162 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mab. 15 



Sittings 



By J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



The best and most concise statements on 

 indoor wintering we have ever found are on 

 page 779, Dec. 15. 



The advice of Wesley Foster, page 6, on 

 "jumping the price to large buyers," is first 

 rate and worthy the attention of those who 

 do so. 



On page 4 Dr. Miller again expresses his 

 conviction of the value of breeding for a 

 non-swarming strain of bees. Footnote 

 says, "Good for you! Vf^ gxdkXit something 

 can be accomplished." I say, good for you, 

 Mr. Editor. 



I don't agree with you, Mr. Editor, when 

 you say, p. 772, Dec. 1, that propolis could 

 not be furnished for less than $5.00 per lb. 

 with which to make varnish. I should 

 have been glad to receive ten cents a pound 

 for some forty or fifty pounds the past sea- 

 son when we were through cleaning sec- 

 tions. 



It is interesting to know approximately 

 that it takes 37,333 bee loads of honey to 

 make a pound of honey. This means more 

 than a million flowers visited. It might be 

 well to remember this as we complacently 

 spread our bread or buckwheat cakes with 

 honey these cold mornings, and boast of our 

 success as bee-keepers. 

 -*- 



I was much interested in M. A. Gill's 

 statement, p. 771, Dec. 1, that the average 

 yield of sugar from beet as grown in Colo- 

 rado is about 16 per cent. It is just one hun- 

 dred years since Germany commenced the 

 manufacture of sugar from beets, when the 

 sugar content was less than 7 per cent. See 

 what can be done by careful breeding and 

 selection. 



I was much interested in the editorial, p. 

 745, Dec. 1, 1910, on the value of corrugated 

 paper on the bottom of wooden cases, as 

 compared with no-drip cleats. I felt sure of 

 its value when I recommended its use four 

 years ago, and it is quite right to advise 

 those who have cases with drip cleats in 

 them to rip them out and substitute corru- 

 gated paper. 



4>- 



On p. 46 Mr. Gately tells us of the value 

 of foundation in securing surplus section 

 honey, estimating the gain at from five to 

 twenty-five per cent. If we call it fifteen 

 per cent (and my own experience would 

 place this estimate as conservative) on a 

 crop of fifty pounds per hive, it would make 

 lyi pounds, which, at 14 cts., would be $1.05; 

 and if we take out 25 cents for the value of 



the full sheets of foundation we still have 

 80 cts. per hive as above, where starters are 

 used, to say nothing of the improved ap- 

 pearance of the sections. 



On page 777, Dec. 15, the editor gives 

 some vigorous blows against "our antiquat- 

 ed methods of shipping comb honey." 

 Good! lay it on till all know the value of 

 cushioning every case. I have sometimes 

 thought I was saying quite too much in 

 praise of corrugated cases where every comb 

 was cushioned by two or three thicknesses 

 of this paper; but the more we use them the 

 better pleased we are. 



Mr. Doolittle's advice on books for begin- 

 ners, p. 36, is good, and I believe he is quite 

 right when he places the ABC and X Y Z 

 at the head of the list. And then he tells 

 us how he used and "swore" for thirty-five 

 years by the Gallup frame. I am glad he 

 doesn't swear by that frame any more, but 

 uses a good standard Langstroth instead; 

 but for all this we shall always hold that 

 little square frame in grateful remembrance 

 as we recall the wonderful lessons in the 

 principles of bee keeping that father Gallup 

 gave us, using that same frame to illustrate 

 his ideas. 



I believe the editor is quite right in think- 

 ing that the explosion of beeswax was caused 

 by steam; and quite right is the advice to 

 introduce water before the wax is melted. 

 Better still, to my mind, would be to melt 

 in a double boiler. If wax or combs are 

 melted in water, great care should be taken 

 not to let it get too hot, for, as sure as you 

 do, it will boil over, when it will at once 

 burst into flame as soon as it strikes the hot 

 stove. I have twice come near serious loss 

 from this cause. When making wax, it is 

 never safe, when melting up over a stove, 

 to leave the room when the water and wax 

 are near the boiling-point. 



"Candied comb honey — what shall we do 

 with it? " p. 29. I'll tell you what I do with 

 it. Get it all together with any cappings 

 with honey in them, and put in a double 

 boiler or capping-melter, and heat just hot 

 enough to separate the wax from the hon- 

 ey; and then if the honey is not good 

 enough to sell for table use, keep till I need 

 it to feed, which is not, usually, a great 

 while. Every pound of such honey fed in 

 spring where needed will doubtless result in 

 two pounds of new honey more than the 

 colony would have produced if it had not 

 been fed. Capping-melters are useful for 

 this purpose. 



4t' 



Evidently D. M. Macdonald doesn't be- 

 lieve in sealed covers, for he says, p. 9, that 

 "The nearer you go to hermetically sealing 

 up the body under a piess of heavy cov- 

 erings, the nearer you go to defeating the 

 very end you are striving to attain. The 

 body becomes bathed in perspiration, and 



