32 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Millee, Marengo, 111. 



Italians are far less inclined to " resort 

 to the fluids excreted by aphides, to damaged 

 fruits, etc.," p. 12. That's new. I wish the 

 proof had laeen given. 



Figures as to nectar-loads, page 780, are, 

 after all, not very conflicting. Professor 

 Koons' data give 20,000 bees to carry one 

 pound of nectar. That would be .350 of a 

 grain to a load against Mr. Digges' .333. 



Dummies for eight-frame Dovetailed hives 

 are, I think, usually made the same length 

 as brood-frames, 11 Y?,. For years I have 

 used them >^-inch shorter; and if I were 

 making new ones they would be an inch 

 shorter. Bees never build in the space left, 

 and they are more easily handled. Manu- 

 facturers, please take notice. [We are not 

 sure but you may be right. We shall be 

 glad to hear from others. — Ed.] 



A HIGH PRICE is set on propolis, p. 772 — 

 namely, $5.00. I'd like to sell five or ten 

 pounds of it at that price each year I have a 

 crop of honey. [You say you would be glad 

 to furnish propolis at $5.00 a pound when 

 you have a crop of honey. When you have 

 not a crop, perhaps you could not furnish 

 it in quantity at any price; therefore $5.00, 

 taking seasons as they go, probably would 

 not be much out of the way. — Ed.] 



F. H. Cyrenius, p. 802, it doesn't follow 

 that you would make a big gain by feeding 

 between fruit-bloom and clover because J. 

 A. Green did. That 1000 lbs. of sugar — per- 

 haps 3 lbs. to the colony — wouldn't cut very 

 much figure in filling up; but it would cut 

 a big figure in keeping up brood-rearing; 

 for in Colorado there is a dead break in 

 brood-rearing, while with you it is probably 

 the same as here — the queen doesn't stop 

 laying. 



"I can not see why anybody should 

 think that he can buy better queens than 

 he can rear at home," page 766. The man 

 with average bees can always buy better 

 queens than he can rear, simply because 

 some one else has better bees than he has. 

 If he buys a queen of better stock than he 

 already possesses, even should that queen 

 after her journey prove a poor layer, he can 

 from her rear queens that will beat his old 

 stock. 



"We have an idea that, to eliminate 

 completely the swarming desire, is to breed 

 a race of bees that is lacking in fecundity." 

 — Canadian B. J., 358. I don't know about 

 that. The thing I do know is that the col- 

 onies that give me record crops are the very 

 ones from which the swarming desire is 

 completely eliminated for one or more years. 

 They seem to have at least enough fecundi- 

 ty left to get more honey than anybody else. 



Banats "more nearly resemble the black 

 bees in appearance, and it would be difficult 

 to keep the blacks and Banats separate." 

 That would hardly count against the Banats 

 in places where the black blood is nearly all 

 worked out. I suppose there are thousands 

 of bee-keepers to-day who have never seen 

 pure blacks, although some of us never saw 

 any other for years. 



How LONG does it take a bee to load up 

 with pollen? In six to eight seconds it 

 cleans up a single erica blossom, and in five 

 to six minutes the beginning of the pel- 

 lets can be seen; eighteen to twenty min- 

 utes later they are finished; and four to five 

 minutes later the bee is back to its hive X 

 mile away. — Deutsche Imker, 336. Can it 

 be that it fools away four or five minutes 

 getting over that quarter of a mile? [What 

 kind of a mile is meant, doctor? — Ed.] 



Disagreement still continues as to ab- 

 sorbents and sealed covers. I wonder, now, 

 whether, in places where absorbents do bet- 

 ter, sealed covers would not do just as well 

 if the absorbents -were put on tojy of the 

 sealed cov^ers. At any rate, it seems very 

 important to have the top warm, sealed or 

 not sealed, so that moisture will not be con- 

 densed and drop down on the bees. [When 

 sealed covers are used for outdoor wintering 

 there should alivays be some warm packing 

 placed on top. The great thing in favor of 

 sealed covers is that they keep the packing 

 material dry because the moisture can not 

 escape through the top. — Ed.] 



Allen Latham has the secret of keeping 

 section honey. I have some of his get-up of 

 1907, '8, '9, and '10, and there's no more sign 

 of graining in the first than in the last. All 

 of it is thick, stringy, with never a grain. 

 Now, how does he do it? [This is very im- 

 portant. If Mr. Latham, or any one else, 

 has a plan of keeping comb honey liquid, 

 it would be worth much to dealers who 

 have to hold over a croii after the holidays, 

 In this connection it is proper to remark 

 that some honeys will remain liquid very 

 much longer than others. We wonder 

 whether our friend has any plan that would 

 keep alfalfa honey from candying for any 

 great length of time. — Ed.] 



"Solid cards of honey "break up the 

 cluster, so that the bees, instead of being in 

 a solid cluster separated only by midribs, 

 are separated into slabs of bees y?, inch thick, 

 p. 19. That's true, with an "if" — v/ there 

 is not room for them to cluster below bot- 

 tom-bars. In my cellar the colonies that 

 look " goodest " to me are the ones with a 

 big cluster below bottom-bars, not separat- 

 ed even by a midrib. [We had in mind, 

 particularly, colonies in oufdoo?- wintered 

 hives. It is not so necessary to have a win- 

 ter nest for indoor colonies; but when they 

 are outdoors it would be simply impossible 

 for the cluster to be so strong that it would 

 reach away down below the bottom-bars. If 

 the entrance was of the usual size, the bees 

 would hug up against the top of the hive. — 

 Ed.] 



