658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



IFTING 



Sixty pounds of extracted honey 

 to the can. Yes, that is just right. 

 Will producers please remember? 



That "Amateur" may be an am- 

 ateur at beekeeping, but in de- 

 scribing " the beekeeper who is 



never stung " he is more tlian an amateur. 



He is an artist — page 506, June 15. 



I was greatly interested in the mammoth 

 leaves of sweet clover, page 537, July 1. 

 May its blossoms be proportionately large, 

 with every one dripping with the choicest 



nectar. 



* * » 



As the season for fairs comes around it 

 should be remembered that there is nothing 

 that attracts bees so quickly as overripe 

 pears and bananas. If these are kept pro- 

 tected from bees it is not difficult to keep 

 them from confectionery. 



* * * 



P. C. Chadwick quotes A. D. Wolfe as 

 saying that ''if a stand or two of bees is 

 Ivept in each orchard, the fruit will be larg- 

 er, better-flavored, better-colored, more 

 abundant, and of better keeping quality.'' 

 This is giving the bees a great deal of credit 



for their work. 



* » * 



I may have spoken of it before, but I will 

 mention again that I find many trying to 

 cure American foul brood by caging the 

 cjueens or making them queenless — in fact, 

 by Eni'opean-foul-brood methods. Don't do 

 it. It is no use. They are sure to come 

 down again with the disease. 

 « » * 



I was told to-day how one farmer learned 

 that stock would eat sweet clover. He cut 

 the pesky stuff at the roadside; and after 

 leaving it out for weeks in all sorts of 

 weather he drew it to his barnyard for stock 

 to trample on and make manure. Sti'ange 

 lo say, his cattle left his carefully cured 

 liay and ate the badly weathered sweet 

 clover instead. Let us take courage. " The 

 world do move.'' 



% * » 



Do we sing as we work ? It is interesting 

 to note that tlie birds sing the most when 

 (hey work the hardest dui'ing the season of 

 ricst-building and the rearing of their 

 young. If we cannot sing we may at least 

 read the vei-ses in " The Dixie Bee," for 

 (irace Allen seems to bubble over with song 



like the birds. Glad we are to learn more 

 of her beekeeping experiences through her 



department. 



* * * 



I have been much interested in watching 

 bees working on the buds of a clump of 

 peonies near my door. The buds are 

 almost the exact color of the leaves, and, 

 more, the clump is hidden by the house on 

 one side and lilacs on another, yet the bees 

 have no dilficnlty in finding them. From 

 tliis I infer that the sense of smell plays 

 quite as important a part in bees finding 

 nectar as the sense of sight. 

 » * * 



In bulletin No. 151 of the South Dakota 

 Experiment Station we find a letter from 

 R. A. Morgan stating that he would not 

 hesitate to give $25 per acre as rental for 

 the exclusive right of his bees to pasture on 

 each acre of white sweet clover to be grown 

 witliin IGO rods of his apiary, this offer to 

 be good up to 100 acres. He estimates that 

 the bees would gather from each acre $100 

 Avorth of honey, wax, and pollen that would 

 be valuable to the apiarist, 



* * * 



Were there ever two seasons alike? I 

 have many times thought that a certain 

 season would prove to be like some other 

 season I have known in the past fifty or 

 sixty years; but somehow they all turn out 

 difl'erently. The present season is a curios- 

 ity. We had a heavy rain about the 25th of 

 February, ending in several inches of snow, 

 wlien the rain seemed to be over for the 

 season. Scarcely an inch of water fell from 

 that time till June 11, when we had a very 

 good fall with occasional rains until June 

 30, when it was again very dry. Then it 

 began to rain, and kept it up for eighteen 

 hour's. There was plenty of clover on the 

 ground in early spring, but it looked as 

 though it would all dry up ; but the ground 

 v/as so mellow that the moisture came up 

 from below, and clover began to bloom 

 earlier tlian usual. After the rains began 

 it was so cold and windy that bees could do 

 little. During the last half of May thei-e 

 were many frosty mornings, and even into 

 June, some of them severe. Bees have been 

 whipped out by cold winds and hard work. 

 Not until June 28 did we have good honey 

 weather, and but little surplus has been se- 

 cured. Now, Aug. 1, the ground is again 

 soaked, and we may yet secure a fair crop 

 of honey. There have been veiy few swarms 

 up to this time. 



