Dkcember, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULT V R E 



I 



c 



ur 



SN 'T t here 



some mistake 



i n regard t o 

 the cost of a 

 winter case to be 

 made in panels 

 as described on 

 page 652 of No- 

 vember Glean- 

 ings"? The Editor 

 says the cost would be about $3.00 per case, 

 less than an eight-frame hive, catalog price. 

 Well, hereabouts, the lumber, nails, etc., 

 would cost three dollars or near it, to say 

 nothing of the labor of making. [It would 

 have been a little more accurate, had we 

 said three dollars per colony. The actual 

 cost is between nine and ten dollars per case. 



—Editor.] 



* * * 



"The person who keeps two or three colo- 

 nies in first-class condition and gets full re- 

 sults is just as good an apiarist as one who 

 keepsi more bees and takes no better care of 

 them, ' ' says Hamlin Miller, page 674 — a 



fact worth remembering. 



* * * 



M. C. Eichter of Modesto, Calif., on page 

 673 advises members of the California Honey 

 Producers' Co-operative Exchange to order 

 their supplies of the Exchange early, as 

 prices are likely to advance. Now this is 

 just as good advice for those in other sec- 

 tions of the country who are not members 



of any exchange. 



* * * 



The experiment related by H. H. Eoot 

 on page 663 is of more than usual interest. 

 To introduce 37 queens from colonies badly 

 infected with European foul brood into two- 

 and three-frame nuclei and not have the 

 disease appear, would seem to be almost 

 conclusive proof that this disease is not 

 transmitted by the queen. Had these queens 

 been black queens, I should feel sure that 

 this disease was never transmitted in this 

 way. * * * 



Some three thousand years ago, a writer 

 told us, "there is nothing new under the 

 sun"; but if he had lived in our day and 

 read the title of an article by E. R. Root 

 in the November number of Gleanings, "Sky- 

 scraper Beekeeping," he would have rubbed 

 his eyes and said, "What is thatf" And 

 some' of us old beekeepers feel much the 

 same way. Is it true that we have not been 

 getting much more than half the honey we 

 might with better hives and better manage- 

 ment"? It is a subject that will bear looking 

 into and investigating very carefully. If 

 ■4.5,000 pounds of honey can be taken from 

 300 colonies, it is certainly much more ])rofit- 

 able than to take 30,000 pounds from 1,000 

 colonies. I propose to try to see what 

 can be done with a few colonies first. 



* * * 



I am sorry to disagree witli so good an 

 authority as Belva M. Demuth, but she 

 tells on page 657 that when there comes a 

 nice warm day in November, 'The clusters 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



1 



^^^^^^^^^^ 



1U 



729 



then untold com- 

 pletely, and 

 probably every 

 liee except the 

 (jueen of each 

 colony goes 

 forth into sun- 

 shine before the 

 night ceases." 

 Now this is 

 ideal, and just as we would like to "have it, 

 but I doubt if it is true in the far North. 

 I watched very closely last autumn, but saw 

 no day when it looked as tho half of the 

 bees flew out. There were days when some 

 colonies flew freely, and other colonies flew 

 some; but there was no wholesale flight 

 such as she describes. [In this respect there 

 is considerable difference between Maryland 

 and Vermont. Whether every bee might fly 

 would depend i)artly, no doubt, on the late- 

 ness of brood-rearing. — Editor.] 



* * * 



The use of a single hole for winter is a 

 capital idea, as given on page 653. Where a 

 hive has a large entrance, it can be. easily 

 made into a single hole by closing with a 

 couple of blocks, leaving ' the hole in the 

 center. I have used double-walled hives 

 for nearly 50 years, and for the last 25 years, 

 I suppose, I have used a hole in the front 

 of the hive above the bottom entrance to 

 prevent the entrance getting clogged. This 

 hole I made by boring with an inch bit 

 thru the outside case and brood-chamber 

 and inserting a tin tube, thus making 

 the entrance about % inch in size. This 

 has given me entirely satisfactory results. 

 During severe winter weather these holes 

 will be almost completely closed with frost, 

 that, as soon as tho weather moderates, melts 

 without harm to the bees. Of course, we 

 make the lower entrance very small, and, if 

 it gets closed with snow or ice or dead bees, 

 it matters little as there is an entrance 

 above, that is always open if it is small 

 enough. A curious fact about an entrance 

 above the bottom of the hive is that during 

 the spring and summer the bees seem to pre- 

 fer it to the one lower down. 



* -x- ^ 



"Gleaned by Asking, lona Fowls." 

 Page 682. That looks good after what the 

 Editor has said of Miss Fowls on page 651. 

 It was of special interest to learn that Miss 

 Fowls had served her apprenticeship in bee- 

 keeping in a poor locality or under hard 

 conditions. How often it turns out that 

 what seems a hard lot proves a blessing in 

 disguise. How many beekeepers have we 

 known that started in favorable j^ears and 

 were full of enthusiasm, but, when poor 

 years came or disease broke out among their 

 bees, were ready to give up, and we heard 

 little more from them. Almost any one can 

 succeed with bees in a good season. It is 

 the tiding over the poor years where we most 

 need help. 



Thrice welcome will be Miss Fowls to the 

 readers of Gleaniiifjs in Bee Culture. 



