966 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS I Marengo, m 



Jan GrevE; of Bergen, Nor- 

 Avay, writes that the statement in 

 Gleanings that " The demoraliza- 

 tion of the beekeeping fraternity 

 of all Europe seems to be com- 

 plete," greatly overstates the case. 

 Outside the direct theater of the 

 Avar, beekeepers are going along as usual, 

 except that tliey have to pay a high price 

 for sugar. 



Years ago, when I wintered in a cellar so 

 cold that it had to be kept always^ closed, I 

 always had an uncomfortable feeling that in 

 spring the bees Avere not so vigorous as 

 those Avintered outdoors. But since a fur- 

 nace is in the same cellar, alloAving the door 

 to be open much of the time, with pure air 

 always, I think the bees are just as vigorous 

 in spring as those Avintered outdoors — 

 possibly more so. 



Arthur C. Miller hints at skepticism as 

 to the need of having apiaries 3 miles apart, 

 reporting crops utterly dift'erent at a dis- 

 tance of 1/4 mile, p. 866. Please play fair, 

 Arthur. In ordinary cases, Avith somewhat 

 level ground, there has been plenty of proof 

 that bees will go several quarter miles, and 

 it's ordinai-y cases Ave're talking about Avhen 

 we mention 3 miles. Now will some one 

 (say from near Providence) make out a list 

 of the exceptional cases, and tell us the 

 proper distances for eaehf 



Let me Avarn the beginner not to take too 

 seriously Avhat is said by Gerstung, page 

 860, against trying to breed toward non- 

 swarming. We are told, " The reader must 

 bear in mind that the writer had in mind 

 only conditions prevailing in Germany." 

 So it may be that Ave are to think only of 

 Germany Avhen told that, if Ave could elimi- 

 nate the sAvarming impulse, "the bees would 

 become degenerate, and slowly, yet surely, 

 Avould go toward extinction." Certainly it 

 hardly ajipears so in this country. If the 

 Dadants, Avith only 2 to 5 per cent of their 

 colonies swarming, find their bees going 

 toward extinction, they have kept very quiet 

 about it. For more than half a century I've 

 been trying all I could to prevent swarm- 

 ing, breeding from colonies that never of- 

 fered to SAvarm ; and the fact that the aver- 

 age yield per colony has doubled is not very 

 strong proof of degeneration. 



Mr. Editor, you ask, p. 837, whether I'm 

 not attaching too much importance to iron 

 in honey. You Avill hardly think so if you 

 realize hoAV much importance physicians at- 

 tach to administering iron, even tho " in 



very minute quantities," in readily assimil- 

 able forms. Please recall that, altho iron is 

 present in the human body in minute quan- 

 tity, that minute quantity is necessai'y for 

 health, and even life; that that minute 

 quantity is present in honey in the very best 

 form for direct assimilation; that in sugar 

 it is found not at all; and then figure out 

 for yourself how much importance should 

 be attached to it. " Talking about it for 

 bee-food," Avere you? Well, don't you be- 

 lieve the all-Avise Creator kneAv just about 

 the right amount of iron to put in for bee- 

 food ? And if he put a very minute quan- 

 tity of iron in it, do you believe you can 

 have first-class bee-food Avithout any iron 

 at all? 



[But tlie amount of iron is a very small 

 part of one per cent. Along with it are 

 other elements in small quantities, like lime, 

 sodium, sulphur, magnesia, and phosphoric 

 acid. Why should not these be considered 

 Avith iron? After all, is it not the pollen, 

 the dextrose, and the levulose which are 

 i:)resent in larger quantities — particularly 

 the last two — that are the elements that 

 make honey better than syrup that is only 

 sucrose? — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, I understand, p. 776, Sept. 1, 

 you can tell by the flight at entrance when 

 bees need more super room. But you don't 

 say how. I can't tell by watcliing the en- 

 trance AA'hether another super is needed or 

 bees have double the room they need. Please 

 tell me how. [Neither can Ave determine, by 

 Avatching the entrance only, Avhether another 

 super is needed, or whether bees have double 

 the room they need, and Ave do not belicA^e 

 that any one else can. If you Avill put on 

 your specs and read over again what we 

 liave said, you Avill see that Ave stated that 

 the condition of each colony, in the incident 

 referred to, Avas determined by a combina- 

 tion of three different ways : Watching the 

 flights of the bees going into the entrances; 

 tilting up the sujDers at the back and look- 

 ing under; and by hefting or lifting the 

 back end of the whole hive. Of course, if 

 you pick out the sentence at the head of the 

 first column, page 776, you "might infer that 

 the diagnosis Avas made solely on the indi- 

 cations at the entrance ; but the next sen- 

 tence and all the rest of the article shoAvs 

 that we used every means available without 

 resorting to lifting out the individual 

 frames. It takes but a small fraction of a 

 minute to heft a hive or to tilt up a super, 

 the entire diagnosis not taking up much 

 more than the fraction of a minute. — Ed.] 



