1887 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUitE. 



593 



;^EP01^¥f5 Dlf5C0Ul^/I^IN6. 



NOT A SPOONFirr, OF HONEY. 



f ROM the looks of a late Gt-kantngs it would 

 seem as II' you had no one to help you keep 

 up the d >p artinent (l(;voted to Reports Dis- 

 ct)urag-ing-. Well, If that is the case we 

 should like to lielji you out a little. We have 

 not had a swarm to issue this season, and have 

 heard of only one or two who did, and those were 

 early in the spring' from hi\'es where the surplus 

 honey had been left on over winter. We also hear 

 that John Nebel & Sons an(i T. Anderson, two of 

 the leading- bee-keepers of this county, are faring 

 no better than ourselves. Mr. C. H. McFaddin, of 

 Clarksburg-, Mo., reports the same thing-. We have 

 not had a spoonful of this year's honey. 

 Mhitfton, Mo., July 7, 1SH7. Miller Bros. 



The honey croj) is a failui-e in this section. White 

 elover failed, and no surplus from that source— on- 

 ly a little from basswood. H. R. Boardman. 



East Townsend, O., July 13, 1887. 



Bees are doing- poorly here. Unless buckwheat 

 and late fall flowers g-ive us a flow of honey we 

 shall have to feed to keep them alive throug-h the 

 winter. T. T. Davidson. 



Parkershurg-, W. Va., July 5, 1887. 



The honey crop is a failure here. It will not pay 



one per cent on capital invested. 1 will g-ive you 



the whys and wherefores shortly. xVll the whole 



State is in the same boat. J. P. Israel^ 



Olivenhain, Cal., May 30, 1887. 



I'ooR prospects. 



Bees are doing- but little here. No swarms yet, 

 and none of ray 300 colonie^are making- surplus 

 honey. We are having- extremely dry weather, 

 with cool nights and north winds. We do not think 

 we shall g-et any elover honey. .1. V. Caluwf.ll. 



Cambridge, 111., June 10, 1887. 



THE WORST season SINCE HE HAS KEPT BEES. 



Bees are not doing much in the way of surplus 

 honey, althoug-h there is an abundance of bloom, 

 both clover and basswood. The weather has been 

 most unfavorable since I have kept bees. Mine 

 have not filled half a dozen sections to the hive; a 

 little better In the boxes for extracting-. 



Morristown, Ind., June 37, 1887. L. Dyer. 



HONEY SCARCE. 



I see by last Gleanings that the honey cro|) is 

 jroing- to be a failure in a g-reat many localities this 

 year. There is no surplus here from clover or linn. 

 Oats and corn are drying up with heat, and very 

 poor prospects for any buckwheat honey. If we 

 don't get rain soon it will be a failure. The de- 

 mand for honey is increasing. 1 think lOcent 

 clover sections will be scarce this year. 



Rimer, Pa., July 8, 1887. S. Heath. 



ITALIANS AHEAD. 



The prospect here is g loomy ; drought— unmitigated 

 drought— cold nights, no dew, pastures burned up; 

 white elover bloomed ten days earlier than usual, 

 but yielded no honey. I have only a few stocks of 

 bees, all blacks but one. The blacks I shall have to 

 feed. The Italian stock Is tilling one or two hiood- 

 corabs, and may live. The Italians rise earlier and 

 go to bed later than the blacks. J. Hamilton. 

 Season, 111. 



FAILITRE OF HONEY CROP FOB C. C.MILLER. 



Our surplus-honey crop has come and gone, and 

 many colonies have less honey than when taken 

 from the cellar. 'I'he worst drought ever known 

 here has prevailed, and clover in some places Is 

 burned dead, root and lininch. From whatlcan 

 learn, the drought has extended over a large sur- 

 face. July 1 the drought was broken by a glorious 

 pour of rain; and, if too late to save the honey crop, 

 it is some comfort to know it has saved the corn 

 «rop- C.c. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., July 7, 1887. 



the winter losses of bees in MAINE. 



A word as to the honey prospects for the season 

 in Maine may not be uninteresting to your readers. 

 The season opened late, (me of the hardest winters 

 ever known lingering into spring. This fact caust-d 

 a great many weak colonies of btes where all did 

 not die outright. I think, as near as I can gather 

 statistics of bees in this State, that the loss by dy- 

 ing might be set at about iO per cent of the whole 

 number of colonics; add to this the weak colonies, 

 of which every ai)lary has a share, the loss, as com- 

 pared with last season, is fully .50 per cent. As far 

 as I can learn, bees wintered in the cellar, at a tem- 

 perature of 40 to 44°, passed the winter in much 

 better, shape than where the hives stood on their 

 summer stands. Bees which were in chatf hives, or 

 otherwise thoroughly protected, wintered with 

 much less loss than when unprotected. In my case, 

 out of 11 colonies came through the winter and 

 died in May. 



The harvest of honey from fruit-bloom has not 

 been equal to the average one; the cause being, no 

 doubt, the weak condition of the colonies. Last 

 year, swarms issued as early as May Si, and kept it 

 up through the close harvest of honey. This year, 

 the earliest swarm 1 have heard of issued al)out the 

 13th of June. 



In many sections of the State, the spring, up to 

 June 30, was exceptionally di-y, but little rain fall- 

 ing after the last of April. But the exces.-ive 

 amount of snow of last winter coming upon the 

 ground before it was frozen any, and remaining till 

 settled warm weather, gSve us fields free from win- 

 ter-kill, and white clover in abundance. The clover 

 is just now coming fairly into blossom, and bees 

 are at work upon it. We are hopeful of a bountiful 

 honey-harvest from the clovei-. L. F. Abbott. 



Lewiston, Me., June 31, 1887. 



PROSPECTS poor. 



Never, in the recollection of the oldest inhabi- 

 tant, has there been so complete a failure in honey 

 as 1 am bound to report from this section of coun- 

 try this season. There was a very profuse white- 

 clover bloom, but almost an entire absence of nec- 

 tar. Linden produced a very meager How, and 

 many colonies have not the wherewith to pass them 

 over another winter, and will have to be fed, 

 should we have no fall harvest. Last season, in an 

 apiary of 49 colonies I harvested 4473 lbs. of honey 

 by Aug. 13; whereas, up to the present date not one 

 ounce has been taken, and probal)ly will not be 

 very soon. This state of circumstances seems to 

 embrace a large per cent of the State, and probably 

 of the whole country. If we are to credit reports 

 from various sections. 1 am constantly interrogat- 

 ed by friends and neighbors as to why our bees 

 don't swarm; and my answer has been, " No honey 

 in the bloom; " but the question comes here: Why 



