274 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CuLtURE. 



ApK: 



HONET TO BE NAMED. 



Will you please tell me what kind of honey I send 

 you sample oTf T bought it in the central part of 

 this State. Is it not California honey? 



H. P. Langdon. 



East Constable, N. Y., Mar. 17, 1887. 



[Friend L., the sample of honey is something- I 

 am not much acquainted with. I will explain to 

 our readers that if is, when partially candied, of al- 

 most snowy whiteness. The flavor comes nearest 

 to some honey 1 once saw in Michigan, said to have 

 been gathered from a species of flreweed, if I re- 

 member correctly. There is very little flavor of 

 any kind in it, and it is almost like simple syrup, 

 although there is a slight taste that reminds one of 

 the woods.] 



NEW COMB HONEY IN WISCONSIN ON THE 18TH OF 

 APRII.,. 



T NOTICED an article in March 1st Gleanings, 

 ^ headed, " New Honey in Ohio on the First 

 ^l Day of May. and ended with, "Can any 



"*■ one beat that? I should like to hear from 

 them if they can." Signed J. S. Barb, Bris- 

 tol, Ohio. Well, I do not wish to boast, but I 

 can beat this considerably, even in Wisconsin. I 

 finished carrying my bees out of the cellar the 

 16th of April ; and, as I reported before, the most of 

 them were verT/ weak; but I had one colony that 

 was good. My bees are all weighed when they are 

 put in the cellar, and again when they are taken 

 out, and this one 1 weighed again on the evening of 

 the 18th, and found a gain of 12 lbs. of fine honey 

 from soft maple. I then put on surplus combs, and 

 the weather turned cool, but still they stored about 

 20 lbs. more in April. This swarm was carried out 

 the night of the Ifith, and they were the lazy Ital- 

 ians too. If any one can beat this, let me hear. 

 Hillsboro, Wis., Mar. 10, 1887. Elias Fox. 



bees in ARKANSAS. 



In Southwestern Arkansas my bees began to 

 gather pollen about the 20th of .Tan., from the maple 

 and watei--elm. There have been but five or six 

 days since but that the bees have been gathering 

 pollen or honey. I noticed in Gleanings, March 1, 

 that some one said he had new honey the first of 

 May. Well, if he were down here he could get 

 some in March. I had some new surplus honey last 

 year the 1.5th of March. My bees are the Arkansas 

 brown bees — a very large bee. J. W. Taylor. 



Ozan, Ark., March 5, 1887. 



honey from the hard maple. 



Bees in the Tar-Heel apiaries are booming. The 

 bees have been "dropping " in right along the past 

 week, and continue to do so at present. They are 

 storing honey from the hard maples (we have no 

 other here). Pollen has been stored plentifully 

 since January 36th. It is an unusual thing here for 

 bees to store so much honey from maple as they 

 are now doing. Most colonies have plenty of young 

 bees reared, and are already flying. 



5— Abbott L. Swinson, 71—70. 



Goldsboro, N. C, Feb. 26, 1887. 



THE FIRST SWARM. 



Our first swarm came out this morning at 8 a. m. 

 Temperature .58°. Bees are bringing in some honey 

 from haw, willow, etc. Even our nuclei have been 

 building comb for ten days— the first noticed— drone 

 of course. J. W. K. Shaw & Co. 



Loreauville, Iberia Parish, La., Mar. 1, 1887. 



0n^ 0WN ^nnm. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



BLUSTERING WEATHER. 



1|= T this writing, March 29, we are unable 

 ^'^ to give any thing definite as to the 

 j^^ condition of our bees. There has not 

 -^^ been a suita])le day for examining 

 them for the hist two weeks. As we 

 felt sure that they \vere not running short 

 of stores, we did not peek under the cush- 

 ions and " heft " the frames as we could 

 have done, in a manner before described 

 under this head. Had there been one or 

 two days warm enough, we should have 

 thoroughly gone through the apiary, solely 

 for the purpose of ascertaining whether any 

 more foul brood had developed ; but every 

 day has been so chilly that we hardly 

 thought it best to pull out and examine 

 every comb in the apiary. It might be dis- 

 astrous to some of the weaker colonies. 

 Besides, if there is a possible case of foul 

 brood during this cold weather when no 

 bees are flying, it could hardly do any 

 harm. 



To-day, while sitting here it is cold and 

 blustering outside. The temperature this 

 morning was 12 degrees above zero — rather 

 cold for lis at this date. 



OUR OUT-APIARY. 



We have already had some correspond- 

 ence with a party with reference to estab- 

 lishing an out-apiary. The location is five 

 miles from Medina, and we are informed 

 that there is an abundance of alsike sown 

 within the immediate vicinity. It does not, 

 however, have very much basswood near 

 by, owing, probably, to the fact that there 

 is a sawmill half a mile or so distant. In 

 fact, 1 might say it is quite difficult to find 

 any considerable amount of basswood in 

 any one location within a radius of five or 

 ten miles of Medina. Farmers around here 

 have been in the habit of cutting up their 

 basswood logs for the " Home of the Honey- 

 Bees," to be cut up into sections. In the 

 words of that homely expression, we have 

 been " cutting off our own nose," seeming- 

 ly. However, we will not take space to dis- 

 cuss here whether or not bee-keepers as a 

 rule had better'cut up the basswood-trees, 

 or let them remain for the bees. 



As has been stated, this out-apiary will 

 be used for the purpose of testing more 

 thoroughly some of the modern appliances 

 for the production of comb honey. Our 

 own'home apiar> for flie last ten years has 

 been devoted almost ^exclusively to the 

 rearing of queens; hence we realize the 

 necessity, not only for our own benefit, but 

 for the benefit of our customers, of testing 

 every thing that comes up— in short, as far 

 as it may seem feasible and practicable, to 

 continue more thoroughly the work of an 

 experimental stati(m. W^' 



Later. — Since writing 'the above we have 

 had quite a material change in tlie weather. 

 The Dright sun is shining, and the glorious 

 (?) ^' Medina mud " has come. There is still 

 a cold breeze this afternoon, an(i scarcelyfa 

 bee is flying ; therefore we can not, as we had 

 hoped to do, report in regard to foul brood. 



