GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



I IF" TT I N G § I Middlebiiry, Vt. 



That is certainly a " new discov- 

 ery " or method of making chaff 

 division-boards, fully described on 

 pages 833, 834, Nov. 1, and well 

 worthy of following. 



Many colonies in this section have gone 

 into winter quarters much lighter in bees 

 than usual, and it will not be surprising if 

 there is considerable loss in wintering. Such 

 results are apt to follow a poor season as 

 well as foretell a good one. 

 » * * 



Wesley Foster, page 751, Oct. 1, says the 

 Government bulletin on sweet clover should 

 be in the hands of every person who wants 

 to sow the seed. Quite right you are, my 

 brother; and you might have added that it 

 ought to be in the hands of every person 

 whose land is adapted to its growth. 



* * * 



Our friend Arthur C. Miller, page 842, 

 Nov. 1, quotes Allen Latham as saying that 

 " good clean spit is the best thing for di- 

 luting royal jelly." This would seem to 

 exclude those who use tobacco from this 

 method of reducing royal jelly to a more 

 fluid condition. I am sorry for them. 

 » * * 



The experiments of the Department of 

 Agricultui-e at Washington begin to throw 

 a good deal of light on the subject of win- 

 tering. The discovery that has interested 

 me most has been that, the lower the tem- 

 perature outside the cluster, the warmer it is 

 likely to be inside the cluster. This may 

 account for the brood we often find in 

 strong colonies in February, our coldest 



month. 



• » # 



Mr. Ames, in the Nov. 15th issue, gives a 

 nicely illustrated article on wintering bees 

 in a four-hive case witli permanent bottom- 

 board, somewhat after the plan of Holter- 

 niann. Those four-hive cases certainly look 

 good, and I am sure they can do their part 

 in cari-ying a colony through our cold win- 

 ters; but I doubt if they are much better 

 than single hives well packed. I made a 

 case three years ago that would take twelve 

 single-walled hives with their entrances at 

 four points of the compass. They are well 

 packed, and wintered well ; but I fail to see 

 that they do any better than in well-packed 



single hives. 



« • • 



Page 81(), Oct. 15, in footnote to Mr. J. J. 

 Wilder's article, you appear, Mr. Editor, to 



lake issue with him, contending that, if a 

 (en-frame hive is the best size in one loca- 

 tion, it must be in another. I honestly be- 

 lieve you are mistaken. Many of Mr. Wil- 

 der's yards are quite peculiar. In those 

 places where the partridge pea is his chief 

 source of surplus, the bees do not .breed up 

 into strong colonies for the reason that, 

 while working on this source, they gather 

 very little pollen, but they gather the nectar 

 from glands from the base of the leaf-stalk. 

 As a result, the amount of brood in most 

 of these hives is quite limited, and colonies 

 rather small. Of course a small brood- 

 chamber will force such colonies into supers 

 much better than a ten or twelve frame hive. 

 I can well believe his statement that eight 

 half-depth Lang-stroth frames are prefer- 

 able to full-depth frames, as such would be 

 ample for the brood, and it would force the 

 bees to store most of their surplus above in 

 the .super. [Your points are well taken if 

 the conditions are as you state. — Ed,] 

 * * * 



There seems to be some mistake as to the 

 amount of sugar syrup required to draw out 

 a set of frames of foundation. The editor 

 says that the foreman of the yards at 

 Medina says, page 794, Oct. 15, that a colo- 

 ny drew out six combs of comb foundation 

 one-half on one quart of sugar syrup, half 

 and half, and that he thought they would 

 complete the job on another quart. As a 

 quart of syrup of this quality would weigh 

 about 2 lbs. 10 oz., two quarts would con- 

 tain 2 lbs. 10 oz. of sugar. If this was 

 enough to produce six combs complete, then 

 it would require 7 ounces per comb, or 3 lbs. 

 8 oz. of sugar to fill an eight-frame hive. 

 Eight frames of drawn comb would weigh 

 somewhere from a pound to a pound and 

 a half of wax more than the foundation 

 used to fill the frames. Some have thought 

 it takes 25 lbs. of honey to produce a pound 

 of wax; some have thought 20 lbs. Others 

 have estimated that it takes from 10 to IG 

 lbs., while these Medina bees are able to 

 produce a pound or a pound and a half of 

 wax on 3I/2 lbs. of sugar. Well, I am not 

 going to say they didn't do it, or that other 

 bees can not do it while you are feeding 

 that amount of sugar syrup. They will 

 sometimes do it without any feeding at all; 

 but I am a little skeptical about their doing 

 it from the syrup fed them alone. Were 

 they not getting more or less from the 

 fields at the same time? [See what R. F. 

 Holtermann has to say on this subject, p. 

 13, last issue. — Ed.] 



