Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Managtr 

 J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager 



VOL. XXXVI 



JUNE 1, 1908 



NO. 11 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



Stimulative feeding in Switzerland, as here, 

 is esteemed differently, some finding it an advan- 

 tage, others a damage. — Sc/i'-iveiz-. Btzg. 



An after-svvarm with a young queen issued 

 before the prime swarm with the old queen in 

 several cases at one of the Swiss stations. — Afi- 

 nual Report, 59. 



Interesting to note that, in my watering-tub, 

 the water covered by cork chips, on cool April 

 and May days, many bees were on the cork 

 where the sun shone, but not a bee on the 

 shaded part. 



Some of us who can not attend the National 

 convention will have the sharp edge of our disap- 

 pointment taken off upon learning that the report 

 is to be taken by Geo. Angus, the man who has 

 done such fine work taking reports at previous 

 conventions. 



G. M. Doolittle, you say, p. 630, that nailed 

 sections take " a little longer " to put together 

 than one-piece. Don't they take several times as 

 long.? Why don't you get a good T super and 

 have one-piece sections just as square and just as 

 solid as nailed ones.? 



G. W. Demaree, years ago, gave a plan for 

 extracted-honey men to prevent swarming, that is 

 very much like the Coveyou plan, p. 640. Just 

 before swarming time, put all brood above, leav- 

 ing the queen below an excluder on foundation 

 or empty combs. That's all. 



H. M. Jamison, p. 643, is very disrepectful to 

 succeed with a three-inch space between top and 

 bottom starters after my s tying they would fail. 

 But as others also succeed I must agree that I did 

 not know as much as I thought I did. Now, 

 what did Mr. Pryal do to his bees to make them 

 be so naughty.? 



Comparative advantages of comb and extract- 

 ed honey production are ably discussed in Re^vie^v 

 by R. L. Taylor and the editor. Both think 

 that 50 per cent more of extracted than comb is 

 about the fair estimate. But honey quotations 

 in the same journal show the price for comb 

 about 80 per cent higher than for extracted. 

 Now, suppose my field furnishes 10,000 lbs. of 

 comb for which I can get $1440. If 1 can get 

 50 per cent more extracted, that will be 15,000 

 lbs.; but at the difference of price named it will 

 bring me only $1200. That difference of $240 is 

 not balanced by the extra expense of sections, 

 etc. Other factors are to be considered, however, 

 and there is no doubt that, for many, extracted is 

 decidedly more profitable. 



Fickle though it may be to do so, I must 

 change my mind again about strengthening a 

 weak colony by putting over a strong one. I 

 tried two cases this year. I used wire cloth as a 

 precaution; but when I came to lift the upper 

 story I found the dead queen on the excluder. 

 Unsealed brood above showed that the queen was 

 not killed until some time after the wire cloth 

 was removed. [The position of the queen at the 

 time you found her would indicate that a mortal 

 combat had taken place through the perforations. 

 Queens will sometimes grab each other in deadly 

 embrace. At such times it is possible for one to 

 sting the other. It is rare, however, that they 

 fight through the perforated metal, and in the 

 case cited, therefore, we would say that it was only 

 an exception that proved the rule. — Ed.] 



Something I never noted before, I learned this 

 year, jVIay 1. On that date we went to the Wil- 

 son apiary and watched the bees at the entrance 

 of each hive. If they flew strong, carrying plen- 

 ty of pollen, we judged them queen-right. Sev- 

 eral did not fly well, and we opened their hives. 

 They were strong in brood and bees, but very 

 light in honey. They showed no sign of starva- 

 tion, having enough honey for immediate use. 

 One would have supposed they were the very ones 

 that should have been out and hustling; but the 

 scarcity of stores seemed to have a depressing ef- 

 fect. Is it possible that abundance of stores in 

 sight encourages them to greater activity in 

 flight, just as it is believed to encourage them to 

 greater activity in brood-rearing.? At any rate I 

 prefer my bees should have a goodly surplus of 

 stores on hand at all times. [If we remember 

 correctly, reports have shown just the very thing 

 here described. We should be glad to hear from 

 others on this point; for if it be true that colonies 

 on the verge of starvation will not seek nectar 

 from the fields when it is to be had, it goes with- 

 out saying that it would be good policy to give 

 all the colonies a liberal supply of food in the 

 fall— Ed.] 



Replying, Mr. Editor, to your question, page 

 622, as to combs melting down in hives surround- 

 ed by corn and dense underbrush, I may say I 

 know of no other untoward condition that would 

 cause such melting down except that overhead the 

 shade from closely planted trees was so dense that 

 the sun never shone on the hives all day long. 

 The first intimation I had of any thing wrong 

 was when I saw the little stream of honey run- 

 ning on the ground. At that time I did not 

 have hive-entrances as large as now, or there 

 might have been no trouble. But there was no 

 trouble with hives th^t stood out where they had 

 the advantage of any passing breeze. [We infer, 

 then, that the cause of melting down was due to 

 a combination of too much underbrush close to 

 the hive, and too small an entrance. Without 



