DECEMBER 15, 1914 



971 



J. E. Crane 



IIFTENG^S I Middlebiiirj, Vi 



After three or four poor years in succes- 

 sion, that cover picture for Oct, 1 looks 

 pretty good, even if it is the other side of 

 the earth. 



Gleanings for Sept. 1 is certainly a 

 special number on wintering. It came just 

 in time, too, to set us to thinking, and to 

 give us a chance to lay our plans for trying 

 experiments or improved methods before it 

 is time to place the bees in winter quarters. 



• * » 



Mr. Byer's experience in wintering small 

 colonies on three combs, page 675, Sept. 1, 

 shows the value of the close-fitting division- 

 board and a hive or brood-chamber the size 

 of the colony to be wintered. I am more 

 and more convinced that we have not em- 

 phasized the reduction of the brood-chamber 

 to the size of the colony as we should. 



* * » 



Those pictures of field meets and picnics 

 in the Oct. 1st issue are refreshing to us 

 who live on tliis side of the great beekeep- 

 ing world. My! but wouldn't I have liked 

 to be at some of them? What days those 

 were at Medina and Des Moines, as illus- 

 trated on pages 766 and 767 ! Queens that 

 will produce workers that will not do their 

 best after such gatherings ought to have 

 their heads pinched. 



* * * 



On page 671, Sept. 1, our friend Hand 

 pours a whole boxful of woes from dysen- 

 tery to European foul brood upon cellar- 

 wintered bees. Now, if he had stated this 

 as his opinion he would doubtless have told 

 the exact truth. There are cellars and cel- 

 lars; and my opinion of them is that they 

 are very much like the maid of nursery 

 fame whose " hair hung right down on her 

 forehead, and when she was good she was 

 very good; but when she was bad she was 



horrid." 



• • • 



Mr. L. W. Wells, page 682, Sept. 1, 

 advises feeding bees for winter a syrup 2^/2 

 lbs. sugar to one of water. On the next 

 page he tells us that he has induced a 

 colony of golden Italians to store 20 lbs. of 

 sugar in seven days Now, if it takes one 

 colony seven days to take 20 lbs. of sugar, 

 how long and how manv colonies will be 

 required to store 8000 or 10,000 lbs. of 

 sugar? The thinner the syruj?, the faster 

 will bees take it ; but we find they do very 

 well when fed syrup of 2 lbs. of sugar to 

 one of water. 



Dr. Miller says, page 661, Sept. 1, " For 

 the first three days the young worker gets 

 the same food as its royal sisters; then it is 

 weaned, and gets coarser food for the two 

 remaining days, while the better bill of 

 fare is continued to the royal youngster." 

 We infer that he is of the opinion that the 

 difference in development is due to the 

 quality of food the bees receive. I had 

 supposed that these results depended more 

 on the quantity of food fed than on the 

 quality. * * , 



On page 793, Oct. 15, Dr. Miller protests 

 against any one sending him samples of 

 foul brood, and advises sending them to Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, Agricultural Department, 

 Washington, D. C. In a footnote the editor 

 says that nothing less than a stout wooden 

 box should be used for sending such samples 

 through the mails. Let me add that, if any 

 one wants to send Dr. Phillips a sample of 

 brood, just write to him first for a package, 

 and he will send you a nice little wooden 

 box with a frank that you can paste on to 

 it, and so save you postage. 

 * » * 



J. L. Byer's experience with candy is very 

 close to my own, as given on page 750, Oct. 

 1. The first I made was not quite hard 

 enough, but later I used a thermometer and 

 boiled till the temperature rose to 275°, and 

 the cakes were as hard as bricks; but after 

 standing in a cool room for a time, they 

 would run. I could not see that bees did 

 any better on it than where they had honey 

 or sugar syrup in their combs. It is cer- 

 tainly a good deal of work to make it. We 

 have had to feed some 10,000 lbs. of sugar 

 this fall. If we had been compelled to make 

 half of it into candy I imagine there would 

 have been something doing. Candy is very 

 convenient for feeding during winter or 

 early spring; but as a I'egnlar diet, excuse 

 me. It looks as though it were a sort of 

 fad just now. There is nothing new about 

 it. Langstroth recommended it more than 

 fifty years ago. [The making of Good candy 

 is a fine art. It is so very easy to overdo 

 or underdo it that it is difficult to get it 

 just right. There is no use in denying it, 

 candy is expensive when compared to syr- 

 up; but for all that, it is about the only 

 substitute for good sealed stores we can use 

 in the dead of winter. Possibly " fondant " 

 as used and recommended by our Massachu- 

 setts friends may be easier made; but, if we 

 mistake not, that also must be made just 

 right ov it will " run " all over the bees. — 

 Ed.] 



