1554 



GLEA^'1NGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



there. The thing is so common that I had 

 not thought worth to take special notes; but 

 seeing your interest in the matter, Mr. Edit- 

 or, I may be able to give you some exact fig- 

 ures another summer. [It often happens 

 that what is common knowledge on our own 

 part is not known by the outside world. Of 

 course, we have known for years that scouts 

 are sent out prior to the issuing of the swarm; 

 but it has not been known that they go in 

 such numbers as you observed. We shall be 

 glad to have you take note of any thing 

 further.— Ed.] 



I. HoPKiKS urges that every producer of ex- 

 tracted honey have a hydrometer, and never 

 put any honey on the market testing less than 

 1400 — Australian Bee Bulletin, 124. Now, 

 that is something definite for you, and the 

 necessary outfit, hydrometer, glass, and ther- 

 mometer, costs less than $2.00. [The sugges- 

 tion was made at the Harrisburg convention 

 that every extracted-honey producer, at all 

 events every bottler of extracted honey, 

 should own a hydrometer, and the same idea 

 has been advanced on other occasions. It is, 

 perhaps, proper that the suggestion be em- 

 phasized more forcibly than it has been. In 

 this connection we would say that we should 

 like to get matter from those who have used 

 hydrometers for the purpose of testing the 

 specific gravity of honey, and we should be 

 particularly pleased to have them give their 

 reasons for using them. — Ed.] 



In America, says Editor Kramer, the im- 

 portant question is, how to prevent swarm- 

 ing. In Switzerland he says it is a solved 

 problem — solved in the only natural way 

 through weeding out swarmy stock. If he 

 means, by that, that that is what should be 

 done to attain the desired end, then I may 

 say that some of us are working on the same 

 line here. If he means that they have already 

 reached non-swarming bees, I wish Herr 

 Kramer would tell us the number of colonies 

 in a hundred likely to swarm in his non- 

 swarming stock, if not more than two or 

 three I'd like a queen of that stock, no mat- 

 ter how black. [This question of swarming 

 is very largely a matter of locality. In cer- 

 tain parts of Texas, California, and the West, 

 there is no swarming after the main honey- 

 fiow sets in. What swarming there is, takes 

 place at the preliminary flow of honey. Pos- 

 sibly Editor Kramer lives in a locality where 

 there are no preliminary flows, but one heavy 

 one, so there will be very little tendency on 

 the part of the bees to swarm; therefore a 

 little effort to breed out the swarming ten- 

 dency might make quite a showing. 



Yes, we should be very glad to get one of 

 those queens; but we feel sure her bees would 

 swarm in this country, at least in the white- 

 clover regions of our Northern States, the 

 same as other bees on which an intelligent 

 effort has been made to breed out swarming. 

 —Ed.] 



J. L. Byer, American Bee Journal, 722, 

 says that, a few years ago, he prepared a 

 number of colonies with paper for winter 

 protection, as recommended in Gleanings 



for Oct. 1. While the bees packed in the 

 "good old way" came through in grand con- 

 dition, he says: "Bees in hives covered with 

 paper, in different parts of the yard, nearly 

 all perished, and what were left were mere 

 nuclei in the early spring All I have heard 

 of in Ontario, who tried the plan, reported 

 somewhat similar results. [This is an inter- 

 esting and timely report. Perhaps we had 

 better not put too much dependence on pa- 

 per winter cases; but inasmuch as the ex- 

 perience of ourselves and that of some 

 others is not like that here given, we 

 do not think it would be wise to abandon 

 paper winter-cases just yet; but a mere cap 

 of paper covering a single-wall hive is not a 

 sufficient protection. There should be sev- 

 eral folds of newspaper or other packing-ma- 

 terial under the paper cap to give the hive 

 the necessary protection. We can see no 

 reason theoretically why such a packing-ma- 

 terial, protected from the weather by an oil- 

 ed or tarred paper, should not give just as 

 good results as the same packing- material 

 surrounded by a wooden case. Doubtless 

 many of our subscribers will be testing this 

 idea to a considerable extent this winter. 

 We shall be glad to have them take notes 

 and report next spring. — Ed.] 



Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! 



A CORRESPONDENT asks US to tell him the 

 source of bright-red pollen found in the cen- 

 tral part of Pennsylvania. The flora of dif- 

 ferent localities varies so that it would be 

 impossible for us to guess. Perhaps some 

 one in the vicinity can enlighten our friend. 



The reader's attention is called particular 

 ly to a very valuable article by E. D. Town 

 send, giving the Coveyou method of extract- 

 ing and bottling honey. We believe our 

 young friend may be able to teach some of 

 the Gamaliels some new tricks of the trade. 

 At all events, we suggest that they sit for a 

 while at his feet. 



OUR CHRISTMAS ISSUE. 



We take pride in presenting this issue to 

 our readers. It is not only rich in illustra- 

 tions but in valuable matter. It will pay 

 any of our readers to lay it aside carefully 

 and keep it for future reading. The article 

 by Mr. Townsend, for example, is worth a 

 year's subscription price; and yet we run 

 across bee-keepers every once in a while 

 who "can not afford to take a bee-paper," 

 and complain that their " bees don't pay." 



