206 



dLEANlNfiS IN BfiE CULfURj! 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



I will take off my hat any day to Anton 

 Larson and his six honey-eaters, page 22, 

 Jan. 1. * * * 



" Cheap, twangy stuff " is what the editor 

 calls honey adulterated with glucose, and 

 he is right, p. 43, Jan. l.'x 



* * * 



Can any one tell us whether sweet clover 

 will kill out quack-grass when sown on a 

 turned sod of this kind of grass? 



Mr. Glenwood Beard is right in liis state- 

 ment, p. 856, Dec. 1, that swarms from 

 colonies infected with American foul brood 

 do cari-y diseased honey with them. 



My experience in making money by poul- 

 try corresponds quite closely with the ideas 

 given by 0. L. Hershiser, page 30, and I 

 have gTeat respect for the business ability 

 of those who make a fair success of poulti-y 

 on a somewhat extensive scale. 

 « « « 



Dr. Miller says, page 5, Jan. 1, that most 

 of the work of securing that bumper crop 

 of honey in 1913, of 266 sections per hive, 

 was done by a woman. " Did you ever? " 

 AVho shall say from this time on that bee- 

 keeping is not a woman's business? 



* « » 



Mr. Byer, in speaking of Dr. Miller's last 

 year's crop of honey, page 6, says, " Such 

 a crop means a combination of a wonder- 

 fully good honey-flow, wonderfully good 

 bees, and last, but not least, wonderfully 

 good management.'' That is what I call a 

 wonderfully good combination. 



* » * 



C. W. Dayton'.? experience in sliipping 

 honey by parcel post, as given on page 859, 

 Dec. 1, would seem to show that it may be 

 sent safely in this way. We have had no 

 difficulty. We use corrugated paper, how- 

 ever, instead of wood for cover. Let us 

 remember that the word " parcel " means 

 " something done up," and for this purpose 

 it should be done up securely. 



* # » 



It makes one's heart flutter a little to read 

 on page 860, Dec. 1, of Mr. Gilstrap's 

 young son getting a hundred stings at one 

 time. It is not all of us who have whisky 

 or brandy at hand, so I want to say that 

 carbonate of ammonia is even better than 

 any form of alcohol. A lump the size of a 

 bean should be dissolved in half a glass of 

 water, and a teaspoonful given every half 



hour or oftener. Ammonia is a quicker 

 stimulant than alcoholic liquors, and, be- 

 sides, it is an antidote to bee-poison. 



Dr. Miller is right, p. 45, Jan. 15, in 

 thinking bees will move eggs for the rearing 

 of a queen. I had a case of this some thir- 

 ty-five years ago. The bees built a queen- 

 cell on a comb that I gave to a queenless 

 colony in spring. The comb having been 

 wintered out of a hive, and as there was no 

 f|ueen in the hive, they must of necessity 

 have moved an egg to rear the queen where 



they did. 



* * « 



I received some time ago a copy of a 

 booklet edited by A. I. Root and J. T. Cal- 

 vert. It would be cheap at a dollar consid- 

 ering the facts it contains. Its title, " The 

 Truth about Sweet Clover," does not appear 

 to be in the least misleading. What is more 

 it doesn't cost a dollar. Just write to the 

 A. I. Root Co., and they will send you a 

 copy for the asking. 



BROOD REARING IN THE CELLAR. 



That which interested me, perhaps, more 

 than any thing else in the Jan. 1st number 

 was the brood-rearing in one of the bee- 

 cellars at Medina, page 33. It seems to me 

 that we have here the germ of something of 

 great value. If weak colonies in the fall 

 can be so wintered as to come out strong in 

 the spring it is a mighty improvement over 

 having strong colonies in the fall come out 

 weak in the spring. This account of win- 

 tering bees and winter brood-rearing re- 

 minds me of what the man said of whom I 

 bought my first hive of bees nearly fifty 

 years ago. He said the best way to winter 

 bees is to leave them out of doors until late, 

 and then take them to a cellar, when they at 

 once commence breeding. That is just what 

 tliey have done at Medina, and with just 

 the result that he stated. They have had a 

 season of rest, and the moving has caused 

 them to consume or fill themselves with 

 honey; and what could be more natural 

 than that they should feed their queen and 

 she begin laying freely, and that in the 

 higher temperature the eggs should be 

 hatched and the brood reared? But the 

 supply of pollen, and how far this brood- 

 rearing can be carried without the bees 

 flying or producing disease, is something 

 we long to know. Please, Mr. Editor, tell 

 us more about it. 



