E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



3 



EDITORIAL 



A REPORT has recently gained eireulation 

 in California that E. R. Root, now in that 

 State, had offered 

 An Untrue on behalf of his 



Report. company $25,000 to 



the metal - comb 

 jieople for their patent. When Mr. Root first 

 heard this rejiort, he regarded it as a joke. 

 But as the report has been again and again 

 repeated and many beekeepers have asked 

 as to its truth, Mr. Root has wired Glean- 

 ings to the effect that he has made no such 

 offer whatever, and very certainly reserves 

 his judgment of the metal comb until he has 

 made a thoro test of it with the bees. 



UNLESS MAXV of our beekeepers will 

 right about face, there is every reason to 

 believe that the 

 Necessity for coming year may 



Comb-honey experience a comb- 



Production, honey famine, and 



a n overbalancing 

 of the market with extracted honey. So 

 nobly did the beekeepers rally to their 

 country's call for an increased food supply 

 by producing extracted honey and so well 

 did the change pay the beekeeper during 

 war time that many have forgotten the real 

 place that comb honey held before the war, 

 and the place it will again hold as the coun- 

 try gradually readjusts itself. No extracted 

 honey, however excellent its flavor, can ever 

 be quite so pleasing a table delicacy as fine 

 comb honey. 



A vast number of beekeej^ers changed 

 over last year and are now planning to con- 

 tinue in the production of extracted — many 

 of them large beekeepers, too. What is to 

 be the result? Will there not be an over- 

 production of extracted with a correspond- 

 ing slump in prices; and will not comb-hon- 

 ey production become nearly a lost artf If 

 the public were sufficiently educated in the 

 use of honey, there could be no possibility 

 of overproduction for years to come. But 

 the public is not yet sufficiently educated 

 to demand honey as a food staple, so there 

 is the need of laige production of the more 

 attractive kind of honey — comb. 



Not every beekeeper is expert enough to 

 raise comb honey. Those who are, and es- 

 pecially those that have the necessary equip- 



ment on hand, could even now save the day, 

 and incidentally increase their incomes for 

 next year by returning to their previous 

 practice of raising comb honey. 



IvNOWING THAT our readers would be in- 

 terested in the condition of colonies and the 

 crop prospects for 

 Prospects for the coming season, 



the Coming we sent out queries 



Season. to many beekeepers 



thruout the United 

 States. Theii' kind co-oyeration enables us 

 to report a fine condition of colonies gen- 

 erally and a good crop prospect the coming 

 season. Only five per cent have reported 

 anything less than good or excellent winter- 

 ing. Eastern Virginia reports poor winter- 

 ing, and California reports their colonies 

 have wintered from 80 to 90 per cent as well 

 as usual. More than one-third of the re- 

 plies show a lack of stores. In a few cases 

 equalizing will remedy the trouble; in oth- 

 ers, feeding will have to be resorted to on 

 account of early brood-rearing. Altho rather 

 light stores have been reported from New 

 . Jersey, Massachusetts, Iowa, and eastern 

 Virginia, the greatest shortage seems to be 

 in the North and West. 



Twenty i)er cent of those who replied to 

 our questions either believed it too early to 

 judge or else feared the open winter might 

 have injured the honey plants, and were, 

 therefore, unwilling to express an opinion 

 as to crop prospects. Four per cent report 

 the condition of the honey plants from .50 to 

 60 per cent of the normal condition at this 

 time of year. The other correspondents 

 consider the pros))ects all the waj' from 

 good to excellent. 



BECAUSE OF THE exceptionally warm 

 weather this past winter, colonies are now 

 in an unusual con- 

 Reciulre Special dition for this time 

 Attention. of the year. Some 



colonies, especially 

 those with little packing, have been weaken- 

 ed by having the bees tempted out on sun- 

 shiny days only to become chilled and un- 

 able to return. Also, many colonies have 

 been breeding earlier than usual and have 



