Decfmbee, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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BEES, MEN AND THINGS 



(You may find it here) 



UT 



AST summer 



while watch- 



my bees I 

 noticed a bum- 

 blebee enter the 

 hive. I sat there 

 and watched. 

 After one or two 

 minutes out 

 came a bee, 



lauded on the board, spun around on its 

 side and died. I counted 25 bees do this, 

 then no more came. I opened up the hive 

 and Mr. Bumblebee was dead on the floor." 

 — W. Stoddard, Essex County, Mass. 



"As we wrote you a few days ago the 

 peddling of near-by-production honey has 

 been a big obstacle this season in booking 

 orders among the dealers. Our city market 

 on the north side of the city is flooded with 

 all kinds of extracted and comb honey for 

 sale, and the writer only recently made a 

 personal survey of seven or eight of our 

 large down-town stores and found they are 

 fully loaded. We are in hopes this situa- 

 tion will clear up before long, after which 

 we know the business on Airline honey will 

 come in heavier than it has during the past 

 few months." — Geo. A. Mendes & Co., brok- 

 ers and packers' agents. New York City. 

 (Gleanings has never before so strongly ad- 

 vocated the selling of honey locally as dur- 

 ing the fall of 1921. This advice seems to 

 have been taken by a great many beekeep- 

 ers and to have worked well. Mendes & Co. 

 give eloquent if not cheerful testimony in 

 the paragraph quoted above. — Editor.) 



"On page 707, November Gleanings, E. 

 M. Cole mentioned the name 'crystallized' 

 for candied honey and 'liquid' for extract- 

 ed. Why not name them comb honey, comb- 

 less honey, crystallized honey?" — Morris 

 Aaroe, Warren County, N. J. 



"As to your editorial regarding honey 

 labels, etc., referring directly to the idea 

 of leaving off the word 'extracted': Close 

 observation in handling large quantities of 

 honey during past years, indicates to us 

 that it is a wise plan. Very many mer- 

 chants advertise honey as 'strained' honey. 

 This practice we have fought from time im- 

 memorial almost, but never advocated leav- 

 ing out the word 'extracted,' however good 

 the idea may be. You will observe that our 

 labels do not have the word 'extracted' 

 thereon." — G. W. Bercaw, Manager of Aliso 

 Apiaries, Los Angeles, Calif. 



"The following is an interpretation of the 

 net weight law in Michigan as applied to 

 comb honey: 'The Michigan Department 

 holds that in the case of comb honey it is 

 legally stamped, provided the producer as- 

 certains the weight of the lightest section 

 (in the case) and then on each section states 

 plainly that the minimum weight is so 

 much, stating the actual contents, exclusive 



1 



777 



of the wooden 

 portion, in such 

 lightest section.' 

 Relative to the 

 selling of comb 

 honey b y the 

 section instead 

 of by weight, 

 the opinion is 

 that ' an agree- 

 ment between the buyer and seller to pur- 

 chase comb honey by the section instead of 

 by the pound is entirely legal.' " — B. F. Kin- 

 dig, Lansing, Mich. 



' ' What about a winter nest of empty cells 

 for bees to cluster on, I hear some one say. 

 As many know, I do not for a moment be- 

 lieve that enough empty cells are necessary 

 for bees to cluster on; in fact, I might say 

 that I know that such is not the case. I 

 have tested the matter out thoroly, and I 

 happen to know that the most of the exten- 

 sive producers in Ontario entirely agree with 

 me on this question. In the October issue 

 of Gleanings, page 617, Mr. Demuth well 

 says, ' There is greater danger in having 

 too many vacant cells than in having too 

 few;' and I have always maintained that 

 a big winter nest is the cause of more win- 

 ter losses than all other causes combined." 

 J. L. Byer, Markham, Ont. 



"We have undoubtedly the best bees in 

 the world, and we produce very fine qualities 

 of honey; but we have only a few beekeep- 

 ers, and in many places in Italy, especially 

 among country people, bee culture is just 

 what it was some centuries ago. We have 

 also some very skillful beekeepers and sev- 

 eral good bee journals; but beekeeping has 

 not been as widely diffused as it should 

 have been, as our government does nothing 

 for it, and associations and bee journals are 

 not sufiicient for the purpose. ' ' — Luigi Scaz- 

 zola, Genoa, Italy. 



"I have learned that the sun will kill 

 bees. I had in my yard three colonies of 

 hybrids and wanted to requeen them, so se- 

 cured three good Italians and started to re- 

 queen by taking one of them out in the yard 

 and putting the cage on an old winter cover. 

 I then removed the black queens and put 

 them in Miller cages by the side of the new 

 queen. I then proceeded to go thru the 

 hives for any queen-cells that might be 

 present. To my great surprise, when I 

 turned to get the new queen, the whole lot 

 was dead, the new queen and all her at- 

 tendants as well as the queens I had re- 

 moved." — T. Bartlett Bragg, Hillsborough 

 County, N. H. 



"I wonder what kind of ruler the folks 

 who say that a bee line is a straight line 

 have been accustomed to use. My bees re- 

 mind me of Saturday night in days gone 

 by. But if a law-abiding bee's line is a 

 straight line where do you suppose my bees 

 are getting it?" — Eogert Davis, Oxford 

 County, Maine. • 



