342 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15, 



little more than half the price of section hon- 

 ey. The quotations in any of the bee papers 

 will tell you that." 



I agree with Mr. Doolittle most heartily, 

 that there are some strains of very yellow 

 bees, live- banded ones if you please, that are 

 both hardy and good honey-gatherers. 



A capital idea, that of cutting out light 

 combs and placing them in a wooden butter- 

 dish. One great difficulty with the honey 

 trade is that it is not pushed as it should be. 



In Dec. 1 issue of Gleanings Mr. Holter- 

 mann enumerates some of the causes of iras- 

 cibility, and yet has left out one of the most 

 important causes, as it seems to me. When 

 bees are at work a heavy wind seems to make 

 them very irritable, and sometimes human be- 

 ings are aft'ected in the same way. One day, 

 without much wind, we may handle bees with 

 the greatest pleasure; while the next, with a 

 heavy wind, a good veil of the most ap- 

 proved pattern is very essential to our hap- 

 piness. 



Some of Mr. Coveyou's methods are novel, 

 and seem to be of considerable value to those 

 putting up honey, or bottling, as the govern- 

 ment officials would have us say. I fear he 

 would not be allowed our eastern roads for 

 his tricycle, however. I am interested in the 

 suggestion of an automobile for bee-keepers' 

 use. Can you not, Mr. Editor, give us illus- 

 trations of the best up-to date machines that 

 will carry 1500 lbs., or thereabout? I believe 

 a good practical automobile would save time 

 enough so we could run an extra yard. 



Although much may depend on the strain 

 of bees or on the flow of honey, yet I believe 

 that Mr. Morrison is not far out of the way 

 in thinking that thin combs will be built 

 more evenly than thick ones. I believe it a 

 mistake that the standard sections are so 

 thick. A comb, including the bee-space of 

 not over If to 1^, will not only be built more 

 evenly, but I am satisfied that more of them 

 will be completed ; and then, too, they will 

 sell to better advantage, as they are larger, 

 or have more comb surface, and are more 

 showy. They may also be cut to better ad- 

 vantage. 



The experience of O. S. Rexford in feed- 

 ing bees, page 1508, is not only interesting 

 but of great value. How little we know for 

 certain along these lines 1 One experiment 



alone is insufficient. Here is an opportunity 

 for our government experiment station to 

 tell us just the best way to feed, and how 

 much to feed, to supply a colony with the 

 equivalent of, say, ten pounds of honey. 

 This experiment would seem to show that, 

 the quicker a colony can be fed, the less will 

 be the loss. The best method of fall feeding 

 is becoming a matter of a great deal of im- 

 portance in those localities where there is lit- 

 tle fall forage and the basswood has been 

 cut off. 



Right along this line is the cost in honey of 

 wintering bees out of doors, by Allen La- 

 tham, p. 1563. I had the pleasure of meeting 

 Mr. Latham in October, and am free to say 

 that I believe him to be one of the most care- 

 ful experimenters within our ranks, and yet 

 his experience is so very different from my 

 own that I am tempted to inquire what 

 should make the difference. Some thirty 

 years ago I wished to know the amount of 

 honey required to winter a good colony out 

 of doors. I took three good colonies; and 

 the last of October or first of November, that 

 there might be no mistake, shook off all the 

 bees and weighed the combs. Again, about 

 the first of April I shook and weighed the 

 combs and found the average loss about 17 

 lbs. One lost almost exactly 17 lbs.; one | 

 lb. more, and the other | less. Thus these 

 three colonies averaged a loss of 3f Ihs. a 

 month — nearly double that of Mr. Latham's. 

 What could make the difference? I can 

 think of only two or three things. The first 

 is, he is some two hundred miles further 

 south, and, of course, the winters are some- 

 what milder. Again, his colonies may not 

 have averaged as strong. They may have 

 been of a more quiet strain of bees, which, 

 as he says, makes quite a difference. 



There is another thing I had thought of. 

 Had his hives absorbed any considerable 

 amount of moisture during the winter, thus 

 showing a smaller loss than if the combs 

 alone had been weighed ? If this were very 

 perceptible I believe he would have men- 

 tioned it. Doubtless the large entrances he 

 uses had much to do with getting rid of 

 surplus moisture. 



If half of these colonies had had contract- 

 ed entrances the result would have been 

 instructive. My experience tallies with that 

 of the editor, that a small entrance is a sav- 

 ing in honey and bees. 



I purchased a yard of some forty colonies 

 of bees in the spring of 1906, and found the 

 winter entrance contracted to J by 2 inches, 

 and yet I believe I never saw a yard of bees 

 average as strong as that one; and I believe 

 this entrance, which is equivalent to ^Xl 

 is ample, provided it is given so as not to 

 get clogged with bees, and provision is made 

 to get rid of all surplus moisture. 



Your experience, Mr. Editor, at Mr. Men- 

 dleson's, is certainly interesting, p. 1565. I 

 was especially interested in the method of 

 separating cappings from honey by heat. It 



