74 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C- C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



You ask, Mr. Editor, p. 4, for a way to 

 mark a queen with a permanent color. In 

 " Die Rassenzueht," Dr. U. Kramer, page 

 111, recommends a quickly diying lac — red, 

 yellow, white, or blue — not so thin that it 

 will run, and not so thick that it will not 

 adhere. He gives full instruction as to the 

 whole proceeding. 



In 1872 — '3 I spent some months in Cin- 

 cinnati heli3ing in a subordinate way to get 

 up the first May musical festival under the 

 direction of Theodore Thomas. One day a 

 quiet old gentleman came into my office to 

 chat aboixt bees. In spite of his modest 

 demeanor he knew a lot about them. He 

 was the Rev. L. L. Langstroth. 



A. I. Root, do ye mind that time when 

 we slept together in a western city at which 

 there was a national bee convention? Next 

 morning, as we walked along the street I 

 was somewhat disconcerted to pull out of 

 my pocket a night-cap. I made no use of 

 night-caps, either the cloth or liquid kind ; 

 but I presently found out it had been put 

 into my pocket inadvertently by the man 

 who had slept with me. 



Notwithstanding all the improvements 

 that have been made in beekeeping, there's 

 one thing that is no better in quality nor 

 greater in quantity than it was 50 years 

 ago. That's enthusiasm in the business. 

 Young fellow, you think you're having a 

 jolly good time learning all the up-to-date 

 things in beekeeping. Well, we old codgers 

 had just as good a time 50 years ago learn- 

 ing what was up-to-date at that time. Now 

 hold right still while I tell you another 

 thing. I've just as much fun now as I had 

 50 years ago in seeing what the bees will do 

 to my plans after I've studied them out. So 

 enthusiasm is a constant factor if you're a 

 born beekeeper. 



Ye editor, p. 2, seems to have a aesire 

 that I should jab J. L. Byer for his views. 

 All right; come on and be jabbed, Bro. 

 Byer. You seem to hold, p. 6, that with 

 solid combs of honey and nowhere else for 

 the bees to cluster, bees will winter all 

 right. That will leave the bees in layers %^ 

 inch thick between the combs; and if they 

 remain with no better chance for clustering 

 " during the weeks and weeks of cold zero 

 weather," my guess is that they'll be dead, 

 dead. Your experiment will prove n'^thing, 

 for, as ye editor suggests, the minute you 

 stopped feeding them they began scooping 

 out a winter nest. Moreover, you don't 



say how much room they had to cluster 

 under the bottom-bars. Surely more than y^ 

 inch. Editor Root holds that instinct makes 

 the bees empty out a place to cluster. I 

 suspect instinct makes them eat the honey, 

 and that happens to leave the empty space. 

 And I suspect that, if there was a possibil- 

 ity of keeping the combs constantly solid 

 with honey, they would winter just as well 

 without an empty cell in the hive. You 

 say, " They can't warm up these slabs, be- 

 cause they project beyond the cluster where 

 it is cold. Tliese cold projections convey 

 the cold back to the cluster." Say, Mr. 

 Editor, did you ever see a solid comb pro- 

 ject down through the cluster? Come down 

 into my cellar and I'll show you the cluster 

 of bees projecting down below the combs 

 — two inches — but neAer a filled cell below 

 the cluster. I don't know how small a space 

 below the combs will answer for clustering; 

 but I know that bees can cluster all right 

 below bottom-bars, for I know my bees do. 

 Theoretically one of you is just as far from 

 my vieAv of the truth as the other; but for 

 practical purposes the Canuck holds the 

 safer ground. Now, Mr. Editor, haven't 

 I jabbed J. L. enough? [When you ask 

 the question whether we ever saw a solid 

 comb project down through the cluster, you 

 are evidently thinking of indoor wintering. 

 What we have had in mind all the time on 

 the subject of winter nests has been outdoor 

 wintering, and not indoor. As we said 

 over a year ago, this question of the proper 

 formation of a winter nest is not particu- 

 larly important for indoor bees, especially 

 if there be a large clustering-space under 

 the frames such as you use in your cellar. 

 But when bees are wintered outdoors, and 

 the temperature outside (assuming it is a 

 double wall) is 20 or 30 degi-ees higher, it is 

 important, at least for our locality, to have 

 a winter nest. If you could look over our 

 outdoor-^vintered colonies on a day when 

 the temperature is about 10 degrees above 

 zero, you would find tliat the combs in most 

 cases project an inch or more below the 

 cluster, and eight or ten inches beyond the 

 cluster in the direction of the length of the 

 hive. The point we tried to make was that 

 solid combs of sealed stores that stick out 

 beyond the bunch of bees into an atmos- 

 phere that is down to freezing, or below, 

 will convey the cold clear through the clus- 

 ter almost as badly as so many slabs of 

 marble. The V^ or % inch of bees between 

 the combs can not make up for this con- 

 stant loss of beat. — Ed.] 



