April, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



D 



C 



delicate cle- 



lightf 111 

 aroma of foun- 

 dation come 

 from the wax, or 

 is it the result of 

 llie wax first 

 comiug in con- 

 tact with honey and the brood-chamber, and 

 absorbing the odor from them ? 



We occasionally have calls for dark hon- 

 ey, but not one year in twenty do we liave 

 any to supply the demand. 



* * » 



" Extracting too closely is worse than 

 disease," says P. C. Chadwick, page 51, 

 and who shall say he is not right? 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



1 



273 



across (he 

 frames du ring- 

 col d weather. 

 With a two- 

 story hive bees 

 can cluster in 

 the center and 

 move a c r oss 

 combs, above the 

 lower ones and below the upper ones, with- 

 out difficulty, making an ideal brood-nest. 

 * * * 



With expert beekeepers in Tennessee and 

 North Carolina advocating double-walled 

 hives we may feel quite sure there can be 

 no mistake about our using them here in 

 the North. The warmer that bees can be 

 made out of doors here, the better — little 

 danger of overdoing it. 



I can not tell how much 1 shpuld like to 

 ^ attend those magnificent conventions in the 

 West; but they are too far away for one of 

 my years. 



It takes a bale of cotton and a barrel of 

 alcohol to fire one of those big 16-ineh 

 guns, we are told. Alcohol is at home 

 when engaged in destroying human life. 



* * * 



There appears to be a shortage this year 

 of extracted honey ; but the slow freights 

 are quite as gxeat a bother here in the 

 East. Glass shipped us over five weeks 

 ago from Ohio has not yet arrived. 



* -» * 



One of the things we learn from the hive 

 in that mammoth greenhouse is the value of 

 meal for bees that are without j^ollen, page 

 200, March. We learn also that, while meal 

 is good and helpful, pollen is better where 



it can be furnished. 



* » » 



Somehow it makes one feel better to read 

 P. C. Chadwick's statement that his bees 

 go three miles and more for orange honey 

 than to be told that bees will starve unless 

 flowers are within a mile of an apiary. 

 Page 125, February. 



* * * 



It is March 2 — ^sunny but cold. Our bees 

 liave not had a chance to fly to any extent 

 for nearly four months, and I have just 

 been out and lifted the cushions from three 

 or four hives and find them strong and 

 warm. It may be another month before 



they can fly. 



* # * 



I like the idea of wintering in two-stury 

 Langstroth hives. One great difficulty with 

 all frame hives has been to get bees to move 



On page 171 the editor inquires as to the 

 honey yield of alfalfa here in the East. I 

 have seen bees working on it near here very 

 freely in two different seasons and I am 

 hoping that, when tiie ground is well filled 

 with bacteria, and properly limed, we shall 

 get a good deal of honey from it. 



* * * 



E. G. Carr, foul-brood inspector [for 

 New Jersey, makes it a part of his business 

 as inspector to " inspect the man " as well 

 as the bees, page 91, February— a capital 

 idea. If the inspector could have strong 

 men for beekeepers he would soon have 

 strong colonies, and foul brood would 

 vanish like dew before the sun. 



* » * 



E. G. Baldwin informs us, page 50, that 

 along the east coast of Florida the beekeep- 

 ers were getting a super or more per colony 

 from basswood. Now, I say that isn't fair. 

 It seems to me they ought to be satisfied 

 with orange, palmetto, tupelo, pennyroyal, 

 partridge pea. and the rest, and leave clover 

 and basswood for us here in the North. 



On page 1115, Dec. 1, Geo. H. Rea tells 

 how to solve our greatest beekeeping prob- 

 lem. It_ is good ; and if the advice given 

 for solving the greatest beekeeping prob- 

 lem is followed it will not only solve the 

 problem of the ignorant and careless bee- 

 keepers, but some other problems of even 

 more importance. It seems strange that 

 niankind cannot learn that the exercise of 

 kindness and unselfish helpfulness is the 

 best way to deal with the problems of 

 evil that are all about us. I believe Mr. 

 Rea's appointment as a government ex- 

 pert for the South is a wise choice. 



