1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



357 



loose from the sections, and only about five of them 

 were in trood order; but. of course, these were all sat- 

 urated with honey. As we said before, the box did 

 not show any sitrns of leakasre or saturation before we 

 opened it, which is probably due to the fact tliat the 

 heavy pasteboard absorbed the honey. 



We hardly tliink tliat tliis box will answer the pur- 

 pose for shipping' comb honey in small (luantities — 

 that is, by the sintrle crate or case, or even from five 

 to fifty cases. Another point which we think is arainst 

 this box is that it takes a lot of cord to tie it up, and 

 also considerable labor. The wooden crates now used 

 are (luite easy to open by simply forcintr off tlie cover 

 and then nailintr it down asjrain. This pasteboard box 

 would have to be tied up with stront; cord, which 

 would be rather a task to open; and in order to exam- 

 ine the iioney tlie cord would have to be cut and new 

 cord put in its place. We have no fault to find with 

 the box whatsoever, and the idea strikes us as a very 

 irood one— especially so if tlic box could be furnislied 

 at a lower |)rice than a wooden crate. 



We think this box would answer the purpose if tlie 

 bee-keepers would put it in a carrier of, say, eisfht 

 crates each, the same as are used now for the other 

 crates; but we do not believe it would answer the pur- 

 pose in sendintr out in small ouantitics without beintr 

 put in carriers. Can not an improvement be made on 

 this box by usintr fasteners on the two sides instead of 

 tyintr them up with cord, and at the same time make a 

 better-appearintr case ? 



Let us sutrsrest the followinsi: Why not adopt the 

 partitions in the wooden crate, by which we mean to 

 use the crates that bee-keepers aVe using now, and use 

 this corrugated partition to fill tlie corners? Thus ev- 

 ery corner would be protected; and if one or two 

 should happen to break down it would not spoil or 

 break down the others. Of course, we admit tliat it 

 would bring the cost of the honey up a little higher; 

 but we should think that these partitions could be fur- 

 nished at, say, 3 cents, possibly 4, for a crate holding 

 24 combs. This would mean an additional expense of 

 only about '^ of a cent more per pound, which would 

 be insignificant to the producer, for he would feel 

 more sure that his honey would arrive in good order. 

 This is only a suggestion of ours, but we thought we 

 would put it before you in case you desire to take it 

 up and approve of it. Of course, this is meant only 

 for unglassed sections. Where bee-keepers glass their 

 honey or use pasteboard cartons it would not be nec- 

 essary. 



Any other points we have omitted, kindly write 

 about. HiLDKETH & Segelken. 



New Vork, May 27. 



We have observed that express delivered 

 to any large city receives rougher treatment 

 than that which goes to smaller places. The 

 amount of express matter is necessarily 

 large, and the time for its delivery from the 

 car on to the truck at the city of destination 

 is very limited. As a natural result the ex- 

 press men sometimes throw the stuff off, and 

 very often it tumbles from the truck on to 

 the depot platform. If the container holds 

 fragile goods without in anywise indicating 

 the character of the contents, something 

 happens; and in this case the sections were 

 badly broken. It is evident that these cor- 

 rugated cases will not be strong enough to 

 stand express shipment alone. 



We think, however, they might go by 

 freight, provided a considerable shipment 

 was made up; but as a matter of precaution 

 we would advise the use of carriers; and 

 when these are used we feel quite certain 

 that the breakage and leakage in these pa- 

 per containers will be much less than in the 

 corresponding wooden packages. However, 

 the latter would carry the honey just as safe- 

 ly, provided there was a sheet of corrugat- 

 ed paper at top and bottom, and cross-parti- 

 tions of the same material as suggested, so 

 that each section may be put in a space by 

 itself. Possibly this will be the best solution 

 of the difficulty. 



Stray Straws 



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



"Blocks of wood on which the bees may 

 alight" are advised for watering-places, p. 

 2!)(3. Better advise cork chips — ever so 

 much better. [Are you sure they are "ever 

 so much better?" Corks are much more 

 expensive, and blocks of wood can be ob- 

 tained anywhere, and they are almost as 

 good. — Ed.] 



Clip a queen on only one side. She will 

 tumble around on the ground, and make 

 poorer progress than one with all wings cut. 

 Besides, the wings on one side should be left 

 to catch her by. Cut off half or more of both 

 wings on one side. If you leave the smaller 

 wing whole you can not tell at a glance 

 whether she is clipped or not. 



A correspondent says, "The colony of 

 my best queen is strong, but somewhat trou- 

 bled with paralysis. Shall I breed from her?" 

 I don't know. I think I'd use her for part of 

 my queens, and watch results. What do you 

 say, Mr. Editor? [No, sir! We would kill 

 that queen instanter. We wouldn't breed 

 from her any more than we would scatter 

 foul-broody honey in the apiary. — Ed.] 



W. A. Prval, p. 339, speaks of scout bees 

 working at empty hives a week or more. I 

 don't know that I ever saw before mention- 

 ed in print that scouts would work so long 

 before swarming. But I have noticed the 

 fact a good many times. [Why, doctor, if 

 we are not mistaken there have been a good 

 many reports in these columns where scout 

 bees have been out of the hive a week or 

 more before the swarm actually came forth. 

 —Ed.] 



Outdoor-wintered colonies further along, 

 page 332. I think it is the rule that outdoor 

 bees start brood a month or so earlier than 

 cellared bees. [That is true in a sense; but 

 in your locality you winter indoors. If you 

 could get better and stronger colonies in 

 the sprmg by wintering outdoors you would 

 adopt that plan, wouldn't you, even if it took 

 more stores? for the trade of sugar syrup for 

 bees is genei^ally a good investment. Why 

 don't you winter outdoors? A good deal de- 

 pends, we suspect, on the locality and the 

 sort of winter, and whether outdoor bees 

 would be further along in the spring than 

 cellared bees. — Ed.] 



JiiNG Klaus, the jovial Sammelkorb man 

 of Deutsche linker, quotes Editor Root as 

 claiming that in nectar itself there are cer- 

 tain ferments that invert the sugar in the 

 nectar, and Jung Klaus is distressed at the 

 thought of taking from the bee part of its oc- 

 cupation. Bless your heart, Bruder Jung 

 Klaus, Mr. Root never said any thing of the 

 kind; doesn't believe any thing of the kind. 

 Why don't you read Gleanings for yourself, 

 and not depend on reports in other journals 

 by those wlio perhaps do not read English 

 very well, and get things badly twisted? 

 [The statement to which Jung Klaus refers 



