218 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1918 



you say it in capitals— THERE ARE VITA- 

 MINES IN HONEY— just like that? As 

 you say, vitamiues are a recent discovery, 

 and some jieople wouldn 't know a vitamine 

 if they met one in the woods. So I'm wait- 

 ing anxiously for you to fulfill your promise 

 to tell us more about them. I suppose 

 they're the little fairy folk in butter that 

 make the doctors advise us to give butter to 

 growing children in spite of the higher 

 price as compared with any butter-substi- 

 tutes without vitamines. And if they add 

 10 cents or more to the value of butter, why 

 shouldn't they do the same thing for honey? 

 Or isn 't honey as rich in vitamines as but- 

 ter? Isn't it lack of vitamines, too, that 

 makes people sick with scurvy or something 

 when they eat food without vitamines? Now 

 we have another thing to score in favor of 

 honey. And at least three things we should 

 make known from the housetops: That hon- 

 ey is ready for direct assimilation, not put- 

 ting the burden of inversion upon the diges- 

 tive organs as does sugar; that it contains 

 minerals, in small quantities, to be sure, but 

 absolutely essential to health; and that it 

 contains vitamines, those things to be found 

 only in the latest dictionaries, that have a 

 mysterious influence upon digestion without 

 themselves being subjects for digestion. 

 And yet I 've known people to say honey 

 is possibly better than sugar. "Possibly?" 



The idea! 



* * * 



"Even in northern states, brood-rearing 

 may start as early as January, if the bees are 

 disturbed in any way, or if a few warm days 

 occur," page 172. Don't you believe that 

 in the north brood-rearing in January is more 

 common than generally supposed, and don't 

 you believe that it's the rule rather than the 

 exception for it to begin in February? You 

 know that brood-rearing begins sooner out- 

 doors than in cellar, and we are told that it's 

 because the severe cold outdoors makes the 

 bees run up the heat in the center of the 

 cluster to the breeding point. But then it 

 might be argued from that that the farther 

 we go north the earlier brood-rearing begins, 

 and that would hardly do. Besides, we know 

 that in the fall there is no brood-rearing 

 caused by warm days. What do we know 

 about bees anyway? [In talking with R- F. 

 Holtermann, yesterday, he said that it was 

 very seldom that any brood would be found 

 in his outdoor wintered colonies in the 

 months of January or February. We have 

 found it repeatedly in both months. Perhaps 

 if the colonies were adequately packed, so 

 it would not be necessary for them to gen- 

 erate extra heat, breeding would not start so 

 early. Mr. Holtermann believes in ample 

 packing as does also Dr. E. F. Phillips of the 

 Bureau of Entomology. In that case, breed- 

 ing probably would not start much before the 

 first of March.— Editor.] 



out egg-laying longer than 10 days. J. E. 

 Crane, page 154, thinks it is sometimes bet- 

 ter, because in some cases of European foul 

 brood ' ' the larvae die in all stages of growth, 

 from two or three days old to those that have 

 their growth and are even sealed over — being 

 changed into a sticky, stringy substance, ' ' 

 and he thinks three weeks or even four none 

 too long a time for the colony to clean up. 

 But, friend Crane, if I am correct in my 

 view, it isn 't necessary for the colony to 

 clean up before egg-laying is resumed- After 

 my first experience I always allowed egg-lay- 

 ing to begin while there were plenty of dead 

 infected larva? in the hive, and I don 't think 

 an old black larva carries the disease. It 's 

 the yellow fellow, not yet putrid, that the 

 bees eat. I think, too, that in all cases there 

 were sealed cells containing diseased larvae, 

 and I've always supposed that you would 

 find these in all cases, if you looked for them. 

 The sealing looks all right, but dig in and 

 you '11 find the dead larvae. It is possible, 

 however, that there may be such a thing as 

 cases that need three or four weeks without 

 egg-laying in order to be safe. But I think 

 such c^ses must be decidedly exceptional, 

 and I would advise that in any case the 10- 

 day treatment be tried before proceeding to 

 so drastic a measure as to have no egg-laying 

 for 30 days. [We gathered the impression 

 from Dr. Phillips that he was of the opinion 

 that t4ie period of queenlessness might vary 

 according to the conditions; that those con- 

 ditions might have to be determined by each 

 beekeeper himself. In the case of some be- 

 ginners, perhaps, the Alexander limit would 

 be none to much. — Editor.] 



* * * 



' ' There is no easier, quicker, and safer way 

 of feeding bees that are short of stores than 

 to give them sealed stores of honey." That's 

 the ripe advice given by one A. I. Root, page 

 178, and he might have added "better" to 

 the ' ' easier, quicker, and safer. ' ' Look it 

 up, young fellow, and see what more he says. 



* * * 



J. E. Crane speaks of the difficulty of get- 

 ting a stand of sweet clover altho ' ' it seems 

 to grow well along the roadsides," page 154. 

 In this region you can get just as good a 

 stand in the fields if you pack down the 

 ground over the seed. In soft ground it fails. 



* * * 



After you get your pound-packages of be'^s 

 in i^lace in the hive, "they should be. fed two 

 or three pounds of thin sugar syrup until 

 they are well sujiplied, " page 142. If you 

 don 't happen to have the sugar, a comb of 

 honey will do quite as well. 



* * * 



"In this locality" the winter of 1917-18 

 will go down in history as ' ' the cold winter. " 

 Makes no difference to my bees. 



It is a matter of much importance to kiow 

 whether, in the treatment of European foul 

 brood, it is better to keep the colony with- 



That picture on tlie front cover, March. 

 Isn't it a beauty? I've looked at it again 

 and again, and every time it looks prettier. 



