GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1 



BEE-KEEPING AMONG 



THE ROCKIES. 



By Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. 



SAWED vs. SPLIT OR SLICED SEPARATORS. 



The scalloped wood separator is subject to 

 hard usage in comparison to its strength. 

 The scalloped edges break off very easily, 

 and great care must be used in wedging up 

 supers, removing honey from them, and in 

 cleaning the separators. The most breakage 

 comes in scrapmg off wax and propolis. A 

 wood separator, to be of service, snould be 

 sawed and not split or sliced; it should be 

 free from knots and decayed wood, and 

 thick enough so that there will be about 

 fourteen to the inch. Some run as high as 

 eighteen; but this is too thin, and the scal- 

 lops will break off almost of their own voli- 

 tion. A good time to compare the merits of 

 a sawed and a split separator is after a lot of 

 them have been wet. The sawed separators 

 come back into shape fairly well, while the 

 split separator will remain warped, and, if 

 bent into shape, will likely break. 



I do not agree with the ideas of Mr. Trick- 

 sy, as given on pages 722 and 723, Dec. 1, 

 that comb-honey cases are made too strong. 

 The single-tier wood case is not protection 

 enough Tor the honey. The freight-handlers 

 have so many goods to move that often no 

 time can be had to move goods slowly. This 

 is not as we would wish; but we shall have 

 to do the best possible, and continue to fight 

 for more careful handling of fragile goods. 

 The railroads out this way have claims for 

 breakage on a very large percentage of the 

 local shipments of comb honey. The break- 

 age is caused by careless freight-handlers, 

 Sacking in cars with heavy goods, and by 

 ard bumping of cars when switching. The 

 rate on comb honey will no doubt be raised 

 if more fragile cases are used. Comb honey 

 is not packed in as heavy crates as other 

 goods of light weight and fragile character. 



Neither do I think the graamg-rules draw 

 the lines too fine or specify too many grades. 

 The rules could be improved; but adopting 

 the "individual " methods would destroy all 

 standards to go by. The development of the 

 modern methods of distribution of fruit and 

 produce has given rise to the grading-rules 

 established by associations of fruit-growers 

 and producers. Take the sections of the 

 country that have distinguished themselves 

 by a certain high quality of product like the 

 Rocky Ford melon or the Hood River apple. 

 These names have been made by the grow- 

 ers combining, and establishing rules and 

 shipping a uniform product. 



The apples that are shipped from the West 

 and Northwest have six grades for each va- 

 riety of fruit — three for size and three for 

 color. That makes more grades than we 

 have in comb honey, and we can not do bet- 

 ter than take the hint from the most success- 

 ful marketers of fruit. There are no pro- 



ducing sections of the country in either fruit 

 or honey that have established a name for 

 quality that have not adopted uniform rules 

 for grading and packing, and shipped the 

 goods through producers co-operating to 

 make carloads or organizing an association 

 to do the work. 



■*- 



COLORADO BEE CONVENTION. 



The convention has come and gone, and a 

 good meeting it was too. Often I would hear 

 some one say, "Before another year goes by I 

 am going to observe along that line myself." 

 This is the benefit of a bee convention. By 

 rubbing ideas together we refine our own 

 and get a few additional good ones. Mr. 

 Dyer gave some of his ideas on overstocking 

 bee territory that caused some little discus- 

 sion. He said he believed that, unless there 

 were bees to gather the nectar as secreted 

 by the bloom, the nectar would drv up and 

 form a hard scale that would stop the secre- 

 tion entirely. His idea was that the bloom 

 yields nectar for quite a few days, and that 

 the bees get a large amount, comparatively, 

 from each corolla if it is kept empty by the 

 visiting bees. Prof. Gillette said it was the 

 rule for nectar to cease as soon as the flower 

 became fertilized. This, in a large measure, 

 would discount the possibilities that Mr. 

 Dyer spoke of, though he has six hundred 

 colonies in one location at the present time. 

 We shall hope to know more of the outcome 

 later on when he has given the theory a 

 thorough test. The supply of pollen is a 

 more serious matter here in the spring than 

 the lack of nectar in the summer, though we 

 have experienced the lack of both lately oft- 

 ener than is desired. 



If flowers can be bred up so that the nec- 

 tar will flow before and after fertilization 

 we shall be well out on the road to more 

 profit from the bee. The cow gives milk 

 out of season (according to the requirements 

 of nature), and we hope the flowers will 

 overstep nature a little for us. 



Wilbur F. Cannon, Pure-food Commission- 

 er, gave a talk on the pure-food law and its 

 relation to honey. He expressed his desire 

 to have the bee-keepers co-operate with him 

 in stamping out any adulteration or mis- 

 branding of honey. 



The most interesting feature of the con- 

 vention was the lecture by Prof. Gillette on 

 the anatomy of the honey-bee, illustrated 

 with stereopticon slides. The honey-bee is 

 the highest in the scale of all the members 

 of the insect kingdom as man is in the ani- 

 mal. The reason for the classification of the 

 bee at the top of the scale is because she 

 possesses the greatest number of special or- 

 gans. It is interesting to know that man 

 and the bee have been so closely connected 

 since the dawn of history. Alike in their 

 tastes, social organization, and desires, wher- 

 ever man has planted trees, flowers, and 

 gardens, there you find the bee. The charm 

 of Prof. Gillette's lecture was the genial per- 

 sonality of the man shining througn it all. 



* Mr. Trickey referred to carriers or crates, and not 

 single or double tier shipping-cases.— Ed.] 



