OCTOBKR, 191? 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



■771 



THK crop of 

 honey in 

 w e s t e !■ 1 1 

 Vermont will 

 not be as large ' 

 as was expected 

 earh' in August. 

 The hot dry 

 weather ia the 

 latter part of Jiilv 

 to such an cNtciil 

 very light. 



c 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



had checked the flow 

 thai the supers were 



BOTTOM PACKING NOT NECESSARY. 



Mrs. Allen says, page 376, May, that 

 Mr. Bartholomew, backed by Dr. Phillips, 

 "maintains that unless all four sides, top, 

 and bottom, are packed, no good is gained." 

 I have about 200 hives i^acked on the 

 bottom as well as sides and top, but have 

 been unable to discover that bees wintered 

 any better in them than when packed on 

 four sides and on top, and have discon- 

 tinued bottom packing. 



We have, however, noticed a great dif- 

 ference between colonies in single-walled 

 hives and those in double-walled hives in 

 the time it takes them to build up in the 

 spring. Double-walled hives are of quite 

 as great value in such a cold spring as the 

 last in building ujj colonies as in wintering 



them. 



* * * 



Mr. Doolittle gives good advice on page 

 440, June, in regard to getting bees to 

 work in sections, but, unfortunately, we do 

 not have more than one year in twenty-five 

 when bees can be induced to start combs in 

 sections in August or September; besides, 

 we have very few sections made up at 

 that season. A better way, to my mind, 

 to start those colonies that are a little slow 

 in getting to work in sections is to take a 

 well-started super from some other colony 

 and give or exchange with the slow colonj^ 

 If honey is coming in freely it is not neces- 

 sary to get the bees all out before the change 



is made. 



* * « 



That picture of a brood-comb, page 539, 

 July, seems a marvelous production, show- 

 ing how perfect photogTai)hers have become. 

 "We can see by the color the different ages 

 of the sealed and very perfectly the un- 

 sealed lana from two to five days old and 

 even eggs in the base of the cells, and in 

 othei-s the reflections of the light that we 

 sometimes mistake for eggs. 



m * * 



E. G. Baldwin, in Florida Sunshine, page 

 705, becomes enthusiastic over the advance 

 in the price of honey. He says, " Honey, 



for once, lias ad- 

 vanced n e arly 

 a.|)ace with other 

 similar commod- 

 ities, and prices 

 are now stiffer 

 than evei- before 

 ill llip history of 

 t li e industry." 

 Beg your pardon, Piofessor B., but we 

 used to get 30 cts. a pound or more for 

 comb honey at wholesale, forty or fifty 

 years ago, and 25 cts. for extracted; but i't 

 was a long time ago, and I guess you 

 have forgotten. About 1880 prices began 

 to tumble until it seemed as tho we should 

 have to go out of tlie business, but we are 

 still at it. 



* * * 



James A. Brown gives interesting facts 

 about the value of honey as an article of 

 food. More and more we are learning the 

 fact that honey is not only as cheap as 

 other articles of food but at the same time 

 is a delicious sauce. Many persons refrain 

 from buying honey because they think it 

 of little value as food. More persons will 

 buy when they learn that it is just as eco- 

 nomical to buy honey and pay 20 cts. a 

 pound as to pay the present price of 48 

 cents for butter. 



•» * * 



Some years ago it was the fashion to 

 speak of the superior value of sugar as 

 a winter food for bees; but of late it is 

 the other way; honey, we are told, is better. 

 Well, perhaps; but we get along very well 

 by supplying any lack of winter stores Avith 

 sugar syrup. Pollen is I'ich in protein and 

 other elements necessary for the produc- 

 tion of brood ; and when Ave have a supply 

 of pollen we do not worry. 



* * * 



Beginners' Lessons, page 699, September, 

 contains some lessons older beekeepers 

 might take to heart, especially in regard to 

 nailing up cascs of tinned honey and pre- 

 ])aring barrels for honey. It seems queer 

 that soaking the barrels with water only 

 increases the danger of leakage, but it is a 

 fact 



Many bee-inspectors can appreciate the 

 inspector's embarrassment whea threatened 

 with a shotgun, as told by a beekeeper's 

 wife, page 604, August; but after all I pre- 

 fer that to the stolid indifTerence of many 

 beekeepers. 



* * * 



We learn from page 697 that John M. 

 Davis presented Mrs. Allen a queen and 

 received in retui'ii neither gold nor silver, 

 but a gem we may all enjoy. 



