52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane 



TELLING AGE OF QUEENS. 



On page 1304, Nov. 1, Dr. Miller tries to tell 

 the difference in the looks of an old and young 

 queen, and has succeeded pretty well. You 

 wouldn't have thought it, but I believe he has 

 missed just the best word for this purpose; and 

 that is the word " dull," for describing color. 

 Whether the queen is black or yellow or chestnut 

 when young, the colors are bright; but when old 

 they have a dull faded look. 



WHEN A COLONY HAS STORES FOR WINTER. 



Page 1363, Nov. 15, Dr. Miller quotes Quinby 

 as saying that " a colony which has stored in su- 

 pers may be expected to have plenty of stores for 

 winter. " He then gives, as a reason why it is not 

 true to-day, that it is because he said it before 

 the days of extracted honey. Well, it is true a 

 super in those days meant a box for storing comb 

 honey in, and not for extracting; but it is also 

 true that it was in the days of box hives with a 

 few small holes from the hive into the super; also 

 when the hive he used was 12 inches deep; and 

 perhaps the best reason of all 'was because he liv- 

 ed in a buckwheat section where bees could usu- 

 ally gather honey till frost. See.'' 

 * 



CAPPING-MELTERS. 



On page 1375 we find an article by H. H. Root 

 on capping- melters, nicely illustrated. The ar- 

 ticle is written in such a frank, candid way, and 

 the conclusions are so straightforward and sen- 

 sible, that it must commend itself to all. My 

 son said to me the past summer that we must 

 have a capping-melter another year. I replied, 

 " Yes, perliaps;" but I meant no, for those I had 

 seen illustrated seemed quite too complicated or 

 expensive to be worth while; but this article places 

 the whole subject in a new light, and we feel as 

 though we must fall into line or be left behind. 



By the way, the side lights thrown upon Mr. 

 Fowls, his family, and business, are fine, and I 

 feel as if I had made them a visit — at least I feel 

 better acquainted with them. 



WAX FROM OLD COMBS. 



I do not think, Mr. Editor, you emphasize the 

 value of old combs for melting quite enough, p. 

 1366, Nov. 15. I believe of late years we average 

 not far from 3 lbs. of wax from each 8 old combs 

 melted, and we find our medium foundation to 

 run about 7 sheets to the pound, thus giving some 

 20 sheets of foundation for the eight old combs; 

 and the 12 extra sheets of foundation more than 

 pay for the work. But we do not, as a rule, find 

 new sheets of foundation as valuable as drawn 

 combs, and especially those of some age, for some 

 purposes. Bees will spread their brood or store 

 honey during the cool spring weather much fast- 

 er in old than in new white combs — at least they 

 much prefer the old dark combs until hot weath- 

 er comes. [See editorial, p. 1425, Dec. 1, and 

 Dr. Miller's comment, p. 1488, Dec. 15. — Ed.] 



SHOULD THE PRODUCER BE PAID FOR THE CANS 

 IN WHICH THE HONEY IS SOLD.? 



Page 1245, Oct. 15, Dr. Lyon thinks a gross 

 injustice is being done the bee-keeper for not al- 

 lowing him at least half the cost of his tin cans 

 containing extracted honey. Dr. Miller, page 

 1303, Nov. 1, thinks if the producer gets half a 

 cent more for honey in cans than barrels he is 

 amply repaid. I think Dr. Miller is right. I 

 believe any one who has dug granulated honey 

 from large barrels in winter would rather pay the 

 half-cent extra for the tin cans. 



But there is another side to this question. If 

 the buyer had to pay the producer half the cost 

 of his cans, why should he not pay half the cost 

 of the barrels and half the cost of the cases comb 

 honey is shipped to market in? Let's see. The 

 producer of extracted honey buys a case of two 

 cans for 50 cents; fills them with honey, and sells 

 the whole for $10.00, his containers costing him 

 five per cent of what he gets. The comb-honey 

 producer, for 18 cts. , buys his shipping-cases that 

 hold 20 lbs. of honey, and gets, say, $3.00 for 

 each case, so his containers cost him six per cent 

 of the whole. This is a larger percentage than 

 that of the man who sells extracted honey in new 

 tin cans. 



But Dr. Lyon may say the cases in which comb 

 honey is sent to market are of no value except 

 for kindling after being used, while the honey- 

 bottler turns around and sells his cans for what 

 he can get. This seems to gall Mr. Lyon more 

 than any thing else; but, after all, it seems to me 

 this is not half so bad as in some other branches 

 of trade. Take the apple-producer who has to 

 pay 35 cts. for his barrels, and gets $1.75 for his 

 barrel after being filled with his choicest fruit. 

 The barrel goes with the fruit; and yet when 

 empty it is worth nearly as much as when new. 

 The apple-producer pays 20 per cent of what he 

 gets, while the producer of extracted honey pays 

 but 5 per cent. 



It is almost universal custom in this country to 

 sell packages with the goods they contain. The 

 only exceptions I think of now are egg-crates and 

 crates for shipping small fruits, both of which 

 are returned to the pro.ducer. 



We have sold a good many five-gallon cans 

 the past year. As we sold cheap, it saved those 

 who bought about as much as we saved by sell- 

 ing. In some cases we have bought back the 

 same cans filled with new honey, none the worse 

 for the exchange. J 



CASFS FOR CANS. I 



Cases in which tin cans are shipped are * 

 not always as substantial as they should be. We 

 get them split and broken badly, and in some 

 cases they are entirely gone. There is also less 

 care taken in nailing them up than there should 

 be, for some cans (I will not say many, although 

 I feel like it) have nail-holes in them. In some 

 other cases the caps are not screwed down tight, 

 and the loss from this source would surprise those 

 who ship honey could they see it. 



It does not seem to stimulate the Christian vir- 

 tues, in emptying a five-gallon can, to find that, 

 owing to a little nail-hole in a lower corner that 

 has been overlooked, the honey has mostly run 

 out of the can, and its place taken by water from 

 the melting-tank. My brethren, these things 

 ought not so to be. 



