I'^KBRUARY, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



99 



1!)1S, said tliat the eolonies in his few 

 double-walled hives came out spring ait:^r 

 spring stronger than those in the single- 

 walled hives,Avhieh convinced him of the value 

 of protection. But whether results would 

 ever justify the expense and labor of pack- 

 ing cases, he wasn 't prepared to say. Mr. 

 Lee, reelected secretary-treasurer, said that 

 liis bees, all in Danzenljaker hives, came out 

 so strong in tlie spring that if they were any 

 more pojnilous he would have to fight early 

 swarming, lie didn't want then any stronger 

 at tliat time. 



This meeting of the county association, by 

 the way, was made particularly encouraging 

 l)y the presence of the county agent, Edw. 

 Thomae, who volunteered to cooperate in 

 any way he could to help put the organiza- 

 tion into a booming position, with every bee- 

 keeper in the county on its list. That's 

 what we want; our 1918 aim — every bee- 

 keeper in Davidson county a member. The 

 county home demonstration agent was also 

 present, and the two city home demonstra- 

 tion agents of Nashville. 

 * » * 



Eeverting again to winter packing, which 

 I don 't seem able to keep away from (it 's 

 like one of those electrical machines, once 

 you take hold of it you can't let it drop), 

 L. E. Webb, of Morgantown, N. C, 

 agrees with our Mr. Lee as to spring results 

 under his own present system. " Mine get 

 strong enough to swarm or be manipulated, ' ' 

 he writes, ' ' before our climate will admit, 

 anyway, and last year my eolonies were just 

 crowded over the first of April, and I 

 wouldn 't have had them stronger for pay. ' ' 



I have heard J. M. Buchanan of Franklin, 

 Tenn., say that, if his colonies came out in 

 the spring with six more or less bees per 

 hive, they'd swarm before locust bloom. 

 Both Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Lee winter in 

 two stories. Contracted brood nests sounds 

 reasonable for heat conservation, and ap- 

 parently many successful beekeepers prac- 

 tice that system. Yet here are others who 

 find exactly the opposite method successful. 

 Evidently everybody has to work out his 

 own bees ' salvation. 



Here are some interesting extracts from a 

 letter from A. B. Anthony of Sterling, 111.,: 

 " Your queiy was ' to pack or not to pack'. 

 Do neither one nor the other. Take the mid- 

 dle ground. Protect, but do not pack. Put 

 an extra %-in. wall, painted white, over your 

 bees without packing, and contract en- 

 trances. ... In putting an extra box 

 over your bees, you will use consideration, 

 and not let the space between be 2 or 3 or 

 4 inches. Make it % in. To make it much 

 more would be something like having, be- 

 tween the plaster and the outside wall of 

 your house, a four-foot space, instead of 

 four inches. . . . My locality is much 

 colder than yours; seldom a winter but what 

 reaches 20 degrees below zero, and I insert 

 in the •Is-in. space corrugated paper board. 

 . . . On the matter of overhead absorb- 

 ents I would say it depends on whether frost 



(more or less) lines the inside of your brood 

 chamber. Whether it does, is a matter of 

 your extrenieiit cold, amount of protection, 

 size of colony and size of entrance. If no 

 frost accumulates, a tight cover will do; oth- 

 erwise safety comes surest with absorbents. 

 Did frost stay on the inner walls until 

 spring, after once freezing, it would prob- 

 ably not do much harm. But the temperature 

 rises, possibly not to thawing outside, but 

 in the hive it does; and bees are not like 

 fishes and mud turtles, but like man, in that 

 they cannot stand dampness, a condition con- 

 siderably less retained with tight covers. 

 . . Go ahead and pack your bees if you 

 choose. You are safe so long as they are 

 not allowed to run short of stores. But pro- 

 tection and not packing is all you need." 



* * * 



C. B. Palmer of Bradshaw, Neb., is of 

 course not a Dixie beekeeper, yet I cannot 

 resist quoting also from a recent letter of 

 his: " The idea of you feeding sugar away 

 down south, and I with honey to spare away 

 up in this cold breezy state! Nothing as far 

 north from our yard as the eye can see to 

 break the wind but a barb wire fence." 



* * » 



THE BEEKEEPERS' CONVENTION 



In Washington and London^ 



In Paris and in Rome, 

 Are meetinsrs, meetings, meetings, 



Like this of ours at home. 



Tliere men may meet by hundreds, 

 Sometimes but three or four, 



Tho sometimes one grave man alone 

 In silence walks the floor. 



They talk of kings and nations, 



Of war by sea and land 

 And how this army must go on, 



And how this line must stand. 



And how to save the people, 

 And how to bring to birth, 



From pain and death, a nobler peace 

 Upo'n a nobler earth. 



While grave men thus are meeting 



In Paris and in Rome, 

 In Washington and Lon don-to vm, 



We bee folk meet at home. 



The nations take no notice ; 



No fleet shall sail away, 

 No men shall march or banner.s fly 



Because we meet today. 



We talk of swarming problems, 

 And when the clovers bloom, 



And how to give at honey time 

 Unstinted storing room. 



And how bees live thru winter, 

 And how they meet the spring — 



The sun and scent and pollen dust 

 And fairy blossoming. 



Oh^ presidents and rulers 



And ministers of state 

 And admirals and generals 



ATe very grand and great. 



We've had our times of wishing 

 That we were great as these — 



I wonder if they sometimes wish 

 That they were keeping bees I 



