OCTOBER 15, 1913 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crank, Middleburj', Vt. 



One of the neatest yards of bees 1 have 

 seen this season was one where a few sheep 

 were kept, and no lawn could be more 

 free from grass and weeds. 1 don't believe 

 the use of sheep for this purpose has been 

 Iialf appreciated. 



» » * 



Mr. Chadwick's estimate of the income 

 that could be expected from a yard of bees 

 as an investment in the hands of a fairly 

 good beekeeper, page 441, would be a fair 

 estimate in this part of the world, but the 

 difficulty would be to find the reliable bee- 

 keeper. 



I know of no business that is carried on 

 with so little actual knowledge of it as bee- 

 keeping by the average beekeeper. He 

 knows that bees need a hive; that they 

 swarm, make honey, and are made angry 

 by sweaty horses. Well, some of them are 

 learning these days that bees have diseases, 

 like other animal life, to their sorrow. 



* * * 



Friend Byer, on page 438, discusses the 

 quality of Southern honey. Now, I know 

 it is a sure thing that they produce some 

 fine honey in the South, for I have eaten it 

 right out of the hive in Florida, and found 

 some the equal of our best Northern honoy. 

 And I have eaten it on the table of my 

 friend J. J. Wilder, in Georgia, and I know 

 it was good ; but it is not all so. 



If you buy comb-frames ready made, and 

 holes in end-bars already punched, you 

 are ready for wiring; but if you make them 

 yourself, the punching of holes in the end 

 pieces is quite an item. But some one has 

 told me this season that using a thin saw 

 and cutting a slot down half way through 

 the end-bars, where the wires are wanted, 

 is quicker than punching holes; and then 

 the wiring is simplicity itself, for you only 

 have to place the wire in the slots without 

 the bother of running it through holes at 

 each end. This cutting or sawing into the 

 end-bars might seem to weaken them; but 

 in time the bees will soon fill the slots with 

 propolis, and make them all right. 



* * -:^ 



A recent number of the Technical World 

 tells of an invention to attach to a hive, 

 a sort of speedometer that will register the 

 number of bees leaving or entering a hive 

 during the day. This would, if it proves 

 practical, solve several interesting prob- 

 lems that we have been heretofore unable 



to unders.and perfectly, as, How many bees 

 does it take when gathering honey freely 

 to gather a pound? How many bees go 

 out each day, and how many return? How 

 many more are lost on windy days than on 

 those days that are pleasant? How many 

 more bees does it take to gather a pound 

 of honey during seasons of comparative 

 scarcity than when the flowers are rich in 



nectar? 



* * * 



On page 437 Dr. Miller refers to com- 

 l^ensation to those whose foul-broody colo- 

 nies are destroyed. A bee inspector has oft- 

 en to meet this inquiry : " Does the State 

 pay for the loss?" The State certainly 

 ought not to be held responsible for the 

 loss caused by the bees being diseased; and 

 if the State sends a man, paying for his 

 lime and expenses, to show to the owner of 

 a lot of bees their condition, and instructs 

 him how to get rid of disease, it would seem 

 that the responsibility of the State would 

 cease. If the owner of a lot of diseased bees 

 refuses to clean them up after he is told 

 how, but leaves them to spread contagion 

 all around him, he is entitled to little sympa- 

 thj^, whether the inspector destroys them or 

 they are left to die without " medical as- 

 sistance." 



* * * 



My dear Mr. Riebel, my sympathies are 

 with you as j'ou relate on pages 445, 446, 

 the condition you find honey in stores. Oh, 

 my ! but doesn't one want to shake up both 

 the slovenly beekeeper and ignorant grocer, 

 and give them both a piece of his mind? As 

 I go around among beekeepers my astonish- 

 ment at their ignorance and folly never 

 ceases. I find hives with supers resting di- 

 rectly on the frames, and glued down solid- 

 ly "with propolis, or perhaps an inch space 

 between them, or perhaps a super without 

 sections, or bottom with combs built from 

 the top of the super to the top of the 

 hive, or combs running at every angle to 

 the top-bar of frames, or, perchance, a 

 whole yard without a super on, or scarcely 

 a chance to put one on, or supers without 

 separators, and the combs built to suit the 

 whims of the bees. Oh, dear! How can 

 such be made to see their folly, and make 

 them realize that they are losing dollars to 

 save cents? Thej' won't take a journal — no, 

 no; they can not afford it. Gleanings for 

 July 1 is worth all the journal costs for ten 

 years just for the information it gives along 

 the line of marketing honey ; but, alas ! they 

 can not see it. 



