874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



fielders would be required to ventilate a hi\e two 

 or three stories with only one entrance at the bot- 

 tom as to keep up the temperature with more 

 openings for ventilation. 



On page 415 we are told that alsike-clover hay 

 is beginning to have a special market value. "For 

 race horses it is considered the best hay obtain- 

 able." An extensive dairyman who supplies our 

 village with a large portion of its milk told me 

 not long ago that the best hay he could produce as 

 feed for milk was alsike-clover hay. The county 

 in which I live has done a large business in pro- 

 ducing American Merino sheep and shipping 

 t'lem as far as Australia and South Africa, and al- 

 sike-clover hay is preferred in transit to any other. 

 Let's push its cultivation. 



On page 433, April 1, C. F. Bender tells us 

 some important facts in regard to the breeding of 

 bees. It is especially interesting as showing how 

 much more thought is given to this subject now 

 than formerly. I do not remember that any 

 thing was said or thought upon the improvement 

 of bees, further than to introduce new races or 

 breeds; yet I believe few persons who have handled 

 bees extensively have failed to notice the great 

 variation in different colonies of the same race or 

 breed, often amounting to more than the differ- 

 ence between different breeds, and quite as great 

 as among domestic animals. Experience has 

 proved that bees are quite as responsive to careful 

 breeding as any other stock. 



* 



Mr. Doolittle tells us, page 417, that the best 

 results in production of comb honey are secured 

 by having every comb in the brood-chamber full 

 of brood. If not full of brood, take out combs 

 of honey and fill with dummies of wood. Pre- 

 sumably a colony will store honey better over 

 combs of brood than over combs of honey; but 

 why will they store better over a wooden dummy 

 than a comb of honey.'' I have failed to see any 

 difference in favor of wooden combs or dummies 

 over one of honey. But wouldn't it be better to 

 fill out such hives, as the queen fails to fill with 

 brood, with combs of brood from hives that are 

 preparing to swarm, or that we have taken away 

 to prevent their making such preparation.? I pre- 

 fer this to using wooden dummies. 



I want personally to thank Dr. C. C. Miller 

 for his interesting and practical article on the use 

 of wooden splints in place of wiring frames to 

 prevent sagging, page 423, April 1. I believe it 

 the most practical method yet devised to prevent 

 sagging, and propose to put it to the test at once. 

 But really I found it quite a task to saw out those 

 little sticks I'j square. The method described 

 by J. A. Green in Gleanings for May 1 seems 

 like a great improvement. 



Later I took a stick of black ash, eight inches 

 long, and split it up into pieces one-half or three- 

 fourths inch square, and by vigorous pounding I 

 was able to split it into splints about ^r, inch in 

 thickness, which in turn were again cut into very 

 narrow strips. One of these, ^^ inch square, I 

 found would hold up over ten pounds. But not 



every bee-keeper has a circular saw or black-ash 

 timber. Perhaps the supply houses who furnish 

 foundation can with it furnish splints. Another 

 thing I have been thinking of, I wonder if the 

 stems or stalks of certain grasses would not ans- 

 wer every purpose. Take, for instance, timothy 

 or redtop, and cut off just below the head, and 

 again eight inches below; soak when dry in wax, 

 and press into the foundation the same as splints. 



That statement by R. A. Burnett, page 422, 

 April 1, to the effect that "if bee-keepers would 

 allow their honey to ripen upon their hives it 

 would do more toward creating a demand for it 

 than any law against adulteration," seems like a 

 pretty strong statement. We have bought some 

 honey not perfectly ripened. I believe where 

 such is the case it is through the ignorance of the 

 producer, or perhaps I should say inexperience. 

 We purchased last year from the bee-keepers of 

 Northern and Eastern Michigan many thousands 

 of pounds of extracted honey, and have failed to 

 find a single pound that was not well ripened; but 

 the bee-keepers of Michigan are a splendid lot of 

 men, and seem as much interested in having it 

 well ripened as in producing it. 



We have got to look out for that Jay, p. 494, 

 April 15, or he will upset sll our previous notions 

 and send us off on new lines before we know it. 

 And now he would have us believe that if we 

 keep 500 colonies in one place where only 50 are 

 now kept there would not be more than two per 

 cent less honey gathered per colony than now. 

 The worst of it is, we can not deny that his guesses 

 are about right during a good flow of honey. 

 But, hold a minute. We do not always have 

 good flows of honey; and when we do not we 

 have to resort to the sugar-barrel and bank ac- 

 count. During a good flow of honey with abun- 

 dant clover bloom I am satisfied 500 colonies 

 could be kept in one place with satisfactory re- 

 sults; but when there are less flowers in spring 

 and fall we should have to feed very heavily to 

 keep all thriving. Mr. Alexander, who is the 

 best authority in this country on very large apia- 

 ries, commences his article on page 504 by say- 

 ing, " Feeding is becoming a very important part 

 of our business." Just so; and the more the col- 

 onies are massed together the more important 

 the feeding become. Where there is a good 

 flow for four or five weeks, nine years out of ten, 

 it will doubtless pay the careful, painstaking 

 apiarist to keep large apiaries; but where other 

 conditions prevail it seems doubtful. 

 * 



I notice a typographical error in that most excel- 

 lent review of Bulletin 110 of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, commencing on page 

 549. Near the top of page 450, in giving the 

 United States standard for honey it says it "con- 

 tains not more than 25 per cent of water, not 

 more than 25 per cent of ash." It should have 

 been ;Vo per cent of ash — quite a difference. 



I have been especially interested in the analysis 

 of No. 23. A sample from the same lot of hon- 

 ey was pronounced by the New Hampshire State 

 Board of Health as adulterated, and so published 

 in one of their bulletins. The honey was pro- 

 duced in one of our own yards, and we knew of its 



