GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Wesley Fostex-'s advice about tinkering 

 with American foul brood is thoroughly 

 sound, and every young or inexperienced 

 beekeeper would do well to heed his advice. 

 See page 142, March 1. 



That method of ridding cappings of hon- 

 ey by centrifugal motion, by Mr, D. R. 

 Hardy, and described by Mr. Holtermann, 

 page 188, March 15, would seem to open 

 the way to rid the cappings of most of the 

 honey that sticks to them. It will be re- 

 membered that this is the way sugar is 

 treated in refineries to rid it of all super- 

 fluous molasses or syrup. 

 * * * 



A good deal has been written of late 

 about bee-veils. I have many times won- 

 dered if we could not have a special kind 

 of wire cloth for this special purpose, with 

 meshes say Vg inch instead of 1-12 or 1-14 

 as at present. This would reduce the ob- 

 struction to vision from a third to nearly 

 a half, and give a freer circulation of air. 

 [We already have such a wire cloth. The 

 wires are Yg inch apart. — Ed.] 



P. C. Chadwick makes a good point on p. 

 140, March 1, where he concludes that pol- 

 len is of more importance in stimulating 

 bees to breed in spring-time than the feeding 

 of thin liquid sweet where they have enough 

 honey stored in the hive. Last March, on 

 the east coast of Florida bees built up read- 

 ily, although they gathered very little or no 

 nectar, and were growing lighter all the 

 time; but they found an abundance of pol- 

 len. " Pollen is a gi'eater aid in that direc- 

 tion than additional stores," he says, and he 

 is right. * ^ * 



It seems to me that the March 1st issue 

 was, on many accounts, one of the most in- 

 teresting numbers I have seen in a long 

 time; and any one who shall say hereafter 

 that women can not be successful beekeep- 

 ers may be counted as not up to modern 

 ways of business. I doubt if an equal num- 

 ber of articles written by* men twenty or 

 twenty-five years ago were more scientific 

 or up to the best methods now known than 

 these written by women from their own ex- 

 perience. One can not wonder, when he 

 sees how well women have come to under- 

 stand and to 23i"actice the art of beekeeping, 

 whether tlie men are not going to turn this 

 work over to them, as they have to so great 

 an extent the rearing of poulti-y. However 

 that may be, I feel that this number marks a 



new era in beekeeping, or at least one not 

 realized before. 



THE OLD QUESTION OF GRADING COMB HONEY. 



In the report of the National Beekeep- 

 ers' Association at Cincinnati I notice that 

 the question of grading was a live one. Ev- 

 idently this question has never been settled 

 right or it would not be bobbing up continu- 

 ally. Now it seems to me that it would be 

 well to mention here a few facts or what 

 appears to be such. The first I would speak 

 of is that, the closer the lines of grading 

 are draAvn, the moi'e beekeepers are turning 

 their attention to extracting their honey, 

 where grading is not so diilicult. Mr. Muth 

 would have only two grades — fancy and No. 

 1. But hoAv much profit will it be to the 

 beekeeper who produces comb honey when 

 he finds he can not sell more than half his 

 crop because it will not come up to these 

 grades? We are not surprised to learn that 

 there is a scarcity of comb honey on the 

 markets. It is easy to see that it would be 

 more convenient for the honey merchant, 

 like Mr. Muth, to have but two grades of 

 honey. It would be even better for the bee- 

 keeper to have only one; but, taking the 

 country as a whole, the bees do not all put 

 up honey that way. I think we might make 

 tAventy grades quite distinct and easily rec- 

 ognized. These would all merge from one 

 into another so as to be almost impercepti- 

 ble in some cases, but yet each as a class 

 would be quite distinct from the others. 



Now the question is. How can this gi-eat 

 variety be classified so as to suit best the 

 trade and consumers'? Shall the beekeeper 

 sort out a little of the best, and call it 

 " fancy," and a larger amount and call it 

 No. 1, and melt up the rest? or shall he sort 

 it out so the cases he j^uts up can have some 

 one, two, or three words that will accurately 

 describe it, each case being of a kind? I 

 believe it is the business (I almost said 

 duty) of the merchant to find a market for 

 the off grades of honey as well as the 

 '■' fancy " and No. 1. When the oil-refiner- 

 ies found they had an immense amount of 

 gasoline, of so little value that they let it 

 run to waste, they set men to inventing 

 stoves that would consume it, and then en- 

 gines that would use it for power, until to- 

 day the demand is such as to bring gTeat 

 profits to refineries. Now, I believe there 

 could be an opening made, or a demand at 

 a fair price for all our grades of honey 

 that are fit to i^ut up, and yet that will not 

 gi-ade No. 1 or " fancy," 



