692 



GLEANINGS IJ^ BEE CULTURE. 



8ept. 



ter. By all means, tell lis about your com- 

 bination system. 



20 CTS. PER LB. FOR A TON OF HONEY. 



Up gentleman of this State by the name of 

 9!^ Chas. McGee has lately received 20 cts. per 

 ^^ pound for his honey that he sent off to u 

 ■*^^ commission liouse. How will that do for 

 prices? He had about a ton, I utaderstand, 

 of white comb honey, all closed out at once. I in- 

 tend to ship them immediately 2.5 or ;50 hundred of 

 comb honey. I will not g-ive you McGee's or the 

 firm's address this time, for fear too many might 

 rush in their honey atjjne central point, and lower 

 prices. I will later, if wanted. E. L. Westcott. 



Fair Haven, Vt., Sept. 6, 1887. 

 Yonr letter is encouraging indeed. It is 

 well that you and your friend did not try to 

 rush off your crop as soon as you secured it. 

 We are bound to have good prices, at this 

 rate. 



70 LBS. PER COLONY. 



1 have averaged 70 lbs. of honey to the swarm, 

 spring count, from basswood. I have not got any 

 honey from any thing else, on account of the 

 drought. At present I have 90 colonies. 



Kickapoo, Wis., Aug. 20, 1887. G. W. Wilson. 



14 BARRELS OF HONEY. 



We have had a very bad year for honey here. 

 The spring was too dry. The first honey-flow we 

 had, to amount to any thing, began about July 1, 

 and lasted until August 1,5th. I have extracted 

 about 14 ban-els of honey. 



4— F. S. Elder & Bro., 112—120. 



Lake Village, Ark., Aug. 24, 1887. 



27,640 LBS. OF HONEY i'ROM SENECA COUNTY, NEW 

 YORK. 



The Seneca Co. Bee keepers' Association met Aug. 

 27th, to compare notes and give in reports. Number 

 of colonies given, 1540; number of pounds of honey, 

 27,640; for sale to date, 20,000 pounds. All bee-keep- 

 ers but one report less than half a crop. The honey 

 is mostly in 1-pound sections. 



Geo. Lamoreaux, Sec. 



North Hector, N. Y., Sept. 10. 1887. 



1668 LBS. OK HONEY FROM 11 COLONIES, SPRING 

 COUNT. 



I put eleven hives in the cellar last fall. T took 

 out in the spring, the same number, all strong. I 

 increased to 32, two of which are artificial swarms. 

 1 extracted 1668 lbs. of white honey, and sold it all 

 for ten cents per pound around home. There was 

 no buckwheat honey, the weather being too dry. 

 My hives are all shaded with grapevines, on the A. 

 I. Koot style. Geo. Sloason. 



Hawkesbury, Out., Can. 



Well done, friend S. It does us good to 

 see a report like yours, after such a season 

 as'we have had. Was there any one else in 

 your locality who did as well? 



IS A poor season always followed by a good 



one? the ITALIANS " A THOUSAND MILES 

 .\HEAD." 



The season of 1887 will no doubt be remembered 

 by a great many bee-keepers as one of the poorest 



ever witnessed. I have watched the reports given 

 in the bee-papeis with much interest; and with a 

 very few exceptions the reports are discouraging. 

 There was plenty of white clover, but it has not 

 yielded honey. Ked clover yielded bountifully. 

 Basswood yielded scarcely any thing. The colonies 

 at present are nearly at the starvation-point. The 

 average yield per colony in this locality has never 

 been less, up to this time, for years. Honey, too, 

 is not of as fine a quality as usual. Sections filled 

 slowly never have as fine an appearance, and weigh 

 less, than those filled rapidly. I am not discourag- 

 ed yet. even if the season of 1887 was a ))Oor one. 

 There Is always a good season following a bad one. 

 There is always" a chance for success. The ques- 

 tion of Italians or blacks has turned itself right side 

 out again, and will likely open the eyes of some. 

 This slow^season has left the blacks a thousand miles 

 in the shade. The Italians have stored some sur- 

 plus, while the blacks have scarcely got a living. I 

 can trulj- say. that the justly praised Italians are, 

 in my apiary, far ahead of the common bees. They 

 can be handled without smoke, at any time, and 

 they are good protectors of their homes. 

 Douglas, O., Aug. 5, 1887. Fred Leininger. 



^EPei^Tg Digceni^^6iN6. 



WILL HAVE TO FEED BACK. 



J^^ EES in this vicinity have done very poorly this 

 pji season. I have heard of very few swarms, 

 ^^ and little or no surplus honey. We have had 

 ■^^ only one swarm, and it came off late. It has 

 not yet nuide enough honey to keep it till 

 cold weather. The white-clover crop was good as 

 long as it lasted, but the dry weather cut it short, 

 as it did most other crops. We took from 30 to .50 

 lbs. of white-clover honey per colony from some of 

 our hive.^, but we shall have to give it all back and 

 buy sugar besides, for I do not think we have a col- 

 ony that has enough honey to winter. Some have 

 none at all. If other bees are no better off for 

 stores than ours, and there should be no feeding- 

 done, I believe two thirds, at least, of the bees 

 will starve before spring. Gleanings is a good 

 paper. I could not well got along without it. The 

 imported queen we purchased of you last spring is 

 a good layer. Her bees are as gentle as any we 

 have. Levi J. Ray. 



Xenia, O., Aug. 21, 1887. 



1.50 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 55 COLONIES. 



Crops all burned up here. Bees have gathered 

 enough to winter on, and I have taken 1.50 lbs. of 

 honey from .55 colonies, spring count, and had 10 or 

 12 swarms. Wc may get some fall honey yet. 



Muncie, Kan., Aug. 8, 1887. Jas. A. Nelson. 



HONEY CROP NON EST. 



The honey crop this season hei-e has been, practi- 

 cally speaking, non. I shall have to feed the most 

 of my bees. I know a man who keeps 110 colonies 

 about four miles from here, who got less than five 

 hundred pounds surplus this season, and he isn't a 

 beginner cither, having grown gray in the bee-busi- 

 ness. He delights to talk of that grand old mark, 

 Mr. M. Qniiiby. He is, in fact, one of the old Quinby 

 school. W hat a delight it is to spend half a day in 

 company with him, sitting under an apple-tree over- 



