678 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



i^ S{l[pai\^s 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo. 111. 



CoBK-DUST, says Deutsche BzchL, 159, is 

 the worst thing possible for winter packing. 

 It absorbs very Uttle, but allows too free 

 passage, and what little moisture it absorbs 

 favors mold. 



Pfarrer F. Gerstung, Deutsche Bzcht., 

 p, 150, says that bees take up the different 

 lines of work according to age in tlie follow- 

 ing order: Feeding the queen; warming and 

 preparing brood-cells; brooding the eggs; 

 feeding larvie; sealing brood; building comb 

 (probably together with predigestion of food- 

 stuff); ventilation and defense; gathering 

 pollen; gatliering nectar; carrying water. 



More two-inch glass than three-inch is 

 sold, page 646. Naturally. To save a cent 

 apiece on glass the majority will take the 

 poorer case. If one-inch glass were listetl, it 

 would find purchasers. But, as always, the 

 minority of better judgment prefer to pay 

 the higher price for the better article. Can 

 there be any reason except that the wider 

 glass makes a better show? If wider glass 

 makes a better show in single-tier cases, 

 why not in double-tier? [We are both 

 wrong, dor.tor. We were mistaken when 

 we stated that there was mnre two-inch than 

 three-inch glass used. It is the other way. 

 You were, therefore, wrong in thinking that 

 the cost had any thing to do with the prop- 

 osition. In our opinion the two-inch glass 

 shows off the honey as well as the three- 

 inch. The question of looks, it seems to us, 

 is a matter of slight importance, compared 

 with the strength of the case. See answer 

 to the Wesley Foster Straw below. — Ed.] 



Wesley Foster says, p. 647, "It is un- 

 necessary to display as much of the goods 

 in a double tier as in a single tier." Why? 

 Isn't the more g >od surface shown the bet- 

 ter? He says, " People can use their imag- 

 ination a little if they can not see all the 

 comb." O Wesley! If tlie imagination fills 

 out, so that two-inch glass is as good as 

 three-inch, then why isn't one-inch as good 

 as two-inch? But you are quite right in ob- 

 jecting to glass so wide that it "shows the 

 unhealed cells and pop holes too prominent- 

 ly." I don't think it should show them at 

 all. Does threcTinch glass do so? In a 4'4: 

 section the comb surface is 4 inches deep. 

 A three-inch glass exposes 2^<( inches, leav- 

 ing 1^4 inches covered with wood — H at top 

 and H at bottom If H does not cover your 

 unsealed cells and pop-holes, then three- 

 inch glass is too wide for you. But I would 

 not c<msider such honey fit to ship. Neither 

 would you if you'd actually look at the hon- 

 ey in the case and not depend on "imagina- 

 tion." I've shipped many a ton of sections, 

 both in single-tier and double-tier cases. I 

 never ordered a piece of glass less than three 

 inches, so far as I can remember; and I 

 think unsealed cells and pop-holes were al- 

 ways sufficiently covered. 



The finer the show of section honey, the 

 greater the total output. Please don't dis- 

 courage its sale by making a poorer show, 

 just for the sake of saving a cent on each 

 piece of glass. [We favor the two-inch glass 

 mainly pecauseit permits of a stronger case. 

 In fact, we have about come to the conclu- 

 sion that there should be no glass in the 

 case, either front or rear. 1 he front and 

 back sliould be marked "Fragile," and 

 "Handle with care." If no glass of any 

 kind is used, there will be no temptation to 

 "face" the cases. It takes but a moment 

 to pry up the cover, then the sections can 

 be shown far more satisfactorily than when 

 surface indications are taken through a glass- 

 front case. . 



Say, if you could see some of the broken- 

 down shipments of cases that we see, even 

 when they come from up-to-date bee-keep- 

 ers, you would come to the conclusion that 

 you did not want any glass at all. The oth- 

 er day we examined a large shipment of 

 cases that were glazed, front and rear; and 

 such a mess as it was! A large number of 

 the combs were broken. Had this comb 

 honey been put up in cases having one solid 

 back, or, better still, solid back and front of 

 wood, there would have been but very little 

 breakage. The fact is, buyers are becoming 

 disgusted with the comb-honey business be- 

 cause of the great amount of breakage in 

 shipment. We must put the mere question 

 of looks in the background nnd adopt a case 

 that will be stronger and better than those 

 formerly used, or the comb-honey business 

 will be ruined. We talked with a honey 

 merchant the other day. Said he, with 

 some emphasis in his tones, "I am done 

 buying corab honey. Tliere is too much 

 breakage and too much trouble in adjust- 

 ments. I shall handle extracted hereafter," 

 and this is not an isolated case by any means. 

 Comb-honey producers are pursuing a wrong 

 policy. Wide glass is a step in the wrong 

 direction. Better use narrow glass or no 

 glass at all. When a case has a solid wood 

 front and back it is very much stronger than 

 one wath glass front. Unless comb-honey 

 producers wake up to the importance of bet- 

 ter cases and less breakage, their business 

 will be ruined beyond redemption. Already 

 there is a strong exodus from comb to ex- 

 tracted. This is all wrong. Why should 

 we spoil an important department in our 

 business? See editorial on this question 

 elsewhere. — Ed.] 



"An average yield per colony, well locat- 

 ed, should be at least 100 lbs. of extracted 

 honey, " says Louis Scholl, p. 617. That 

 leaves the question still, "How well located 

 must a colony be to do that ? " and the 

 more important question, "What is an 

 average yield in an average locality?" I 

 suspect it falls below 75 lbs. extracted honey, 



