196 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Millek, Marengo, 111. 



When those Colorado chaps settle on 

 the right kind of double-tier shipping-case 

 for 24 sections, perhaps we could all adopt 

 it. 



A NEW CLOVER is reported in L^Apioul- 

 teur, 75. M. Martinet, the originator, has 

 named it "apitrefle." It is a vigorous for- 

 age-plant, averaging 30 inches in height, and 

 is well patronized by the bees. 



G. W. Thomas, p. 149, if you sow sweet 

 clover on sod when the ground is wet and 

 soft, and have it tramped in by cattle or 

 horses, I think it will grow. I have much 

 trouble to keep it out of the thick sod on 

 my lawn. 



A BAXiLED QUEEN I've often freed by 

 throwing the ball in cold water. Now we 

 are told, Schweiz. Bztg., p. 46, to throw the 

 ball into an empty cold tumbler. [We 

 would be afraid to risk a valuable queen to 

 the cold-empty-tumbler method. — Ed.] 



Glucose has done a big business in hon- 

 ey, and now it is trying its hand at shoe 

 leather. According to information laid be- 

 fore Congress by Dr. Wiley, leather (espe- 

 cially sole leather) is loaded with glucose to 

 add to its weight. Then when you go out 

 into the wet and snow, the glucose soaks 

 out and the water soaks in. 



Indiana is forging to the front in bee- 

 keeping. Not the least proof of it is the 

 fact that in the beautiful report of the State 

 Entomologist, George S. Demuth, Chief of 

 the Division of Apiary Inspection, occupies 

 32 pages with " Bee-keeping in Indiana." 

 [Indiana is setting a pace for other States. 

 Other States would do well to follow her ex- 

 ample.— Ed.] 



March 10 there came a warm spell with 

 thermometer above 60, and it seemed too 

 bad to keep the bees in the cellar. But 

 there was nothing for the bees outside, and 

 it might come cold. Inside of a week it 

 came. The mercury went down, down, 

 with a fierce wind, till it was only 6 above 

 zero. Then wasn't I glad the little fellows 

 were snug in the cellar! 



"Let a man resolve in his own mind 

 that: ' In five years I will own 500 colonies,' 

 let him print it in big letters on a board, 

 and nail it up over his door, and the deed is 

 the same as done," Review, page 54. Y-es, 

 "in his own mind;" but better not nail it 

 up where any one else can see it. I've no- 

 ticed several times that the fellows who 

 were going to do such big things were never 

 heard of afterward. 



H. C. Ahlers started the season March 

 1 at Kenner, La., with 179 colonies, 26 of 

 them queenless; took 6000 lbs. honey and 

 made increase. April 22 he shipped the 

 bees to West Bend, Wis. Poor season; took 



23,000 lbs. from clover. August, shipped 

 bees to Illinois River bottoms; took 3500 lbs. 

 Sp-rinish needle, and let bees fill up on aster. 

 Oct. 24, shipped bees back to Kenner to win- 

 ter. Strenuous, but 32,500 pounds. — Review, 

 p. 71. 



Adrian Getaz refers to a Straw, p. 544, 

 Sept. 1, 1910, where a German writer says 

 late breeding in fall means late breeding 

 next spring, and ye editor says if conditions 

 are favorable in spring bees breed, no mat- 

 ter about previous fall. Mr. Getaz says you 

 are both right, in a way. When bees breed 

 late in fall, conditions are not favorable in 

 spring. "We meet that difficulty here in 

 the South frequently, when bees breed late 

 in fail and in ojien winters, using up their 

 pollen, and brood-rearing in spring is de- 

 layed until pollen comes from the field." 



"In America comb honey is falling in 

 price; extracted, rising. Already 30 cents is 

 paid for extracted, while comb brings 25." 

 — Dr. Hering, in January Deutsche Bzucht. 

 Herr Doktor, while extracted is looking up 

 a bit you are misinformed as to relative 

 prices. Adding up all quotations in the last 

 Gleanings, it will be seen that, instead of 

 extracted being 20 per cfnt higher than 

 comb, comb is 79 per cent higher than ex- 

 tracted. [But extracted is slowly creeping 

 up on comb; while it will never be the same 

 price, there will be less relative difference. 

 —Ed.] 



Ever stop to think why bees tear comb 

 when robbing? I think it's this way: A sin- 

 gle bee, when robbing, never tears a comb. 

 No matter how many robbers, no comb will 

 ever be torn so long as each bee can get at 

 honey. But by and by there is a robber in 

 every cell, and a lot of robbers looking on 

 with no cells they can get into; and then 

 these lookers-on, trying to get into the cells 

 already occupied by their sisters, tear down 

 the cell-walls. If you want honey robbed 

 out without having the combs torn, leave 

 an entrance for only one bee at a time, or 

 else spread out enough honey for all. In 

 either case there will be no lookers-on, hence 

 no comb torn. [Your experience is the 

 same as ours. Your theory and practice are 

 sound. — Ed.] 



Editor Hutchinson, Review, p. 59, has 

 "dreams of some one, some day, building 

 up an immense business in selling honey in 

 small quantities all over the country, send- 

 ing it by express. Of course, the quantity 

 can't be too small, as the transportation 

 charges would be too great in proportion to 

 the cost." That dream will never come true 

 in that exact form. But it may come true 

 when parcels post is here, and that's in hail- 

 ing distance now. The demand of the peo- 

 ple is becoming so insistent that it can not 

 be ignored much longer. With parcels post • 

 the small quantity will be sent at just as 

 low rate as the large. Speed the day! [Some 

 of the stand-patters in the Senate and House 

 are going home to stay. With these ob- 

 structionists out of the way, parcels post 

 will have a better chance. — Ed.] 



