224 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



That is a good point made by Louis H. 

 Scholl, page 38, that the beekeeper who has 

 every thing in readiness for a crop of honey 

 can look the future bravely in the face and 

 feel sure he will conquer. 



4^ 

 Riding by rail recently from Washington 

 to Detroit I saw but two yards of bees, and 

 one of them consisted of a few old box hives. 

 This looks as though the country were not 

 overstocked as a rule. 



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Some persons hesitate to start an outyard 

 because they have no horse; but ]Mr. De- 

 muth, of the Department at Washington, 

 told me not long ago that he had hired a 

 horse for this purpose at an expense of not 

 over fifteen dollars. 



-^ 



It is interesting and sometimes amusing, 

 and almost always instructive, to notice 

 how different persons look at a particular 

 subject from different angles. For instance, 

 Mr. Wesley Foster, page 71, Feb. 1, gives the 

 statement of Mr. F. Rauchfuss that comb- 

 honey markets have been developed which 

 demand Western honey, and pay a good 

 figure. Now, one would naturally infer 

 that those Colorado beekeepers had worked 

 up a special market for Western or alfalfa 

 honey; but I was talking the other day with 

 an extensive and very intelligent beekeeper 

 from the middle West who claimed that 

 this is not true, as the older States had 

 worked up the comb-honey demand or mar- 

 ket in the East, and the alfalfa beekeepers 

 had just stepped in and were reaping the 

 benefit of markets already developed. He 

 stated further that in the past, in one or 

 more instances, he had established a mar- 

 ket or demand for comb honey at an ex- 

 pense of 25 cents a pound to begin with. If 

 this were all, it would not be worth talking 

 about; but he said further that those West- 

 ern beekeepers were doing great injury to 

 our Eastern markets, not because of the 

 quantity of honey, for there is a demand for 

 all, whether from the East or West, but by 

 putting honey on our Eastern markets that 

 will granulate before it is consumed, thus 

 disgusting alike the consumer and retail 

 dealer who had previously used only Eastern 

 honey that granulates more slowly. To my 

 mind there is no honey produced in quan- 

 tity that compares with good alfalfa granu- 

 lated honey, with all wax removed; and if 

 a market could be developed for pure gran- 

 ulated alfalfa honey or for "honey butter," 

 as some call it, I believe it would be for the 

 mutual advantage of producer, dealer, and 

 consumer. 



Then, again, there is the wintering prob- 

 lem, and it is a problem of great importance. 



How differently it is regarded by different 

 beekeepers! There is my good friend, Ar- 

 thur C. Miller, a very careful observer, who 

 says, page 73, Feb. 1, that when the exter- 

 nal temperature has been nearly level for a 

 day or two there will be found to be a differ- 

 ence of only one or two degrees between the 

 inside and outside of a hive, whether in 

 single or double walls, and I believe he states 

 the truth. Then there is my friend Byer, a 

 rather small man who does some large think- 

 ing, who has found the temperature between 

 the inside and outside of a hive to vary from 

 twenty to nearly fifty degrees, and I believe 

 his statements equally true. Whence comes 

 this great difference? In wintering bees in 

 the extreme North there is always one major 

 problem to be solved: How shall we get rid 

 of the moisture generated by the bees, and 

 mingled with the air and heat of the hive, 

 and retain the heat produced by the bees? 

 If we wished to get rid of both heat and 

 moisture, or retain both, it would be sim- 

 ple indeed; but the heat must be retained 

 and the moisture thrown off. Friend Mil- 

 ler goes at it one way and Byer another. 

 Miller would ventilate his hive freely, giv- 

 ing about nine square inches of opening to 

 each cubic foot of space inside his hive, with 

 the result, as he says, of but one or two de- 

 grees difference between inside and outside 

 temperatures. And it seems reasonable 

 that it should be so. If we were to ventilate 

 our dwellinghouses in the same proportion, 

 a room 15 feet square and 9 feet high would 

 require an opening to the outside equivalent 

 to six good-sized windows with the sash out. 

 Presumably the temperature w^ould be but 

 one or two degrees warmer inside than out- 

 side, whether the walls were single or dou- 

 ble. It might dispel the great white plague; 

 but, oh my! wouldn't we shake and shiver 

 with the temperature 20° below zero, and 

 the wind blowing a gale? Mr. Miller would 

 compensate for this loss of heat by the use 

 of dark paper to absorb the heat of the sun; 

 but the sun does not shine nights nor on 

 cloudy days, and there are many such. 



On the other hand, Mr. Byer has a small- 

 er entrance open and well packed, and 

 lets the moisture percolate slowly through 

 the warm packing that retains a large por- 

 tion of the heat. That the moisture goes 

 through the packing is readily seen by plac- 

 ing a pane of glass on top of it, when it 

 soon collects moisture on the under side. 

 That the heat is retained is proved by such 

 observations as Mr. liyer and others have 

 made. With suitable packing and small 

 entrances (a half-inch square is enough if 

 so arranged as not to become clogged) I 

 have found hives and combs as clean and 

 dry in March as in November whether the 

 sun shone on them or not. I have also 

 found the constant change of temperature a 

 decided disadvantage. 



