JULY 1, 1913 



437 



Stray Straws 



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



Mk. Edit(3R, that's a fine write-up of foul- 

 brood legislation, p. 362. Now take up 

 spraying', and handle it the same wa^^ some 

 of these days. 



Are there any scales constructed for the 

 apiary, or w'ill any platform-scales stand 

 the weather? [There are no scales special- 

 ly constructed for the apiary; but practical- 

 ly all the standard instruments all of metal 

 would stand exposure to the weather. As 

 a general proposition scales on the gxavity 

 or steelyard piinciple ai-e not as suitable 

 for outside exposure as a platform spring 

 scale with an enclosed dial. — Ed.] 



G. M. DOOLITTLE, you've painted the 

 swarming business xevy fairl}-. p. 367, but 

 one thing needs to be added. It looks very 

 pretty on paper to have a swarm with, a 

 clipped queen obliged to return and hive 

 itself; only in a large ajiiarj', when swarms 

 isssue simultaneously or in close succession, 

 there are entirely too many cases where the 

 swarm, instead of returning to its own hive, 

 heeds the call of a returning or lately re- 

 turned swarm at some other hive. 



D. L. Woodward seems to think, p. 213, 

 that the out-apiarist who has an auto should 

 have horses as well. I wonder how many 

 agi-ee with him. [We do not believe it is 

 necessary to own a team. That would be 

 too expensive. But an automobile truck 

 can do a great part of the work. The few 

 times that a team would be required would 

 be more eeonomicallj^ handled by a livery. 

 Something, of course, would depend on the 

 roads. — Ed.] 



M. R. PiNCOT says, L'ApicuUeur, 160. 

 that brood-comb is never less than 24 milli- 

 meters (.945 inch) in thickness. The com- 

 mon thing here is to say it is %, or .875 

 inch. That's a difference of more than 1-16 

 inch. Mr. Editor, please tell us the exact 

 measurement at Medina. [Some years ago 

 we made some quite extensive measurements 

 in our apiary, and the average of all meas- 

 urements was as near % of an inch for 

 worker comb as it was possible to make it. 

 —Ed.] 



Wesley Foster seems a little shy as to 

 admitting that it is the proper thing to 

 compensate a beekeeper for his loss from 

 foul brood, p. 365. I don't wonder. Cer- 

 tainly it would never do to allow^ full com- 

 pensation so long as there are men who 

 burn down their houses to get the insurance. 

 Indeed, there may well be question whether 

 there should be any compensation at all, 

 unless a man is hit so hard that he becomes 



a public charge. If smallpox breaks out in 

 my home I don't get any compensation: 

 and why should I any more if disease 

 breaks out in my apiary? 



Otto Dengg, Deutsche Bzcht., 23, gives 

 some interesting figures regarding the de- 

 velopment of a vigorous colony. At inter- 

 vals of ten days, at 10 a. m. he counted the 

 number of bees returning from the field 

 during the space of ten minutes, also how 

 many of them carried pollen. April 1, in ten 

 minutes he counted 318 returning bees; and 

 of these, 94 carried loads of pollen. The 

 other counts were these : 



April 10, there were 476 bees, 142 with 

 pollen. April 20, there were 584 bees, 268 

 with pollen. May 1, there were 782 bees, 

 281 with pollen. May 10, there were 1045 

 bees, 367 with pollen. May 20, there were 

 1462 bees, 418 wath pollen. June 1, there 

 were 2364 bees, 624 with pollen. June 5 

 (twelve days after first drones flew) a 

 swarm of 8 lbs. 6 oz. issued. The per cent 

 of bees carrying pollen at the different 

 dates was respectively as follows: 29.6, 

 29.8, 45.9, 35.9, 35.1, 28.6, 26.4. 



More and more beekeepers are getting to 

 tliink bees should not be left with a space 

 of half an inch, or even an inch, between 

 bottom-bars and hive-floor. I first adopted 

 a bottom-board two inches deep because I 

 wanted the deep space in winter. But in 

 summer bees would build down in so deep 

 a space, so I put in a shallow box upside 

 down to fill up the space in summer. Then 

 I improved on that bj- using in summer an 

 open rack. Now comes the Junge-Peirce 

 team, p. 308, with a deeper space and with 

 open sides, which ought to be an improve- 

 ment, as giving still more air. Leon C. 

 Wheeler comes next, p. 314, wdth exactly 

 my bottom-board, only he has ventilation at 

 sides and back, and has no bottom-rack. 

 The question is. Do the bees never build 

 down in that tAvo-inch space? Leon, if they 

 don't, your bottom-board is a big thing, j. 

 P. Blunk has a deep bottom-board, open at 

 back as well as front ; and, if I mistake not, 

 bees never build down in it. In whatever 

 shape it is given, the deep space under 

 bottom-bars is an important factor in help- 

 ing to prevent the desire to swarm. [We 

 arise here to inquire whether j'our first sen- 

 tence states the facts. We would have said, 

 basing the opinion on the correspondence 

 that has passed thi'ough our hands, that 

 more and more beekeepers are beginning 

 to accept the deep space under the frames 

 as better than a shallow space. — Ed.] 



