570 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



IFTENG 



Middlebury, Yt. 



It is very dry at this time here 

 in Vermont, June 8. We have 

 liad little rain since Feb. 25. Clo- 

 ver is just beginning to blossom; 

 and what we think we need is a 

 " splendid life-saving rain," as 

 Grace Allen would say. 



Please, Arthur, J wish ^ou wouldn't call 

 the bees "poor little cusses," page 455. It 

 isn't in good form, and almost makes a 

 lump come in my throat. I am whispering 

 this so no one will hear what I say but just 



you and me. 



* * * 



I met our State Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture on a train last week. He informed 

 me that he had sowed several acres of sweet 

 clover this season, and our county agi'i- 

 cultural agent informs me that the interest 

 in this crop is increasing. Well it may, for 

 our old pastures are already drying up. 



« « • 



I quite agree with Wesley Foster, page 

 356, May 1, as to the best method of treat- 

 ing foul brood. Almost any method in the 

 hands of ignorant beekeepers will be liable 

 to prove defective or worse than useless. It 

 needs the patience of Job and perseverance 

 of Paul to keep up the fight. 



When I read that account of 1200 acres 

 of sweet clover, page 375, May 1, I just 

 wanted to migrate to such pleasant pastures 

 at once; but when I turned to the next 

 page and read Virgil Weaver's experience 

 in taking his bees to sweet-clover fields I 

 thought it best to hear both sides before I 

 decided to start. 



« * • 



I find in traveling about that beekeepers 

 have different ways of estimating the value 

 of their bees. Some count the number of 

 their hives containing bees, while others 

 count or estimate the number of bees in a 

 hive. It is almost needless to add that the 

 latter class are the more sucee.ssful bee- 

 keepers. 



« » • 



Mr. T, J. Quail thinks alfalfa never 

 yields honey east of the Missouri River, 

 453, June 1, and asks the experience of 

 other men on this question. Well, I have 

 seen bees work on alfalfa as fast as on 

 any other flowers right here in Vermont. As 

 a rule, however, it docs not yield much 

 honey here in the East. It may later. 



IMore and more dandelions every year. It 

 does one good to look over the fields of gold 

 in May and feel that such gold does not 

 demoralize any one, not even the bees. The 

 fields that were gold have since become 

 hoary with the seed-heads. I found one 

 plant yesterday that had over one hundred 

 heads; and as each head had nearly 250 

 seeds that one plant must have had nearly 

 25,000 seeds — enough, if evenly distributed, 

 to seed well half an acre. Blessings on the 

 dandelions! They have given us this year 

 thousands of pounds of honey that have 

 kept the bees rearing brood in great shape. 

 * * • 



There is a good deal of discussion this 

 spring about the spreading of brood, and it 

 is well. Wesley Foster tells us it should be 

 done with care, page 436, June 1. How? 

 I have found it sometimes advantageous to 

 take a comb of sealed brood just beginning 

 to hatch, and give a weaker colony and take 

 one with a few eggs, and give to the strong 

 one. Sometimes we may spread brood by 

 an empty comb from the weaker colony, or 

 shaving the cappings of honey above the 

 brood, or at one end of the frame of brood ; 

 sometimes, again by taking away a comb of 

 honey and giving a dry comb instead, and 

 finally sometimes by giving a young queen. 

 « • « 



The discussion in the May 1st and May 

 15th numbers of Gleanings as to whether 

 the spraying of fruit-trees injures bees 

 seems rather amusing to one who has had 

 some experience along these lines. One of 

 my yards I found early in May before 

 fruit bloom in fair condition, and coming on 

 well, the same as other yards, but at the 

 close of the bloom I find the old bees nearly 

 gone, and the j'oung bees and brood dying. 

 While all of our other yards have continued 

 to improve, this one has gone back and 

 is not in nearly as good condition June 1st 

 as on May 1st. It seems pathetic to see 

 a ring of dead brood far outside the pres- 

 ent cluster of bees, showing where the 

 cluster was able to rear before fruit 

 bloom, or to see the newly hatched bees 

 crawl out of the hive into the grass to die. 

 Evidently the poisoned honey is stored to 

 some extent or it would not kill the newly 

 hatched bees. Such colonies do not recu- 

 perate readily. The honey continues to 

 kill the brood for some time after the fruit 

 bloom goes by. With care a part of the 

 yard can, perhaps, be put in shape to win- 

 ter; but it looks now as though many of the 

 colonies would die out. 



