^26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 15 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



The article by W. Z. Hutchinson, pa^e 431, 

 July 15, is well worth the attention ot large 

 honey-producers, and still it seems doubtful 

 if the average producer could secure the same 

 results with tne same amount of advertising. 



"The best way to advertise honey," by F. 

 J. Root, page 435, is a subject that should re- 

 ceive the thoughtful attention of our larger 

 bee-keepers' associations. We have found 

 in our trade that one person thoroughly in- 

 terested in the sale of honey will do more to 

 make it move than a dozen half-hearted 

 dealers that keep it because they must. It 

 may be a woman in an office or factory, or a 

 retail merchant or peddler; but they make it 

 move. 



Editorial on page 389, on selecting a hive 

 for some particular purpose, reminds me of 

 a recent visit to the home of Mr. Allen La- 

 tham, at Norwich, Conn. Situated in a sec- 

 tion of country that most bee-keepers would 

 think most unpromising for extensive bee- 

 keeping, with very little clover or basswood 

 or even buckwheat, one would think his 

 chances for success poor indeed, especially 

 as he is engaged most of the year in other 

 business. Yet with almost scientific accura- 

 cy he has evolved a hive and system acjapt- 

 ed to his spare time and location that enables 

 him not only to succeed but to realize a good 

 profit from his spare time. 



HIS HIVE. 



He calls this hive his "Letalone." It is 

 well named, surely; for when once a colony 

 is estabhshed in one of them he will some- 

 times leave them for a year without any at- 

 tention or even seeing them, and then only 

 to remove the surplus honey. He has a sum- 

 mer camp near the extreme end of Cape Cod, 

 where he spends a part of his vacation, and 

 here he has his bees and hives, and makes 

 them pay too, although the climate is bleak 

 and the soil little better than shifting sand 

 dunes, and only a narrow strip of that. 

 Beach plums, water hoarhound, and huckle- 

 berries appear to be his principal sources of 

 honey on the cape, while at his home in Nor- 

 wich he has an abundance of sumac and a 

 fair supply of goldenrod and asters as well 

 as other flowers. 



Of course, his hive is practically a non- 

 swarming one, not more than two or three 

 per cent (perhaps less) offering to swarm. 

 The quality of his sumac honey was a surprise 

 to me, comparing very favorably with our 

 clover honey in both color and quality. I 

 must confess that I like the clover best; but 

 I suppose almost every person is partial to 

 the honey to which he has long been accus- 

 tomed. 



Such success as Mr. Latham has made amid 

 such surroundings is helpful in knocking the 

 conceit out of some of us older bee-keepers. 



and showing us there are some things we 

 may yet learn to our advantage. 



That Mr. Latham has thought of other 

 things than bee-keeping is seen m his delight- 

 ful home and charming family. 



Our friend Holtermann wisely reminds us, 

 page 3^2, July 1, "When the dealer's profits 

 vanish as a result of breakage he does not 

 feel like making another investment," etc. 

 Just so; and we have just heard from some 

 of those Canadian dealers, although they 

 were previously unknown to us. Messrs. 

 Rutherford, Marshall & Co., "Dealers in 

 butter, eggs, cheese, poultry, lard, dried ap- 

 ples, hams, bacon, comb honey, etc.," of 

 Toronto, desire to instruct the apiarists of 

 Ontario how to ship their honey safely; and 

 as I don't like to keep a good thing to myself 

 I will give the method they propose. 



Toronto, Ont., Sept. 13. 

 Dear Sirs: — We understand you manufacture corru- 

 gated packages for comb honey. Please send us twen- 

 ty-five circulars showing the package, for we received 

 some honey in this form, and we want to give a de- 

 scription to apiarists in Ontario. So a package of 

 twenty-five circulars will be appreciated by mail 

 promptly on receipt of this. 



Rutherford, Marshall & Co. 



In discussing wax-presses and propolis in 

 a footnote on page 393, July 1, doubt is ex- 

 pressed as to whether much propolis gets in- 

 to wax where combs alone are treated. Some 

 time ago in trying to use a wax-melter with 

 cappings we found so much propolis in the 

 cappings as to clog the melter after a little, 

 and we gave it up. But it seems to me it 

 should be comparatively easy to separate 

 propolis from wax. 



"Why is commercial wax yellow and 

 brown? " is asked, and answered in a foot- 

 note, page 422. "Probably because most of 

 it comes from old combs containing more or 

 less of pollen and dirt." I believe, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, you are quite right. Wax as it comes 

 from the abdomen of bees appears, so far as j 

 I have seen, of pearly whiteness; but often 

 when built into comb it will, even before 

 brood is placed in it, or pollen, contain more 

 or less of — well, we may as well call it dirt, 

 or bits of wax with some foreign substance 

 in it. Wax will very readily take color, as I 

 have colored more or less with analine dyes. 

 Where the larger part of pollen gathered is 

 yellow, it is little wonder that the color of 

 wax is yellow. I often wonder that wax ren- 

 dered from old combs comes out as clean or 

 free from color as it does; and yet when al- 

 lowance is made for pollen and dirt I fear we 

 have not wholly accounted for the color of 

 wax. For many years I have extracted the 

 honey from light sections and put them away 

 for use the following year, and am always 

 surprised in the spring to find them less white 

 than in the autumn previous. Sometimes 

 there is a perceptible yellow tinge or brown- 

 ish shade that did not show the autumn be- 

 fore; and I can not get good-looking filled 

 sections unless they are cut down and new 

 comb built over the old. 



