NOVEMBER 15, 1914 



887 



Conversations with Doolittle 



SNOW-WHITE SECTIONS. 



" Will you give your views regarding 

 what are termed snow-white sections'? The 

 prices generally quoted per 1000 for such 

 sections are considerably above those not 

 quite so white." 



For several years I searched the forests 

 over for the youngest, thriftiest basswood- 

 trees which were of sufficient size for saw- 

 ing, so as to be sure to get wood of the 

 kind that would give these " snow-white " 

 sections our questioner speaks of. These 

 trees were sawed into two-inch planks at 

 the saw -mill ; and as soon as the planks left 

 the saw they were piled up with strips 

 between them so that they might begin to 

 dry before even the outside turned the least 

 bit. If I could get the logs sawed into 

 planks while the timber was still frozen, 

 and get said planks " stuckup " while the 

 frost was still in, a perfect whiteness was 

 obtained. 



All went " my way " until one year a 

 buyer called to look at my crop. He offered 

 me within one cent a pound as much as I 

 asked. I refused this offer, and, calling his 

 attention to the snow-white sections, told 

 him what care I had taken, and said that 

 honey in such sections should command 

 more than that in those that were cut from 

 wood not thus selected. He replied that 

 purchasers of honey never looked at nor 

 cared a " rap " about the color of the wood 

 enclosing the comb of honey, but that it was 

 the honey they were interested in. He added 

 tliat snow-white sections were in demand 

 only by beekeepers. Neither the merchants 

 nor the consumers call for them. Since then 

 I have kept an eye out, and I have found 

 that there is much truth in the statement. 

 Of course, if the beekeepers demand snow- 

 white sections, then the supply manufactur- 

 er must meet the demand ; and past experi- 

 ence tells me that the extra price put on 

 such material no more than covers the extra 

 labor and worry necessai-y to give what the 

 beekeepers demand. To be sure, the sections 

 ought not to look rough, dirty, nor mildew- 

 ed; neither should they be left dauby with 

 propolis; but in all ordinary cases I doubt 

 the advisability of paying extra for snow 

 whiteness. 



IS WATER FOR THE BEES OR FOR THE BROOD? 



" Why do be&s visit wet places during the 

 summer months? Is it because they are 

 thirsty during hot weather? I am told that 

 in hot weather bees cannot live if they do 

 not have all the water they need," 



What you have been told I can consider 

 only a fallacy. Some time the latter part 

 of the last century I sent five cages, each 

 containing twenty bees and a queen, togeth- 

 er with candy made of honey and powdered 

 sugar, to western Australia. These bees had 

 to travel through the tropics, after leaving 

 San Francisco, to say nothing about the 

 mercury being up in the nineties during the 

 five days it took to go from here to ( 'ali- 

 fornia. A distance of over 17,000 miles was 

 covered during this journey, and the length 

 of time consumed was 41 V2 days, or within 

 half a day of being as long as the average 

 life of working bees during the hot summer 

 season ; yet, to my surprise and satisfaction, 

 three out of the five queens reached their 

 destination alive, together with a majority 

 of their twenty attendants. 



It is said that drones are never seen 

 drinking water; this corresponds with my 

 experience, for during my forty odd years 

 of beekeeping life I never saw a drone sip- 

 ping any thing but honey. If I am not 

 gi'eatly in error, the food of larval bees is 

 composed of honey, pollen, and water, these 

 taken by the nurse bees, and formed by a 

 process of their own into chyle ; consequent- 

 ly we find bees at watering-places only at 

 times when there is young brood in the 

 hives. If adult bees needed water to quench 

 their thirst whenever we have summer heat, 

 they would be seen about watering-places 

 during any heated term in October or No- 

 vember; but so far, in this locality, I have 

 never seen bees taking water during these 

 hot spells after brood-rearing had ceased. 



Ten or twelve years ago we had a hot 

 spell of three days' duration the middle of 

 January, so hot that the people in the cities 

 quit their homes and got out in the parks 

 and other places to keep cool, the mercury 

 reaching 87 deg:i'ees in the shade out here 

 in the country. 1 had several colonies win- 

 tering out by way of experiment, and the 

 bees went outside of the hives as they do in 

 summer, yet not a bee did I see hovering 

 about the watering-places they use from 

 April to September when there is brood in 

 the hives. That it is not the heat that takes 

 them to these watering-places is proven, for 

 in April and May — yes, in June as well — 

 during cool weather, when the rain or 

 clouds have kept them from getting water, 

 thej^ will rush out on the first break in the 

 clouds to get their loads of water, and 

 scurry back to the hive before the sun is 

 shut under again by another passing cloud. 



