42 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



small number ; but in the vicinity of Medina, 

 where we have so much open winter (like 

 spring to-da}', Jan. G), and the weather out- 

 side is even warmer than the atmosphere of 

 the cellar, then *a small number of colonies 

 will give a better result. — Ed.] 



While reading about the trouble with 

 hive-covers in Colorado I wondered if my tin 

 covers with dead-air space wouldn't fit their 

 case. Two years' trial of fifty of them makes 

 me like them, [But even in Colorado there 

 is a trouble about the tin-covered hive-tops. 

 It is the warping and tivisting of the boards, 

 and not the possible leaking while in the rain. 

 Why, it is very seldom that there is any rain 

 at all in Colorado. If a cover could be made 

 all of metal, or of some other material, which 

 the sun's rays could not affect, then we should 

 have the ne plus ultra for Colorado, provid- 

 ing, or course, that such a cover would not be 

 too expensive. — Ed ] 



Friend A. I., you say, p. 20, that you didn't 

 raise John's wages because he had never used 

 tobacco. Likely not ; but you can say to those 

 boys that there are cases where a boy gets less 

 because he uses tobacco ; and in any case, the 

 amount spent on tobacco is just so much of a 

 slice constantly taken off his wages. Just let 

 him figure up how much it will amount to by 

 the time he is 50 or 60 years old if he puts out 

 at interest the sum paid out each year for to- 

 bacco, and it may open his eves. [My tobac- 

 co money has all gone into life insurance, and 

 I now have a §5000 life-insurance policy all 

 paid tip, and which in ten years more, if I live, 

 without another payment will be worth nearly 

 $9000.— Ed.] 



Just a bit humiliating, Mr. Editor, after 

 your kind words, p. 20, to own up that I've had 

 no sub-ventilator in use for a few winters. I 

 had doubts as to the quality of the air that en- 

 tered; and when the sub- ventilator got clogged 

 up I didn't open it again. But I'm just as 

 strong a believer as ever in a cellar fire, when- 

 ever it's too cold, and sometimes I want the 

 fire for ventilation only. [Verily, the last 

 prop is knocked out from under the sub-earth 

 ventilator. Dr. Miller, for the last few years, 

 has been the onl}' consistent and persistent ad- 

 vocate of this device for wintering bees ; and 

 now that he — even he — has abandoned its use, 

 we may as well relegate it to the fads of the 

 past. It promised much, but accomplished 

 little. Requiescat in pace. I suppose now 

 I'll have to obliterate all reference to the sub- 

 earth ventilator from the next edition of the 

 A B C— Ed.] 



It is encouraging to note that a number 

 of bee-keepers are beginning to be on the look- 

 out for improvement in bees. If every bee-keep- 

 er would breed only from his best, both queens 

 and drones, a general improvement would 

 soon be manifest. And while effort is made 

 in that direction, the probability is that the 

 greatest improvement will come here and there 

 from some sport, as it is called — some colony 

 that specially distinguishes itself from its fel- 

 lows with no apparent reason for the distinc- 

 tion. So it becomes us all to be on the alert. 



for there's no telling who may be the fortu- 

 nate one. [That $100 offer has certainly start- 

 ed the tide for better queens. When breeders 

 will pay anywhere from $10 to $15 for a good 

 queen, and think nothing of it ; and when 

 perhaps they would give $25 for something 

 extraordinary, the strife will be, not for beauty 

 nor golden-yellow bands, but for business. 

 We have five or six queens in our apiary now 

 for which we would not take $25 apiece. — Ed.} 



J. E. Cr.\ne says his 5x4^X1/4^ plain sec- 

 tions not perfectly filled averaged 14>^ oz. I 

 had a few hundred that seemed pretty well 

 filled, and they weighed 13 82 oz. Next year 

 mine may be heavier than his. They don't 

 look like " great slabs of honey " as much as 

 you might think, Mr. Editor, and I'm rather 

 sorry to say they're nice-looking. [I am in- 

 clined to think that there is going to be a fu- 

 ture for the 5x4^4^X1^ plain section. The 

 tendency now seems to be toward a large comb 

 surface, shallow cells, and very near full-pound 

 weights. There can be nothing dishonest in 

 this ; and if the comb'honey itself is beauti- 

 ful, the more of it we can see the better. If 

 honey in shallow cells ripens better (under- 

 stand I do not claim that it does), then combs 

 with large surfaces are the ones to produce. 

 But the 5X4X1 ,'4^ does not qtiite rmLke lib., 

 on the average. If there are those who want 

 the full pound, then the same section, 1^ in- 

 stead of \%, is the one to select. In some 

 markets, I imagine, there would be a demand 

 for guaranteed full pound sections ; and the 

 5X4^X1^ would give us just about 16- 

 ounces. — Ed.] 



Rambler's wild dream about the automo- 

 bile, p. 15, may not be all a dream. The one 

 item of hauling bees without having any 

 horses around would be a big thing. After all 

 these years I haven't become so hardened to 

 it that I don't breathe a bit easier each fall 

 and spring when the hauling is over. [It is 

 quite within the range of the present day, and 

 not in the very distant future either, that au- 

 tomobiles will be used for hauling honey to 

 the home apiaries. I m^'self have been using 

 the horseless wagon (the bicycle) for toting 

 hives and hive parts down to our out-apiary. 

 Whj' did I use it ? Because I have had some 

 expensive experience with horses at an out- 

 yard. As you ma3' remember I lost one — a 

 horse for which I paid $125, and on the day of 

 his death (a month or so after) I was offered 

 $175. He died while hitched at one of our 

 out-yards. It is supposed that a bee stung 

 him, for he broke the shaft diagonally in two, 

 and in some unaccountable way pushed the 

 sharp end clear through his heart. On that 

 day my enthusiasm for horse flesh suffered a 

 collapse ; and had it not been for the lo.ss of 

 that animal, and the possible profit of $50, I 

 might have been a " hoss jockey" to-day. 

 But, joking aside, in this issue Rambler speaks 

 about the difficulty of getting honey from the 

 mountain fastnesses of California. Some time 

 the day will come when horseless carriages 

 will h?ul stuff up and down those almost in- 

 accessible mountains at a comparatively slight 

 expense. — Ed.] 



