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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOVEMBKR, 1918 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOU'lH 



attendance will be broken. Practically all 

 the county associations will send delega- 

 tions of considerable numbers. This will be 

 one of the rare opportunities to talk with 

 some of the most successful men in the 

 industry and to learn many of their methods 

 which make them so successful. The dis- 

 cussions appearing on the program will cen- 

 ter around the subjects of the proper size 

 of hives for best results, the use of comb- 

 less packages, modern methods of market- 

 ing, with special reference to the possibili- 

 ties of a producers' co-operative organiza- 

 tion, and the honey-producing possibilities 

 of the Upper Peninsula. The most of the 

 program will be in the hands of Michigan 

 men. E. R. Eoot of Gleanings and C. P. 

 Dadant of the American Bee Journal have 

 consented to be present and give Michigan 

 beekeepers the benefit of their broad and 

 very valuable experience. A banquet will 

 be held on the evening of Nov. 20. Plan 

 to side-track everything else and join with 

 your fellow producers in a most enjoyable 

 and profitable time. If you have not receiv- 

 ed a program write to the undersigned. 

 East Lansing, Mich. B. F. Kindig. 



* * * 



Tn Onfarin Following a verv fine warm 



All wiiLdiiu ^yg.^jst -^rhieh gave a nice 



surplus from buckwheat, we in Ontario have 

 had a September unusually cold and wet. 

 With a large number of surplus combs to 

 look after, it has been my practice to leave 

 combs on hives till about Sept. 7, as after 

 that date combs are safe from any damage 

 by moths. I delayed starting to take off 

 buckwheat honey this year till that date, 

 and thereby hangs a tale. Weather turned 

 cold and wet, and in three weeks I had but 

 five days in which I could extract honey, 

 and some of those days were only half days 

 so far as bee work was concerned. The re- 

 sult is that at this date (Oct. 7) I still have 

 about 4,000 pounds of buckwheat on hives, 

 and nearly that much more is piled up in su- 

 pers in a kitchen at home, having been 

 drawn eight miles from an outyard. While 

 it was too cold to extract the honey, yet as 

 the yard was well sheltered I was able to get 

 honey from bees. This season the man who 

 operates from a central base, using escapes 

 to clear supers, and who draws all honey 

 home for extracting, scores without a 

 <loubt. However, even if I did get caught 

 this year by unusual weather conditions, 

 have "no idea that I would prefer the plan 

 of always drawing the honey home to ex- 

 tract. "Many men of many minds" — that 

 is the only way to explain the different pref- 

 erences, or shall we call them prejudices in 

 some cases'? 



I think it was the late J. B. Hall, well 

 known as one of Ontario's best beekeepers, 

 who often said that the most prolific queens 

 and the most populous colonies did not nec- 



essarily mean the greatest honey-producers. 

 While I think that in the great majority of 

 cases the largest colonies do store the most 

 honey, yet, without a doubt, there are ex- 

 ceptions. While clipping last spring at one 

 of the yards where the bees are all in 10- 

 frame L. hives, I came across one of the 

 most populous colonies for the time of the 

 year that I have ever seen. Altho it was 

 only about the middle of May, the hive was 

 boiling over with bees, and every comb 

 about full of brood. In fact nine of the 

 combs were literally solid with- brood, and 

 there was not more than a pound or so of 

 honey in the hive. As the hive had been 

 marked H last fall, that meant that it was 

 very heavy with stores and its present con- 

 dition signified that the bees had used these 

 stores in early brood-rearing. This yard was 

 affected with European foul brood, but the 

 colony in question showed not a cell all 

 thru the season. Naturally I expected 

 great things from such a good showing in 

 spring; but, while the colony stored a lot of 

 honey, yet many others not nearly so popu- 

 lous have stored a great deal more. At 

 present, the colony is extremely populous, 

 and the condition, so far as brood-nest is 

 concerned, shows that the queen has occu- 

 pied about all of the 10-frame brood-nest 

 thruout the season. Buckwheat supers were 

 taken off on Oct. 4, and on examining the 

 brood-nest I found that there was not a 

 pound of honey in the hive, only a few un- 

 sealed cells being in each outside comb, and 

 quite a lot of brood present at this late date. 

 With 70 colonies in the yard, 40 are marked 

 heavy enough for -winter, and the remainder 

 need but from 10 to 15 j^ounds more stores 

 each, while this single colony has not a 

 pound. Evidently this is a case where too 

 much of the colony 's energy is given up to 

 brood-rearing, and the bees, altho in great 

 numbers all the time, for some reason are 

 not as good honey-gatherers as many others 

 in colonies not so prolific. 



Bad weather, as already intimated, has 

 delayed bee work very much. While in many 

 cases not much feeding is necessary, yet 

 what is to be done has been held back very 

 much by the cool weather. Even strong colo- 

 nies would not leave the cluster to take feed 

 from a Miller feeder, and the pails had to be 

 used instead. After all is said and done, is 

 there any feeder just quite so handy and 

 ready for any time as the inverted honey 

 pail with perforated lids. While the wet 

 weather has been bad for bee work, clover, 

 on the other hand, has done magnificently, 

 and fields are now in great shape to go into 

 winter, as so much moisture has made a 

 great growth. Mention was made, in a late 

 issue of Gleanings, of the big yield of alsike 

 this season and good prices prevailing. Since 

 that was written, alsike prices have made a 

 great advance, and I am informed that a 



