MARCH 1, 1914 



163 



Stray Straws 



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



My first start in beekeeping was in the 

 very center of a place now a city (Maren- 

 go), with an apiary of one colony in a whole 

 sugar-barrel. 



" As the soil, so the honey," is the caption 

 of an item in Leipz. Bztg., 125, in which it 

 is stated that analysis of soil from Ram- 

 boulliet shows 30 per cent more iron than 

 soil from Bid ; and honey from RambouUiet 

 contains 75 per cent more iron than Bid 

 honey. 



Messrs. Doolittle and Root agree that 

 bees may be hauled with no inconvenience 

 in hives with entrances open. Certainly 

 this mode of transport would not be toler- 

 ated in Europe. — L' Apiculteur , 32. I think 

 Doolittle and Root hardly commend it as a 

 general practice. 



The British Bee Journal has uniformly 

 opposed beet sugar for bees. I never knew 

 just way. But now I find, p. 510, that it is 

 difficult to purify beet sugar and to get rid 

 of all the potash salts. " These salts cause 

 fermentation, and it is principally for this 

 reason that cane sugar is to be preferred." 



Dr. a. Ludden thinks my bees were cross 

 last summer in anticipation of a partial 

 stoppage of the flow. At Elwha, Wash., he 

 says it is " the rule that 24 to 48 hours 

 previous to closing of a honey-flow they get 

 hostile, and 'tis not safe for any one to go 

 into the yard, and honey coming in at a 

 good clip too." I wonder if it can be possi- 

 ble. 



For the first time in many years I had 

 some combs filled last summer, for extract- 

 ing. They were extracted in January, of 

 course after warming up. It went better 

 than I expected, but I don't recommend 

 January as the best month for extracting. 

 T have an up-to-date extractor; and what 

 fun extracting is, compai'ed with extracting 

 years ago with the ancient Peabody ! 



That able authority, D. M. Maedonald. 

 says, British Bee Journal, p. 478, "I do hold 

 that with us blacks live longer than Italians, 

 the latter being here a softer race." No 

 doubt that canny Scotchman had a vision 

 of a lot of American beekeepers jumping 

 on to him ; hence the cautious " with us " 

 and " here." Yet he may not be entirely 

 safe from some of his own countrymen. 



Nos. 29 and 59 stood back to back. June 

 10 queen-eells were killed in 29 and its queen 

 removed. June 16 No. 59 swarmed and re- 

 turned, its clipped queen not being found. 



Within 15 minutes No. 29, whose queen had 

 been removed, swarmed out, and a clipped 

 queen was found in front of the liive. It 

 was the queen of No. 59, which had entered 

 No. 29 wliile the swarm of 59 was in the air, 

 and then ordered a walkout in No. 29. 



The few hundred pounds of extracted 

 honey I produced last season I put on the 

 home market in 5-pound friction-top pails. 

 I determined I wouldn't have any worry 

 taking it back to liquefy it or to explain be- 

 cause it candied after customers got it. I 

 made sure it wouldn't candy in the hands 

 of customers by letting it candy before sell- 

 ing it. If they don't want candied honey 

 they don't have to buy it. But it sells all 

 right, and I've heard no complaint. 



Allen Latham is making trouble. He 

 wants to know, Mr. Editor, on what ground 

 you base your disbelief in the fanning of 

 bees in the midst of winter cluster. He says 

 we should not disbelieve simply from igno- 

 rance — fuller information may change" be- 

 lief — hard to prove a negative — and more 

 of that sort. Jan. 13, 14, mercuiy hovering 

 around zero, and wind howling, he went to 

 his hives and all were noisy, some buzzing 

 almost as much as in a summer nectar-flow 

 — no bees at entrance, no warm air issuing, 

 and he wants to know what's wrong with 

 thinking the noise came from inside the 

 cluster. Here's the way it has always seem- 

 ed to me : We are told that when very cold 

 the bees shrink into an incredibly small 

 cluster, and when crowded thus close what 

 room is there for fanning? Still, just to 

 accommodate A. L., I'm ready to change my 

 belief on later and fuller information, and 

 leave you, Mr. Editor, to say why you dis- 

 believe. [We know that outdoor bees some- 

 times set up a roaring in vei-y cold weather; 

 but we always supposed the condition was 

 abnormal. When bees in a compact ball are 

 in a state of semi-hibernation or hiberna- 

 tion, if you please, in which they seem to go 

 into a dead sleep, without a tremor of mo- 

 tion except a slight tremble of the wings 

 when the hive is opened, there could be no 

 buzzing or fanning. On the other hand, if 

 we open up an outdoor colony in the dead 

 of winter and find the cluster scattered over 

 the frames, and buzzing, we feel sure that 

 that colony will die very soon, even though 

 it be the strongest stock in the yard. Yes, 

 doctor, we are in line with you, "but we are 

 ■willing to change our belief if necessary on 

 fuller information. — Ed.] 



