590 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



I'm in luck, a car famine is on, and if I 

 had honey to ship I might have trouble to 

 get a car. Fortunately, I've none to ship. 

 [Great luck, that! Dr. Miller has the happy 

 faculty for seeing a silver lining to every 

 dark cloud. — Ed.] 



Years ago, at Jesse Oatman's, Dundee, 

 111., I saw winter cases like Bartlett's, page 

 563, only Oatman's were two-story, for 8 

 hives, which made the expense less per col- 

 ony. They worked well, but I think he gave 

 them up for cellaring. 



Five-inch splints, I'm sorry to say, don't 

 work here, at least not with light brood foun- 

 dation; been trying it, and there's too much 

 buckling. [We shall be glad to get reports 

 from those who have tried five-inch splints 

 or splints in general. — Ed.] 



I DON'T KNOW what Mr. Holtermann means, 

 p. 457, by saying "they make the entrance 

 to the hive "s in. deeper than the width of 

 the hive," but I wish he would tell us how 

 deep was the space where the bees built 

 comb between bottom-bars and floor. 



B. H. Barnes, honey vinegar is counted a 

 very superior article if made from good hon- 

 ey. Dilute with water till an egg will just 

 float in it, and after it stands long enough it 

 will be vinegar. Very full details in A B C 

 and X Y Z. Mead and metheglin are a little 

 dangerous to meddle with — too neai- the al- 

 coholic line. 



B. Walker's plan of having field-bees take 

 their loads directly into the supers, page 533, 

 will require less handling of the honey than 

 the ordinary way, in which the honey is 

 dumped below and afterward toted above. 

 Will not that interefere just a little with the 

 ripening of the honey? [We don't know. 

 Can any one answer? — Ed.] 



Otto Dengg, Leipz. Bztg., 65, speaks of the 

 "American plan " of imqueening a colony a 

 week before giving brood to start cells in, 

 and of the Swiss unqueening a day before- 

 hand. In this country I think it is pretty 

 generally the case that the unqueening and 

 the giving of brood occur at the same open- 

 ing of the hive. Unqueening a day before 

 might be better, but a week — I doubt. 



Fritz Leuenberger, Swiss foul-brood in- 

 spector-in-chief, has written a five-cent foul- 

 brood pamphlet that German readers will 

 find up-to-date. He doesn't agree with Amer- 

 ican inspectors that a non-disinfected hive 

 may be used again. He goes even beyond 

 Editor Root, instructing to scrub the hive 

 thoroughly with a ten-per-cent solution of 

 concentrated lye, and then with a painter's 

 lamp scorch the hive-walls to a brownish 

 color. 



If you had referred Mr. Ford's letter, p. 

 498, to A. I. Root, he would at once have 

 said, "A frame of brood will hold a swarm 

 from absconding." [Years ago we tried this 



remedy time and time again; but it failed too 

 often for us to recommend it. We advise 

 taking these persistent swarmers down cel- 

 lar and keeping them there until they cool 

 off. While we believe that a frame of un- 

 sealed brood helps somewhat, it is not enough 

 to restrain bees that seem bent on swarming. 

 But, doctor, you did not tell what your ex- 

 perience was. — Ed.] 



A. W. Smyth, M. D., Irish Bee Journal, 44, 

 says that most old bees can eat foul-brood 

 bacteria with impunity, but not young ones; 

 and where foul brood prevails, numbers of 

 young bees that have been fatally attacked 

 by the bacteria will be seen crawling on the 

 ground. That's new to me. [We doubt this 

 very much. The dead bees that doctor 

 found to be sick and dying were probably 

 affected by something else. If his statement 

 were correct, it would have been verified 

 over and over again by bee-keepers for near- 

 ly a century back. — Ed.] 



When I leave an opening at the top for 

 ventilation my bees, as a rule, do not use 

 this opening as an entrance. Others report 

 that their bees do. I wonder if the differ- 

 ence is not in this: Their bees have this 

 opening early; mine, not till after having the 

 regular entrance established. Bees are great 

 for following precedent. No. 4 had a hole at 

 the back of the bottom-board, which it used 

 as an entrance when first taken from the 

 cellar instead of the very small hole allowed 

 in front. A large part of the bees continue 

 to use this obscure entrance at the back, in 

 spite of the fact that, during all the lifetime 

 of the present generation of bees, the en- 

 trance m front has been many times larger 

 than the hole at the back. 



Have fed about 1000 pounds of sugar on 

 the half-and-half plan. Beautiful in theory 

 — gives bees chance to invert sugar; in prac- 

 tice I don't like it. Years ago I fed much 

 thick syrup — a ton of sugar one year. It 

 took only a tenth as long, bees wintered well 

 on it, and what more do you want? I used 

 an even teaspoonful of tartaric acid to 20 

 pounds of sugar. Ye editor says 2 sugar to 

 1 water, page 556. No use to have so much 

 water. 1 had 2>2 to 1. F. P. Clace, p. 566, 

 makes it 3 to 1. That's still better, if it works 

 right. No use to make bees evaporate an 

 extra 16 pounds of water for every 100 pounds 

 of sugar. [At this time of year, or before 

 cold weather sets in, a syrup" of two parts of 

 sugar to one of water would, in our opinion, 

 be better than a syrup of three parts of sugar 

 to one of water. A little evaporation and a 

 little inversion on the part of the bees is 

 doubtless a good thing. When we give a 

 three-to-one sugar syrup it is practically as 

 thick as honey, and therefore can not be rna- 

 nipulated by the bees. Such a syrup is quite 

 sure to candy, and will do so unless a little 

 tartaric acid is used. You will note that G. 

 M. Doolittle recommends a two-to-one syrup, 

 and then adds honey to prevent candying. 

 We should be glad to get reports from our 

 veterans, because we feel that we can not 

 afford to make a mistake. — Ed.] 



