c 



ur 



Sehtbmbek, 19J1 (i I. K A \ I .\ (j 



THE sugges- 

 tion of Edi- 

 tor Demuth, 

 page 510, Aug- 

 ust Gk'anings, as 

 to re 111 V i n g 

 comb-honey su- 

 l)ers, as soon a.s 

 the early liow is 

 over, is timely. 



1 have spent the best part of the last two 

 weeks cleaning sections, and I realize how 

 much extra work half-filled sections or 

 empty ones left too long on the hive make, 

 as well as how many are ruined. By the 

 way, I never realized before what a differ- 

 ence there is in different colonies in the 

 amount of propolis they store or daub over 

 the nice sections. I presume there is more 

 difference in a poor season than in a good 

 one. If the su])ers have on them the num- 

 ber of the hive from which thej' were taken, 

 we may spot every colony where the bees 

 have wasted their time gathering propolis 

 when they might have been storing honey. 

 Then during August we may remove their 

 queens and replace with new young ones. 



* X- * 



I have so far cleaned about 11,000 sec- 

 tions, and am surprised to see how much 

 faster I can work than I used to. If you 

 hav.e a stiff short-bladed knife, an old file 

 to keep the knife sharp, and a little oil so 

 the propolis will not stick, you can make 

 tlie work move off even if the weather is 

 hot. Of course, the knife should be as hard 

 as possible without being brittle. 



* # * 



I was especially interested in the article 

 by A. I. Eoot on blueberries and huckleber- 

 ries. The beauty of it is that he has not 

 overdrawn the work that is being done 

 along this line. I was shown photographs 

 of some of these immense blueberries, life 

 size, at the Department of Agriculture a 

 year ago, and T can testify that tliey were 

 whoppers. 



* * * 



Can it be true, as stated on {)age 495, that 

 75 per cent of city people think that honey 

 in groceries is not real honey f If it is true, 

 where did they get such ideas? If by read- 

 ing stray paragraphs in newsj^apers, then 

 let us contradict it thru the press. Unques- 

 tionably American beekeepers have a large 

 task aliead of them, educating the great 

 mass of our people to the purity and value 

 of (,ui- lioney. 



* » * 



It is doubtless true, as A. N. Clark sug- 

 gests on jiage 495, that the granulation of 

 honey is sometimes hastened by some in 

 cells left over from the previous season, but 

 we do not find much trouble from this 

 source. If such sections are put on before 

 a rush of honey, the cells are usually 

 cleaned up before new honey is stored in 

 them. However, I believe it is better to 

 have sections, troiii which lioncv is cxtract- 



I N \i K K (' U L T U K K 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



TU 



567 



etl, cleaned up in 

 the fall if it is 

 possible. Some 

 of the finest sec- 

 tions we have 

 secured this year 

 liave been in 

 these d r a w n 

 combs- We have 

 set some of them 

 aside for exhibition at our countv fair. 



That is a right good article by E. B. 

 Tyrrell, page 484, on "State Fair Exhib- 

 its." It reminds me of an old lady who 

 used to write before certain Bible promises 

 "T. and P.," which she said meant "tried 

 and proved." Now, this plan of the Michi- 

 gan beekeepers has been tried and proved 

 and found to be of increasing value. It 

 shows also that the welfare of the whole 

 is of much greater value than the success 

 of the few. I note, too, that they are push- 

 ing the 5 and 10 pound pail. Their heads 

 are level. 



* * * 



That is a delightful story written by 

 Grace Allen on pages 500 and 501, concern- 

 ing Francois Huber. How little we of to- 

 day realize the hard, laborious tasks that 

 patient studious men worked out for us 

 during the last 200 years! Facts about 

 bees, that seem as simple to us as our ABC's, 

 were worked out with a great amount of 

 labor. The same is true of chemistry and 

 physics and other natural sciences. Eather 

 than boast of our own success, let us re- 

 member our indebtedness to those who have 

 gone before and done so much for us. 



It does one "s soul good to read tiie re- 

 I>ort of the unusual flow of honey in On- 

 tario, as narrated by J. L. Byer, on page 

 502, while we are not getting half a crop. 

 Well, next year it may be our turn, and 

 those Canadians may be mourning over the 

 failure of a crop. And yet our friend Byer 

 does not seem to be satisfied. I am remind- 

 ed of a man who lived in Philadelphia at 

 the close of the war of 1812. He owned 

 a boat in New York harbor. Hearing boats 

 were in great demand, he sent his son to 

 New York to sell the boat, setting the price 

 at a large sum. The son sold the boat for 

 twice what his father asked. On reporting 

 the sale to his father the son found it hard 

 to make him believe that so large a price 

 had been obtained, but after counting the 

 the money the old man was convinced. 

 Then he broke out, "I say, John, couldn't 

 you have got a little more?" Well, fun 

 aside, it pays in beekeeping to be prepared 

 for the extra flows to make up for the lean 

 years. * * * 



A. C. Gilbert, East Avon, N. Y., says to 

 wait two days after removing the old queeu 

 before introducing a ripe queen-cell. Why 

 wait two (lavs? We havr found one day, 

 as a nilc, (iiiite sutticieiit . 



