September, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



547 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



before spring. All queens that are not 

 known to be first class should be superseded 

 at once. When colonies are requcened late 

 in the summer, brood-rearing will continue 

 much later than in those colonies in which 

 there is an old queen. This condition is 

 very desirable, inasmuch as it insures a 

 large number of young workers to carry the 

 colony over until spring. Every queen that 

 is not up to standard should be superseded 

 now. 



From the best information available, it 

 seems that there is likely to be a local sugar 

 shortage this fall, similar to the one ex- 

 perienced last fall. With this in mind, 

 every beekeeper should preserve combs of 

 sealed honey for feeding. If it is possible 

 to secure sugar later on, then the honey can 

 be extracted and sold. Any beekeeper who 

 has had disease to contend with, or whose 

 honey crop has been cut short by the 

 drouth, should send in at once for a sugar 

 affidavit, in order that a permit to buy may 

 be secured as soon as possible. There is a 

 great deal of delay at present in securing 

 these permits, as the Food Administration 

 is receiving daily from 2,500 to 4,000 let- 

 ters. Many beekeepers produce honey in 

 shallow extracting supers. If such supers 

 filled with honey are reserved for feeding, 

 there is no more profitable use to which 

 that honey can be put. Nearly everyone 

 agrees that sealed honey is much preferable 

 for feeding to sugar syrup, provided, of 

 course, that the honey was produced by a 

 colony free from disease. The story-and-a- 

 half hive is also more conducive to good 

 wintering than the one-story hive, because 

 it allows a colony to cluster a consider- 

 able distance above the entrance. The place 

 between the brood frames and the shallow 

 extracting-frames also makes an ideal path 

 for the bees to travel from one comb to an- 

 other. Last winter the college bees were 

 wintered in two-story hives, with the upper 

 story filled with sealed honey. These colo- 

 nies were wintered in packing cases, and 

 most of them had only one-half inch auger 

 holes for entrances. Every colony wintered 

 exceptionally well, excepting one that lost 

 its queen. 



The matter of good packing cases was 

 mentioned last month, but I wish to again 

 empliasize the necessity of Michigan bee- 

 keepers making preparation for winter now. 

 When honey was very cheap and food was 

 not particularly in demand, one could \)0»- 

 sibly be excused for not giving the best 

 of care in wintering. With honey at the 

 present price and with such an incessant de- 

 mand for sweets, it seems that the giving 

 of proper protection to the bees is one of 

 the ways in which every beekeeper can 

 demonstrate his loyalty and patriotism. The 

 matter of protecting bees in winter has 

 gone beyond the experimental stage. It is 



definitely known that a colon}' must be well 

 protected in order to be in the proper con- 

 dition for gathering the maximum crop 

 the next season. Packing cases can be made 

 from very cheap and otherwise useless lum- 

 ber. As one honey buyer said recently: 

 "At the price of honey today, the beekeep- 

 ers are getting as much money for one crop 

 as they used to get for three, and it is noth- 

 ing more or less than good business to give 

 the bees more protection than they used to 

 have. ' ' 



A joint meeting of the Branch County 

 Beekeepers' Association and the Steuben 

 County, Ind., Association was held at tlie 

 apiary of H. W. Barnes of Orland, Ind. 

 Frank Wallace, State Entomologist of In- 

 diana, Mr. Yost of the same ofiice, and the 

 State Inspector of Michigan were present 

 and addressed about 40 beekeejjers. Mr. 

 Yost demonstrated American foul brood. 

 This is the beginning of what is expected to 

 be a very close co-operation between the 

 apiary inspectors' offices of Indiana and 

 Michigan, with the end in view that a closer 

 relationship between the beekeepers on both 

 sides of the line may be established, and 

 foul brood thus more effectively controlled. 



East Lansing, Mich. B. F. Kindig. 



In Ontario — ^* *^^^ *^^^*^ (^^g- 5) it is 



possible to have a better 

 idea as to what the crop of white honey is 

 like here in Ontario, as we have had reports 

 from many parts of the Province. Eeports 

 are extremely variable, for while many sec- 

 tions have a very light crop, others not far 

 from these places have a fair yield. White- 

 clover localities have done better than 

 usual, especially in places where late 

 rains came and freshened up the clover, 

 thus prolonging the season while other sec- 

 tions were all dried up. My own largest yield 

 has been in a locality where little, if any, al- 

 sike is grown. So for the first time in my 

 beekeeping experience I have to report white 

 clover beating out the alsike for honey -yield- 

 ing. But taking one year with another, al- 

 sike is beyond question the main honey source 

 for Ontario, and without it many beekeep- 

 ers would soon go out of business. While 

 the crop will average larger than last sea- 

 son, on the other hand bees in the Province 

 are mucli reduced from last year, so it is a 

 question if there is much more honey avail- 

 able than last year. Prices are firm, and at 

 this date it looks like 25 cents wholesale 

 for No. 1 honey. In fact, I know of sales 

 having been made at that figure; but, on the 

 other hand, some have sold at much lower 

 prices. 



Basswood seems to have been a total fail- 

 ure, and, unless we get rain soon, buckwheat 

 will not be a big yielder eitiier in honey or 

 <;iaiii, as it is in ])l(ioiii anil onlv a few 



