404 



GLEANIXr.S IN BEE CT'LTURE 



July 1 



Stray Straws 



lly Dk. C. C. Mili.kk, Maienco, 111. 



Dr. Phillips made a delightful call on 

 ine the other day. The air about him is 

 blue with all kinds of foul brood. 



With H alley's comet outof thewayand 

 Roosevelt back home, may be we shall now 

 have some decent weather for bees. 



Stinking and non-stinkinj^ foul brood 

 are the two kinds in ( fcrmany, and I sup- 

 posed, page .'571, that "stinking" was the 

 American variety, judging by the smell; but 

 Dr. Phillips tells me it's just the other way; 

 "stinking" is European, and "non-stink- 

 ing" is American! 



Laying workers in my apiary are charg- 

 ed to a little sprinkling of Holy Lands and 

 Cyprians, p. oTL No Holy Land was ever 

 here, and just one Cyprian queen, and no 

 queens were reared from her. My bees range 

 from pure Italian to dark hybrids, the yel- 

 low blood predominating. 



Honey wintered at 75 to 90 degrees is not 

 an entire success; p. 278; combs sagged, and 

 honey cooked a little. Plainly too hot. 

 Two winters' exiierience has shown that sec- 

 tions beside the furnace in the cellar have 

 wintered — I think I may say perfectly. I 

 don't know the temperature, but should 

 guess 45 to 75°. 



Nov. 15 I questioned whether one Ameri- 

 can bee-keeper in five or ten allowed no queen 

 to enter her second winter. Rev. Mr. Rurg- 

 hardt, Leipz. Bzfg., 6o, says Frank Renton 

 was his authority for the statement there 

 made. Possibly i>\x. Renton was misquoted. 

 Possibly I am mistaken. What is the truth 

 about it, anyhow? 



That viciously vulgar violation of good 

 English, using "shook swarms" instead of 

 "shaken swarms," is having its legitimate 

 result in causing bad English elsewhere. 

 Editor Hutchinson, a man civilized enough 

 to eat with a knife and fork instead of his 

 fingers, says. Review, 185, "Bees that have 

 been shook from a comb." 



National Riscuit Co. uses 3,600,000 lbs. 

 of honey (125 carloads) annually. Had on 

 hand March 26, 2,000,000 lbs. Even the best 

 honey-dew is inferior for their use, light am- 

 ber honeys seeming to retain flavors best. 

 Wherever they use the word "honey" in 

 naming their goods, as "honey wafers," not 

 a particle of sugar is used, honey only. — 

 Am. Bee Journal, 151. 



R. F. HoLTERMANN, page 389, I wish you 

 and Doolittle would settle the question 

 whether a colony can be too strong May 1. 

 I'm ready to follow the best pleader. Jiut 

 you'll hardly get Doolittle to exchange you 

 his more-than-six-si)ace colonies for six-spac- 

 ers. He can do better to equalize in his own 

 yards. At least that's the way here. Like 

 you, I never have more bees tlian I want. 



Say, Yor, New Mexico Chap, i)age 296, if 

 you have noticed thai a % entrance gives 

 less surplus tluin a fk one, I believe your 

 noticer is out of order. Vou say the swarm- 

 ing impulse is incited by the" bees filling 

 their hive. Isn't it also incited by their be- 

 ing too hot? If you've noted that ventila- 

 tion retards egg production, 1 believe your 

 noter needs repairing too. My (pieens fill 

 out the combs with eggs clear down to that 

 two-inch entrance just as much as they ever 

 did with ^s entrances. 



First clover-bloom May 18 meant stor- 

 ing May 28, according to all previous rules. 

 Rut cold weather prevented: and although 

 clover was abundant, colonies were at the 

 j)oint of starvation June 8. Then came real 

 June weather, and the delightful roar of 

 bees storing, and June 13 some supers had 

 honey in every section but the four corner 

 ones. [We never saw a better clover flow 

 than we are having right here at Medina at 

 the present time; but it takes nearly until 

 noon before it begins to yield nectar.— Ed.] 



A. I. Root, I don't wonder that you shud- 

 der at the thought of chopping off men's 

 heads to stop poi)py-growing or to stop 

 drunkard-making, p. 394. No; I don't want 

 to see saloon-keepers' heads taken off. .Still, 

 it might be a saving in the long run. Sup- 

 pose each saloon-keeper makes only two 

 drunkards. Which would be better, to send 

 the one saloon-keeper unprepared into eter- 

 nity, or the two drunkards? Rut there's a 

 better way out. Let every good man refuse 

 to vote for a candidate for "the legislature un- 

 less that candidate is open'y pledged to use 

 his whole power against the saloon. Just 

 so long as good men are held in such party 

 bondage that they will vote for conj candi- 

 date the machine names, just so long will 

 the saloon remain in the saddle. 



M. T. Pritchard, have you any proof 

 that a queen-cell in a small" cluster of bees 

 will be better cared for than if it were caged 

 in a strong colony? ]). ;i89. I don't want to 

 believe it if I can" help it, for it's handier to 

 have a lot of virgins in a nursery. Rut I 

 must confess that too many virgins die in 

 said nursery, even in the strongest colony; 

 and if some die for want of right care, it's a 

 question whether any get the best care; and 

 if we are to ha\e the best grown-ups they 

 should have the best care when babies. Ger- 

 man authorities, including the great Swiss 

 authority. Dr. Kramer, insist that it is not 

 merely a question of so much heat; that the 

 nurses have an influence by their intimate 

 contact with the cells; andthat the loving 

 care lavished ujjon the young \irgin from 

 the moment of her emergence makes no 

 small difference in what she will accomplish 

 in after-life. A public establishment with 

 a hundred babies in it may have a corps of 

 the best nurses and physicians; but there is 

 lacking the warm, loving atmosphere that 

 envelops the one baby in its own home. 

 Rut, hold on; I'm not going to fight your 

 battles, M. T. Rring on your proof if you 

 have any. 



