208 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



Why not make of cement those hive- 

 stands of F. Greiner, p. 149? 



Mrs. J. W. Bacon's plan, page 183, of run- 

 ning up to 12 or more brood-frames and then 

 redi;cing to 8 when putting on supers, is ex- 

 cellent practice. We do it here by using 

 two eight frame bodies. 



J. E. Crane, you're naughty to try to drive 

 me out of bee-keeping, page 173, by saying I 

 must locate bees where stones are not need- 

 ed to keep covers from blowing off. No 

 such location here. But with flat covers I 

 never use stones except sometimes early 

 when covers have been cracked open and it 

 is too cold for glue to stick them on again. 



Never before did I know a winter here 

 when grass stayed green all the time from 

 fall till growth started in spring. Clover 

 shows up fine. But will it honey? as the 

 Germans say. [Clover is fine here, and re- 

 ports are favorable wherever it usually 

 grows. Will it "honey "? We never knew 

 of a year when it did not "honey" after a 

 heavy snow. — Ed.] 



J. L. Ever, you ask me to mete out justice 

 in that case, p 192. The editor prefers that 

 the subject shall "requiescat in pace;" but 

 you come to the next Chicago convention 

 and meet me at meat between sessions, and 

 I'll mete out all the justice you want. It is 

 just as easily settled as were lots of cases 

 where two men had herds of cattle on the 

 same wild land; and please remember that 

 at present, so tar as bees are concerned, all 

 land is wild land. 



Mr. Simmins is a man for whose word I 

 have great respect; but I am just a bit skep- 

 tical as to meal-feeding being as bad as he 

 paints it, p. 178. I have fed many bushels of 

 ground corn and oats in spring, and never 

 knew any bad results from it. Still, there is 

 the possib lity that I am, as he says, "not 

 too observant." [This is a problem that will 

 vary somewhat according to locality. There 

 is danger of coaxing the bees out too early. 

 Nature does not usually furnish natural pol- 

 len before the bees ought to have it. Man 

 very often tampers with nature, disarrang- 

 ing her plans, with the result that trouble 

 follows. Notwithstanding, we think there 

 are times when bees may and should be giv- 

 en artificial pollen. As many noted last 

 spring, considerable brood died because of 

 improperly balanced ration — that is, a lack of 

 the nitrogenous element in their food. Of 

 course we have no positive evidence that the 

 brood died from this cause; but the circum- 

 stantial evidence was very strong. — Ed.] 



Virgil Weaver, much obliged for prom- 

 ise, p. 197, of a crop this year; but how am I 

 to tell whether winter has nothing to do with 

 it? The winter of 1908 was open; and al- 

 though plants could be seen quite early, their 

 roots must have been hurt, for later on they 



disappeared and few plants were to be seen, 

 to say nothing of blossoms, so of course 

 there could be no honey crop in 1909, and it 

 looks as if winter had killed the plants. The 

 winter of 1909 had such a snow-blanket as I 

 never knew before; plants look superb; and 

 if there's a bumper crop one can hardly 

 blame that snow-blanket for putting in a bill 

 of charges for winter protection. [Mr. 

 Weaver has fairly earned a reputation for 

 being a good prophet. His predictions for 

 the last three or four years have come very 

 near being true. He may be mistaken in 

 some of his conclusions, but in the main he 

 seems to have discovered some conditions 

 that are favorable and unfavorable to a clo- 

 ver yield. — Ed.] 



Can it be that locality makes a big differ- 

 ence about the kind of day when bees should 

 be taken out of the cellar? In this locality a 

 warm sunshiny day is always chosen for tak- 

 ing out bees; and the ill results mentioned, 

 p. 195, do not follow. The entrances are im- 

 mediately closed up to a square inch or less, 

 and that probably makes a difference about 

 drifting. If a colony is quietly placed upon 

 its stand when warm enough to fly, why 

 should it fly out any differently from what it 

 would if it had been on its stand for a week? 

 An important item is that the cellar must be 

 wide open all night before taking out. If I 

 should take them out on a cold cloudy day 

 there might come severe cold for a week or 

 more, when they would be very much better 

 off in the cellar. 



P. S. — Since writing the above I have read 

 R. F. Holtermann's "drifting" article, page 

 196. He thinks the principal cause is "ex- 

 citement on the part of the bees so that they 

 do not mark their location as they leave the 

 hive, "and he also thinks " the rapid changes 

 of conditions from inside atmosphere to the 

 outside increase the excitement of the first 

 fly." You will see that I provide for both 

 these contingences. By having the cellar 

 wide open the previous night there is little 

 change upon going to the outside atmos- 

 phere, and I thmk the contracted entrance 

 does much to make them mark their loca- 

 tion. [It may be that giving bees fresh air 

 the night before taking them out of the cel- 

 lar may to a great extent overcome the ex- 

 citement that would take place under other 

 conditions when set out. In our locality we 

 can be reasonably sure of favorable weather 

 on a day following. The United States 

 weather reports are fairly reliable. Let us 

 suppose that to-day it is a little too cool 

 for the bees to fly. The weather report 

 shows that it will be warm and balmy to- 

 morrow, with probably a clear sky, which 

 means sunshine, of course. We set the bees 

 out toward night. It is a little cool during 

 the night; and as the cluster gradually un- 

 folds the next morning the bees find their 

 way to the entrance; and when the temper- 

 ature is right they will come out gradually — 

 not with a pellmell rush. As the hives are 

 all out, we avoid some of that "drifting" of 

 which we have been reading, and ere long 

 the bees quiet down to normal. — Ed.] 



