GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



Referring to last item, p. 786, I think the 

 Dadants practice feeding candied honey, 

 smearing it over the top-bars of brood-cham- 

 ber. 



Before 1861 I suffered severely with rheu- 

 matism, and since then have had none. I 

 began keeping bees in 1861. I don't know 

 whether there is any relation between the 

 two facts. 



Ruber, I have a Quaker mill like yours, 

 and am miller-in-chief to the Miller family. 

 It's great to grind your own wheat, have all 

 of the wheat in the flour, and know just 

 what you're eating. And the gems from that 

 whole-wheat flour! Yum! yum! 



J. E. Crane, it's true, as you say, p. 758, 

 that bees often fill a center bait before strong 

 enough to do much more; but another fact 

 of more importance to me is that that prompter 

 beginning in the center may make the differ- 

 ence between swarming and not swarming. 



A MISTAKE is made, p. 727, in saying that 

 hives 10 feet apart in the row and rows 10 

 feet apart makes hexagons. It makes 

 squares. Put hives 10 feet apart, in the row, 

 and rows 8 feet 8 inches apart, and you will 

 have hexagons, the center of each hive be- 

 ing just 10 feet from the center of each of 

 the surrounding 6 hives. If you put a pair 

 of hives instead of each single hive, you will 

 double the number of hives on the same 

 ground, and be just as safe from bees enter- 

 ing wrong hives. 



Preconstructed queen-cells are the kind 

 the bees prepare for a prime swarm, and I 

 supposed the only kind. Now comes Adrian 

 Getaz, a careful observer, who says, Ameri 

 can Bee Journal, 367, that, after having de- 

 stroyed queen-cells in a colony for two or 

 three weeks, he found some whose bases 

 showed that they were post-constructed, not- 

 withstanding the presence of a laying queen. 

 This, however, was not an entirely normal 

 case of preparation for a prime swarm, as 

 the swarming fever had been intensified by 

 the destroying of previous queen-cells. 



J. L. Byer, you seem to be somewhat off 

 in your ideas, p. 780, of what I've been do- 

 ing. I haven't abandoned feeding thin syrup 

 in the fall, for I never did it. All that I ever 

 did of that was experimentally on a small scale 

 fairly early. Neither would I feed late any 

 thing so thin as two-to-one. I've fed barrels 

 of sugar for winter, but always two and one- 

 half to one, and I wouldn't risk feeding it 

 without acid. I don't know from experience 

 about the two-to-one. No, at present I'm 

 "not mixing honey with the feed." Just 

 now I don't recall ever mixing an ounce of 

 honey that way. 



That bees aid in the fertihzation of fruits 

 is, of course, well known. That they aid 

 fruits to resist frost is new to me. But that 



is just what was claimed in a conversazione, 

 British Bee Journal, 413, and with the ex- 

 planation given it looks reasonable. It is 

 well known that a blossom remains fresh a 

 considerable time awaiting fertilization, and 

 then promptly dries up. Well, during that 

 "awaiting " time the stigma is tender, easily 

 affected by frost; but when dried up the lit- 

 tle fruit is resistent. So with plenty of bees 

 there is less danger from frost. [This looks 

 reasonable and we believe it is true. — Ed.] 



None of my funeral whether field bees 

 unload in supers or brood-chamber; but it's 

 hardly proven, p. 763, that it's always in su- 

 pers. That "suppose " 15 pounds a day com- 

 ing in, and all cells already filled, might be 

 answered by the question, "Does that hap- 

 pen?" At any rate, when honey comes in 

 12 pounds a day you can always shake thin 

 honey out of the brood-combs by the pound. 

 And there's no need for 12 pounds in the 

 brood-chamber, for some of it could be car- 

 ried up soon after being brought in. If field- 

 bees go straight to the supers it seems 'hey 

 might take their pollen there too, instead 

 stead of dumping it in the brood-chamber. 



" The CANDY-BILL of Uncle Sam is $130,- 

 000,000 a year," says the Baltimore News. 

 " It is said by experts that the enormous in- 

 crease in the use of candy is the direct out- 

 come of a corresponding decrease in the use 

 of alcohol. Alcohol destroys the taste for 

 sweets, and correspondingly the heavy can- 

 dy-eater is not likely to be the person who 

 has a strong liking for whisky, beer, or wine. 

 In the last few years the admitted gain of so- 

 briety among all classes of people has had 

 the effect of adding to the business of the 

 candy maker by leaps and bounds." All of 

 which is good — very good. Now let the word 

 go out that it would be still better if honey 

 should replace three-fourths of the candy. 



Louis SCHOLL, p. 757, I don't want to get 

 "a good swat " along with the editor, and so 

 I'd like to come to an understanding. It's a 

 matter of serious practical importance. 'The 

 belief of some is that the diameter of a cell 

 is constantly lessened by the addition of co- 

 coons to the side-walls, and so no comb more 

 than five years old should be used. I believe 

 that a comb may be used for 50 years or 

 more. There is a constant thickening of the 

 midrib, and a constant deepening of the cell 

 to compensate for it, so that the diameter of 

 the cell always remains sufficient for a full- 

 sized bee. Of course there may be such a 

 thing as such close spacing or such a thick 

 midrib that the depth of the cell is too little 

 for a full-sized bee. But I don't believe it 

 ever happened that a cell of full depth was 

 made too narrow by cocoons for good use. 

 Your bees were dwarfs, not because of the 

 diameter, but the depth of the cells. Neither 

 the editor nor I thouerht the bees could spread 

 the combs; but we thought the bees could 

 spread the combs; but we thought you were 

 equal to the task, and that if you would do 

 so you would get bees of full size. By the 

 way, that >^-inch midrib must be about 100 

 years old, 



