1120 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1905 



SIZE OF HIVE ENTRANCE FOR WINTER. 



I was a little surprised at the editor's 

 statement that he would prefer an entrance 

 as small as an inch wide and i inch high. I 

 always believed in a good big entrance for 

 winter, about g high and 11 wide; but I 

 wanted the top of the hive tight and well 

 protected. Perhaps with more upward ven- 

 tilation a smaller entrance would be better. 

 1 1 is an easy matter to prevent an entrance 

 from being clogged with dead bees. This is 

 secured by setting the hive on a rim that 

 will raise it about an inch and a half from 

 the bottom-board, and having it so arranged 

 that the entrance is in the upper edge of 

 this rim. I used these for a number of 

 years, and thought them very valuable in 

 Illinois, though they do not seem to be as 

 necessary here; but, though I like a large 

 entrance for winter, I want to close it down 

 as soon as they begin to raise brood in the 

 spring. [See answer to a Straw in this 

 issue.— Ed.] 



SWEET CLOVER. 



I was a little surprised that any one 

 should not understand my position in regard 

 to the quotation about sweet clover on page 

 904. Perhaps it was taking too much for 

 granted to suppose that everybody would 

 understand it without direct comment in op- 

 position, but I felt sure then, as I do now, 

 that there are several thousand, at least, of 

 Gleanings subscribers who know more 

 practically about sweet clover than this so- 

 called professor of botany. It will not do, 

 though, to assume that this knowledge is 

 possessed by everybody. Popular prejudice 

 is undoubtedly against it, and is hard to 

 overcome. I remember once hearing a poor 

 farmer's wife lamenting that the drouth 

 had been so bad that they had been able to 

 raise scarcely any feed for their drove of 

 cows, their principal means of support. She 

 did not see how they were going to live that 

 winter. It so happened that the road com- 

 missioners had that very day cut down a 

 luxuriant growth of sweet clover, extending 

 for several miles along the highway that 

 passed their place. I advised her strongly 

 to have him put this up for hay, telling her 

 that there was a quantity of first-class feed 

 to be had for the hauling. I learned after- 

 ward, though, that he was so firmly of the 

 belief that it was worthless that he would 

 not even experiment with it, and they 

 pinched and scraped to make a living from 

 their poor half-starved cows for which they 

 might have had an abundance of nutritious 

 feed if they had only had a little faith and 

 common sense. 



/sr 



CORRUGATED PAPER IN SHIPPING-CASES. 



Some have asked why, after using the cor- 

 rugated paper strips in shipping cases for 

 some years, I have abandoned them. For 

 two reasons. They were a little more ex- 

 pensive and troublesome, especially after 

 manufacturers began supplying drip-cleats 

 with all cases. Secondly, experiment show- 



ed that I did not really need them. I have 

 never had much breakage in shipping comb 

 honey. I do not remember that a single 

 broken comb was ever reported, and I know 

 that a great deal of the honey I shipped 

 went through without any breakage, for 

 nearly every ca?e was opened by myself 

 after shipment. Others have trouble from 

 breakage. Why? Because the combs are 

 not well attached to the section. Nearly 

 every comb of my honey is well attached to 

 all four sides of the section. This is be- 

 cause I use a thin section and a sheet of 

 foundation that nearly fills it. If I had as 

 much loss from bi'oken honey as some peo- 

 ple I have known, I should think the corru- 

 gated paper a necessity. I have had sample 

 lots of honey sent me, of which nearly half 

 would be broken down. I have no doubt 

 that, for the greater part of the honey sent 

 to market, these corrugated paper strips 

 would be a great advantage; and if the man- 

 ufacturers of cases would make them in a 

 wholesale way, and supply them with their 

 cases, the cost would be but very slightly 

 above the wood strips. 



RIPENING COMB HONEY. 



The editorial comment on page 1008 would 

 seem to indicate the belief that the keeping 

 of honey over from one season to the next 

 was the main point aimed at in my experi- 

 ments and articles on the prevention of 

 granulation in comb honey. This is by no 

 means the case. While my experiments 

 have shown that Colorado comb honey can 

 be kept for a year or more without granula- 

 tion, I would not wish to be understood as 

 advising this or advocating it as a practical 

 thing to do under ordinary circumstances. 

 The fact that this can be done, though, 

 shows that the tendency to candy in the 

 comb, which has been considered an objec- 

 tion to Colorado comb honey, and has led to 

 its practical rejection in some markets, is 

 something which may be avoided. There 

 would ordinarily be no profit in holding hon- 

 ey over from one season to the next; but if 

 we can prevent this granulation which has 

 given Colorado honey a bad name in some 

 quarters it will mean a better market for 

 our fine honey and many more dollars in our 

 pockets. Nor are the advantages to be con- 

 fined to Colorado bee-keepers, for every pro- 

 ducer of comb honey will be benefited, and 

 will find his product improved if he will fol- 

 low these suggestions. 



It is no new idea that comb honey is ripen- 

 ened and improved by being kept in a warm 

 temperature. Other writers as well as my- 

 self mentioned it a number of years ago and 

 have advised it at intervals since. 



Warmth alone is not sufficient. To ripen 

 honey pi'operly the air must also be dry. 

 Then the honey in the row of unsealed cells 

 that is often next to the wood will be evap- 

 orated down so that it will not run out, even 

 if the section be laid on its side. Also any 

 broken cells will have the honey in them so 

 thickened that there will be no leakage from 



