190 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



Uncapping-machines are in the air. Arthur 

 C. Miller is out anew with a "decapper. " 



Enos H. Hess, p. 181, try my icind of upper 

 entrances. Simply slide each story forward or 

 backward enough to maice the opening. 



R. F. HoLTERMANN, p. 177, thinics plenty of 

 fresh air for bees in winter of more importance 

 than temperature, and ye editor seems to agree 

 with him. Shake. 



J. L. Byer, you say, page 164, that your bees 

 roar when it goes above 50, although there is 

 plenty of fresh air. I bet there isn't enough. [We 

 agree with you. — Ed.] 



Replying to Rev. W. W. Howard, in this lo- 

 cality I doubt the advisability of making a start 

 at queen-rearing before clover bloom unless it be 

 in a strong flow of dandelion. 



I. W. Beckwith, I don't believe bees care a 

 whit for the noise of thunder, nor for its jar ei- 

 ther, p. 177. It's the clouding up; and the bees 

 will scurry home all the same if there's no thun- 

 der at all. [Right you are. — Ed.] 



J. E. Chambers says, p. 178, "the queen just 

 hatched is no match for the old one." But did 

 you ever know a queen just hatched to get into a 

 scrap with an old one.? She is just a baby then, 

 and neither queen nor workers pay any attention 

 to her. When she gets older, and puts on airs 

 as a queen, then the trouble begins. 



With interest I have read Louis Scholl's last 

 item, page 102. But see here, Louis, you make 

 changes, and then say that the shaking which the 

 bees get in the making of those changes puts the 

 energy into them. Are you sure it's not the 

 changes rather than the shaking? Shake one col- 

 ony — hard — without any changes; then make the 

 changes in another with the least shaking possible; 

 then see which gets the energy. 



E. D. TowNSEND says, page 112, that a high- 

 board fence "protects the hives only enough to 

 entice the bees out of doors when it is too cold 

 for them to fly, so that they are caught in the 

 cold wind and lost." Some will take it from 

 that that Mr. Townsend thinks such a fence 

 worse than useless. I doubt if he holds that 

 view. While the fence may do more harm than 

 good on a day warm enough to entice the bees 

 out to be chilled in the colder air above, for every 

 such day there will be 20 when it will be too 

 cold for the bees to think of coming out at all, 

 and then the fence will do a lot of good by keep- 

 ing the hives warmer. 



That scrap with Coggshall, p. 174. Aren't 

 you two talking about two different things, Mr. 

 Editor.' You're talking about sealed covers ivith 

 packing over them. I'm not certain that he is; 

 at least, he says nothing about packing over the 

 sealed cover. Makes all the difference in the 

 world. [No; as we take it, Mr. Coggshall and 

 ourselves were talking about the same thing. 

 Some time ago, after seeing our editorial, favor- 

 ing sealed covers with packin,^ material on top, 

 ,he wrote us that he differed with us on the prop- 



osition, and would shortly send in a communi- 

 cation defining more explicitly his views. They 

 are given on page 174. While perhaps he did 

 not specifically mention that the sealed covers 

 under discussion did have packing material on 

 top, that is implied. It not, he will kindly cor- 

 rect us. — Ed.] 



When bees "begin to 'roar,' we would not 

 keep them in the cellar one day longer," p. 152. 

 Some beginner will take that literally, and take 

 his bees out when they can't fly, and lose a lot 

 more than if he had left them in the cellar. Open 

 up the cellar nights, and keep dark daytimes, and 

 wait for a day when they can fly, even if it's a 

 month. [Referring to page 152, we do not see 

 how the beginner can misunderstand if he reads 

 the rest of the sentence from which you quote. 

 For, observe that we added "although we would 

 try to hold off until there is a possibility for the 

 bees to fly." This is quite in line with your ad- 

 vice, except there is an intimation that, under 

 some conditions, the beginner might better take 

 the bees out any way, but we did not so mean 

 it. — Ed.] 



R. B. Ross, Jr., has my thanks for suggesting 

 that reference to Gleanings, 1896, p. 112, would 

 settle a muddle between you and me, Mr. Editor. 

 On page 65, 5 cents was deducted for commis- 

 sion, etc., on honey sold at 15. I said, p. 74, I 

 thought that that 5 cents should be cut in two. 

 You replied that I helped make that figure at a 

 Chicago convention. So I did; but please re- 

 member those were the figures of the convention, 

 not mine, and I wouldn't endorse them. Here 

 are the figures. Gleanings, 1906, p. 112: 



Selling price of honey per lb. .140 



Freight 004 



Commission at 10 per cent 014 



Cartage 002 



Loss in leakage 007 



Shipping-cases 010 



Total expense .037 



Net cash to the purchaser .103 



That was for 14-cent honey. The greater 

 commission on 15-cent honey would make total 

 expense .038 — nearly 4 cents, but not 5. But 

 there are two items there that I don't think be- 

 long there — loss in leakage, and shipping-cases. 

 I've shipped a good bit of honey, one time and 

 another, and I don't remember ever to have had 

 any "loss in leakage," much less an average loss 

 of 15 cents on each 24-section case. Possibly 

 you may say that, if I didn't endorse the figures, 

 at least I didn't object to them. Please remem- 

 ber that, as presiding officer, I merely put down 

 on the board the figures given me. 



Deducting that .017 from the .037 leaves just 

 2 cents as total expense on 14-cent honey, and 

 2.1 cents on 15-cent honey. I was wrong, p. 98, 

 in thinking that 2 cents was talked of at the con- 

 vention. I was mixed up with the fact that for 

 years 2 cents has been my own view. [So you 

 acknowledge, after all, that you had something 

 to do with making the figures. While it is true 

 you did not make them, if we mistake not you 

 accepted them at the time as being approximate- 

 ly right; but, allee samee, we can not help feel- 

 ing that 4 cents is rather large; and we rather 

 agree with you that it ought not to cost more 

 than 2% cents to sell a fourteen or fifteen cent 

 honey. — Ed.] 



