546 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 1 



accept a stranger, provided she be not old 

 and worn." Is not this directly contrary to 

 the general belief and practice? Which is 

 right? [We do not know, but we suspect he 

 may be right. It looks reasonable — Ed.] 



Good brains must have been used in get- 

 ting up those Colorado rules for grading, p. 

 400. With such rules, selling by the section 

 is all right, wholesale and retail. No. 1 hon- 

 ey averages 14 oz. to the section, and the 

 consumer can never get any thing less than 

 13^2- One can omit separators, but he must 

 pay for that privilege a tax of 1 lb. of honey 

 on every 12 sections sold. [This will do 

 more to discourage and stop the practice of 

 trying to get along without separators in 

 Colorado than any other one thing. The 

 progressive bee-keepers of that State are to 

 be commended for the action taken.— Ed.] 



How LONG does it take to test a queen as 

 to the storing qualities of her worker prog- 

 eny? You can hardly introduce her (to say 

 nothing of rearing her) early enough in the 

 spring so that results shall be exactly the 

 same as if she had been in the colony all 

 winter. Say she begins her work in April; 

 you can't really tell what she is till the close 

 of the harvest the following year. Introduce 

 her in the fall, or rear her in the hive a la 

 Chapman, and you can say she is really test- 

 ed not till she is a year old; and isn't that 

 about as young as you can ever have a queen 

 properly tested? [Yes, the only way to test 

 for honey-gathering is to wait till the queen is 

 a year old unless one lives where the honey- 

 flow is late. The very best breeding queens, 

 or those tested for honey, are always a year 

 old at least. We believe that the rule is uni- 

 versal among the best breeders. — Ed ] 



The advantage in change of name from 

 "glucose" to "corn syrup" is only tempo- 

 rary. The name "glucose" is objectionable 

 because the people have learned what glu- 

 cose is. How long will it take them (more 

 on the lookout than ever before) to learn 

 what "corn syrup" really is, and then what 

 good will the change of name do the glucose 

 crowd ? [You have not quite the correct 

 point of view, and apparently we have been 

 at fault in not making clear this matter of 

 the glucose-versus-corn-syrup decision. Of 

 course, it is unfortunate that the change of 

 name should have been allowed. That in 

 itself would be a tremendous advantage to the 

 glucose crowd; but when a mixture of glucose 

 and cane syrup was allowed to be called by a 

 new name — a name not descriptive of the con- 

 tents, and misleading as to its source— a pow- 

 erful precedent was given for the misbranding 

 of other foods. The intent of the national 

 pure-food law is very plainly for labeling 

 every thing just what it is. We bee-keepers, 

 for example, are not allowed to mix tiipelo 

 and clover honey and call it "clover," al- 

 though we may say it is pure honey. Neither 

 are we allowed to make a mixture of sugar 

 syrup and honey and call it honey; but, 

 strangely enough, the glucose people may 

 mix glucose with cane syrup and call it 

 "corn syrup." — Ed.] 



It will be noted that this issue is extra 

 large, being the promised number that con- 

 tains special instructions on early summer 

 management for the production of honey. 



PAPER-WINTER-CASE COLONIES NOT QUITE 



UP TO THOSE IN DOUBLE-WALLED 



HIVES. 



The former do not quite seem to have 

 held their own with the double-wall chaff 

 hives. Indeed, it is' hardly to be expected 

 that they would. Our paper cases have sev- 

 eral folds of newspaper under them, but this 

 would make a packing material only from .V 

 to 1 inch thick over the | thickness of wood, 

 or a total thickness of 1§ to 1|. In double- 

 wall chaff hives there is a clear packing- 

 space of 2 inches filled with chaff between 

 walls § inch thick, or a total of 2| inches. 

 When this is contrasted with 1| it will be 

 readily seen that the difference, so far as 

 figures go. is very much in favor of the 

 double- wall hive; but it must be said, on the 

 other hand, that paper-packed colonies win- 

 tered almost as well, and far better than they 

 would have wintered without any covering 

 if the experience of former years is any cri- 

 terion. It would appear that the remedy, to 

 make one method winter as well as the oth- 

 er, would be to put enough packing under 

 the paper caps so that the actual thickness 

 of protection will be equal to that of double- 

 wall hives. 



SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES AS A RESULT OF 



SPRAYING FRUIT-TREES WHILE IN 



BLOOM. 



Mr. N. E. France, General Manager of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association, in his 

 Information Bureau No. 8 says: 



Mr. W. sprayed his orcbard often during open bloom, 

 and killed 55 colonies of bees on an adjoining farm. 

 Mr. B., not far away, also sprayed his fruit-bloom, 

 killing all his bees, leaving hives full of honey, which 

 his two liitle boys ate of and died before doctor could 

 be called (Oklahoma ) See that your neighbors do 

 not poison-spray open fruit-bloom. It is dangerous. 

 Some State laws forbid it 



I have late reports from most of the States, and 

 bees wintered well; honey prospects are also good. 

 In 1907 the Western States had a fair honey crop: but 

 owing to warm winter and bad ficancial conditions 

 there are now several car lots left unsold. Many deal- 

 ers are now well supplied with the 1907 crop. 



I have had several complaints of bee-keepers ship- 

 ing fancy comb honey in front of case with poor and 

 uncapped sections in back. This lowers market, and I 

 ask that you never be one of such. 



We wish we had more particulars regard- 

 ing the case mentioned, where all the bees 

 were killed and two little boys who ate of 

 the honey were poisoned to death. Perhaps 

 Mr. France can tell us. 



