482 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



IFTiNG 



, Vt. 



We find our weak colonies win- 

 tered better in cellar than out of 



doors. 



» * * 



Bees appear to have wintered 

 fairly well in western Vermont; 

 clover the same. 



One of our yards of 98 colonies where 

 they get enough honey during August to 

 keep up brood-rearing and supply them for 

 winter, wintered without the loss of a single 

 colony, proving what has seemed for a long 

 time true, that our success in wintering 

 depends a good deal on the previous season ! 



Our bees have shown the greatest loss in 

 wintering where they gathered the least 

 during August, with one exception, and 

 that was where a large number were molest- 

 ed by thieves. 



* * * 



Adam Leister's prophecies, page 326 and 

 327, are certainly very comforting, and we 

 hope they will be fully realized. Last year 

 it was very wet through April, with drouth 

 later. Clover is very abundant hereabouts. 



* * * 



I quite agi'ee with J. L. Byer as to the 

 value of those ten-pound pail feeders, page 

 194. I have used them for years, and know 

 of nothing cheaper or better. If they were 

 made of better tin they would last longer, 

 however. 



We have found steam from a kettle for 

 use with a steam uncapping-knife most ex- 

 cellent for softening and toughening the 

 corners of one-piece sections when putting 

 them together. They go together very much 

 better than when water is used. 



* • * 



Louis H. SehoU tells us, page 222, March 

 15, how to keep down the swarming fever, 

 and then as a clincher says, " After all, the 

 secret is to begin to prevent swarming be- 

 fore the desire to swarm has ever awakened 

 in the colonies. Remember that." Good 



advice, surely. 



* » « 



I can well believe what John W. Love 

 tells us on page 324, April 15, about the 

 yield of honey from banana blossoms. I 

 have taken several drops from a single 

 flower. I should think it would be a bee 

 paradise in Central America, where so 

 many are grown. 



* » « 



We have found that an excellent way to 

 strengthen very weak colonies is to shake a 

 lot of young bees from a strong colony, 

 selecting a comb where they are hatching 

 fast. Any old bees on the comb will return 

 to the hive from which they were taken, 

 while the baby bees will remain to cheer and 

 strengthen the weak colony. 



The Quinby number for April 1 seemed 

 to me a great success. I feel as though I 

 had never fully appreciated this gi'eat man. 

 In reading of Quinby and Langstroth the 

 thought comes home to me anew with re- 

 newed force, how few are those who do the 

 hard thinking for the world! It is much 

 easier to do what some one tells us than to 

 think for ourselves. 



* * » 



We fed last fall some 15,000 lbs. of sugar 

 syrup without the addition of a drop of 

 anything to prevent granulation. It was 

 made two parts sugar to one of water by 

 weight. A good deal was fed after Oct. 15, 

 and much of it to weak colonies. I presume 

 4000 lbs. or more remained in the combs 

 unsealed ; yet I find very little granulated 

 this spring — less by far than when wintered 

 on their own stores. 



* * * 



I am glad to learn from Gleanings for 

 March 15 that the A. I. Root Co. is going to 

 use Mr. Poppleton's old yard at Pompano 

 for rearing bees and queens. I see no rea- 

 son why bees should not breed there freely 

 the year round. I spent nearly a mouth in 

 the yard in March and early April, and 

 had swarms almost every day. Pollen was 

 very abundant, and the bees bred rapidly, 

 although little honey was coming in at that 



season. 



* * * 



Mr. T. Rayment on page 151, Feb. 15, 

 tells us of his feeding experiments. I no- 

 tice that those colonies fed on candy of 

 sugar and honey required but little more 

 than half as much as hives fed on honey 

 alone, while those fed on sugar and egg ate 

 less than half as much and had more brood. 

 One lot he fed on pure sugar wintered well, 

 but required a little more than when fed on 

 pure sugar candy with honey mixed with it. 

 Some years ago I had some colonies short 

 of stores the latter part of winter or early 

 spring, and bought a quantity of domino 

 sugar and laid it on the frames and found 

 the bees ate it without difficulty. The fact 

 that Mr. Rayment's bees consumed the least 

 food, and did the best when it contained 



