18«7 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



583 



drawing- to a close.'* This expresses the situation 

 e.vaetly. Well, what an? we g'oing- to do about it? 

 We can keep our dishes rig'ht side up, and 1 jx-o- 

 suine niost of us iiavo lost nothing' I'roiii luck of 

 care in tliis direction, lnit we can't make lioney- 

 showers. Those of iis who are fortninite enoug-h to 

 luive any surplus will probably find ready sale for 

 onr honey at a x'ood Hg^ure. Prices will probably 

 not go so hig-li thai, our income will be what it would 

 luive been had the harvest been abundant; still, 

 this is not impossible. Farmers sometimes make 

 the most money during' the years when crojjs are 

 light. Twenty-tl\(' or even twenty cents per pound 

 for comb honey would be a big- boost for those of 

 ns who have a few hundred pounds tt) sell. That 

 these flg-ures may be reached, does not seem at all 

 improbable. Already honey is being' quoted at 

 IH to Itt cts., while nearly every market is re{)orted 

 as bare of honey. Honey - dealers are becoming- 

 really intei-ested in the situation. Only a few days 

 ago I received a letter from Thurber, Whyland & 

 Co., makiua- inquiries in regard to the honey-crop, 

 and asking-, ■• What is the outlook?" Those who 

 have honey to sell should not be in a hurry to mar- 

 ket. Certainly nothing- can be lost bj- waiting until 

 November or December. 



And now a word about the bees. Many of them 

 Avill probably be short of stores, and, unless fed, 

 will die of starvation the coming- winter. Many 

 bee-keo'.iers will " lose their heads," become dis- 

 gusted and discoui-agcd with the bee-business, and 

 the bees will be neglected. Honey will bring' a big 

 price, and by ne.\t spring their courage will return, 

 and those who have bees to sell will have no difficul- 

 ty in getting- good prices. So, to those who will at- 

 tend strictly to business the short crop of this year 

 may be a blessing in disguise. See that the bees 

 are well cared for; that they go into winter quar- 

 ters in flrst-class condition. This will probably be 

 one of the years when it will pay to winter the bees 

 on sugar, as the difference in price between honey 

 and sug'ar will be greater than it has been in several 

 years. Keep a stiff upper lip, and, if you must re- 

 treat, do so in good order. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kog-ersville, Mich., July H, 1887. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS AND CAUTIONS. 



FEEDING A COLONY FROM WHICH A fiV/AKM HAS 

 ISSUED. 



■Jfo COKRESPONDENT writes us: "I wish you 

 ^fti. would tell us in GuE.iNiNGS some quick, relia- 

 ^Ir ble method C)f determining- from which col- 

 •^^*^ onyaswarm has issued, said swarm having- 

 come out in the absence of the apiarist, and 

 Is found by him on his return hanging- on a limb." 

 Well, here is the way I do. Finding' such a swarm, 

 and not knowing' where it came from, I take a box 

 which will hold about a ijuart, and g'ct about a tea- 

 cupful of the bees in it, which are kept contined 

 while the rest of the swarm is being hived. If one 

 side of the box is of g-lassit can be positively known 

 if you get the queen with your few bees, yet she is 

 not very apt to be where you will get her. Having 

 the swarm hived, they are to be carried to where 

 they are to stand, when T uncover the box, and 

 with a kind of whirling motion I toss the bees out 

 of the bo.\ into the air. After circling about a 

 moment or so they will return tt) the hi\e the 



swarm came from, commencing to fan their wings 

 in front of the entrance, thus (luickly and certainly 

 telling you where they came from, .\fter throwing 

 them in the air 1 wait a moment or two, wh<!n [ 

 rapidly pass through the bee yard till 1 see them 

 fanning at a hive. In this way it is easy tf) know 

 all about it, even in a large apiary of :IW or '.M) colo- 

 nies. 



VIKM) KKOM WMT-rK ci.ovioi;. 



Another writes: "I hav(? seen it stated as pi'ocif 

 that there is no such a thing as overstocking si lo- 

 cality with bees, that a single acre of white clover 

 will furnish, in a good season, at least 100 pounds 

 of surplus each, to 2.5 or ;Ji) colonies. Is this a fact?" 

 Let us figure a little. That would be 2.500 lbs., at 

 the lowest estimate, in suritlus honey, for an acre 

 of white clov'er in a single season, to say nothing 

 about what the bees consume. Then a square 

 mile would give 1,600,000 lbs. of s\iriilus; and if, as I 

 claim, the flight of bees reaches four to five miles 

 from the apiarj' in every direction, we should have 

 the enormous amount of — well, we have lost our 

 breath trj'ing to comprehend that product, as it 

 exceeds the prodtiction of the world. Talk about 

 legislation for bee-keepers! All Dr. Miller has to 

 do is to fence off a few acres of his farm, and he is a 

 rich man; yet the above estimate was made, if my 

 memory serves me right, by one of our most noted 

 writers on the honey-bee. I never saw an acre 

 of c'over which I thought yielded 50 lbs. of honey; 

 for had it done so, when more bees were added to 

 my locality the average yield would not have de- 

 creased as it has done. When it comes to basswood, 

 with a good yield, I do not know that we have ever 

 been overstocked; for at such times a bee could 

 load up on a single sprig of blossoms, and, when he 

 returned, could get another load again ; yet it is not 

 often that even basswood j'ields like this. xVt such 

 times it is no great stretch of the imagination to 

 believe a large tree in the open lot would produce 

 50 pounds, or as much as an acre of clover: but 

 when we really come down to the truth of the 

 matter, what do we know about it? Well, even ad- 

 mitting we know very little about it, 1 think we 

 know only enough to credit the quoted stateiuent 

 as fallacious. 



BXTIIACTING FROM BKOOD-COMBS. 



Still another writes: " Shall I extract the honey 

 from the brood-combs when working the apiary for 

 comb honey? Some of my colonies have several 

 frames neai-ly filled with honey, and are crowding 

 the queens, not going info the sections at all." I 

 am led to mistrust that the colonies spoken of 

 above have not been rightly managed, or they 

 would not be in this condition. I find that, when 

 bees are allowed to begin the storing of any great 

 amount of honey in the brood-nest, they will con- 

 tinue so to do to a greater or less extent the entire 

 season; that is, a colony that is allowed to cramp 

 the queen'once is very likely to continue it through- 

 out the whole season. Very much depends on the 

 control which is had over the brood-nest during 

 the preparation of the colony for the season's 

 work— such control as can be had only by an apia- 

 rist who is thoroughly familiar with all the habits 

 of the bee, and who, by the use of division- 

 boards, reduces the size of the brood-nest to the 

 necessities of the colony, or enlarges it as is requir- 

 ed to meet the demands of the queen, thus manag- 

 ing the brood-chamber .so that, at the commence- 



