GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



October, 1918 



W?n' 



c 



LJ 



E are hav- 

 th e 



best yield 

 of g 1 d e 11 r d 

 honey I have 

 ever known. 

 Colonies that 

 were very short 

 of honey the 

 middle of Aug- 

 ust have gathered enough for winter. It will 

 help solve the winter-feeding problem 'and 

 save many tons of sugar. 



* * * 



J. L. Byer says on page 548, Sejjtember 

 Gleanings," if you have no buckwheat in your 

 locality or other fall sources of honey," etc. 

 Other writers seem to consider buckwheat 

 as well as goldenrod, asters, and Spanish 

 needle as fall flowers, yet the buckwheat 

 blooms in August and has gone by before the 

 middle of September. Goldenrod comes a lit- 

 tle later, but that too has mostly gone before 

 the sun has crossed the line. The aster began 

 blooming the last of August with us this year, 

 and may last for a month or until October. 

 We also have some second blooming of sweet 

 clover, that may last until the ground 

 freezes; but our main sources of late honey 

 are buckwheat and goldenrod that come be- 

 fore the autumnal equinox. I have been 

 wondering if we would not be nearer right, 

 if we were to call these later sources of 

 honey late summer bloom rather than fall 

 flowers, as we have been accustomed to do. 

 Maybe, after all this is onlv a question of 

 ' ' locality. ' ' 



* * « 



I cannot help envying young beekeepers 

 when I see and read the many things, help- 

 ful information especially, found in our 

 modern bee journals. Take the matter of 

 cellar-wintering discussion which the Sep- 

 tember number of Gleanings contains. 1 

 have been figuring up how much more it has 

 taken in honey or sugar syrup to winter my 

 bees out of doors than it would if I had be- 

 gun with a good cellar and stuck to it thru 

 all these years I have been keeping bees. 

 .Well, I find it has taken some 200,000 pounds 

 or more of honey or its equivalent of sugar 

 to winter my bees than it would, had I win- 

 tered in a good cellar. Enough to make a 

 poor man well off! We think of the cost of 

 a good cellar or repository in a sidehill, yet 

 to winter 500 colonies out of doors this com- 

 ing winter will take at least 5,000 pounds 

 more than in a good cellar, which at the 

 present price of extracted honey would 

 amount to the snug sum of $1,000 — enough 

 to build a pretty good winter home for the 

 bees, and then it would be just about that 

 much saved from year to year. 



Dr. Miller says, page 538, "It is a good 

 plan to put wet cappings down cellar to 

 drain." Well, that is one way; and another 

 is to soak them out in water and drain it off 

 and feed to bees, However, I believe I 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



TU 



have a much 

 better way than 

 either. After 

 most of the hon- 

 ey has drained 

 out, I molt the 

 cappings and run 

 them thru a wax 

 separator. The 

 wax runs out in- 

 to one vessel as clean and. pure as you could 

 ask for, and the honey into another, while 

 the dirty wax can be taken into still another 

 — a great improvement over carrying cap- 

 pings into a cellar. All the honey and wax 

 are saved, with the least possible amount 

 of work. * * * 



Dr. Miller and C. A. Aeppler appear to 

 disagree as to the source of vitamines, page 

 537. Dr. Miller thinks they are found in 

 the honey, while Mr. Aeppler is equally sure 

 they are found only in pollen. Now, whether 

 Mr. Aeppler is right or otherwise, it seems 

 very doubtful that we shall ever be able 

 to persuade jieople to eat pollen for the sake 

 of the vitamines it may contain. If Mr. 

 Aeppler is right, Dr. Miller is also partly 

 right, for nearly all honey contains more or 

 less pollen. * * * 



The Editor of Gleanings tells us on page 

 522 that the movement in favor of a large 

 brood-chamber is quite general, and that 

 eight-frame hives are going out of fashion. 

 I wonder if this is not, in part at least, the 

 result of beekeepers turning their attention 

 more largely to producing extracted honey. 



* * *■ 



"The cage that will do it," page 351! I 

 am glad, for a safe and sure way to get 

 bees from the South in spring is going to be 

 a matter of great importance in the future, 

 I believe, as there is likely to be a shortage 

 of bees here in the North in the spring for 

 many years to come. 



* * * 



Those hives with supers on cover page of 

 September number of Gleanings look pretty 

 good. Lots of work to brace up a lot of 

 hives in that way, did you say? Maybe, but 

 it will i)ay if the bees will fill them. 



* * * 



There has been an unusual call for honey 

 this season, many persons coming from a 

 distance in automobiles and taking a supply 

 back with them. 



J. E. Crane in April Gleanings seems to 

 think Weaver wants to sow sweet clover on 

 other people's land. Well, that may be; 

 but almost anybody would consent to a per- 

 son 's sowing the railway right of way. As 

 to the railway companies, they have no op- 

 tion in the matter, as all jjlants on the right 

 of way belong to the de facto owners of the 

 land itself who pay the taxes on it. The 

 same rule applies to county highways. In 

 short, first find limy land, and then ask the 

 owner for permission to sow. 



Battlecreek, Mich. Chas. A. Johnson. 



