248 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Stray Straws 



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



The man who winters bees in a cellar 

 will cast a longing look toward outdoor 

 wintering as soon as he begins to establish 

 out-apiaries. 



As an experiment I sent by parcel post 

 to CMcago 10 sections of honey, none of 

 them perfectly finished, in a safety ship- 

 ping case. Postage was 46 cts. ; express- 

 age Avould have been 30 cts. Only four sec- 

 tions were unbroken, and the honey was 

 reported "on the run." [See editorial. — Ed.] 



Out-apiaries afford an extra chance for 

 improvement of stock. The best colonies 

 can be massed in the home apiary, or one 

 of the out-apiaries, and queens can be rear- 

 ed there with a better chance to meet the 

 best drones. Then when the young queens 

 are laying they can be distributed to the 

 other apiaries. 



P. C. Chadwick, p. 174, complains that 

 the cost of parcel post for honey is prohibi- 

 tive beyond the first zone. Perhaps hardly 

 so bad as that; for in zone 2, with nine 

 times as large a territory, it's only 4 cents 

 a pound; but it's not what we should have. 

 From here to Chicago, 66 miles, 7 pounds 

 costs 30 cents by parcel post ; by express 25 

 cents. Eleven pounds costs 46 cents by par- 

 cel post; 30 cents by express. Uncle Sam 

 can work for as little as the express com- 

 pany, and ought to. 



A GOOD many, at least in Europe, take 

 seriously the idea that larger bees can be 

 produced hj using foundation with larger 

 cells. No less than 2500 Rietsehe founda- 

 tion-presses have been sent out with 736 

 cells to the square decimeter instead of the 

 usal 854. That is, the cells were made with 

 about one-sixth greater area than usual. 

 [Does a large cell make the bees any larg- 

 er? We doubt it. If, however, the cells 

 are smaller than the normal size, the bees 

 will be smaller, just as a Cliinese woman's 

 foot is made smaller by being put in a small 

 shoe. As Cheshire has pointed out, there 

 would be no advantage in having a larger 

 bee, as such an insect would be out of 

 harmony with the flowers for wliich they 

 seem to be specially adapted by the great 

 Creator.— Ed.] 



Representative Lewis, one of the most 

 interested members of the congressional 

 committee on parcel post, favors this rate: 

 Three cents a pound for the first pound, 

 and half a cent for each additional pound 

 up to 100 pounds for the first hundred 

 miles, then half a cent additional per pound 



for each additional hundred miles. By the 

 Lewis rate a package of 12 sections, weigh- 

 ing, say, 14 lbs., would cost 10 cts. within 

 100 miles, and 17 cts. within 200 miles. 

 Exactly this may not come; but something 

 like it is likely to come before beekeepers 

 are ready for it; for I don't know of any 

 proper package ready for posting honey — 

 do you? [There is a gi'eat future for par- 

 cel post ; but before honey or bees can be 

 sliipped in that way some pro^asion will 

 have to be made whereby they can be sent 

 like ordinary express matter in separate 

 packages by themselves instead of in a 

 closed sack. Bees in pound lots would 

 smother in a sack. In a jumble of pack- 

 ages in a sack, large and small, comb honey 

 would stand a poor show. — Ed.] 



It is well known that cold favors granu- 

 lation of honey, but it is not so well known 

 that fi-equent change of temperature may 

 be a still stronger factor. In III. Monats- 

 blaetter is given an instance,^. 21. Buck- 

 wheat honey in cans was set out where the 

 sun shone upon it by day and it cooled off 

 at night. In three or four days it began to 

 candy, while in the steady temperature of a 

 room honey out of the same lot remained 

 liquid for weeks. [You say it is " not so 

 well known that frequent changes of tem- 

 perature may be a still stronger factor " in 

 causing honey to granulate than cold. Those 

 who have read late editions of our ABC 

 and X Y Z of Bee Culture — yes, for five 

 yeai's back — must have seen where we have 

 said that " the primal cause of gi'anulation 

 is the alternation of warm and cold weath- 

 er." See subject of " Candied Honey." 

 Then toward the latter end of the subject 

 see this : " Contini;ed zero weather is not 

 so favorable as weather somewhere near the 

 freezing-point, now moderating up to the 

 thaAving-point, then freezing and then thaw- 

 ing. When the weather remains continu- 

 ously cold, set the honey out in pails or 

 boxes in a room where the tem^Derature goes 

 a little below freezing, leaving it for a day 

 or two, then move it into a warm room." 

 At various times in these columns we have 

 stated that changes of temperature will 

 cause granulation much sooner than mere 

 steady cold. As a rule you can leave liquid 

 honey in a temperature 10 degrees below 

 zero for weeks, and it will remain as clear 

 as crystal. But a freezing and a warm 

 temperature in alternation, day after day, 

 for about a week, will begin to show re- 

 sults in that same honey. We therefore 

 entirely agree with Monatshlaetter. — Ed.] 



