214 



Tmm Msmmmi^mm mmm j@^MifM£r. 



Though winter waits reluctant 



To yield the rule to March, 

 The sun with step exultant 



Walks high through heaven's arch, 

 Till daj- aud night 

 Bring new delight, 

 By equal hours in March. 



At rest in winter's rigor 



The life-tide wends its way. 

 Ascending with new vigor, 

 Up through the branches gray. 

 From roots below 

 'Neath meltiug snow, 

 Predicting leaves of May. 



— Clara Hapgood Nash. 



BROOD-COMBS. 



Their Proper Tliiekness — Honey 

 Plants on Farni-Land. 



Written Sot the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



On page 141, Mr. J. E. Pond advises 

 top-bars f of an inch thick, spaced 

 bee-space apart ; and elsewhere he ad- 

 vises shaving down any combs which 

 are more than i of an inch thick. I 

 have not been very successful in at- 

 tempting to carry out this plan, al- 

 though some fault may have been in 

 me, but it seems to me that some things 

 are not taken fully into account. 



Mr. Pond makes the very strong 

 statement that "the whole matter of 

 bee-keeping work is reduced to a mini- 

 mum, all that is required being to start 

 with sheets of comb just J of an inch 

 thick, and so spaced that they cannot 

 be built any deeper." Now it is a fact 

 not always, if indeed often, taken into 

 account, that with age the thickness 

 of comb increases. For another pur- 

 pose I once made investigation as to 

 thickness of comb, and while I found 

 new comb J of an inch thick, I found 

 some old comb fully an inch in thick- 

 ness. I have some doubt if Mr. 

 Quinby would have made the tin 

 combs, of which Mr. Pond speaks, an 

 inch thick, if he had not found natural 

 comb of that thickness. The explana- 

 tion of the increased thickness is eas}'. 

 The continued rearing of bees in the 

 worker-cells — and, by the way, worker- 

 comb alone is to be considered — leaves 

 deposits of cocoons, mainlj' at the bot- 

 tovi of the cells, so that old comb 

 measuring an inch in thickness, will 

 be found to have a septum ^ of an inch 

 In thickness. 



Now suppose we " start with sheets 

 of comb just I of an inch thick, and so 

 spacetl that the}' cannot be built any 

 deeper." What will be the result when 

 the septum increases in thickness ? 



The combs are " so spaced that they 

 cannot be built any deeper ;" and my 

 observation has been, that in such 

 case the bees will gnaw down part of 

 the cells in one comb, in order to 

 deepen the cells of the opposite comb, 

 and, as a consequence, no brood will 

 be reared in the cells which have been 

 gnawed down. If bees would empty 

 out the cocoons, the same thickness 

 might be maintained ; but do they ever 

 do this, without first cutting down the 

 entire cell walls ? 



I would give something to know just 

 what is the best distance to space top- 

 bars from center to center. Some say as 

 much as IJ inches — perhaps a majority 

 say about If inches, and a very few 

 come down to 1} inches, while Mr. 

 Pond stands alone, I think, in recom- 

 mending 1 3-16 inches. This is on the 

 supposition that by " bee-space " he 

 means the commonly accepted 5-16 of 

 an inch. 



FARM LAND FOR HONEY ALONE. 



Will it pay to occupy farm land for 

 honey alone ? While I have doubts on 

 the subject, I would not utterly dis- 

 courage experiments in that direction. 

 1 think it just possible that it might be 

 profitable to occupy some land entirely 

 with melilot. It depends upon the 

 value of the land, and the amount of 

 honey obtained in excess of what 

 would be got without the melilot. 



The answer to the problem would be 

 comparatively easy, if we knew even 

 approximately the amount of honey an 

 acre of melilot yields in a season. Do 

 we know anything about it ? Can any 

 one prove that it is more than one 

 pound per acre in a season ? Can any 

 one prove that it is less than 200 ? 



On page 147, Mr. S. W. Chambers, 

 in a very sensible article, says, " The 

 bee-keeper could not calculate on more 

 than 10 pounds of honey per acre from 

 hone3'-producing plants." If he means, 

 as likelj' he does, the average " over 

 thousands of acres," I think that he is 

 right. If he means an acre solely oc- 

 cupied with honey-plants, he is putting 

 it very low. 



Mr. Quinby — if I remember rightly 

 — estimated that an acre of buckwheat 

 yields 25 pounds of honey per day, and 

 I should think that would make at 

 least 200 pounds per season. 



Mr. Chambers says: "A man must 

 expect at least $15 per acre for the use 

 of his land." I think that he hardly 

 means just that. Does he not mean for 

 land and labor ? In many places the 

 use of land can be had for fS per acre, 

 or less. Now if such land is occupied 

 with melilot, and the melilot needs no 

 cultivation, how much honey must be 

 gotten to make it profitable ? If it 

 gives an additional yield, then little or 

 nothing need be counted for the ex- 



pense of harvesting, for nearly the 

 sarne work must be done in a season 

 for a small as a large crop. So we 

 may apply on the rent very nearly 

 every pound of honey that we get 

 more than we would get without the 

 melilot. 



If the honey is worth 10 cents per 

 pound more than the labor it requires, 

 then to pay $3, the acre must yield 30 

 pounds in a season. Mind you, it 

 must not merely produce 30 pounds in 

 a season — it might do that without any 

 profit whatever, if the melilot should 

 yield when bees have all they can do 

 on the other plants ; but it must in- 

 crease my crop at the rate of 30 pounds 

 per acre. I must confess that it looks 

 to me that it might easily do so in 

 some years, and in some places. Can 

 any one tell us anything definitely 

 about it ? 



Marengo, Ills. 



SHIPPING-CRATES. 



Importance of Using Small 

 Crates for Comb Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY OHAS. F. MUTH & SON. 



Shipping-crates for comb honey are 

 a very Important item for the bee- 

 keeper as well as the dealer. The 

 safe arrival of the comb honey depends 

 principally on the shipping-crates; and, 

 next to the quality of the honey, it is 

 the crate that makes the sale. We 

 had very many shipments of comb 

 honey last season, and, as in previous 

 j'cars, there were a variety of different 

 sized crates. We found, invariably, 

 that the smallest crates wei'e the safest 

 for transportation, aud the first sold. 



If it was not for the mutual interests 

 of the shipper and consignee, the dis- 

 appointment, and, often, the unpleas- 

 ant feeling created by the arrival of a 

 lot of comb honey in bad condition, 

 should be cause enough to throw aside 

 every crate unfit for shipment. As in 

 previous seasons, this winter we had a 

 number of large crates containing 48 

 one-pound sections, and even 48 two- 

 pound sections, also one of 45 sections 

 — 60 pounds net — of comb honey in a 

 crate. It is too much. A heavy crate 

 is invariably set down heavj% and a jar 

 to one side seems to break a whole 

 row of combs. Crates holding 24 sec- 

 tions are a great deal better, but they 

 are also too large. 



By far the most practical, the safest 

 in transit, the most salable, and the 

 cheapest of all shipping-crates, are 

 those containing 12 one-pound sec- 

 tions. We shall hereafter recommend 

 only such to be used bj' our friends 

 and shippers. As a great many lots 



