1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



157 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Those who fail to read the Home department 

 of Gleanings for Jan. 1 will miss some of the 

 best things between the covers. 



Dr. Miller, p. 50, gives 82.6 as the per capita 

 consumption of sugar in the United States. Now 

 will he give us the per capita consumption of 

 honey.'' 



Mr. Holtermann, page 20, Jan. 1, says that, 

 with abundance of rain, alsike sown in spring 

 sometimes comes into bloom the same season, 

 but rarely yields much honey. Same here. 



The testimony of J. Enclund, p. 39, Jan. 1, is 

 the first positive statement I have seen on feeding 

 beet sugar where it was positively known that 

 the sugar was from beets. Not so bad, after all. 



Mr. Holtermann, p. 1428, recommends cotton 

 batting for stopping up leaks in hives, especially 

 when moving. His head is level. There is noth- 

 ing better. I have used it for the last twenty 

 years when needed. 



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On page 50, Dr. Miller suggests wisely that 

 there may be a difference in the time of sealing 

 up queen-cells. I believe he is right, and that 

 bees often seal queen larva? before they are near- 

 ly grown. 



Mr. Morrison, on page 22, Jan. 1, refers to the 

 advice of some one as to keeping surplus honey on 

 hives late in the season, and he says it will gran- 

 ulate, etc. He might have added that it will 

 condense the moisture rising from the brood-nest, 

 and the condensation on the surplus combs will 

 be absorbed by the honey, thereby injuring its 

 quality. 



Page 48, Jan. 15, ye editor asks if the plan of 

 shaking to increase the working energy of bees 

 is a joke. I think not; or if it is, the joke is on 

 the bees, for I have found, as a rule, it increases 

 their efficiency. It is no uncommon thing to 

 find that such colonies, after robbing them of 

 their brood-combs, giving them empty ones in- 

 stead, store more than those by their side undis- 

 turbed. 



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HONEY VS. CANDY CONSUMPTION. 



Dr. Miller informs us, p. IS, Jan. 1, that if the 

 people of this country only ate honey as they do 

 candy, then a population of 3000 would consume 

 25,000 lbs. of honey. Well, doctor, I will tell 

 you what will go a long way toward doing it. 

 When bee-keepers and honey-dealers put up their 

 honey in as small and attractive packages as the 

 confectioners do, it will help more than the most 

 of us are accustomed to think. We sell hun- 

 dreds (I think I might say thousands) of pounds 

 of honey that retails for 40 cts. a pound, and it 

 is no better than other honey we sell for 12 '2 cts., 

 simply because it is in small attractive packages. 



Page 18, Jan. 1, Dr. Miller inquires, " Doesn't 

 your honey-board make more even wo-k in sec- 

 tions, etc.? " Yes, sir. I have noticed it; but as 

 a rule I have put the honey-board on too late to 

 receive th-j full benefit in this direction. Since 

 that article appeared illustrating my honey-board 

 I have been informed that Mr. Harbison, of Cal- 

 ifornia, used just such a board for the express 

 pupose of getting his sections filled more even- 

 ly, and that it was a complete success for that 

 purpose. 



Will the drouth affect the clover for next sea- 

 son? Yes and no. In some sections where the 

 drouth was very severe, and especially on clay 

 soil, the white clover is practically all dead. But 

 where there were some showers there seemed at 

 the beginning of winter considerable clover. [See 

 editorial discussion elsewhere. — Ed.] Alsike clo- 

 ver will stand more drouth and freezing in winter 

 or spring than white clover. But there appears 

 to be some compensation. Such severe drouths 

 as last year seem to bring up to the surface, or 

 within the reach of plants, elements of fertility 

 that are not usually within reach; and flowers, 

 what there are, may yield honey more abundant- 

 ly as a result of the drouth. 



E. D. Townsend tells us, p. 24, that the main 

 advantage of a capp'ng-melter, as he sees it, is the 

 saving of honey that usually goes to waste, and 

 represents his loss as three or four hundred pounds 

 annually. I do not believe so much waste is 

 necessary. It is an easy matter to melt cappings 

 in a double boiler and then separate the honey 

 from wax without harm to either. Or they can 

 be melted up with water, and the diluted honey 

 fed back to the bees. [It is true that cappings 

 may be melted in a double boiler, and the hon- 

 ey and wax separated; but if there are barrels of 

 cappings the time required is considerable. It 

 would be cheaper to arrange the double boiler so 

 that the cappings will fall into it direct from the 

 knife so that they will not need to be handled 

 again — Ed.] 



On page 22 Mr. Morrison objects to my objec- 

 tion to calling honey, diluted with water, honey 

 cider. I will tell you why. Cider has been used 

 to such an extent here in New England for tip- 

 pling purposes that it is no credit to honey to be 

 confounded with that word. Besides, the diction- 

 ary limits the use of the word cider to the juice of 

 fruits, principally of apples. Hesays," We speak 

 of apple cider, peach cider, pear cider, quince 

 cider, etc. Why not honey cider.?" I answer, 

 because honey and water mixed is not the juice 

 of fruits; and, further, because, if we could say 

 honey cider, then a mixture of sugar or molasses 

 and water would be sugar cider or molasses cider. 

 How do you like it.? My mother used to make 

 vinegar out of these mixtures. Honey and wa- 

 ter will make quite as good vinegar without call- 

 ing the mixture cider as it will to give it that 

 name. It is quite different with vinegar which 

 is derived from various sources, and so we have 

 the terms cider vinegar, malt vinegar, wine vine- 

 gar, beet-root vinegar, beer vinegar, honey vine- 

 gar, etc. 



