28 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1920 



losohitioiis. Perhaps we well may be asham- 

 ed if we fail to do so; for so we fail to 

 tdaim the inspiration, the quickening power 

 and the renewed and strengthening purpose 

 that come with the New Year. For I care 

 not a whit what those more worldly-wise 

 nuiy say; I know right well that all the 

 mornings and all the first days or months 

 and all the woudeiful New Year's Days are 

 the doors that God opens when He smiles 

 and says, "Try again, child." 



Tlien isn 't there some little way in which, 

 as beekeepers also, we can strike a higher 

 mark in 1920 than we have ever struck be- 

 fore? Anyhow, let's aim at one; more 

 thoro studying, instead of just superficial 

 reading; careful weighing of things, instead 

 of being swayed too easily by others; keen- 

 er and more accurate observations; better 

 methods, if w^e can find them; better and 

 more faithful application of them, when dis- 

 covered; prompt performance instead of 

 procrastination. Let me repeat that. 

 Prompt performance instead of procrastina- 

 tion. And so on, down the whole list of 

 individual sins of omission and commission. 



Prevented by illness during October of 

 1918 from examining our bees until early 

 November, we found them heavy with 

 stores and still, even so late, showing bits 

 of brood in most hives. Again in 1919 we 

 failed to get to the fall examination in Oc- 

 tober, partly because that month, usually a 

 golden month of sunshine and dreams, had 

 only six clear days to its credit, and most 

 of the cloudy ones raining. Aster in full 

 bloom, too. In early November, the little 

 town yard, with its surrounding bitterweed 

 bloom of late summer and early fall, had 

 its few hives heavy and ready for winter. 

 But out in the country, many were tragical- 

 ly light. We fed a little, equalized stores 

 somewhat, united several, and, with careful 

 watching, hope to get thru. 



There was practically no brood anywhere. 

 The one happy exception was that Ben 

 Davis Golden queen we bought in October. 

 She had brood in several combs. 



Sometimes I wish people who are not bee- 

 keepers wouldn 't ask me about my bees 

 ever_v time they see me. ' ' Well, how 're the 

 bees?" begins to irk, when. it becomes the 

 almost stereotyped greeting of people who 

 aren 't the least bit interested in bees them- 

 selves. Do they ask doctors, I wonder, how 

 the sick are, and preachers how the sinners 

 are, and plumbers how the pipes are? Per- 

 haps, tho, I have brought it on myself, by 

 an over-enthusiasm at certain times, explod- 

 ing bee-talk when the laws of polite society 

 called for chit-chat about the high cost of 

 living or the best, or worst, movie in town. 

 After all, I 'd as soon my friends would ask, 

 "Well, how 're the bees?" as "Well, what 

 do you think of Theda's latest?" (Would 

 vou believe I have never seen her at all? 



Why bother to see things, when you don 't 

 like what the advertisers write to get you 

 there?) 



* * ir 



What is a "filter cloth," Mr. Weybright 

 (page 733)? I'd have thought they were 

 cloths that some liquid filtered thru, but 

 since you speak of them as ' ' practically 

 rain-proof," they're evidently not that. 



Answering an inquiry; the lines in this 

 department in October (from which the quo- 

 tation marks got lost), beginning "All these 

 put their trust in their hands, ' ' and closing 

 "And in the handiwork of their craft is 

 their pi-ayer, ' ' are in the .38th chapter of 

 Ecclesiasticus. 



It seems to me recently more producers 

 have been troubled with fermentation than 

 usual, or else there has just been more com- 

 ment on it. When extracted honey ferments, 

 it is supposed to be because it was taken off 

 before being thoroly ripened. But when one 

 man is very particular about extracting 

 only combs that are sealed two-thirds or 

 more, like one I know; and another takes 

 it all, sealed and unsealed indifferently, but 

 heats it all before putting it in cans or bot- 

 tles, like another I know; and the first man 

 finds his honey, when a year old, ferment- 

 ing and granulating at the same time; while 

 the second man 's neither ferments nor 

 granulates — well, it leaves the first man say- 

 ing, "Evidently I must heat all my honey. 

 Or else I must extract only combs sealed 

 straight to the bottom-bar. Which?" While 

 still another man I know answers, ' ' Neither. 

 When the weather is warm and dry, take it 

 all off, sealed and unsealed both (taking 

 care to leave five or six combs, sealed solid, 

 to each hive), and let it stand for a few 

 days in a tank in the sun. You'll never have 

 any trouble with fermentation. ' ' Then 

 comes still another, saying, with a serious 

 shake of the head, "Don't take any honey 

 till it is sealed solid." 



Taking only what is sealed solid is sim- 

 plest, perhaps, as it does away with the 

 ripening tank and the heating. Either of the 

 other methods cleans up all the unsealed 

 honey in the supers, and some seasons there 

 is considerable. 



THE NEW YE.VR. 

 God set mo in a .shining field: 

 My heart began to sing, 

 ' Now I shall plow and plant, and reap. 

 In time, some lovely thing! " 



The days came bearing hours for tools: 



I lost them, one by one. 

 Then suddenly last night I cried 



For what I had not done. 



Now lo. a gate — a fresh new field — • 



And oh, I think God smiled. 

 Because I heard, so fatherly, 

 " Try again, my child ! " 



