24 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



have been promised. For information 

 and particulars, address the Sec- 

 retary, H. C. Klinger, Liverpool, Pa. 



Switzerland 



A letter from the editor of the 

 Swiss Bulletin de la Societe Ro- 

 mande : 



October 25, 1918. 



Dear Mr. Dadant: I have your 

 note. I am glad that you find some- 

 thing of interest in our little maga- 

 zine. 



You say that your crop is short. I 

 am sorry to hear that, for sales are 

 quick and, if you could export, there 

 would be a great profit, as I believe 

 the price is still higher in France 

 than in Switzerland. 



In most of Switzerland the crop 

 was fine, such, in fact, that we have 

 to look back a number of years to 

 find one like it. The first fortnight 

 of July was favorable, during 12 to 14 

 days giving crops of 10 to 12 pounds 

 per day, and even as far as 22 

 pounds in a single day. It is 

 honeydew, but of good quality, 

 though very dark. It sells as readily 

 as fine spring honey, at 57 cents per 

 pound, retail and 48 to 49 cents 

 wholesale. 



The war situation is favorable, 

 thanks to the formidable help of 

 your country. The Boches are "let- 

 ting go" and everyone says "thanks 

 to the United States." Your country 

 is now writing one of the finest 

 pages of history. 



Beekeeping is getting a new and 

 considerable elan and our little maga- 

 zine has an increase of a thousand 

 subscribers. We are just now mak- 

 ing an investigation, through the 

 presidents of the association 

 branches, concerning the value of 

 honey as an "anti-flu" food. It has 

 been ascertained that beekeepers are 

 generally immune. Just how correct 

 this is we hope to find out. 



Cordial and respectful salutations, 

 SCHUMACHER. 



(The honeydew of Switzerland 

 must certainly be better in quality 

 than what we harvest in this country. 

 We have yet to find honeydew that 

 could bring more than half the price 

 of fine clover honey. — Editor.) 



Nebraska Meeting 



The Nebraska Honey Producers' 

 Association will hold their annual 

 meeting on Wednesday, January 22, 

 at the University State Farm at Lin- 

 coln, Nebr., and have arranged a 

 very full program for the day. 



In the morning session Mr. F. C. 

 Pellett, of the American Bee Journal, 

 will give an illustrated talk on 

 "Honey Production as a Business." 

 This will start at 9 o'clock. Another 

 thing in the morning will be a dis- 

 cussion on county organization. 

 This will be led by F. G. Maxwell, of 

 Douglas county, who is secretary of 

 that branch. The Douglas county 

 branch is becoming a very live or- 

 ganization. It has already sent in an 

 order for supplies for members and 

 sent a committee to the extension 

 service of the State asking for aid in 

 getting an extension man for this 

 State, and prospects are becoming 

 brighter every day for such help. 



The afternoon session will begin 

 with the business meeting, a new 

 constitution will come up for adop- 

 tion and everyone who takes interest 

 in the honey business should be pres- 

 ent and see that everything is done 

 right. 



After the business meeting Profes- 

 sor F. Eric Millen, the State Apiarist 

 from Iowa, will give a talk on "Bee- 

 keeping and Beekeepers, as Seen by 

 a Bee Inspector." Several Nebraska 

 beemen who had time, have been to 

 the Iowa meetings and they were so 

 loud in their praise of Professor Mil- 

 len that we have made arrangements 

 to have him speak. 



W. P. Southworth, of Sioux City, 

 will give a talk on "Modern Equip- 

 ment of the Apiary." Mr. South- 

 worth is President of the Western 

 Honey Producers' Association and 

 they have made such a success of 

 their co-operative work that we have 

 found it desirable to hear how they 

 do their business. 



At the finish of our meeting we 

 will hold an open discussion or 

 question box, which will be handled 

 by Mr. H. C. Cook, of Omaha. In 

 Mr. Cook we have a man who has 

 proven what Nebraska is capable of 

 producing when it comes to honey, 

 and I am sure that nearly every 

 beekeeper in the State knows him. 

 O. E. TIMM, Sec. 

 Bennington, Nebr. 



Heat Insulators for Beehives 



The last quarterly report of the 

 Michigan Agricultural Experiment 

 Station contains an article on the 

 above subject from the pen of R. H. 

