DECEMBER 1, 1913 



837 



Stray Stra^vs 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



F. A. Gray sends me a sample of liis fall 

 honey which he says is almost all sugar ; and 

 as he fed no sugar he wants to know the 

 source of the honey. My guess is that it is 

 a good grade of honey-dew that has can- 

 died. I'm forwarding the sample to ye 

 editor. [After examining the sample we 

 should unhesitatingly confirm Dr. Miller's 

 opinion that it was a good grade of honey- 

 dew. — Ed.] 



D. F. Coy is in the sweet-clover region 

 that surrounds Chicago. In 44 days, begin- 

 ning July 7, his best colony stored 188 sec- 

 tions of sweet-clover honey. A daily aver- 

 age of 4I/4 sections for 44 days shows sweet 

 clover a good yielder in that case. Mr. Coy 

 depends chiefly on sweet clover for his sur- 

 plus. It is a long yielder, but the honey 

 has a greenish tinge, and does 'not present 

 as fine an appearance as white-clover honey. 



Louis Macey^ p. 771, please don't paint 

 in too dark coloi-s the evils of sending 

 queens by mail. Of the queens I've had by 

 mail, the gxeat majority have done good 

 work and lived the usual span. Neverthe- 

 less your suggestions are well worth con- 

 sidering, and in answer to your question I 

 may say that E. R. has been sending queens 

 in packages of bees. [Young queens will 

 stand a journey through the mails much 

 better tlian older ones. Experience shows 

 that old queens or breeding queens, six 

 months or a year old, do not stand the jour- 

 ney as well as a young queen that has just 

 begun to lay. It is right here that baby 

 nuclei have one advantage in that the queens 

 can lay only a few eggs by the time they 

 are packed off in the mails. Yes, sir'e ; as a 

 general rule pound packages of bees eontairi 

 a queen. — Ed.] 



M. A. Gill is level-headed in that article, 

 p. 770, but one point will bear comment. 

 He says : " It matters not how slipshod the 

 methods are that produce a can of extracted 

 honey. If it is ripened — " "Ay, there's 

 the rub " — if it is ripened. But that's just 

 the thing most likely not to be, if slipshod 

 methods are used. And right there is the 

 spot where Mr. Slipshod is likely to do 

 t\Vice as much damage to the reputation of 

 honey with extracted as with comb. He 

 may do his worst with comb, and the con- 

 sumer may be disgusted with the appear- 

 ance of his product, covered with bee-glue 

 and travel-stain ; but the next time he sees 

 a sample of comb honey like Gill's he's just 

 as ready to grab for it as if he'd never seen 

 Slipsliod's. Not so if he has had some of 

 Slipshod's unripe extracted. It makes him 



'suspicious of all honey; and seeing a sam- 

 ple of best extracted doesn't remove that 

 suspicion, as in the case of comb honey. 

 Quite right, Bro. Gill ; your motto, " Not 

 how much, but how well," is the motto for 

 producers of comb honey, and doubly so for 

 producers of extracted honey. 



J. L. Byer says, p. 670, " For ' our local- 

 ity,' ' bees always strong ' is the only safe 

 rule if best results are to be obtained, and 

 I never fret about bees being reared out 

 of season." Same here, friend Byei'. I 

 don't believe there's ever a time when I 

 would gain to restrict brood-rearing except 

 for two causes — swarming fever and foul 

 brood. On the other hand, I don't believe 

 there's ever a time when I can profitably do 

 any thing to favor brood-rearing except 

 two things : To keep bees snug and warm, 

 and to see that they have abundance of 

 stores. 



There may be localities or strains of bees 

 where at times brood-rearing should be dis- 

 couraged ; but I suspect that's the exception 

 and not the rule. There are, no doubt, 

 places or bees where brood-rearing would 

 stop entirely if the beekeeper didn't inter- 

 fere; but I sus])ect they are the exception. 

 I don't believe I ever gained by stimulative 

 feeding, and I'm sure I've lost by spreading 

 brood. If my bees rear all the brood they 

 can cover (and they do), what more would 

 you have? 



It may be all right to haul bees without 

 fastening in hives, say 19 times out of 20; 

 but after some experience I've had with bees 

 getting out when supposed to be fastened 

 in, you don't hire me to haul them without 

 fastening — not with horse power. [There is 

 one point, perhaps, in this that you have 

 overlooked. A colony of bees that is shut 

 in a hive by means of a wire cloth is often 

 in a state of excitement on account of the 

 confinement and lack of air. The minute 

 that the wire cloth breaks loose en route, 

 they may rush out like a lot of mad hornets 

 and sting viciously. If, on the other hand, 

 that same colony had not had its entrance 

 closed up, and were given a little smoke at 

 the entrance before it was closed, it would 

 remain quiet during the entire journey. A 

 few bees will sometimes crawl out of the 

 entrance ; but the initial smoking and subse- 

 quent jolting will put bees on their good 

 behavior. If short of air they will crawl out 

 of the entrance, where they will seldom do 

 any harm; and if hauled in an automobile 

 truck and they should sting, they will cause 

 no trouble — at least not a tip-over. — Ed.] 



