1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



897 



I would risk it, though to be on the safe side I 

 might try halt" my bees each way. b. I am not fa- 

 miliar with buckwheat honey. We get very little 

 of it here. The honey gathered from heart's-ease, 

 which is a near relative of buckwheat, is unsur- 

 passed as a wintering food. I think I should pre- 

 fer it to clover. J.A.Green. 



The above is a question that is now agitating the 

 mind of every bee-keeper in the Eastern States; 

 and the honey-dew is of such a consistency that it 

 can not be extracted. Those who have no extra 

 combs have no alternative but to let them winter 

 on these stores. Even with extra combs we do not 

 learn of a bee-keeper who is feeding sugar syrup. 

 The cost of sugar, time, and trouble, we think, will 

 equal the value of the bees. The Rambler believes 

 it will be cheaper to buy hees by the pound in the 

 spring to supply the deficiencies. We are happy to 

 say, that nearly all of our colonies have extra-nice 

 clover and basswood honey to winter on. When 

 extracting we save a case of honey for each colo- 

 ny for just such emergencies, b. If we had well- 

 ripened buckwheat honey, we would certainly ex- 

 change the honey-dew for it, and feel no uneasiness 

 about the wintering problem. So far as our obser- 

 vation goes, buckwheat honey is an excellent win- 

 tering food. Rambler. 



lean readily imagine, that, in a different apiary 

 and field, the proper course of procedure might be 

 different from that which is best here. With me it 

 is a case of boy vs. woodchuck. Bees must winter 

 on their own stores, else their keeper must go out 

 of the business. In a field with an ocean of flowers, 

 and comparatively little honey in them, it is necessa- 

 ry to keep a large number of colonies; and the ex- 

 pense of stocking them all up for winter with 

 granulated sugar is too great to be borne. Keep- 

 ing 100 colonies, and expecting to take 20 lbs. apiece 

 from them, is a very different affair from keeping 

 40 colonies and expecting to take 100 lbs. apiece 

 from them. I do not know that buckwheat is more 

 unsafe for winter than other late honey, but I sus- 

 pect it a little. I think honey-dew varies greatly as 

 to its wholesomeness. If the stores are known to 

 be bad, double up the colonies the stronger in the 

 fall, so that they can keep warm without eating so 

 much of the stuff. E. E. Hasty. 



Dr. Southard, of Kalamazoo, who, by the way, is 

 one of the brightest and most expert beekeepers 

 of the day, as well as a physician and somewhat of 

 a chemist, held views like my own regarding honey- 

 dew; and several years ago, when everybody's 

 bees all over the country gathered so much honey- 

 dew, and were all going to perdition with it in the 

 winter, the doctor thought he would like to know 

 something positive about it; so he saw to it that 

 five or eight colonies, I forget which, had nothing 

 but honey-dew. He winters outdoors, and usually 

 loses but one or two out of a hundred, and, sure 

 enough, the five colonies having honey-dew ex- 

 clusively, wintered as nice as a pin. I think I have 

 demonstrated that dysentery among bees, the one 

 and only worthy cause of winter losses, is not 

 caused by honey-dew nor cider, nor any thing of 

 the kind, but by the consumption of nitrogen from 

 bee-bread or floating pollen. Well-ripened buck- 

 wheat is as good stores for winter as any in the 

 world, in my opinion, and I am answering this 

 question from long experience and observation. 

 Your bees may die on the stores they have, or on 



any other, except pure granulated sugar syrup in 

 combs containing no pollen, and the bees placed in 

 a warm repository. Then they never die. 



James Heddon. 



Only two of the above decide positively in 

 favor of extracting the honey-dew, and re- 

 placing it with stores of sugar syrup— Da- 

 dan t & Son, and Freeborn. Very likely 

 there are circumstances where it would be 

 prudent to throw out the honey-dew, but if 

 it were well ripened and sealed up in the 

 combs, I should be very loth to do so. Some 

 years ago a neighbor of ours had the very 

 worst kind of spring dwindling. The stores 

 seemed to be frothy, dark-colored, and bad- 

 tasting, and he felt satisfied it was the sort 

 of food that killed them. I believe he sav- 

 ed only a few colonies out of an apiary of 

 over 100 colonies. By my advice, however, 

 he took some of the combs from the hives 

 where the bees had died, and prepared sev- 

 eral colonies the next winter, to go into 

 winter quarters on these objectionable 

 stores. They had almost no other. Did it 

 kill themV No. To my great surprise, and 

 his also, the colonies so treated wintered 

 nicely. 



]S[0JFE$ JKJtfD QaERIEg. 



We solicit for this department short items and questions of 

 a practical nature; but all questions, if accompanied by oth- 

 er matter, must be put upon a separate slip of paper with 

 name and address. 



THE 1892 CENTENNIAL. 



I wish to second your suggestion for the appoint- 

 ment of our good friend Dr. Mason for the '92 cen- 

 tennial. He is just the man. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Oct. 10, 1889. 



QUEENS AND DRONES IN COPTTLO. 



Yes, some one about 18 years since related in the 

 American Bee Journal that something struck on the 

 rim of his hat and fell on the ground immediately 

 before him. On looking closer he discovered that 

 it was a queen and drone in the act of copulation. 



Ventura, Cal. R. Wilkin. 



THE SIZE OF THE JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT GRAINS. 



I have some of the Japanese buckwheat; and, as 

 I expected, I can not clean it jwith my mill. The 

 grains are too large. F. A. Snell. 



Milledgeville, 111., Sept. 26, 1889. 



[Well, friend S., you have given us a positive 

 proof of i he extra size of the Japanese buckwheat 

 that had not occurred to me before. I presume 

 you can get an extra sieve, either of wire cloth, or, 

 perhaps better still, perforated zinc, to match the 

 Japanese grain. If others have had like difficulty, 

 we will try to look up something specially suitable 

 for the buckwheat.! 



BEES NEAR SALT WATER. 



Some years ago I saw an article in Gleanings, 

 saying that bees near salt water would make salt 

 honey, or honey that is worthless. That is a pure 

 fabrication, or worse. I have 50 colonies in a salt 

 marsh, and the bees do just as good work as those I 

 have two miles from salt water, and there is no dif- 

 ference in the quality of the honey. 



John Farnsworth. 



Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, Sept. 26, 1889. 



[Friend F., we have had several communications 

 to the same effect.] 



