GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Cbanb, Middlebury, Vt. 



Mr. Chadwick makes a good point when 

 he says, " The time is coming in this land 

 of ours when more men must be producers, 

 and fewer live on the work of those who do 



produce." 



* * * 



We hear occasionally of a bee-sting that 

 struck a nerve or a vein, and consequently 

 was very painful. Perhaps ! But I have 

 come to think that there is a great differ- 

 ence in the virulence of the poison of dif- 

 ferent bees. I sometimes receive a sting 

 that seems almost inert, and the poison as 

 harmless as so much water; and, again, I 

 receive a sting causing unusual pain. The 

 sting of a young bee seems much less se- 

 vere than that from older ones. 



I believe it was Louis Scholl who, some 

 time ago, said that it is better for the spe- 

 cialist to have his yards of bees some dis- 

 tance apart. Then if there was a failure 

 in one section he might get a crop in an- 

 other. The present season in this section 

 has seemed to verify the wisdom of such 

 advice. Where some of our yards were lo- 

 cated, and where we usually get fair crops, 

 we shall not secure enough honey to winter 

 the bees, while another yard, twelve or fif- 

 teen miles distant, where the drouth was not 

 so severe, will give a good yield. 



er and drone brood, and show the difference 

 between healthy and sick or dead brood, 

 and hear the exclamations of surprise from 

 those who have kept bees for many years, 

 I am astonished at their ignorance. An 

 inspector must teach as well as inspect if he 

 would have his work endure. 



Mr. Jay W. Gee has an enlightening ar- 

 ticle on p. 375, June 1, on the shipping of 

 fragile articles, and he speaks from expe- 

 rience in actually handling them. The fact 

 to the care with which they ai'e packed is 

 to the care with which they are packed was 

 a new idea, and jet it seems reasonable it 

 should be so. That a few sections placed in 

 a case of corrugated paper, and fitted nicely 

 into a basket with handle, should go safely, 

 is not at all surprising. I am of the opin- 

 ion that, if all our shipping cases of honey 

 had a handle they would go far more safely 

 than at present. IMi'. C. B. Palmer, on p. 

 450, Jul}' 1, calls attention to the use of a 

 candy-pail for shipping honey. He attrib- 

 utes his success to the fact that the pail is 

 not set down flat with a slam, but strikes 

 first on one edge and goes down gently; 

 but I believe the handle has more to do with 

 it than he thinks. I fear if the handle were 

 removed the pail would not prove of so 

 great value as a shipping case for honey. 



" There is that scattereth, and yet in- 

 creaseth even more; and there is that with- 

 holdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth 

 only to want." This is as true to-day as 

 when fii'st written some three thousand 

 years ago. Especially is it true of beekeep- 

 ers. How many have we seen that made a 

 careful investment in bees, improved hives, 

 sections, smoker, and beekeeping literature, 

 that have reaped ten — yes, thirty, sixty, and 

 even a hundred per cent on their invest- 

 ment, while others who thought they could 

 not afford good hives, a smoker, nor a bee 

 journal, have found it tended only to want 

 and poverty! 



• • • 



It is nearly seventy years since I stood 

 beside the gentle " schoolmarm " to learn 

 my letters, and I repeated them one after 

 another as she pointed them out with her 

 wonderful pencil or more wonderful pen- 

 knife, little thinking that some day I would 

 be teaching the alphabet of beekeeping. 

 And as T hold up a comb and point out the 

 eggs and young and sealed larvae, the work- 



How far will bees go in search of nectar? 

 and how many bees can be kept in one 

 IDlace without overstocking? are questions 

 that have never been answered positively, 

 and I believe never will be, for it all de- 

 pends on circumstances. ]\Ir. Harbison, of 

 Southern California, told me many years 

 ago that he found his bees working on flow- 

 ers fifteen miles from home, although not 

 very freely. The past spring it seemed 

 doubtful if bees would go more than half 

 a mile from their hives. The weather was 

 so cool and cloudy about here that, where 

 many colonies were kept in one location, 

 they had to be fed to prevent starvation. 

 A few colonies in a place during dandelion 

 bloom would fill their hives, and some of 

 them would prepare to swarm, while colo- 

 nies in large yards could gather but little, 

 as they could not go far from their hives, 

 and the nectar was soon exhausted. On the 

 other band, during clover bloom there seems 

 to be but little difference between large and 

 small yards, as the weather is then mild, 

 and bees can fly much further. 



