GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1919 



quiring no more lumber and being lighter in 

 weight. Had I then known what Mr. Dnnn 

 tells us regarding the cork dust he uses, 1 

 certainly would have made allowance for 

 that, and saved the work of packing in the 

 fall and unpacking again in the spring. A 

 double-walled hive is preferable if only a 

 dead-air sj^ace of % inch, whether you re- 

 pack for winter or live in a climate that, 

 so far as cold is concerned, requires no pack- 

 ing. 



' ' I simply have the grain of the wood run 

 perpendicular for the inside wall, and hori- 

 zontal for the outside. By doing this I have 

 a hive that never varies so far as the depth 

 inside goes, and so the distance below the 

 frames always remains the same. 



' ' You may call me a crank on this dou- 

 ble-wall business if you like; but I have 

 such a strong conviction of its superiority 

 that I have even my supers double-walled at 

 the sides. The ends I leave single, as I get 

 more frame space. You can not go around 

 my apiary after a frosty night and locate 

 the cluster of bees by the moisture on the 

 cover, as my covers are double-walled, as 

 also the movable bottom-board. ' ' — Can- 

 adian Horticulturist and Beekeeper, Febru- 

 ary- 



SCHEME OF GRADING HONEY. 



A scheme of grading honey in 12 grades 

 according to color has been copyrighted by 

 Tarlton Eayment. The plan is given in the 

 January issue of the Apicultural Journal. 

 To secure standards for the different colors, 

 small glass vessels of equal capacity were 

 filled with different grades, and a water- 

 color painting of each was made. The result 

 was 12 colored diagrams made up of four 

 groups of three each — yellow, golden, amber, 

 and brown, each of the four groups being 

 made up of the three tones — pale, medium, 

 and deep. The yellow grades are designated 

 as Yl, Y2, Y3, "and the golden Gl, Ct2, G3, 

 etc. A. J. Wheeler believes this color scheme 

 too complicated, and would reduce the num- 

 ber of grades to three — -light (A), medium 

 (B), and dark (C). Also, since the printed 

 diagrams would so easily fade and become 

 soiled, he would use colored grading- 

 glasses. One thickness would give the 

 lightest shade permissible for medium; two 

 thicknesses the darkest shade for medium; 

 anything lighter than one thickness would 

 be A; any honey of shade between that of 

 one and of two thicknesses would' be B, and 

 any shade darker than the shade of two 

 thicknesses would be C. 



[H. H. Eoot has been experimenting with 

 various colors of glass, and finds that 

 one can, in this way, obtain satisfactory and 

 permanent standards.] 



* * « 



THOUSANDS OF COLONIES SHIPPED INTO CALIFORNIA. 



Several thousand colonies are being ship- 

 ped into Eiverside and San Bernardino 

 counties, Cal., from Utah and Idaho, some 

 for honey production, but many for increase 

 and early queens to l)e Khi]iped north for 



the alfalfa and sweet-clover crop. Chas. S. 

 Kinzie, in the February Western Honeybee, 

 is not overly pleased at having the good 

 roads worn out by these intruders, and the 

 California beekeepers crowded off their 

 ranges. He suggests a license tax of 25 

 cents per colony on all imported colonies. 



* * * 



DISAPPEARING DISEASE DISCUSSED. 



In a report of the Ontario Beekeepers ' 

 Annual Convention in the February Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist and Beekeeper we find 

 the following: "The subject of the disap- 

 pearing disease, or bee paralysis, came in 

 for considerable discussion. Considerable 

 difference of opinion as to its cause was 

 expressed. ' ' When asked if he had noticed 

 any difference between the disappearing dis- 

 ease and bee paralj'sis, Mr. Stewart said 

 they were similar in their symptoms, but he 

 could go no further than that. He said 

 that he noticed the disease 20 years ago. 



* * * 



CAUSE OF HOLES IN CORNERS OF COMBS. 



"Just learned something thru the glass 

 hive in my office. I had four sheets of pa- 

 per over the glass. There was a nail-hole 

 thru the paper, and it made a little spot of 

 light on the outside comb. The bees prompt- 

 ly gnawed a large hole thru that comb. That 

 accounts for the combs down in the brood- 

 nest being eaten away at the corners." — 

 Chas. S. Kinzie in February Western Hon- 

 eybee. 



" DR." E. R. ROOT. 



" 'Dr.' E< R. Root, editor of Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture, the leading bee-periodical 

 of the world, is spending the winter in Los 

 Angeles, and is giving much time to bee 

 demonstrations before various organiza- 

 tions. He has acquired the title of ' Doc- 

 tor ' since his appearance here, and his 

 bee-stunts are certainly doing much to popu- 

 larize and arouse interest in beekeeping." 

 — February Western Honeybee. 

 « * * 



LIGHTNING OPERATOR. 



To take care of 500 or 600 colonies, and 

 do all the extracting alone, and with a two- 

 frame extractor taking over a ton of honey 

 a day, is quite a stunt; and yet, we infer 

 from the February issue of the Western 

 Honeybee, this has become a sort of habit 

 with O. W. Stearns of Selma, Cal. 

 » * * 



TO PREVENT FOUNDATION STICKING. 



To keej) foundation from sticking to the 

 board when using a wire-imbedder, A. E. 

 Lusher, in the February Western Honeybee, 

 states that he uses cornstarch, talcum pow- 

 der, or soapstone. [Of these three we be- 

 lieve cornstarch preferable.] 



* * » 



RESTOCKING FOR ISLE OF WIGHT. 



Nearly 100 colonies believed to have a 

 considerable degree of immunity from Isle 

 of Wight disease, have been distributed 

 among beekeepers in Scotland during the 



{Continued on /laj/c 265.) 



