732 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1918 



I 



c 



Beek 



eeping as a 



Grace Allen 



^^^^^^^^^ 



T was even 

 more of a 

 flow than we 

 suspected, in our 

 most suspicious 

 mood — the hon- 

 ey flow this fall. 

 Several local 

 beekeepers e x - 

 tracted hundreds 



of i)0unds of autumn honey, which is very 

 unusual here. ' ' It has been the best fall 

 flow I ever knew," writes one man of many 

 years' experience. Every beekeeper smiles 

 a satisfied smile when you mention it, unless 

 you ask if maybe the queens might have 

 been crowded some; then every one looks 

 solemn and confides that that is the one 

 thing to worry about. So we are all worry- 

 ing together, quite merrily. 



Fall offensive great sueress! 



Wealth of booty won ! 

 Armored aircraft brina; us in 

 Heavy stores of Hon ! 

 * * * 

 More tlian one kindly beekeeper has sent 

 word that the plant mentioned on Page 608, 

 October Gleanings, is Motherwort. Well, 

 that was what we ourselves had several 

 times tried to conclude, but always we 

 evacuated that position when Gray 's Botany 

 opened up on us with the crushing statement 

 that the Mint Family, to whose populous 

 ipcmbership Motherwort (LroHiiriis CardidCd) 

 belongs, has "many seed-like nutlets (never 

 prickly)." Well, if I know a "seed-like 

 nutlet" when I see one, or a prickle when I 

 feel one, the nutlets of Lcoiiuriis Cardiiiea 

 are prickly. But I'd much rather it would 

 be Motherwort than anything else, because 

 that was what I picked out first, from a 

 certain gay little book that took no note 

 of prickles. Can anyone reconcile them, the 

 lore of the gravely detailed Botany and the 

 prickly nutlets on my hollow-stemmed pur- 

 ple-flowering weed? 



The famous Miss L. Cardiaca 



Has nearly got into a pickle. 

 Because an old family tradition 

 Forbids her to carry a prickle. 



With the Editor 's kind permission, I want 

 to say that those dreaming hours in the last 

 stanza of the verse on page 672, October 

 Gleanings, grew not ' ' green ' ' but ' ' deep ' ' — 



"Grew deep and still and full of balm" — 

 says the copy. Colorful hours they were, to 

 be sure, but that line didn 't happen to say 

 so, and on that particular day they were not 

 green but a shimmery sort of blue and gold. 

 Old Winter's hours are gray or white., 



The Spring's' a pale green hue. 

 The summer hours are mingled flowers, 

 But autumn's gold and blue. 

 * * * 



Letters on winter packing continue to 

 drop in. May I quote extracts from a fewf 

 "I built up six strong swarms, for which I 

 bought Italian queens. One I put in my new 

 protection hive, the rest (except one) were 



Side Line 

 LJ 



1 



in 8-framc hives. 

 The one excep- 

 tion, which we 

 will Call No. 6, 

 was in a box 

 made of %-inch 

 sides and %-inch 

 ends, same di- 

 mensions as an 

 8 - frame hive. 

 No. 1 I set inside an old chaff hive. Three 

 of the dovetail hives and the protection hive 

 I lost before their brood all hatched. No. 1 

 lived till March, had two good flights and 

 died. No. 6 is still living, and can almost 

 crawl out of cracks at corners. Why did the 

 one with the very least protection winter 

 so well, while those best protected died?" 

 I wish I knew, Mr. Bauches. There evident- 

 ly was some factor so important that it nulli- 

 fied the protection in the one case and the 

 lack of it in the other. Which proves noth- 

 ing as to the value of packing except that it 

 is not a cure-all. It is not the only, nor per- 

 haps the most important requisite for good 

 wintering. But good wintering itself is of 

 prime importance. 



H. D. Murry of Ladonia, Tex., writes thus: 

 ' ' I experimented a little last fall myself, 

 jiacking a number of colonies in this way: 

 First, I placed a full-depth super under the 

 brood-chamber, the super being filled with 

 empty combs. I tacked a piece of burlap 

 on the bottom of a super and placed that on 

 top of the brood-chamber, with some sticks 

 laid across the frames to afford passageway 

 for the bees above the combs. I filled the 

 super with planer shavings and put on the 

 cover. The entrances were contracted to 

 about two inches in width with the usual 

 %-inch depth. Every colony so packed came 

 thru the winter in perfect condition. My 

 loss of colonies not packed was heavy. ' ' 



This upward ventilation was what gave 

 us such good results last winter, tho we 

 had never put the empty combs under the 

 brood-chamber. Mr. Murry continues: "I 

 think the beekeepers of the country owe a 

 great debt of gratitude to our friends at 

 Washington for what they have accomplish- 

 ed in clearing up the wintering problem. 

 But there are many of us who will never go 

 to the expense of making winter cases. 

 Most of us are willing to put on a super of 

 planer shavings. I'm pinning my faith to 

 that plan till I am shown something better 

 for Southern beekeepers. ' ' 



A good proportion of our own hives are in 

 either two stories or a story and a half. That 

 gives the bees a chance to cluster well away 

 from the entrance. But Mr. Murry 's letter 

 strengthened my previous intention to raise 

 some colonies over bodies of empty combs. 

 The brood-chambers — O joy and O grief! — 

 were utterly heavy. I was almost complete- 

 ly out of commission after thus raising two 

 colonies. It seemed too bad to tear the 

 brood-chambers apart on so late and so cool 



