584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



be a chap up in Northern Illinois who argued 

 strenuously for sections holding a full pound 

 because the public expected a section to 

 weigh that much. Now, if a pound section 

 practically does not exist, and never did, 

 what is the wrong in selling sections by the 

 piece ? If we try to give a pound size we 

 can not supply it, if your statement is cor- 

 rect. Just tell that man why he has been 

 following a will-o'-the-wisp. Perhaps you 

 know him.— Ed.] 



"Look out for number one." That's all 

 well enough; but I tell you the man who 

 wants all the happiness to be got out of this 

 life needs to do a lot of looking out for 

 others. The chauffeur who recklessly rides 

 over people and frightens teams brings into 

 disrepute the armv of good people who ride 

 in automobiles. The few evil-minded slug- 

 gers who are killing people in the Chicago 

 strike are bringing into disrepute the whole 

 scheme of organized labor. The man who 

 puts on the market unripe extracted honey 

 is doing a wrong to every honest man who 

 produces honey. [Just so. I am not sure 

 but we ought to keep harping on this sub- 

 ject during the entire marketing season. 

 The trouble is, the chaps who unload their 

 bad stuff are just the ones who do not read 

 the bee-papers. It would, perhaps, be well 

 for bee-keepers to buy up some of these odd 

 lots in order to prevent their getting on the 

 market at all. either to depress prices, or, 

 worse still, disgust the whole trade with 

 any kind of honey. —Ed.] 



Experiments reported in L'Apiculteur 

 showed that a swarm of 20,000 bees builds 

 about 1000 grams of comb in the first four 

 days. Estimating three- fourths of the bees 

 at work secreting, that makes each bee 

 secrete .0000376 of a pound of wax in a day. 

 At that rate it would take a bee 26,595 days 

 to secrete a pound, or 26,595 bees to secrete 

 a pound in one day. [These are interesting 

 figures ; bi;t another set of experiments 

 might show quite a wide variation from 

 these, owing to different conditions. Differ- 

 ent experimenters have §rrived at widely 

 different results as to the number of pounds 

 of honey it requires to make a pound of 

 wax. the highest figures being 20 lbs., and 

 the lowest between 5 and 6. But for all 

 that, the general average of experiments of 

 late has been between 6 and 7 lbs. It would 

 be interesting to know how near the figures 

 you furnish are to the general average. 

 Perhaps the new apicultural department at 

 Washington, with its fine corps of workers, 

 will be able to eliminate many of our guess 

 approximate figures, and substitute therefor 

 those that are reasonably accurate. — Ed.] 



The suggestion, page 547, to close out in 

 the fall by having the super only partly filled 

 with sections, is a good one for those who 

 have the time for it. But if any are going 

 to try it, they needn't go to the trouble of 

 having dummies to fill the empty space. I 

 know, for I've had hundreds of sections fin- 

 ished out without any such dummies. A row 

 of six sections, or two rows of six sections 



each, with little boards to cover the unused 

 portion of the bottom of the super— that 

 was all. One might think that the bees, 

 having free access to the empty part of the 

 super, would cluster and build there, but 

 they never did. But, mind you, that's 

 toward the end. lYou are right, doctor. I 

 now recall that I saw in your yard little 

 pieces of board that covered up the space 

 not used in the super, and I have seen the 

 same thing in a good many yards since. It 

 is not necessary, at the close of the season, 

 to have a dummy to shut out the bees from 

 every cubic inch of unoccupied space. — Ed.] 



Formalin was reported an utter failure 

 in disinfecting foul-brooriy combs, at the 

 Ontario convention, and Prof. Harrison said 

 it had been learned that, for success, there 

 was needed a low temperature and a moist 

 atmosphere. He advised spraying or sprin- 

 kling the combs, or dipping them in water, 

 and then, after the gas was generated, they 

 should be left in the tight box 12 hours.— 

 Cavadian Bee Journal. [I take it that for- 

 malin was not a failure when conditions 

 were favorable— that is, when there was a 

 moist atmosphere and a low temperature- 

 just how low a temperature is not stated. 

 As a general thing, the reports from sub- 

 scribers who tested the drug were unfavor- 

 able. Until our scientific men can discover 

 a process by which it can be administered 

 without a chance of failure the average bee- 

 keeper had better let it alone. During the 

 early part of last year we advised many of 

 our subscribers to disinfect hives and sus- 

 pected combs with formalin, but in no case 

 to depend on it in case of foul brood when 

 known to be actually present. So far the 

 reports regarding the McEvoy treatment 

 have been uniformly favorable— that is, 

 shaking the bees on frames of foundation, 

 or starters, rather, and then giving them a 

 second shaking after the first foundation is 

 partly drawn out, putting the bees on other 

 frames of foundation. —Ed.] 



The tendency is to get away from sim- 

 plicity. Each bee-keeper, especially if a 

 beginner, is likely to think of some attach- 

 ment to his hive by which a certain point is 

 to be gained. He submits it to friends— 

 perhaps to those with less experience than 

 himself— and they strengthen his belief that 

 he has made a great step in advance. Then 

 he sends it to a bee-editor. The bee-editor 

 says it has good points ; but he doesn't 

 always have the heart to add, "But the cost 

 and disadvantages overbalance the advan- 

 tages." And then for the rest of his natu- 

 ral life that bee-keeper wonders why in the 

 world the bee-keeping fraternity are so 

 blind that they do not all adopt his improve- 

 ment. In the majority of cases, when an 

 improvement is sent to the editor of Glean- 

 ings, his- easiest and most truthful answer 

 would be, "It isn't worth while." I give 

 him great credit for coming as near to it as 

 he does. [Thank you. When an idea has 

 absolutely no merit whatever, in my opin- 

 ion, I do use rather plain and direct Ian- 



