GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



D. C. Leach asks about catalpa as a honey- 

 tree. I never heard of any one getting catalpa 

 honey. I doubt if it is of any value. 



Financial statement of Ontario B. K. A. 

 (Canadian Bee Journal, 454) shows a cash grant 

 from the government of .$450. Good for the 

 Kanucks. 



O. A. Keene wants to know what that honey 

 reported, page 1303, was gathered from. Mostly 

 white clover. I can hardly tell what the other 

 was from. Perhaps a little heartsease, a little 

 red clover, and fall flowers. 



J. D Archbold testified, December 7, that the 

 Standard Oil Co. in 1907 had produced as one of 

 the by-products of petroleum 204,992,478 lbs. of 

 wax. If bees could use that sort of " wax " there 

 would be a drop in the price of foundation. 



Oliver Foster tells in Bee-keepers' Re'vie'w,y. 

 336, about wintering bees not in but over a pit. 

 For ten colonies a pit 10 feet deep, 3 feet in di- 

 ameter at the bottom, and 5X7 feet square at the 

 top. A skeleton platform supports the hives, 

 and a cheap building covers all. 



Louis Scholl, I am beginning to weaken a 

 little as to moving bees to give them new life. 

 A writer in Re--viei.v is very sanguine that he in- 

 creases his honey crop by thoroughly shaking his 

 bees. If enough of you agree about it I may 

 conclude that I don't know all about bees. 



The bees are unhampered, says Dr. Bigelow, 

 in a glass hive which allows them to build as 

 shown, p. 1495. I wonder now if the bees would 

 feel any more hampered by Hoffman frames 

 around their combs than by those sticks ^vithin 

 their combs. 



Dr. Bigelow, you are quite right that it is not 

 true that all the bees of the hive work at one time 

 upon one kind of flower, page 1498. There are 

 also exceptions to the rule " that the honey-bee 

 gathers only one kind for each load." At any 

 rate, I've seen a bee flying back and forth from 

 one kind of flower to another on the same trip. 



Candy-factories of the United States turned 

 out 667,000,000 lbs. of candy in a year, or about 

 iyi lbs. per capita. Suppose we could get people 

 to see that it would be better to have that much 

 honey eaten. Then in a town of 2000, with 

 another 1000 of surrounding population, there 

 would be consumed 25,000 lbs. of honey. That 

 would help the honey market, wouldn't it? 



"The extra honey is money on big interest," 

 page 1505. Right you are, friend Mendleson. 

 The common question seems to be, "How little 

 honey can I have in my hives in the fall so as not 

 to have them starve.?" It ought to be, "How 

 much honey can be crammed into the hive in the 

 fall without crowding the queen for room the 

 following spring? " 



J. E. Crane, your philosophy about travel- 

 stain, p, 1506, seems sound. Neither is it only a 

 fancy " that with thicker and wider top-bars 

 whiter surplus could be produced." I count no 

 little on the effect of my top-bars 1 yi X y&. One 



thing you didn't tell us: Doesn't your honey- 

 board make more even work in the sections, in- 

 stead of having the central sections finished so 

 long before the outer ones? 



By way of emphasizing what Bro. Doolittle 

 says, p. 1492, I may say that I would rather put 

 bees in cellar three weeks too early than one 

 week too late. One of the most uncomfortable 

 feelings a bee-keeper can have is to feel that his 

 bees ought to have another flight before going 

 into the cellar, and with no certainty that a day 

 warm enough will come before spring. 



I WISH our billion-dollar Congress, in deciding 

 as to its appropriations of millions here and there, 

 would take it into its head to add a bit to the 

 pittance allowed for apicultural investigation. 

 With a man possessing such splendid ability as 

 Dr. E. F Phillips at the head of affairs, I am 

 sure that a larger sum could be used for the ben- 

 efit of bee-keepers in particular and the nation in 

 general. 



In WINTER, especially early winter, there is 

 probably not as much danger from light in bee- 

 cellars as generally supposed. If it doesn't low- 

 er the temperature too much, and you can't oth- 

 erwise get in a big lot of pure air, don't be afraid 

 to open up doors or windows, ev^n if a little light 

 does get in. Bees stand full light outdoors, and 

 why shouldn't they in cellar if conditions are 

 right? 



J. E. Crane, replying to your query, p. 1491, 

 I think this territory is pretty well occupied with 

 bees; but if you think of changing location I 

 might consent to be crowded a little. Seriously, 

 I have never counted this a first-class location for 

 bees. With clover as the main dependence, 

 when that fails the bottom is apt to drop out, and 

 I have always thought that, if I were locating 

 anew, it would not be at Marengo. Only one 

 previous season came up to 1908. We do a lot 

 of hard work fighting swarming, and that helps 

 to bring up the yield per colony. 



A. A. E. Wilbur asks whether it would be a 

 good plan to have top and bottom bars grooved, 

 and then use foundation splints long enough to 

 be received into these grooves so as to make sure 

 that the foundation shall not swing to one side 

 at the bottom. It would be exceedingly trouble- 

 some to put in such splints. At least one end of 

 the splint should be free to be put in with any 

 degree of rapidity. If the splint were held in 

 place at the bottom, that would keep the founda- 

 tion from swinging out of true, even if the foun- 

 dation were fastened in no other way. But that 

 wouldn't be so well as to have foundation fasten- 

 ed at the bottom by a divided bottom-bar or by 

 waxing; for if nothing but splints held the foun- 

 dation in place the bees would be sure to have a 

 passage between tlie foundation and the bottom- 

 bar. I never yet had a splint held by top or bot- 

 tom-bar, and never did a foundation swing out of 

 true. But the foundation is fastened at top and 

 bottom independently of the splints. 



P. S. — Looking again at p. 755, Gleanings, 

 1908, I'm not so sure that B. F. Averill's plan of 

 putting the ends of splints into grooves in top 

 and bottom bars may not be as easy as or easier 

 than mine. But it still leaves the necessity for 

 providing against the bees gnawing a passage be- 

 tween foundation and bottom-bars. 



