DECEMBER 15, 1913 



877 



Stray Stra^vs 



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



German bee journals are telling about 

 the Root Co. sending bees in wire-cloth 

 cages, the food being in a tin can out of 

 which the thick sugar-syrup flows drop by 

 drop. Good German friends,' that tin can 

 contains onl}- water, and the food is the 

 usual queen-candy. 



Ix Europe it has for j^ears been consid- 

 ered by many quite important to cage the 

 old queen for a time, and then to introduce 

 the new queen in the same cage. S. Cheat- 

 ham's plan, p. 776, of half killing the old 

 queen, and then putting her and the new 

 queen in the same cage seems a modification 

 of the European plan, and looks like an 

 improvement. 



Zander is quoted, Bienen-Vater, 251, as 

 giving the following figures to show the 

 great difference in consumption of stores 

 caused by brood-rearing: 

 Dec, 150 grams ( .331b.), no brood. 

 Jan., 700 grams (1.54 lb.), very little brood 

 Feb., 1100 grams (2.43 lb.), very little brood 

 Mar., 2100 gi-ams (4.63 lb.), very little brood 

 iipr., 2900 grams (6.38 lb.) increasing brood 



]Mr. Beginner, it may be that an entrance 

 % or 1/2 inch deep in hot weather is all 

 right for Frank McMurray, p. 819; but 

 before settling down on that, do a little 

 experimenting to see if an entrance two 

 inches deep is not better for you. I'm pret- 

 ty sure it is for me. [We have tried both 

 wide and narrow entrances here at Medina, 

 but very much prefer the former. In other 

 words. Dr. ^liUer's experience is quite in 

 line with ours. — Ed.] " 



D. M. MacDonald, British Bee Journal, 

 315, advises a change of queens when a 

 colony daubs too much propolis on sections, 

 and says: " It is curious how even the same 

 bees desist under the benign influence of a 

 new queen. One would not wonder at her 

 own progeny ceasing to over-propolize, but 

 that her presence should have a purifying 

 influence on her predecessor's children is 

 nothing short of a marvel." That's in line 

 with my obser^'ation that, when the queen 

 of a cross colony is replaced by a queen of 

 gentle stock, the colony becomes gentle long 

 before the progeny of the old queen have 

 disappeared. 



In the multitude of discussion in the pa- 

 pers about the high cost of living there is 

 much testimony to the effect that the pro- 

 ducer of fruits, vegetables, etc., does as well 

 as the average, or better, if he gets 30 per 

 cent of what the consumer pays. How is it 

 with the beekeeper? If his honey is sold 



on commission at 16 cents, he will get some- 

 where around 1314, after deduction for' 

 commission, freight, and drayage. The con- 

 sumer will likely pay 25 cents a section, or 

 near 30 cents a pound; 131/2 is 45 per cent 

 of 30, and 45 per cent looks pretty good 

 beside 30 per cent. So the beekeeper isn't 

 as bad off as some others, is he? 



Does honey sell for its real value? Isn't 

 there just as much nourishment and as much 

 good taste in a pound of honey as in a 

 pound of butter? And yet the dairyman 

 gets twice as much for butter as the bee- 

 keeper gets for honey. On the other hand, 

 the consumer can get four or five times as 

 much sugar as honey for the same monev. 

 There's many a father whose child's health 

 is being bankrupted by too free use of 

 sugar, who would gladly pay 50 cents a 

 pound for honey if he only knew that its 

 substitution for sugar would save the health, 

 perhaps the life, of his child. What can be 

 done about it? Don't ask me. 



MORLEY Pettit says that in Ontario Prov- 

 ince less than a fourth of the honey is comb ; 

 so the crop-report committee makes its re- 

 port in terms of extracted, including comb, 

 however, by counting one pound of comb as 

 two of extracted, taking the cost of produc- 

 tion into account, and thus the average of 

 63 pounds is reached. He prods us folks 

 on this side the line just a bit for confusing 

 the terms Ontario and Canada. Ontario is 

 no more Canada than Xew York is United 

 States. Quebec Province produces more 

 section honey than extracted; but the On- 

 tario Association has nothing to do with 

 that Province, and speaks only for its own 

 Province. 



After reading the well-given instniction 

 for fastening wire in foundation, p. 799, 

 some may still prefer to use the plan in- 

 vented by Miss Emma M. Wilson, which she 

 describes thus : 



" After the foundation is put in place 

 over the wire on the board, the whole thing 

 is lifted off the board, and moved over the 

 flame of a common gasoline-stove high 

 enough not to melt the foundation, but to 

 heat the wire enough to imbed it in the wax, 

 letting the flame constantly follow the di- 

 rection of the wire. The frame is moved 

 with one hand, while the fingers of the 

 other hand press very lightly over the foun- 

 dation." 



I think this makes a better job than the 

 spur. The wire is hot while the wax remains 

 cool, except where the wire melts it, and 



