March, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



157 



c 



LJ 



WE finished 

 making 

 last sea- 

 sons' beeswax a 

 week or two ago 

 and had a total 

 of over 450 

 pounds. It was 

 made from cap- 

 pings, scrapings, 



drone combs, sections of granulated honey, 

 and old combs, some of which had been in 

 use for over 40 years. 



* * * 



"Better one hive yielding surplus than a 

 score that give you naught," says Grace Al- 

 len, page 91, and she is right. We estimate 

 the value of our bees by the strength of 

 colonies, not by their number. 



» » * 



On page 86, in speaking of the granula- 

 tion of sugar syrup fed to bees, Dr. Miller 

 quotes Mr. Crane as saying, "there is a lit- 

 tle granulation without the acid, but no 

 more than with it. ' ' It would have been 

 more correct to have said honey instead of 

 acid, for honey was what I was thinking of. 



* * * 



In spite of Mrs. Puerden 's warning that 

 "Our Food Page" was not for Mr. Beekeep- 

 er in the February number of Gleanings, I 

 could not resist the temptation to read it, 

 and found in it not only a good recipe for 

 bread but a most excellent recipe for do- 

 mestic happiness. It is a keen source of 

 pleasure for most parents to eat food their 

 children have cooked. No more wholesome 

 or healthful joy comes to childhood or youth 

 than the satisfaction of having done some- 

 thinghwell that grown-up people do. It mat- 

 ters not whether it is cooking a loaf of 

 bread, breaking a colt, or caring for a hive 

 of bees. It lifts their young lives to a 



higher level. 



* * * 



Dr. Miller inquires, page 86, "Who can 

 tell us in what cases granulation is likely to 

 occur, and why it occurs in one case and 

 not in another?" I can not, as I have not 

 had enough granulation of sugar syrup when 

 fed to bees to study the subject very care- 

 fully; but, if I may indulge in a Yankee's 

 privilege of guessing, I should say it would 

 be more likely to occur in a weak colony 

 than in a strong one, or when placed in cells 

 in which there was some honey that granu- 

 lates quickly. The Doctor closes his para- 

 graph by saying, ' ' The whole thing is in 

 something of a muddle." Not at all. Doc- 

 tor. Just feed your bees the syrup early or 

 late, and the bees will do the rest. There is 

 far less danger of the syrup 's granulating 

 than there is of the average honey the bees 



store. 



* * * 



That is certainly a most creditable show- 

 ing of the "Oklahoma Boys and Girls' Bee 

 Club, ' ' as given on page 83, a number of 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



u 



members produc- 

 ing from 100 to 

 1 2 5 pounds o f 

 honey to the 

 colony, and that 

 ill "one or the 

 jioorest seasons 

 ill the history of 

 the State." Of 

 vastly greater 

 value than the lioney sold is the effect upon 

 young lives by having met with success in 

 their efforts. I know a college president 

 who began his business career by building 

 up weak colonies of bees and selling the 

 surplus from strong ones, to secure an edu- 

 cation. Later, he has taken a small, weak 

 college and built it up into a prosperous in- 

 stitution and secured an endowment suffi- 

 cient for many years to come. 



* * * 



M. L. Jones, page 85, February Gleanings, 

 seems to be much exercised in regard to the 

 best way to get rid of excessive moisture 

 in his hives. This is really an easy matter 

 with a strong colony. A cubic foot of air at 

 a temperature of 30 degrees will hold two 

 grains, troy weight, of moisture when it 

 becomes saturated. Raise that same cubic 

 foot of air to 70 degrees, and it will hold 

 four times as much moisture before it be- 

 comes saturated; and, unless more moisture 

 is added to it as the temperature rises, it 

 becomes a very dry atmosphere. That is 

 why the air in our living rooms in winter is 

 so dry, and so many complain of catarrh. If 

 the air in a beehive is too damp, we have 

 only to raise the temperature to make it a 

 dry air. This can be done either by warm 

 packing or by reducing the size of the 



brood-chamber. 



* * * 



J. L. Byer, I have something to say to 

 you. You say, page 95: "To all who say 

 that colonies can have too much honey and 

 too little 'winter nest' for good outdoor 

 wintering in a climate similar to ours, I 

 respectfully suggest that they try the mat- 

 ter out." * * * "I feel almost like 

 saying that I will stand the loss in winter- 

 ing if loss occurs. ' ' Well, you ' ' almost ' ' 

 have the courage of your convictions. Now, 

 let me offer a proposition. Suppose you take 

 a good colony of laees and on Nov. 1 transfer 

 the bees to a brood-chamber or hive filled 

 with combs that are solid with sealed honey, 

 and try to winter out of doors the same as 

 others. If I were a betting man, I would 

 bet my cooky against your doughnut that 

 they will be as dead as a doornail in the 

 spring or at least nearly worthless. How- 

 ever I won't bet; it is wicked. But, say! 

 if they come thru in good condition, I will 

 not only ' ' almost ' ' but be quite willing to 

 stand the loss. I tried this matter out some 

 25 or 30 years ago by feeding 10 or 12 colo- 

 nies until the hives were crammed with hon- 

 ey in late October — with the result that 

 some of them died, and others were greatly 

 reduced by spring. 



