Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. 1. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager 

 J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager 



VOL. XXXVI 



OCTOBER 1, 1908 



NO. 19 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



O. O. PoppLETON may be alone in using the 

 Long-idea hive in this country, p. 1118, but he 

 has plenty of company in Europe. 



Mr. R. Beuhne says that in California they 

 have introduced the eucalypti that are rapid 

 growers, but the slow growers are the best kind 

 for honey. 



W. K. M., p. 1117, says bees are better judges 

 of sweets than we are, and we might as well cater 

 to their prejudices. That's to the point. New 

 tell us what they have shown as to their preju- 

 dices. 



Small plots of grain give better yields than 

 plots of several acres, and it is not easy to tell 

 why, says A. I. Root, page 1144. Is it not just 

 possible that plants, like folks, do better for hav- 

 ing lots of air, and that the small plot has an ad- 

 vantage in this respect.'' 



A. I. Root-, do you ever have trouble break- 

 ing up sitting hens.? Here's the way my brother- 

 in-law does it: He brings the sitting hens up to 

 our place, where they wander about the strange 

 premises with no thought of sitting, and after a 

 few days' visit they are taken back home, and are 

 all right. 



J. A. Crane, referring to Straw, p. 799, says 

 he removed queen from colony in the morning, 

 found cells started about mid-afternoon, when he 

 returned queen, putting all but one brood above 

 excluder, as described page 757, and got six fine 

 cells. Certainly that was small interference with 

 the laying of the queen. 



That picture of the Ebrito apiary, p. 1130, 

 makes me think I'd rather like something of the 

 kind co\ered with Virginia creeper (Ajtipelopsis 

 quinquefolia) or grapevine. For the north, with 

 trellis running east and w^est, I suppose the north 

 row of hives should be outside the trellis and the 

 south rows somewhat toward the center. That 

 would keep them more in the shade all day long 

 than to have both rows square under the trellis. 



Mr. Pritchard's plan of selecting larvs for 

 queen-rearing, page 1119, seems admirable. Let 

 me add that, for the every-day honey- producer, 

 there can hardly be any thing better than to let 

 the bees do thei' own selecting, gi\ ing them new- 

 ly built comb filled with eggs and young brood. 

 At any rate, that plan woi ks best " in this local i- 

 ty," and I've t'ied pretty thoroughly the other 

 plans, although I don't think I selected as wisely 

 as Mr. Pritchard. 



You're right, Mr. Editor, in thinking that 

 the plan of putting paper between hives when 

 uniting colonies, as given by VVm. Beuglas. p. 

 1139, will work. I have used it lots of times in 

 ordinary uniting, and gave the plan in print 

 years ago — in tiLF.AMNi..s, I think. Just put a 

 sheet of newspaper between the two stories, and 

 the bees will do the rest, [^ince you speak cf it, 

 we recall that this method of uniting colonies has 

 been before exploited in these columns. — Ed.] 



F. H. Cyrenius, p. 1135, advocates Oslerizing 

 the old bees in the fall. The same thing was ex- 

 ploited considerably in the bee journals years 

 ago — by Hosmer, wasn't it.' — but nothing came 

 of it. It is just possible that there may be some 

 advantage in having the larger bulk of bees in 

 the first part of winter, even if they do consume 

 honey only to die before spring. [We shall be 

 glad to hear from others as to whether it pays to 

 carry the old bees through the fall and early win- 

 ter. — Ed.] 



A QUEFN is made to lay eggs in cells coveting 

 an area as large as one's hand in peihaps an hour, 

 on page 1119 That area will probably contain 

 .SOO cells on one side. To fill it in an hour means 

 12,000 eggs in 24 hours. The best la>er ought 

 hardly to be asked to lay more than 50(l0 eggs in 

 that time. Yes, I have my opinion of any man 

 who goes around picking at little things like that; 

 but 1 thought some one would be sure to do it, 

 and I'd save him the trouble of making himself 

 disagreeable. 



The ADVICE given to that bee sister about 

 sweet clover, p. 1145, is good, only she should 

 be told that if the ground is soft the plants will 

 all be dead in spring. I once sowed several rods 

 with oats at the usual time of sowing oats. There 

 was a beautiful stand, but the next spring n<'t a 

 plant was alive — e\ety one heaved out. The 

 ground should be ir;j hard. It might be all 

 righ' in soft ground if the ground was covered. 

 Replying to one of her questions, if growth is 

 started in fall, plants will bloom the following 

 season. 



As TO sugar, I wish the discussion might con- 

 tinue till we know absolutely how much or how 

 little difference there is between cane and beet for 

 feeding bees, and then further till we know just 

 hovv we may be sure we are getting cane, if cane is 

 the b "tter. F< r years the Briiuh hee Jjurnal has 

 held most emphjticilly that cane sugar is the 

 proper thing to feed bees, and beet sugar unfit. 

 Is It not likely that it has good ground for its 

 position.? The sugar-beet industry has become 

 an enormous affair, and I suspect most of our 

 granulated sugar is made from beets. I know 



