338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar, 1 



trocluced into a new locality will result in 

 crosses between Italians and that blood. We 

 shall be pleased to know if any one else has 

 had a similar experience with Caucasian hy- 

 brids. There is one. thing wherein they ex- 

 cel all other races, and that is in propolizing. 

 In a talk with Mr. J. B. Hall, of Wood- 

 stock, Ont., at his home recently, he reiter- 

 ated what he had previously said in public; 

 namely, that, in his estimation, the Cauca- 

 sians were a very undesirable race. They 

 were gentle, according to his experience, but 

 inferior to other bees as honey-gatherers.— 

 Ed.] 



[This department did not reach us until it was too 

 late for its regular place in these columns, and so we 

 accordingrly placed it here. We are making an effort 

 to get our journal out earlier, and not all of our cor- 

 respondents have been advised in time of the change. 

 Mr. Green was one of them.— Ed.] 



MICE AND HONEY. 



There has been quite a discussion lately in 

 the American Bee Jotirnnl between Dr. Mil- 

 ler and E. E. Hasty as to why mice eat hon- 

 ey. Mr. Hasty claimed that mice do not eat 

 honey as an article of food, but out of mis- 

 chief, or only as a sort of relish, and was in- 

 clined to the belief that mice would never 

 eat honey if water were accessible, unless 

 possibly they were starved to it. The theory 

 that mice eat honey for the sake of relieving 

 thirst is not new, as it has often been advanc- 

 ed before. I think it is hardly tenable. I 

 have known mice to do a greal deal of dam- 

 age by gnawing the cappings off of comb 

 honey in a building on the ground floor with 

 a stream of running water within twenty 

 feet on one side and within eight feet of the 

 other side of the building. This in the sum- 

 mer time, with nothing to prevent the mice 

 from getting all the water they wanted by 

 simply going a few feet. It has often looked 

 to me as though mice gnawed the capping 

 off of comb honey out of pure mischief; they 

 did so much damage without appearing to do 

 much with the caps gnawed off. But I think 

 the fact of the matter is that mice are fond 

 of honey, or at least readily acquire a taste 

 for it, but they rather prefer it somewhat di- 

 luted. The caps they gnaw off, with a slight 

 flavor of honey on them are to them what 

 chewing-gum is to a schoolgirl. But if other 

 honey is kept out of their reach they will 

 gnaw deeper and deeper until I have known 

 them almost to finish a comb of honey. They 

 do not always confine themselves to comb 

 honey either, nor is the starvation theory a 

 good one. I have frequently known them to 

 gnaw candied extracted honey, and only 



lately I saw a piece of candied honey that 

 had been considerably gnawed by mice in a 

 pantry where plenty of other good things to 

 eat were accessible. 



,^ 



THE BACTERIA OF THE APIARY. 



I have just been reading "The Bacteria of 

 the Apiary." While much of it is to a large 

 degree technical, and of little interest except 

 to the bacteriologist, the careful gleaner can 

 extract many things of interest to the ordi- 

 nary bee-keeper. One of these is the number 

 of bacteria that ordinarily infest healthy bees 

 and combs, over a dozen species having been 

 isolated and studied. One of these, which 

 occurs quite constantly, is believed by the 

 author to have been mistaken by many in- 

 vestigators for Bacilhis alvei, the cause of 

 European foul brood. All these have been 

 found on only a comparatively few specimens 

 of bees and combs. If bees and combs from 

 a larger territory were studied, it is possible 

 that this list might be greatly increased. It 

 is somewhat difiicult to isolate and positive- 

 ly identify these minute organisms. The 

 author states, for instance, that it is impos- 

 sible to distinguish by the microscope alone 

 between the bacilli causing European and 

 American foul brood. Most of us will agree 

 to the probability that some of the earlier in- 

 vestigators may have mistaken some of these 

 innocent or comparatively harmless bacteria 

 for those that produce disease. 



HOT-V'ATER HEATERS FOR HONEY-TANKS. 



Some one told us a year or so ago how to 

 make a hot-water heater for a large honey- 

 tank. I made one last spring, using an or- 

 dinary two- burner gasoline-stove as a source 

 of heat. It worked like a charm, raising 

 2000 pounds of honey from 65 to 100 degrees 

 in 48 hours. This winter it performed the 

 still more difficult task of melting about 800 

 lbs. of honey that had become candied hard 

 in the tank. Wouldn't I have had a job if I 

 had been obliged to dig that honey out? 

 Only those can appreciate what it would 

 have been who know how hard and tough 

 Colorado honey can become when a well- 

 ripened article is thoroughly candied. 



This heating arrangement consists of a 

 rectangular tank or box as large as the bot- 

 tom of the honey-tank, and \\ inches high, 

 closed on all sides, made of heavy galvanized 

 iron. In the front, near one corner, is the 

 pipe supplying the hot water, \\ inches in 

 diameter From the back corner comes 

 another pipe of the same size, which returns 

 the cool water to the tank, in which it is 

 heated. Between these inlet and outlet pipes 

 the water is made to circulate back and forth 

 by strips of wood IXI^ inches, three inches 

 apart. Besides forming the divisions in the 

 heating-tank, these strips of wood support 

 the weight of the honey-tank. From one of 

 the back corners of the heating-tank rises a 

 perpendicular pipe which allows for the ex- 

 pansion of the water, and provides a place for 

 filling. The tank in which the water is heat- 

 ed is made like the other, but only large 



