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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



October, 1918 



former secretary of the Oklahoma Beekeep- 

 ers ' Association and now residing in Nash- 

 ville, gave a most entertaining account of 

 his own experiences and told interestingly 

 of beekeeping in Oklahoma. As usual, Mr. 

 Buchanan became the center of a volley of 

 questions, and as usual answered them all 

 fully and freely and helpfully. There was 

 a general lament over the harrowing com- 

 bination of a very short crop and unheard-of 

 high prices. Samples of honey were passed 

 around and compared. If there had been a 

 prize, it would unanimously have been given 

 to Mr. Ellis ' sourwood honey. All the 

 talks were informal and brought out ani- 

 mated discussion and comment. Spring 

 management and wintering were the favor- 

 ite topics for argument. For the most part, 

 even last winter 's losses were not heaVy 

 enough to usher in a general trial of com- 

 plete winter packing, for this fall. One man 

 is at work making chaff hives for all his 

 bees. Others reported good success from 

 top packing only, some over burlap, some 

 over sealed covers, and plan to continue 

 with this. Others use nothing at all, not 

 even entrance-contractors, and plan to con- 

 tinue with this. But great stress was put, 

 almost unanimously, on the necessity of 

 young queens. Eequeening every year was 

 advocated by some. "But if you've got a 

 hundred colonies or more, that 's some job, ' ' 

 protested one beekeeper. Half one year and 

 half the next, then; or just requeen those 

 that seem to need it, were among the sug- 

 gestions in reply. (Personally I seriously 

 question the wisdom of the latter course. 

 A queen may show no signs of failing this 

 summer, and yet have lost enough of her 

 vigor so that a younger one would be much 

 better for next year.) Some brought picnic 

 lunch and others lunched in the college 

 cafeteria. And when we parted at the end 

 of the day, no one had learned any wonder- 

 ful get-rich-quick method of honey produc- 

 tion, but each one carried away the memory 

 of a friendly group under great old trees, 

 the fresh touch of other minds and a definite 

 stimulus towards better beekeeping. Which 

 is what field meets are for. 

 * # « 



Speaking of requeening, hunting queens 

 is a job sometimes. Those few colonies we 

 bought this spring ran to blacks and hy- 

 brids, and I shall never forget the time I 

 had finding their dusky royalties. Over the 

 frames I hunted as I set them out, and over 

 the frames I hunted as I set them back. 

 Then I did it again. Then I sifted them, 

 smoking them down thru an excluder. And 

 mostly I found her, but once I lost her and 

 once she flew away. I certainly should hate 

 to requeen a whole yard every year, if they 

 were of that complexion and of that dis- 

 position, the bees running wildly over the 

 combs and bunching and dropping off, the 

 queens themselves running and hiding, and 

 everybody acting wild and flighty and ner- 

 vous. Perhaps, tho, the resulting spirit of 

 exasperation makes the execution itself less 



difficult. Most Italians, on the other hand, 

 are so quiet when their hives are opened 

 that the queen is seldom difficult to locate, 

 almost never gets excited and often calmly 

 goes about her laying while the comb she is 

 on is taken out and examined. Then re- 

 queening is comparatively easy. Yet it is 

 hard then in another way. Is it squeamish 

 and womanish to admit how hard it some- 

 times is? * * # 



In June we found our bees working most 

 industriously in their new country home on 

 a rather tall weed with which we had no 

 previous acquaintance. Every effort of our 

 own to locate this weed landed us squarely 

 in the Mint Family. Yet we didn 't dare 

 stay there, because according to Gray the 

 seed-like nutlets of the Mint Family are 

 never prickly. And prickly these surely were. 

 About three feet high the plant was, with a 

 square hollow stem, simple leaves opposite 

 each other on the stem, and light purple 

 flowers, that I should call 2-lipped, at the 

 axils of the leaves, and running at the top 

 into terminal spikes. Sounds like the" mints, 

 doesn't it? But there were those prickly 

 little seed suit-cases. Does anybody know 

 what it is? Next summer, if the bees crowd 

 on it so thick again, we '11 get its name and 

 family connection, if we have to send it to 

 some authority for identification. Not that 

 there was much of it, but the little clump 

 by the old shed had always several bees on 

 each stalk, and that roused our curiosity 

 and interest. And a beekeeper 's curiosity 

 and interest, once aroused, are- hard to quiet 



with anything less than the fact. 

 * * * 



Quite a good many beekeepers this year 



ran their bees, or part of them anyway, for 



increase. This accounts in part for the poor 



crop, but even those that were run solely 



for honey produced very little surplus. 



Scanty nectar in the white clover, and the 



long drouth, quite spoiled the season. But 



isn't there another year coming? 

 * * * 



I am in receipt of a bulletin entitled 

 ' ' How to Keep Bees, ' ' issued by the Ento- 

 mological Department of the State Board of 

 Agriculture of Ehode Island. The bulletin 

 was written by Mr. Arthur C. Miller, and it 

 is undoubtedly one of the most able and con- 

 cise treatises on the subject I have ever 

 seen. * * * 



A PICTURE. 

 A group of soldiers near the line — 



A flaming sunset glory 

 Whose beauty gently silences 



Careless laugh and story ; 

 Then thru the silent beauty, bees 

 Go drifting with their plunder, 

 Trailing memories and hopes 

 Across the golden wonder. 

 " We've bees at home," a soldier says, 

 " I've watched them go and come 

 A million times, and in the spring 



I've listened to them hum. 

 When I go back and marry Sue, 



I'll have some apple trees, 



A garden and a climbing rose 



And seven hives of bees." 



