GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1920 



HEADS OF GRAIN V J mOm J ^ DIFFERENT FIELDS 



How Bees Dr. Stellwaag in the "Bio- 

 Steer, logisehes Centralblatt ' ' has 

 given so interesting a theory 

 concerning the flight of bees that -it has re- 

 cently been quoted in ' ' The Scientific Amer- 

 ican," and also in "The Literary Digest." 

 His experiments and observations would 

 seem to show that instead of steering by 

 shifting its ballast, by throwing its abdo- 

 men or wing covers from side to side as for- 

 merly supposed, bees steer by varying the 

 wing pressure, which is accomplished by 

 changing the angle and force of the wing 

 beats, and thus operating the wings as 

 stabilizing planes. E. E. Root. 



Soldiers Turned The pioneer element is so 

 to Beekeepers. strong today even among 

 western men that it is not 

 surprising to find many financial strings on 

 their bows. Clyde Grosser, a ranchman near 

 Lander, Wyo., found his blacksmith shop so 



A soldier blacksmith and his tongs for handling 

 frames. 



piofitable that he hired a man to look after 

 ills ranch, and when an old Colorado beenian 

 came to be his neighbor, Mr. Crosser and his 

 wife became sa interested in bees that they 

 finished their first bee year with 24 colonies. 

 These did not winter well, and Mr. Orosser 

 resolved that he would find out at the first 

 opportunity just what mistakes he had made 

 and how to rectify them. He liad to wait un- 

 til after the war, however, when he had an 

 opportunity to study bee culture at the Utah 

 Agricultural College with other vocational 

 students who had been wounded or disai)led 

 in the army. 



Wlien the class was discussing liive tools 

 one day he displayed some tongs which he 

 had in\ented for handling brood-frames. A 

 blacksmith naturally wants to handle every- 



thing with tongs whether it is red-hot iron 

 or seething brood-frames, but these fran«e 

 tongs excited the admiration of many ex- 

 perienced beekeepers. The jaws of the tongs 

 are drawn out thin, the ends turned over 

 square and small teeth filed in them so as to 

 clutch firmly into the side of the brood- 

 frame when it is being lifted. One handle 

 end has a claw for drawing nails, while the 

 other handle end has a broad chisel bit or 

 screw-driver. It is a tool with many uses. 



The bee class that Mr. Crosser is attend- 

 ing is the second that the Utah State College 

 is offering to disabled army men. Many of 

 the men who in the winter took the first 

 course, which was mainly theory, are now 

 doing practical apprentice work with the 

 beenien of the inter-mountain country. Thus 

 Edward H. Ashman of Salt Lake City is at 

 Cedar City anu)ng the 3000 colonies of the 

 Southern Bee & Honey Company. Joseph C. 

 Christiansen, also of Salt Lake, is with 

 Thomas Chantry, at Wellington, in Carbon 

 County, Utah. Mr. Chantry, who has had 45 

 years' experience, (is one of the oldest of Utah 

 beekeepers. He has also been secretary of 

 the Utah Beekeepers ' Association. A third 

 man from Salt Lake, Wayne C. Beane, is 

 with the Idaho Falls branch of the Superior 

 Honey Company. These three city boys 

 were absolutely without experience in han- 

 dling bees when they came to college for 

 their vocational course, but are showing 

 much aptitude and ability in their new vo- 

 cation. Another boy from their bee class is 

 Ira C. Sax of Wendell, Idaho, who is now 

 in Myton in Duchesne County, one of the 

 best alfalfa seed districts in Utah. Soldier- 

 ing and beekeeping are as far apart as the 

 poles, but, all the same, the war will soon 

 ceunt many beemen among its most note- 

 worthy by-products. 



Logan, Utah. Frank E. Arnold. 



Syrup Fed on Last year the bees came 



Top of Stores. thru in as bad shape here 

 as one could imagine. The 

 winter loss was fully 65 per cent among ex- 

 tracted-honey producers, while comb-honey 

 producers suffered only a slight loss. The 

 nuiin cause seemed to be poor stores gath- 

 ered too late even to ripen before cold 

 weather. Extracted-honey producers, in- 

 cluding myself, extracted their honey before 

 the season was ipiite finislied and what there 

 was left to be gathered went into the brood- 

 nest "green" just as cold winter came on 

 (in October). Sugar was scarce and impos- 

 sible to get. I fed six of my colonies five to 

 ten pounds of sugar syrup in spite of it, and 

 they were the only ones of 53 that came out 

 in jjood shape. The others ha<l merely a 

 handful or no bees in spite of a good, warm, 

 dry cellar. Robert G. Norberg. 



Cambridge, Minn. 



