,TA\=ltARV, 1921 



GLEANINGS 



BEE CULTURE 



S9 



HEADS OF GRAilO [?PQiQ rDIFFERENT FIELDS 



calories, or about five times as much as 

 sugar. 



Sugar is compo^d of carbon, hydrogen, 

 and oxygen — C12H22011, and wax has less 

 carbon and much less oxygen. This surplus of 

 carbon and oxygen must be removed from 

 the sugar, requiring the bees' energy (which 

 is derived from the sugar). From the amount 

 of calories in each it is apparent that, if 

 there were no waste energy, it would re- 

 quire about five pouiids of sugar, or 6% 

 pounds of honey, to make one pound of wax, 

 so that, if the bees were 50 per cent efficient, 

 it would require ten pounds of sugar, or 12% 

 pounds of honey, to make one pound of wax. 



Looking at it in another way, it would be 

 impossible for bees to make a pound of wax 

 with less than 6 1/^ pounds of honey. Then 

 it would follow that if honey were worth 20 

 cents a pound, wax could not be produced 

 by bees for less than $1.30 a pound. 



These figures may save some one from 

 financial failure who intends to try raising 

 wax as a business, as it would require very 

 cheap honey to make wax at its present 

 price — probably less than five cents, if not 

 as low as three. 



The article also mentioned that in one 

 case it required much less sugar when pollen 

 was used. By adding 8 per cent of pollen, 

 over 30 per cent wax was produced. 



Hammonton, N. J. C. E. Fowler. 



Wintering in Last winter my bees wintered 

 Clamps With well and came out 100 per 

 No Loss. cent alive and very strong. 



They were packed in single 

 clamps with six inches of packing on all 

 sides and four inches on the bottom. On the 

 20th of March I heard them humming very 

 loud, so I cleared the entrances out. There 

 was four feet of snow then in the bee-yard 

 and the bees were flying well. Fearing I 

 might lose my bees I drew two loads of 

 manure from the barnyard and spread it on 

 the snow. I did not lose a bee. As the 

 snow went down the manure was always on 

 the top, and when my neighbors told me 

 they had just put their bees out from the 

 cellar (the 15th of April), my bees were 

 bringing in pollen, and the last of May 1 

 had to divide them. After that date we had 

 six weeks of dry weather and then three 

 weeks of very wet weather; but in spite of 

 the two extremes they gathered 175 pounds 

 per colony, and I made an increase of So 

 per cent. Tlie coldest weather in the winter 

 of 1919 was 60 below zero, and the tem])era- 

 ture remained at 50 below for two weeks. 

 My bees had no windbreaks, only the 

 clamps. I am wintering four colonies in one 

 ease this winter and the rest of the yard in 

 single clamps. Other winters I have tried 



to winter my bees with no bottom packing 

 and they all died. Young queens, strong 

 colonies, good stores, and good dry packing 

 are the only way to winter bees here. When 

 we winter in a cellar they have to have 

 spring and fall protection, but the winter 

 clamp is always ready for the cold and the 

 heat. 



I use the standard hive with Dr. Miller 's 

 two-inch bottom-board. I make my increase 

 on the Alexander plan, sell my crop at home, 

 giving good value for cash received, and put 

 my honey up in no less than five-pound pails. 

 I have a daughter nine years old that helps 

 me in our apiary. She says she is going in 

 for section honey on her own hook in 1921. 

 So she is buying a one-pound package with 

 an untested queen for her start. She will 

 start young and I hope start right. She is 

 all taken with that young beekeeper on page 

 61-1 of October Gleanings. 



New Ontario, Canada. A. Hulcoop. 



Need of Two-Day An apiary inspector in 

 Schools in Indiana, I have come to 



Beekeeping. the conclusion that the 



people that keep bees 

 and are not beekeepers, surely do need more 

 education in beekeeping; and I think it 

 would be a good thing if more States would 

 try a two-day school for beekeepers, such 

 as Michigan held last year in nearly every 

 county of the State. 



Indiana is doing fairly well, but we could 

 do a whole lot better. We have been taking 

 auto tours this last season, going around 

 showing how to transfer, treat diseases, etc., 

 and especially how to use the modern hive, 

 which I think is one of the most important 

 parts of the whole bee business for the ama- 

 teur. I have found plenty of places where 

 they have discarded good hives and were 

 using old box hives just because they had 

 used no foundation and did not have the 

 hives put together right. They thought the 

 hives were no good and cost more than 

 boxes. I foiind one locality where there were 

 plenty of good hives, but they had used no 

 foundation nor the tin rabbets that go with 

 the hive, and, of course, there was about % 

 of an inch of honey between the super and 

 the frames. Eemoving the super from such 

 a hive and looking for foul brood makes a 

 pretty bad mess. When I asked them why 

 they did not use the rabbets, they told me 

 that the bee-supply dealer- did not give any 

 with the hives, and they did not know there 

 was anything missing; so I went to the ma'i 

 that had sold all these good hives. He had 

 23 colonies of his own, but I found them all 

 in tlie same condition. When asked why he 

 did not use the rabbets, he told me that he 

 never knew where thev went. He had them 



