Janiarv, 1920 



G I. E A N I N O S T N B K l-; C V I. T IT R E 



^^ FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



How the (iinil) lioiiry w:is broken out of tlie sections and ruined in this careless shinment. 



v.ithout jiat'king the cases in such boxes 

 in any way. The comb honey was allowed 

 to shuck about and fall and tumble around 

 in these boxes while coming a distance of 

 200 miles by local freight sliipment. There 

 was not a mark on a single box to warn the 

 freight-handlers to be careful as the con- 

 tents was fragile, altho as a local shipment 

 this honey had to be transferred from one 

 car to another several times. 



When it reached its destination this fine 

 comb honey was a mess to behold, and a 

 worse mess' to clean up. In all there were 

 102 cases of this honey. Thirty-six of these 

 cases were so smashed that the honey had 

 to be melted up; the honey in 32 more of 

 these cases was broken out of the sections 

 and solil as damaged honey to local retail 

 merchants; the remaining .34 cases of hon- 

 ey, while not broken out of the frames, were 

 disposed of as " damaged goods. ' ' The loss 

 to the beekeeper was one-third the price of 

 his honey, and the purchaser was at all the 

 trouble of cleaning up the mess without a 

 dollar's profit in the transaction — all be- 

 cause of carelessness in shipping. 



Had the shipper taken the little pains 

 necessary to have packed the honey cases 

 even in these old boxes in straw — top, bot- 

 tom, and siiies — probably none of it would 

 have been damaged. He also should ha\c 

 plainly marked the boxes: "Fragile. Comb 

 Honey. Handle this side up with care." 



^Nfany shijipers of comb honey evidently 

 do not know the requirements for shipping 

 their product as lairl down in the rules of 

 the U. S. Consolidated Freight Classification. 

 These official directions for preparing comb 

 honey in sections for shijunent are word 

 for wor<l as follows: 



"Comb honey in section frames, in wood- 

 en boxes, with or without glass fronts, two 



or more enclosed in wooden boxes only or in 

 crates, must be protected by a pad of hay, 

 straw, excelsior, or similar material, not less 

 than 4 inches thick in the bottom of the 

 box or crate, and the package plainly mark- 

 ed on top '.'Fragile — this side up." 



Editor Gleanings. 



.Ctf: .tf ? 



DO DRONES HELP INCUBATE ? 



They Find Friends in Mell Pritchard and the Edit- 

 or of the Bee World 



One of the enjoyable moments of the 

 beeman 's life is when he finds some one of 

 world-wide repute expressing an opinion 

 which exactly coincides with his ovv'u idea 

 — especially when such able authorities as 

 E. E. Root, lona Fowls, and Dr. E. F. Phil- 

 lips accuse him of being something very 

 like bone-headed for entertaining such an 

 idea. 



It was my good fortune to find such an 

 article in the September issue of the Bee 

 World from the pen of its able editor, A. Z. 

 Abushady, under the heading, "Our Parting 

 Friend. ' ' I am herewith submitting this 

 article, with the request that it be publish- 

 ed in Gleanings, so that the aforesaid Fowls, 

 Phillips, and Root mav take notice. 



Mell Pritchard. 



[The following is the article that Mr. 

 Pritchard requests to be printed. — Editor.] 



OTR I'ARTI.Vri KUIKXI). 



Our huinlde friend, the drone, is due to part 

 tliis month, if he ha.s not already parted, even from 

 the larse.st modern apiary in Europe where queen- 

 lessness is not overlooked. He is usually the sub- 

 .iect of abuse. Very few indeed appreciate his do- 

 mestic and rarial role. 



An observatory hive will rlearly show you the 

 drones clustering over the brood. There is more 



