July, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



411 



C 



LJf 



THIS has 

 been a won- 

 derful spring 

 to study the 

 wintering prob- 

 1 e m , especially 

 for the bee in- 

 spector. In the 

 best yard I have 

 seen so far, the 

 bees were wintered in a large drv cellar. 



We have had two or three weeks of good 

 May honey weather and bees have stored 

 enough from fruit bloom and dandelions to 

 carry them well into clover. The dandelions 

 are indeed a blessing in building up our 

 colonies for the summer harvest. 



* * * 



I have no disposition to call Herbert 

 Coffee a liar because he says he had an 

 Italian queen leave her hive and enter a 

 black colony and take possession. We have 

 had a black queen enter an Italian colony 

 and perform the same trick, much to our dis- 

 gust. See page 363. 



* * * 



Commend me to E. S. Miller for his cheer- 

 ful, hopeful spirit in regard to European 

 foul brood, see page 277. To the brave, 

 hopeful, courageous person who is willing 

 to work with his bees, it is not so bad; but 

 for those who never open a hive from one 

 vear 's end to another, it is indeed ' ' a calam- 

 ity. ' ' 



* * * 



That is a most interesting article by lona 

 Fowls, page 338, on the "Best Swarm Con- 

 trol Plan." I take it that the jjlans given 

 are for hives run for extracted honey mostly 

 or wholly. It seems to me that where sec- 

 tion honey is to be produced the placing of 

 supers of brood above would be apt to in- 

 jure the appearance of the surplus honey. 



* * * 



The Editor calls attention on page 332 to 

 the vai'iation of nectar secretion on different 

 soils. This is a matter that has not receiv- 

 ed from beekeepers all the attention it de- 

 serves. The variation is very noticeable 

 here in Vermont, the heavy clay soils in the 

 Champlain Valley yielding far more honey 

 than the lighter soils farther east. 



* * * 



George M. Darrow of the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington has been de- 

 tailed to the War Department for work in 

 the agricultural re-education of soldiers re- 

 turning from France to base hospitals. He 

 ]iioposes to instruct them in beekeeping, as 

 well as along horticultural lines, which will 

 doubtless add many to the ranks of the 

 beekeepers of our country. 



* * * 



The advice of Dr. Miller, on page 348, is 

 worth more to any young beekeeper, if fol- 

 lowed, than any thing else in the June issue 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



w^^^^^^=^ 



TU 



of Cleanings. He 

 says, " absti- 

 nence and mo- 

 deration in youth 

 pay big divi- 

 dends in old 

 age," and he is 

 right. His ex- 

 perience reminds 

 me of the life of 

 Ludovico Cornaro, who lived in the sixteenth 

 century. It will well repay any one who de- 

 sires to live long and well to look it u]!. It 

 surprises me more and more to note in re- 

 gard to those who have given a free rein to 

 their appetites, how large a number have 

 dropped out in the race of life long before 

 they should. 



* * * 



On page 161 Mr. Byer says he finds no 

 difference whether bottoms of hives are pack- 

 ed or not. My experience has been the same, 

 and I have had more than a hundred so pack- 

 ed for many years. — Later. The foregoing 

 was written the last of April or early in 

 May. Since then it has seemed as tho this 

 year the hives packed on bottom have come 

 out better than those without bottom pack- 



In a paragraph on page 350, Gleanings, 

 June, I am made to say "It has seemed to 

 me bees will spread their brood faster when 

 allowed to put their brood into several 

 combs. ' ' What I intended to say was that 

 they would spread their brood faster when 

 not allowed to use several combs but com- 

 pelled to confine their brood to two or three 

 combs until they were well filled. 

 * * * 



J. L. Byer on page 358 reports that his 

 bees which were fed on sugar syrup are in 

 much better condition than those supplied 

 with honey for winter stores. The strongest, 

 he tells us, were ready for supers even be- 

 fore fruit bloom. This doesn 't look as 

 though the sugar syrup was a very bad win- 

 ter diet for bees, as we have sometimes been 

 led to believe. [And yet the same Mr. Byer 

 a few years ago took the Editor to task for 

 favoring sugar syrup as against natural 

 stores. A severe winter like the past is an 

 eye opener sometimes. — Editor.] 

 » * » 



Dr. Miller informs us, page 349, that he 

 would never be caught but once without 

 combs of sealed honey for spring feeding. 

 He says further that these combs may be 

 "often, if not generally, of fall, dark hon- 

 ey." Now say. Doctor, I have had no fall 

 honey stored by bees these fifty or more 

 years, and only in two or three seasons any 

 late summer honey. By the middle of July 

 to the first of August the game is usually uj) 

 with us, and the solid combs of sealed honey 

 must be secured before this time if at all, 

 so we prefer to eke out a short winter sup- 

 ply with sugar syrup. 



