154 



G h K A N I N G R IN B K K O TM, T U R K 



March, ]921 



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N page 74 

 of Febru- 

 ary Glean- 

 ings, speaking 

 of the proper 

 cellar tempera- 

 ture for bees an 

 editorial says, 

 "It should "be 

 high enough so 



the bees will not need to generate much 

 heat to keep the cluster warm, yet low 

 enough to cause the bees to form a cluster 

 and remain quiet within the hive." No bet- 

 ter rule than this can be given for a cellar 

 or hive temperature during the bees' win- 

 ter confinement. 



I agree most heartily with A, I. Eoot, in 

 ' ' Our Homes ' ' for February, in standing up 

 for the Christian Sabbath and in denounc- 

 ing the Sunday newspaper. I fear few peo- 

 ple realize the benefits and blessings the 

 world receives from Christianity, imperfect 

 as it is. If we but stop to look around and 

 see how large a part of the sorrow and suf- 

 fering of the world comes from the lack of 

 Christianity, and again note how large a 

 part of them would disappear if the Golden 

 Eule were universally followed, we should 

 surely have peace on earth, and blessings of 

 which we can now hardly conceive. 



* * * 



Grace Allen, on pages 94-95, tells lis in a 

 fascinating way some of the charms and in- 

 spiration that come to even a "sideline" 

 beekeeper, and she is right. How true it is 

 that as one becomes enthusiastic over bees 

 he soon becomes interested in every tree 

 and shrub and flower, every bird, animal, 

 and insect; and slowly and stumblingly he 

 learns to read the thoughts of the Great 

 Creator, and before he knows it he is living 

 in a new world! 



Our friend Byer, on page 98, makes a good 

 point when he asks, "Do we find the cattle- 

 men asking for a tax to be placed on every 

 bovine specimen in Ontario to raise a fund 

 for inspection, so as to have tuberculosis, 

 foot and mouth disease, blackleg, etc., ban- 

 ished from their herds? He argues that no 

 more should beekeepers tax themselves for 

 the inspection of their bees. He is qaite 

 right. It is as much the duty of the govern- 

 ment to protect the beekeeper as the dairy- 

 man or breeder of -swine. 



Morley Pettit, on page 76, speaks of a 

 ' ' food-chamber. ' ' Now this is a compara- 

 tively new word and a good one, too. Food- 

 chamber rhymes with brood-chamber and 

 one is complementary to the other, neither 

 perfect without the other. It is not ex- 

 pected that the food-chamber will always 

 contain only food or that the brood-chamber 

 will never have honey stored in its combs, 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



1 



TU 



but that the 

 main use of one 

 is for the rear- 

 ing of brood and 

 the other for the 

 storage of food. 

 Where we are 

 producing s e c- 

 tion hone y in 

 short seasons, 

 and at the close of the harvest we remove 

 the supers of sections and find but little 

 honey in the brood-chambers, we can go to 

 our colonies that have been given food- 

 chambers instead of sections to fill and re- 

 move a food-chamber and give to each col- 

 only run for comb honey enough honey to 

 keep up brood-rearing until the close of the 

 season. It will then be found, under normal 

 or average conditions, that such colonies will 

 generally have a good supply of bees and 

 honey for winter. Where seasons are short, 

 I believe it will prove good practice to use 

 a part of the yard for filling food-chambers 

 for the use of colonies run for section honev. 



In a letter from Luther Burbank gi/en 

 by A. I. Eoot, page 109, Mr. Burbank «ays, 

 speaking of the annual sweet clover, "These 

 plants offer a great opportunity as a plant 

 improver, as they vary very greatly." Now 

 who shall take these plants and produce 

 something still more useful than the plant 

 we now have? 



No one need lack for the best methods of 

 wiring frames after reading those given on 

 page 82 and following pages; but, after all, 

 much will depend on the thoroughness with 

 which the work is done. The best system may 

 fail, if the work is done in an easy, slipshod 

 way. 



* « * 



Carl E. Johnson, page 101, is on the right 

 track in placing a tin tube three or four 

 inches above the entrance to connect the 

 brood-chamber with the outside thru tlie 

 packing to prevent clogging. We have saeh 

 tubes on hundreds of our hives wintered 

 outdoors, only we use a %-inch tube. 



Louis Biedigar of Texas, in the Beekeep- 

 ers' Item, wonders why all northern bee- 

 keepers want their hives to face south or 

 southeast, while he has the best results with 

 hives facing north during winter. It is just 

 "locality," my friend; yes, "locality." 



That is interesting reading about "Nails 

 and Nailing," on page 88. How many of us 

 know the proper length and size of nails, or 

 the distance apart to place them in differ- 

 ent kinds of wood? 



