1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



89 



Sittings 



By J. E. Ckane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Those illustrations on page 757, Dec. 1, of 

 Mr. Holtermann carrying hives are certain- 

 ly fine. They show not only how to carry 

 a hive but any other heavy weight. They 

 also remind me of a statement made at the 

 Albany convention by the editor of the 

 Canadian Bee Journal, that "a man can 

 be a bee-keeper and a gentleman." 



That picture of a California apiary, page 

 694, Nov. 1, looks good on paper. We have 

 one symmetrically arranged in a similar 

 way; but what a vexation it has been to me 

 the past season it would be hard to tell. I 

 made a large number of new swarms with 

 laying queens; but I found it very difficult 

 to get those young queens fertilized; and 

 when I came to look over the yard for win- 

 ter I found ten or twelve queenless colonies, 

 while my other yards would not average 

 over two to the same number of colonies. 



4!- 



"Do we need a fool - killer? " Well, I 

 should say we do, or some one or something 

 to kill foolishness. We bought some honey 

 in the fall, and furnished cases and ex- 

 plained how it should be packed. As it was 

 to go a long distance, with several changes 

 of cars, we asked to have it put up in crates, 

 and explained how. Imagine our surprise 

 to find the corrugated cushion board in the 

 case on top of the honey instead of under- 

 neath, and the cases packed so the crates 

 would have to stand on end, or the combs 

 in the cases lie in a horizontal position! 

 4iy 



R. F. Holtermann, page 683, Nov. 1, says 

 his bees are in winter quarters (outer cases) 

 with an eight-foot fence around them. Now, 

 what we should like to know is, why his 

 bees are not in that scientifically construct- 

 ed bee-cellar we saw illustrated a few years 

 ago. Since we saw that illustrated in 

 Gleanings we have had to struggle with 

 our weak human nature to keep from break- 

 ing the command, "Thou shalt not covet." 

 [We understand that Mr. Holtermann in- 

 tends to be away from home practically all 

 winter, and he thought his bees, as they 

 would have to be left alone, would be safer 

 out of doors on separate stands than in the 

 cellar. — Ed.] 



-*- 



The editor inquires, page 746, Dec. 1, 1910, 

 whether we want to court advanced freight 

 rates on honey. I think we do — at least 

 some of us. But have we really considered 

 what this means? Our freight rates in the 

 past have averaged about 50 cts. per 100 or 

 more. Suppose the rate is increased io\}4 

 times the present rates, it would cost us 

 from $25.00 to $100, or even m^re, annually. 



Is there danger of the rates on honey be- 



ing raised to 1>^ times the present rates? 

 Well, I have known at least one road that 

 not only raised the rate fifty per cent, but 

 doubled the late, and all because a bee keep- 

 er who shipped his honey to market tried to 

 collect damage for broken honey, or, per- 

 haps 1 should say, succeeded in doing so. 



4ii- 

 The discussion of a ten-frame vs. an eight- 

 frame hive is certainly timely. What the 

 editor says, page 713, Nov. 15, is worth re- 

 membering: "We can always make an eight 

 out of a ten frame hive, but we can not con- 

 vert an eight-frame hive into a ten-frame 

 hive except by the awkward manipula- 

 tion of anotlier eight-frame body. ' ' For one, 

 while I use eiglit frames almost exclusively 

 for comb lioney, I often find it convenient 

 to use a larger brood-chamber with combs 

 outside the division-board for storing extra 

 combs of honey while honey is coming in 

 fast; or for placing a comb of honey for ex- 

 tra feed in spring. My brood-chambers will 

 hold eleven frames — the most of them. 



There has been some discussion in Glean- 

 ings as to the utility or value of dilute car- 

 bolic acid in preventing bees from taking 

 poisonous mixtures used in spraying fruit- 

 trees when in bloom. While in Hartford, 

 Ct., last September Mr. A. W. Gates, a very 

 intelligent bee-keeper and queen-breeder, 

 and one of the foul-brood inspectors for 

 Connecticut, informed me that he had used 

 a strong solution of carbolic acid in exam- 

 ining hives and apiaries for foul brood when 

 no honey was coming in, to prevent rob- 

 bing. He used a cloth wet with the solu- 

 tion, or sprinkled some of it in front or 

 about the hive, with the result that no rob- 

 bers followed him or tried to enter the hives 

 after they were closed. I^ater in the fall I 

 used it with very satisfactory results. [We 

 have an article on this subject that we ex- 

 pect to use in our April 15th issue. — Ed.] 



On page 695 Geo. Shiber discusses the 

 proper size for a package of honey. Now, 

 it seems to me that for the retail trade we 

 had better not be very particular. The fact 

 is, some want a good deal of honey while 

 others want but little at a time, so we try to 

 accommodate the buyers, and have a far 

 larger trade than if we tried to force a uni- 

 form package on all. A few days ago a 

 gentleman called and bought a quart of ex- 

 tracted honey for 40 cts. He called again 

 yesterday and wanted a gallon — said his 

 children liked it on bread for school lunch 

 in place of butter. I brought him out a 

 gallon can of honey. He inquired the price. 

 I told him it was $1.50 per gallon. He evi- 

 dently would have preferred it in quart cans; 

 but when he found he could save ten cents 

 by buying a gallon can he took that size of 

 package. 



What Mr. Shiber says on requeening is 

 well worth remembering. The facts are, 

 young bees accept a young queen much 

 more readily than old ones. 



