E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



ON Jauuary 1, 1923, it will be exactly 50 

 years since A. T. Eoot sent out the first issue 

 of Gleanings in Bee 

 Gleanings is Culture, the little 

 50 Years Old. e i g h t-page journal 

 which so rapidly 

 grew into a great bee journal. On that date 

 we shall issue a large anniversary number 

 to celebrate the 50th birthday of this jour- 

 nal. This large anniversary number will 

 be crowded Avith exceptionally interesting 

 and valuable matter and handsomely illus- 

 trated to measure up to the occasion. 



FORMEKLY many experiments were tried 

 in this country in an effort to disinfect 



combs con- 

 Disinfecting Combs of t a i n i n g 

 American Foul Brood. A m e r ican 

 foul brood, 

 without destroying them, by fumigation or 

 by spraying with some disinfectant, but 

 none of these were successful. Recently, 

 liowever, Dr. J. C. Hutzelman lias worked 

 out a method for disinfecting combs of 

 American foul brood that looks more j^rom- 

 ising. Dr. Hutzelman has written up liis 

 experiments for this journal, and his article 

 a])pears in this issue on page 764. 



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JUDGING from the number of inquiries re- 

 ceived at this office, there will be consid- 

 erable honey 

 Honey in Automo- used in automo- 

 bile Radiators. bile radiators this 

 winter to prevent 

 freezing. We have made some tests to deter- 

 mine the freezing point of mixtures of hon- 

 ey and water of different strengths, wliich 

 agree in general with the results obtained 

 by .Joseph E. Palmer as reported on page 

 794 of this issue. For ordinary winter tem- 

 peratures not lower than 12° to 15° F. equal 

 parts of thick well-ripened honey and water 

 should be enough to prevent freezing, but 

 for temperatures around zero or below not 

 less than two parts of honey to one part 

 water should be used. 



It would not be safe to use sugar syruj) 

 or molasses in tliese proj)ortions, for a sugar 

 (sucrose) solution of equal concentration 

 does not depress the freezing ])oint as much 

 as honey owing to it^s different molecular 

 construction. 



IT sometimes ha])peiis tliat the cheapest 

 tilings are much better and more service- 

 able than those 

 The Simplest which are more ex- 

 and Cheapest pensive. It is cer- 

 Winter Feeder, tainly true that the 

 cheapest feeder for 

 late fall feeding, and one that is as service- 

 able as the very best feeder ever invented, is 

 tlie ordinary ten-jjound honey-pail with a 

 friction top. Such pails can usually be bought 

 for a few cents each. To convert one of 

 these pails into a feeder, all that is neces- 

 sary is to punch 30 holes, a scant iV of an 

 inch in diameter in the cover. It is im- 

 portant that there be no more than 30 holes, 

 and that they be no larger than a scant is 

 of an inch. It is much better to punch the 

 holes from the inside out. This will leave 

 the ragged or burr edge of the holes project- 

 ing, aft'ording a convenient foothold for the 

 bees wliile they are filling up preparatory 

 to storing in the combs below. If there 

 are too many holes, or if the holes are too 

 large, the feeder will be inclined to drip, 

 thus causing robbing. This is shown in Fig. 

 4 on page 795. The pail at the riglit in the 

 same figure has 30 holes a scant iV of an 

 incli in diameter. 



O l — l O ^ C1C= 03 



THE honey market thus far has been a hard 

 one especially for those having large lots. 

 Carload buyers are 

 Honey Market still buying on the 

 Conditions. "hand to -mouth" 



plan, and will per- 

 haps continue to do so for some time. The 

 consumer demand did not begin in earnest 

 until a niontli or more later than usual, 

 which unfortunately caused considerable 

 price-cutting in an effort to force the honey 

 upon an unwilling market. We are still im- 

 porting large quantities of honey and ex- 

 porting but little. (See page 754). Accord- 

 ing to the figures compiled by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture the yield per colony this 

 year was 53.8 pounds as against 44.2 last 

 year. While these figures look discouraging, 

 tlie figures submitted by our market re- 

 porters indicate that 58.5 per cent of the 

 1922 crop liad been sold up to about De- 

 cember 10 as against (5G per cent last year. 

 Most small lots have already been cleaned 

 up, and, if sufficient effort is put forth from 

 now on, the 1922 crop sliould be well cleaned 

 up before new honey appears next year. 



