1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



173 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



I do not quite like Carey Rees' method, p. 

 767, Dec. 15, of locating hives; for the more 

 compact we can place them, the less travel- 

 ing we have to do. Besides, what is gained 

 in naving the house in the exact center if 

 one has to carry all the honey to one side 

 when moved away? 



On page 730, Dec. 1, I believe Mr. Hand 

 has the better of the argument with Mr. 

 Greiner on the use of full sheets of founda- 

 tion in sections. We bee keepers know that 

 honey in comb built entirely by the bees is 

 preferable to that built on ordinary thin 

 foundation. We also know that it is much 

 more profitable to use full sheets of founda- 

 tion; and until dealers and consumers are 

 willing to pay us the difference we shall con- 

 tinue to use the full sheets. 



The origin of honeydew, by D. M Mac- 

 donald, ta^en from the British Bee Journal, 

 page 764, Dec. 15, is of great interest at 

 this time. While it may be true that plants 

 do exude a sweet fluid that bees gather, I 

 believe the great bulk of dew, so called, is 

 an insect product, much inferior to that 

 gathei-ed from the flowers by the bees. The 

 practical question seems to be the best use 

 to make of such sweet. He names various 

 uses, to which I would add that of printer's 

 ink, as I understand a large amount of low- 

 grade honey is used for this purpose. He 

 suggests using it for spring feeding, which 

 is, perhaps, the best suggestion ot all, al- 

 though I can not agree with him that it is as 

 good as the very bt st grade of honey in the 

 market for turning into bees; yet I know it 

 will answer a very good purpose, for I have 

 used many hundred or thousands of pounds 

 in this way. 



4>- 



I can not agree with Mr. Tricky, of Nevada, 

 page 723, Dec. 1, in what he says regarding 

 the use of plain sections. We have used 



filain sections for many years without trouble, 

 t may make some difference, however, from 

 the fact that we use cartons on all our sec- 

 tions. 



We notice that Mr. Tricky has very pro- 

 nounced opinions as to the paper case being 

 too weak to stand up with its load in carload 

 shipments. I am not surprised that he should 

 feel this way or that such should be his first 

 impression, for at first I felt the same. For 

 years I thought of this material as being very 

 desirable for a shipping case, but could not 

 make myself beheve that a paper case could 

 be made that would stand packing in a car 

 and carry the load of honey safely. There- 

 fore I placed the corrugated partitions at first 

 inside of a wooden case to make it strong 

 enough, and after months of study I made 

 up my mind that paper cases were theoreti- 

 cally strong enough, and so I had some 500 

 cases made. Yet it was with a good deal of 



fear that I shipped my first honey in this 

 way; but after lour seasons' trial 1 have no 

 fault to find with them, and dealers are still 

 paying us more for honey packed in the pa- 

 per cases than in the wooden ones. [See 

 editorial elsewhere. — Ed.] 



Automobiles for bee keepers, page 557, are 

 of cons derable importance to those running 

 outyards. For instance, we have six out- 

 yards that we expect to visit once in six or 

 eight days, and spend a day at each yard. 

 To go to all these yards and back makes a 

 total distance of 90 miles; traveling with a 

 horse at five miles an hour would take 18 

 hours, but in practice a good deal more than 

 that, for many of the roads are quite hilly. 

 An automobile would travel the whole dis- 

 tance in less than half the time, so that we 

 could take care of another yard, or give 

 those we ali eady have much better care 

 than they now get. We have not yet pur- 

 chased a car, but have in mind a trucking 

 car called "The Rapid" that will travel 10 to 

 18 miles an hour, and carry 1500 to 2000 lbs. 

 load. It is used, I believe, more largely in 

 the East for heavy work than any other, and 

 perhaps all others together. It is manufac- 

 tured by the Rapid Motor Vehicle Co., Pon- 

 tiac, Mich. 



4f- 



On page 727, Dec. 1, Doolittle tells us how 

 to lay out an apiary, and he says that of late 

 he uses four half-bricks for a foundation un- 

 der his cleated bottom-board. This is all 

 very well so far as it goes, and it may answer 

 the purpose where the colonies are wintered 

 in a cellar and the bricks changed to a new 

 location every season; but when a hive stands 

 in the same place the year round, half-bricks 

 go into the ground very quickly, letting the 

 hives follow. We have found good-sized 

 stones preferable. Some have recommend- 

 ed cement, and I think this might do in many 

 cases. Last spring, in underpinning some 

 for y hives we used slabs of marble six or 

 eight inches wide by one or two feet long 

 and two or three inches thick. 



Placing the hives in hexagonal groups is 

 not a bad idea if they are set far enough 

 apart. I located a yard in this way some 

 thirty years ago, but had the hives only six 

 feet apart, and I lost too many queens. Ten 

 feet apart would probably be all right; but 

 the yard takes rather too much room. I like 

 to have the hives in groups, either six, eight, 

 or ten in a group, and then have each group 

 painted a diff'erent color. 



Mr. Doohttle wisely objects to hives facing 

 the north — an objection which is well taken 

 unless in well-sheltered places. This re- 

 minds me that nothing is said about locating 

 the yard in a sheltered place out of the wind. 

 To my mind, this is the most important point 

 of all, especially when the colonies are win- 

 tered out of doors. Never locate a yard of 

 bees where it is necessary to place stones on 

 the covers to keep them from blowing off. 

 Also never locate the hives where the snow 

 drifts badly. We have two yards in such 

 places, but we intend to move them soon. 