 Pettit based on experiments con- 

 ducted with the aim in view of de- 

 termining the value of different ma- 

 terials for the purpose of wrapping 

 bees wintered out of doors. We 

 quote the article in its entirety: 



"So many claims have been made 

 by users of corrugated paper for the 

 purpose of wrapping and thus re- 

 taining heat in winter beehives, that 

 it seemed worth while to test the 

 heat insulating value of corrugated 

 paper as compared with several 

 other forms of packing or wrapping 

 material in common use. These va- 

 rious mater. als were compared with 

 dead air spaces in standardized 

 chambers of cubical form, the cham- 

 bers being double-walled, and each 

 being provided with a 2-inch space 

 on all sides, suitable for packing the 

 materials to be tested. 



"The experiment was started in 

 1916, being planned by the writer and 

 started by Mr. G. C. Woodin, an as- 

 sistant in the experiment station at 

 that time. The observations were 

 completed by Mr. P. B. Wilteberger, 

 the successor of Mr. Woodin. who 

 also computed the resulting data. 



"These chambers were stored in a 

 comparatively cool place and a con- 

 stant source of heat applied electri- 

 cally inside. Readings were taken, 

 at intervals, of the temperature 

 maintained inside the chambers and 

 these were checked against a cham- 

 ber of similar construction, but 

 which was provided merely with 

 dead air spaces on all surfaces. 



"As will be apparent, the results 



aimed at are merely comparative. 

 The materials tested were corru- 

 gated card board, dried leaves, 

 planer shavings and mineral wool. 

 In all cases enough material was 

 used to supply a 2-inch layer of the 

 material under observation. From 

 our tests it would appear that the 

 heat insulating values of the various 

 substances compare about as fol- 

 lows : 



Dead air space 18 



Corrugated card board 3i 



Planer shavings 2A l /z 



Mineral wool ZS l / 2 



Forest leaves 41 



"Omitting dead air space from con- 

 consideration, then corrugated card 

 board, the most expensive material 

 used, is least efficient, and ordinary 

 leaves raked up, dried and firmly 

 packed, give the best results of any. 

 They have the further advantage of 

 being easily obtained and are the 

 cheapest material that we could find. 

 "Tests were also made to deter- 

 mine the relative rates of heat loss 

 when one surface of the chamber 

 was left unpacked. When the bot- 

 tom surface was unprotected there 

 was a loss of about 3% degrees Fah., 

 in temperature. One unprotected 

 side produced a loss of 4 degrees. 

 With the top surface alone unpro- 

 tected, a loss of nearly 5 degrees re- 

 sulted, which plainly shows us that 

 the loss in temperature from leaving 

 the bottom unprotected is very con- 

 siderable, indeed." 



R. H. PETTIT, 

 Entomologist of experiment Station. 



Spring Losses — Caucasians 



The difficult problem of this local- 

 ity is to get the bees through the 

 spring from the middle of March to 

 the first of May. My loss during 

 this time has never been less than 25 

 per cent. The loss occurs with both 

 the outdoor and the cellar wintered. 

 I believe the cause is the absence of 

 bloom for the bees to work on dur- 

 ing the days they can fly. Pollen 

 substitutes and feeding do not seem 

 to be able to check the loss. 



Last April, when I set the bees out 

 of the cellar, I left a nucleus in the 

 cellar to see how long it could be 

 kept there. It stayed there until the 

 first day of May. The cluster at this 

 time was no larger than a quart 

 measure. Salt sage was beginning 

 to bloom when I set it out, and there 

 was soon an abundance of pollen for 

 the bees to gather. Instead of 

 dwindling, as the others did, this nu- 

 cleus held its own, was soon gaining, 

 and was ready for supers before 

 many of the colonies that had been 

 set out the first of April. I believe 

 the difference is that the bees of the 

 nucleus were kept inactive till there 

 were natural stores for them to 

 gather. By reason of this experi- 

 ence I intend to keep 300 colonies in 

 the cellar till the first of May next 

 spring. 



In the season of 1915 I procured a 

 Caucasian queen to be used as a 

 breeding queen. During the past sea- 

 son three daughters of this queen 

 gave me a total of 850 pounds, 125 

 pounds of which was extracted. This 



