964 



it to be our duty to say to those who breed 

 extra-yellow bees that these undesirable 

 qualities should be eliminated. This does 

 not mean that some have not done it. 



The greatest complaint, however, against 

 some of those who have bred extra-yellow 

 bees was because they advertised five-band- 

 ed stock, and furnish only the three and 

 four banded. The terms "five banded" 

 and " yellow all over " have been eliminat- 

 ed from our advertising columns, and now 

 the term '' golden " or " extra golden " has 

 been substituted. This i-^ better. 



Not too much Packing, but too much 

 Snow 



In our issue for November 1, page 905, 

 Mr. A. J. Knox has an article on the sub- 

 ject of quadruple winter cases. Referring 

 to this, one of our correspondents, under 

 the non de plume of H. I. Bernation, thinks 

 Mr. Knox must be mistaken. He writes : 



The data in the article by A. J. Knox, November 

 1, pp. 905, 906, do not seem to be such as to war- 

 rant all of his conclusions. He says that the first 

 year he leaned covers over the entrances, and when 

 the bees were found dead outside he blames their 

 death on too much packing. Now he omits these 

 covers and gives less (insufficient) packing and gets 

 better results. He deprecates bottom packing, but 

 commends snow for that purpose. "With a 40-mile 

 breeze the scant (twelve bushels to the case) packing 

 would probably be no better than single-walled hives 

 were it not for the providentially provided snow. 

 It would be interesting to learn how Mr. Knox found 

 out that his bees got too warm when completely cov- 

 ered wish snow, and why upward ventilation is 

 needed in thoroughly packed hives. The loss of four 

 per cent seems to be smaller than usual. Is this 

 good wintering? Should not Mr. Knox try packing 

 his bees thoroughly and see what happens ? His 

 creosote stain sounds good, but it is not clear why 

 he prefers thin lumber unless it is on the ground 

 of expense. H. I. Bernation. 



Mr. H. I. B. is coi-rect. Too much pack- 

 ing under and around each hive certainly 

 can do no harm, and it may do a gi-eat deal 

 of good. Putting a board in front of the 

 entrance of a colony during winter as he 

 did to shut out the cold wind looks very fine 

 in theory, but it nearly always proves disas- 

 trous. The bees apparently become eon- 

 fused, lose track of their entrances, and die 

 outside around the hives in thousands. We 

 tried out that scheme years ago, at one of 

 our outyards, and found it to be a failure. 

 Mr. G. M. Doolittle, at the time, noticing 

 that we were giving this thing a pretty 

 thorough test, warned us of the results, and 

 we got them all riglit, in that we had the 

 biggest loss at that yard we ever had. Mr. 

 Knox should not, therefore, attribute the 

 loss of bees of one winter to too much pack- 

 ing, but rather to too much snow and to 

 the boards in front of the entrances. Screen- 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



ing the wind from the entrances by a slant- 

 ing board or cover is one of those pretty 

 things in theory that do not work out well 

 in practice. When hives are " completely 

 covered with snow for several months " it 

 is enough to kill any bees. If the entrance 

 is closed with snow or ice the hive, whether 

 packed or not, will develop too much heat, 

 and, of course, the bees will soon die. 



"Slightly Exaggerated" again; Pulling 

 Stings in Lots of 10,000 to Cure 

 Rheumatism 



We recently gave an address on bees, 

 accompanied with a live-bee demonstration, 

 before a Rotary Club in one of our big 

 cities. These clubs are made up of live 

 business men whose aim is to push business. 

 At every session they call on an outside 

 man to give an address, generally along his 

 own line of work. It was on one of these 

 occasions that we gave a talk on bees that 

 we happened to mention incidentally that 

 there was much ado in the newspapers 

 about the wonderful properties of beestings 

 for the cure of rheumatism; and while we 

 added that stings might be valuable in 

 some kinds of rheumatism, we believed that, 

 in. most eases, the results were only nega- 

 tive. We also stated that the homeopathic 

 school of medicine used beestings in mak- 

 ing up a medicine known as " Apis Mel- 

 lifica;" that we had years ago filled two or 

 three orders for ten thousand stings; but 

 distinctly stated that we were not accepting 

 such orders now. We did not offer any 

 opinion as to the value of these stings in 

 curing diseases. 



We have learned by experience that it is 

 best to be cautious in the presence of news- 

 paper men, and so we were on the occasion 

 mentioned ; but imagine our astonishment 

 on seeing in several papers for a week or 

 so back some statement to the effect that 

 the A. I. Root Co. was pulling stings in lots 

 of 10,000 from bees, and then sending them 

 out broadcast over the country to cure 

 rheumatism! Wow!!! The story has ap- 

 peared in so many forms, and so awfully 

 exaggerated, we are wondering what our 

 subscribers think we did say. As it was, 

 we have got considerable free advertising. 

 All we can say to one and all is that we 

 have no beestings for sale, either to the 

 liomeopathic schools of pharmacy nor to the 

 thousands of sufferers all over who have 

 rheumatism. When beestings do " cure " it 

 is our honest belief it is the outdoor air 

 coupled Avith enthusiasm and exercise that 

 does the business. A good garden and a 

 good hoe will do the same. 



