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GI.KANINGS IN BEE C;i LTl RE 



Aug. 15 



Siftings 



By J. K. Chane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Two days of pleasant weather, and many 

 colonies had begun work in sections, and 

 in three days they were storing surplus 

 honey. 



What man does not envy the contented 

 bee-keeper when he sees the picture of Dr. 

 Miller on the May 1st cover of (tlean- 

 INGS as he watches the flight of his bees 

 to and from the sweet-clover field ? 



I am glad Mr. Scholl is going to try a 

 queen-rearing apiary, page 246, April 15. I 

 believe it will more than pay. We can buy 

 good queens; but I believe that, for busi- 

 ness, we had better raise most of them if 

 we can get the time. 



Reference has been made in recent num- 

 bers of Gleanings that the census this 

 year will not do our industry justice, as the 

 crop was unusually small in 1909. True; 

 but we can from it estimate somewhere 

 near what a full crop would be. 

 -^ 



Nt)n-swarming devices still increase, as 

 we see from page 295, May 1, and it seems 

 evident that we are making progress. A 

 device that would not fail more than one 

 time in twenty would certainly be a very 

 desirable acquisition. 



Our friend AVesley Foster is quite right in 

 thinking corrugated drip-boards are "far 

 away ahead " of wooden drip-sticks; and I 

 believe the time will come when bee-keep- 

 ers will come to think cases of corrugated 

 board " far away ahead " of wooden ones. 



I thoroughly enjoy the discussion on au- 

 tomobiles by Henry Stuart, and the editor's 

 footnotes on page 316, May 15. I believe 

 the automobile has come to stay, and will 

 play an important jiart in extensive bee- 

 keeping in the future — indeed, it will be 

 considered a necessity. 



Page 281, May 1, Mr. Holtermann recom- 

 mends feeding lale a thick syruj) for win- 

 tering. Not so long ago bee-keepers were 

 advised to feed early so the feed could be 

 stored and capjjed over while yet the flowers 

 were in bloom. I believe Air. H. is right. 

 I^ate in November last I assisted a neighbor 

 in feeding his bees and bought the yard 

 this spring, and found the bees in fine con- 

 dition. 



You say, Mr. Editor, page 278, May 1, 

 that there is no law against spraying fruit- 

 trees except in New York, Ontario, and pos- 



sibly Michigan. \'o\i forget that we have 

 such a law here in the (Jreen Mountain 

 State. Some of the fruit-growers, when they 

 found it out, were "awful mad," and 

 thought the bee-keei)ers had stolen a march 

 on them; but under the instruction of Prof. 

 Waugh they learned it would benefit them 

 as well as the bee-keepers. 



That i)hoto, page 322, May 15, certainly 

 looks natural. The only criticism I shouki 

 make is that Mr. Scholl should have placed 

 in the picture some cans without any case 

 covering them, for we receive them that 

 way. Say, Mr. Scholl, why don't you bor- 

 row the hammer the editor of Gleanings 

 uses to hammer into the heads of bee-keej)- 

 ers the fact that honey should be sold early, 

 and drive home the necessity that honey 

 should be packed more securely when sent 

 by freight long distances? Your advice, p. 

 310, if followed by bee-keepers, would pay 

 for many years' subscription for Glean- 

 ings. 



4y 



We kept hundreds of colonies alive by 

 feeding, and found that a good colony re- 

 quired from Yz to ^^ lbs.,of solid honey per 

 day, or thick sugar syrup to keep them 

 going. We found nothing so convenient or 

 satisfactory to feed as well-ripened honey, 

 granulated solid, that we had stored in ten- 

 gallon can with open tops. The nice thing 

 about it was that we could ladle out the 

 amount a colony needed with a stout wood- 

 en ladle, and lay it on top of the frames 

 without any special feeders: and it did not 

 stir the bees up nor set them to robbing to 

 any extent as a thin sugar syrup would do. 



Few things have interested me more than 

 the article by Samuel Simmins, page 285, 

 in regard to spring dwindling and longevi- 

 ty and stamina. If Mr. Simmins has se- 

 cured all he claims by breediiig, it is cer- 

 tainly a most interesting and valuable fact, 

 and 1 see no reason why it may not be as 

 he states. We know that length of life is 

 a family trait or characteristic among hu- 

 man beings, and one that is inherited by 

 children from parents. Longevity, as Dr. 

 Miller has shown, if only increased in bees 

 a few days, is of exceeding value in secur- 

 ing a crop of honey. To this add stamina, 

 the ability to work hard without exhaus- 

 tion, and the productive i)ower of a colony 

 of bees is greatly increased. As it is with 

 most of our bees, if we shake a colony on to 

 dry combs during the honey-How we find 

 in two weeks well nigh half the bees gone; 

 and before the brood begins to hatch, the 

 force is greatly reduced, unless honey is 

 very abuntlant. I have been in the habit, 

 some years, of giving such colonies, after a 

 week or ten days from the time of shaking, 

 a comb or two of hatching brood, which 

 greatly adds to their efTiciency and filling 

 of supers. Where honey is very abundant 

 and easily gathered, bees live much longer 

 during the working season. 



