NovKMr.K);, 1917 



L K A N I N G S IN BE E C U L T V K 



A 



c 



FEW days 

 ago I learn- 

 ed that my 



neighbor h a d 



been selling his 



extracted honey 



at last year's 



prices. He had 



not learned that 



the price of honey had gone up ! He could 



not afford to take a journal devoted to the 



interests of beekeepers. 



* * * 



G. M. Doolittle is certainly sound in his 

 ad\dce on page 764, October, as to beekeep- 

 ing as a profession or means of support. 

 The gr.eatest difficulty seems to be the un- 

 certainty of the seasons. We can master 

 the "wintering problem, the springing of our. 

 bees, swarming, dysentery, and even foul 

 brood; but we can not control the seasons 

 or the flow of nectar. Perhaps this is best, 

 . that we may not forget our dependence on 

 the good Lord for all our blessings. 

 » * * 



I have always regarded beekeeping as 

 favorabl? to good morals, but have never 

 carried the matter as far as those old writ- 

 ers that " A Beekeeper's AVifo " has brought 

 to our attention on page 765. Rarely do 

 we find a beekeeper who is profane, altho 

 1 have known such. The handling of bees 

 has a tendency to make one thoughtful, 

 I^atient, and helpful. 



* * * 



Many years ago I had a number of cases 

 of American foul brood, and I found all 

 that was necessary was to shake the bees 

 into an empty hive and let them build new 

 combs while the honey was strained out and 

 the combs melted up for wax. After the 

 honey has been thinned with water, and 

 boiled, it is perfectly safe to feed bees dur- 

 ing the spring. I have tried it. 



* * * 



Mr. P. C. Chadwick gives some good 

 reasons for the instinct of bees to rob, 

 page 682. He says, " The queenless colony 

 has no hope from nature after all possibili- 

 ty of requeening is passed ; the colony is on 

 the decline; and without Ihe aid of man it 

 must die. So why should .not instinct lead 

 other bees to save that which their neighbor 

 is too weak to care for?" Beautiful econo- 

 my, surely. And his illustration of Na- 

 ture's economical ways he might have car- 

 ried further by stating that when the bees 

 have removed the honey to a safe place the 

 wax-moth lays her eggs that soon hatch 

 and reduce the combs to webs and powder 

 so as easily to mingle with the earth and 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



853 



nourish new 

 plants with their 

 blossoms and 

 fruit. The in- 

 spector s m e- 

 times sees the 

 whole process 

 going on in the 

 same yard as 

 the result of disease. Not long ago I 

 visited a yard where I had urged speedy at- 

 tention to save what remained. I found 

 nothing had been done by the proprietor; 

 but nature's methods went straight on, and 

 I found some hives that had been robbed, 

 and no less than six where the larvse of the 

 wax-moth had reduced the combs to powder, 

 while the ignorant owner was in blissful 

 ignorance that anything unusual was oc- 

 curring. Disease often destroys a yard of 

 bees, and the millers get all the credit. 

 « * • 



The October number of Gleanings is of 

 special value to young or inexperienced bee- 

 keepers, owing to the full discussion of the 

 wintering problem. We had almost forgot- 

 ten that it was of so much importance. We 

 put our colonies in shape for winter, year 

 after year, with as little concern as to how 

 they will come thru the long cold months as 

 we have as to how we ourselves shall winter. 

 The liigh price of lumber will doubtless 

 have a tendency to prejudice many in favor 

 of indoor wintering. 



* * * 



E. R. Root, page 788, gives two good 

 methods of cleaning up combs of honey 

 after extracting. Another and more ex- 

 peditious way is to place an empty brood- 

 chamber over a strong colony after first re- 

 moving th,3 honey-board, then tieiing up 

 as many supers as convenient on top. 

 The advantage of this method is that the 

 combs are cleaned up very quickly. 



* * * 



Ruth C. Gifford, page 770, October, seems 

 a little mixed in nomenclature of mice. 

 V/ood mice is the proper name for these 

 pretty mischief-makei-s, rather than field 

 mice, in these parts. We have another 

 mouse that lives in the fields, known as the 

 meadow mouse, that very rarely or never 

 enters a hive, as they are vegetarians. 

 « * * 



I spent much of my time during August 

 in cleaning sections of propolis. It W8^ 

 somewhat monotonous work, but after all 

 interesting, as it gave us a fine ti'ue to 

 study the individual characteristics of dif- 

 ferent colonies, and select some choice 

 colonies or queens for breeders next year. 



