754 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTORE 



Stray Straws 



De. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



A. I. Root, "Our Homes," p. 707, recalls 

 this gem, whose authorship I do not know : 



The sandal-tree perfumes, when riven, 



The ax which laid it low ; 

 Let man, who hopes to be forgiven, 



Forgive and bless his foe. 



"The value of honey is attested by its 

 introduction into the German army. Each 

 soldier carries his tube of honey in his 

 knapsack, as experience jjroves that the 

 use of honey increases strength and endur- 

 ance on the march." — Deutsche Imker, 249. 

 If it's good for the strength of soldiers, 

 why isn't it good for the strength of oth- 

 ers? 



E. D. TowNSEND says, p. 725, that two 

 combs with oldest brood are examined ; and 

 if no foul brood is found in them the colony 

 is considered healthy. That's for American; 

 it wouldn't do at all for European. Euro- 

 pean would have to be pretty bad if you 

 couldn't find two healthy combs in every 

 diseased colony. At least that is the case 

 "in this locality." 



Reidenbach, in Pfaelzer Bztg., thinks 

 acid unnecessary in sugar syrup for winter 

 food if water free from lime is used. It 

 should not be heated more than 175 Fahren- 

 heit. Through oxidation formic acid will 

 be formed, and the sugar at least partly 

 inverted. [We have never used acid in 

 making syi'up, and seldom if ever experi- 

 enced any trouble with syrup going back 

 to sugar. The ordinary 2-to-l syrup (two 

 of sugar and one of water) will be thin 

 enough so it will require some ripening on 

 the part of the bees — that is to say, such a 

 syrup will be partially inverted after it is 

 sealed. If so, there will be no trouble about 

 its sugaring. A mixture of 21/2 sugar to one 

 of water possibly would have to have a lit- 

 tle acid to prevent crystallization. — Ed.] 



On behalf of hundreds of beekeepers I 

 want to make a plea that, when supply- 

 dealers make a shipment of a number of 

 packages, each package shall have plainly 

 marked upon it its contents. That would 

 often save a lot of trouble in opening a 

 number of packages before coming to the 

 right one. Another thing, if you don't 

 want to make your customers swearing 

 mad, don't send glass for shipping cases 

 too thick to go in the grooves. That's an 

 outrage that no beekeeper should be asked 

 to endure, and I don't think I ever received 

 glass with shipping cases in which an ex- 

 asperatingly large number of pieces were 

 not too thick. [We suspect a part of this 

 trouble is due to the fact that some of the 

 manufacturers, in order to get out a ease 



that would compete with the poorly made 

 cases i3ut out at planing-mills, have made 

 their material too light. If the strips that 

 hold the glass are thin, it is not possible to 

 use a wide groove. The ordinary shipping- 

 case glass is made of scrap glass, much of 

 which is thick, and has to be sorted out 

 before it is put into cases. Supply manu- 

 facturers will please take notice. — Ed.] 



"Dr. Miller says in Gleanings that the 

 smoke of cotton rags irritates bees and 

 makes them sting." — Apiculteur, 316. Must 

 be some mistake about that. I've used piles 

 of cotton rags without finding that objec- 

 tion, and never heard it made by others. 

 [L'Apiculteur is quoting the wrong Miller. 

 It was Mr. A. C. Miller, of Providence, R. 

 I., who said that cotton rags irritate bees. 

 See Gleanings, page 664, Nov. 1, 1911, 

 and page T02, Feb. 1, 1912. Our experi- 

 ence has been the same as that of Dr. Miller 

 — or rather, we should say, we have used 

 greasy waste made of cotton, and we have 

 never discovered that it made the bees cross. 

 Indeed, it seems to have more of a quieting 

 effect on the bees than any thing else we 

 have ever used. We have used it exclusively 

 in our apiaries for the last five or six years. 

 —Ed.] 



A CORRESPONDENT of Deutsche BzcTit. 

 says he fed daily 1/2 pound sugar syrup for 

 14 days, beginning August 15, and it failed 

 to stimulate to laying the young queens of 

 this year's rearing. He is told that he 

 should have fed honey, for sugar alone is 

 good to keep up heat in winter, but will not 

 do for brood-rearing either fall or spring. 

 [It would be our opinion that there was 

 some functional trouble with the queen. 

 Queens that, will not lay under such stim- 

 ulative feeding should be replaced. We 

 have no difficulty in getting a queen to lay 

 in the fall by stimulative feeding. Veiy 

 often we find some colonies a little weak 

 about the last of August or the first of 

 September, and then we begin feeding to 

 start brood-rearing. By Oct. 15 we have 

 quite a force of young bees, and a hive full 

 of sealed stores. Such a colony is in prime 

 condition for winter. 



We do not believe that the addition of 

 honey would have very much effect. It is 

 quite possible, in the case under considera- 

 tion, that no natural pollen was available 

 when the bees were fed, and none in the 

 hive. If this were the case, no amount of 

 stimulative feeding would start brood-rear- 

 ing. The queen might lay eggs, but that 

 would be as far as it would go. — Ed.] 



