantford, St. Joseph, and 

 now Harrisburg. 



As to membership, influence, and progress 

 it stands, in my estimation, higher to-day 

 than ever. I believe, too, that the Harris- 

 burg convention in some ways sounded a 

 loftier note than ever before, and yet it was 

 felt that the method of nominating its officers 

 for the coming year was defective. To re- 



