460 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKK. 



JUiVK 1 



There are some other reports from the 

 East, that indicate that the season has 

 been very backward. It has been very 

 much so in this locality. It has been cold 

 and chilly. Brood-rearing has been held 

 in check, and the bees are " snappy." Mr. 

 Doolittle says the season has been very dis- 

 couraging in his locality; and so, taking it 

 all in all, there ought to be a general ton- 

 ing of prices, east as well as west. 



I hope the buyers will not get the idea 

 that I am telling all this rigmarole to stiff- 

 en the market for the benefit of our sub- 

 scribers. No, gentlemen, I am telling you 

 the exact facts as they come to us. 



THE VALUE OF DOUBLE-DECKERS FOR HON- 

 EY PRODUCTION IN POOR LOCALITIES. 



Some two or three years ago, as our read- 

 ers will remember, I spoke of the fact that 

 at our out-yard the two-story eight-frame 

 hives, if properly handled, would yield 

 more honey, even in proportion to the num- 

 ber of bees, than a one-story eight-frame 

 hive. Some of the veterans at the time 

 seemed to question the correctness of this. 

 I have had some reports from various bee- 

 keepers who have tried it, and they speak 

 favorably of it. I have just received a let- 

 ter from one of the most extensive bee-keep- 

 ers in California, Geo. W. Brodbeck, at 

 Los Angeles. Under date of May 10, he 

 says the crop will be light in Southern Cal- 

 ifornia unless there is rain soon. Then he 

 adds, " By the way, friend Ernest, if you 

 could see my 150 double-deckers this year, 

 and the way they are storing honey (I was 

 up there last week) at the beginning of the 

 honey-flow, when others in the hiunediate 

 vicinity were feedifig, you would hurrah 

 for the double-deckers." Italics mine. The 

 only point I wish to make at this time is 

 that some of our best honey-producers I do 

 not believe realize the importance of strong 

 colonies, and a heavy force of bees ready 

 to go into the field at the opening of the 

 honey-flow, especially if the season or the 

 locality is poor, and I do not believe that 

 one with an ordinary eight-frame brood- 

 nest can rear all the bees or brood that a 

 good queen is capable of supplying. As I 

 have before said, there should be brood in 

 both upper and lower stories of the double- 

 deckers: then at the beginning of the honey- 

 flow the bees should be crowded down into 

 one story, putting on a shallow story with 

 extracting-frames at first. After they get 

 well started in these, take them off and put 

 on a super of sections containg full sheets 

 of fovindation. Mr. Wardell says that our 

 12-frame Langstroth hives and 10-frame 

 Jumbo have each powerful colonies. 



I do not advocate large hives or double- 

 deckers for all localities; but if any brother 

 bee-keeper is in a place where he does not 

 succeed in getting honey, let him try it. 



A CLEAR CASE OF POISONING. 



Died, May 18, 1902, by poison adminis- 

 tered by some unknown hand, our red-clo- 

 Kcr queen, the breeder whose bees during 



the last three or four years made such a 

 record on red clover. She was in her fifth 

 year at the time of her death ; and al- 

 though we kept her down by taking brood 

 from her for rearing queens, her colony this 

 spring was one of the most prosperous in 

 the whole apiary. At the time of her death 

 her bees were making a good showing dur- 

 ing fruit-bloom. Ay, there's the rub. That 

 explains her premature demise. Some 

 neighbor within bee-flight, I do not know 

 who he was, spraj^ed his trees, probably, 

 while in bloom. Perhaps he had bought 

 one of Stahl's outfits and followed his di- 

 rections. The facts are these: We have 

 been finding young brood dying in many of 

 our hives, and in not a few instances queens 

 dead at the entrance, just as we have found 

 them before during spraying time; and our 

 old faithful red -clover mother, from whom 

 we have been rearing more queens than 

 from any other breeder we ever had, was 

 one of the ill-fated. If her bees had been 

 less active she would have been alive to- 

 day. But, no: if there was any nectar to 

 be had they were out bright and early, at 

 it first, last, and all the time; and when- 

 ever we wanted to get an idea whether 

 there was any or not, all we had to do was 

 to go and take a peep at Mrs. Red Clover's 

 combs. As a rule they would bulge days 

 and days before a similar condition could 

 be found in other hives of equal strength. 

 But, very fortunately, anticipating that she 

 might die of old age we had reserved some 

 of her select daughters that last summer 

 gave a fine showing; for blood will tell, 

 even if their mother might be called a. freak. 

 But it is a fact, nevertheless, that, if we 

 could restore this queen and put her back 

 to a year old, $200 would not buy her. 



But there is no use now in crying over 

 spilled milk. But it will not be our fault if 

 Ohio does not have an anti-spraying law 

 two years hence. The legislature that just 

 adjourned was so overwhelmed with a mul- 

 tiplicity of bills that we saw at the very 

 start it was almost useless to try to get any 

 thing through. But we will endeavor to 

 have a bill drafted this time against spray- 

 ing in full bloom, and have it "thrown 

 into the hopper " at the very beginning of 

 the "grind," two years hence. 



THE BIG CONVENTION AT DENVER. 



The Colorado State Bee-keepers' Associ- 

 ation is making plans on an extensive scale 

 to entertain the National Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation at Denver. Among other things 

 they will give a complimentary banquet to 

 the members of the National Association 

 f i-om other States, and a ' ' seeing Denver ' ' 

 trolley ride to all the attractive places in 

 the city. The local bee-keepers say they 

 expect to spread themselves in such a way 

 as to make the visiting bee-keepers proud 

 of having attended the Denver meeting. 

 The Governor, the Mayor of Denver, and 

 the Secretary of the Denver Chamber of 

 Commerce, will interest themselves in mak- 

 ing the meeting a success. More anon. 



