790 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Stray Stravs^s 



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



Karl Mika^ Deutsche Imker, 321, claims 

 great increase of surplus from keeping bees 

 under glass, as in a greenhouse. 



Fairness requires, after having written 

 that Straw, p. 754, about the trouble with 

 too thick glass in shipping cases, that I 

 should report that, since wi-iting it, I've 

 glassed some 400 safety cases without meet- 

 ing a glass thick enough to ruffle my tem- 

 per. After the years of struggling I've 

 had, what a delight it was ! 



Gleanings is quoted in Deutsche Bzcht., 

 Oct. 1, as saying the best place to have 

 combs built out is in a super over a strong 

 colony. Dr. Herter approves, emphasizing 

 the strength of the colony, and adding that 

 the colony must be in the humor for build- 

 ing, when it will build just as well before 

 or behind the brood-nest as over it. (This 

 refers to hives with combs running parallel 

 with the entrance.) 



Exactly how bees gather pollen has been 

 difficult to learn because of the exceedingly 

 rapid movement of the bees. The cine- 

 matograph has helped out. Pictures are 

 taken in which the bees can be made to go 

 slow enough to be easily followed. — Leipzg. 

 Btzg., 158" [Time after time we have tried 

 to discover just how bees transfer the pol- 

 len masses from one leg to the other. To 

 the ordinary human eye it is nothing short 

 of a sleight-of-hand performance. We are 

 glad to know that the cinematograph is 

 going to show the steps of the process. If 

 it does, Gleanings will be glad to illustrate 

 them on its pages. — Ed.] 



A TEMPERATURE of 32 to 35 degrees would 

 be considered ideal for outdoor wintering, 

 even if there was no flight for four or five 

 months. Now why shouldn't Elmer Hutch- 

 inson's bees stand it just as well in the 

 cellar, provided the air is just as good? 

 [We assent to the last sentence; but we 

 have not yet seen the cellar where the ven- 

 tilation was as good inside as outdoors. 

 With perfect ventilation and a dry atmos- 

 phere, bees will undoubtedly stand a lower 

 temperature than where the air is bad, and 

 laden with moisture. Even human beings 

 suffer more severely in a damp and chilly 

 atmosphere than they do in a dry cold air. 

 —Ed.] 



Alarm is expressed, Leipzg. Bztg., 150, 

 over a new danger to German beekeeping. 

 In certain localities all the field-bees are 

 lost in a short time. In the same localities 

 poison-sprays are used upon mustard in 

 liloora. [Sometimes these poison sprays are 



destructive to bee life, and at other times, 

 apparently, they have no effect. The spray- 

 ing of fruit-trees when in bloom is un- 

 doubtedly destructive to bees sometimes; 

 but it is equally ajDparent that it is not al- 

 ways destructive. Much depends on the 

 character of the spraying liquid and the 

 strengfh of it. Ordinary solutions of Paris 

 green, so far as we can ascertain, sufficient- 

 ly strong to kill the codling moth, will kill 

 brood as well as bees. In the case under 

 consideration it is evident that the poison 

 spray used on mustard in bloom was strong 

 enough to kill bees. — ^Ed.] 



If enough beekeepers do not work for 

 comb honey it will not be the fault of 

 Gleanings. Many a year ago I gave up 

 the extractor, and have produced sections 

 exclusively. Now, in spite of the exhorta- 

 tions of Gleanings I'm planning to run 

 part of my colonies next year for extract- 

 ed. Eor one thing, I want to learn how, 

 and am counting on a lot of fun in the 

 learning. [In this connection it is our be- 

 lief that all comb-honey producers should 

 produce a little extracted. Two extracting- 

 combs in each side of the first comb-honey 

 super put on the hive serve the double pur- 

 pose of baiting the bees into sections and 

 preventing unfinished sections in the out- 

 side rows. — Ed.] 



NiKOLAus Pirpamer says. III. Monats- 

 hlaetter, 117, that for 30 years he has win- 

 tered nearly every year 100 colonies or 

 more, and in that time has fed thousands of 

 kilograms of sugar. Bees wintered well on 

 sugar, but he noticed that colonies heavy 

 with sugar syrup the first of October would 

 be again light two months later, while colo- 

 nies that had gathered their own stores had 

 not lost perceptibly in weight during the 

 same time. This is a matter worth inquir- 

 ing into. [This does not seem reasonable, 

 and we should be inclined to believe that 

 there must be a mistake somewhere. We 

 have never observed any thing of that sort 

 in this locality. If any one else in any 

 other locality has, let him speak up. Re- 

 ports for many years back have shown, on 

 the contrary, that a given amount of sugar 

 sja'up will go further than the same amount 

 of natural stores ; that is to say, the bees 

 A\all consume less of them. Some honeys 

 will cause uneasiness; and uneasiness re- 

 sults in a larger consumption of stores. 

 Stores of sugar syrup, on the other hand, 

 are always of uniform quality, and have a 

 tendency to induce the best kind of winter- 

 ing. — Ed.] 



