676 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



K THE BEST FROM OTHERS 



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A BEE club of 

 12 boys and 

 girls was 

 started in Kan- 

 sas in the spring 

 of 1917 by Chas. 

 A. Boyle, coun- 

 ty agent, accord- 

 ing to Capper 's 

 Parmer for Sep- 

 tember. These boys and girls then clubbed 

 together and purchased an extracting out- 

 fit. Altho they worked with their bees in- 

 dependently they did the work of extracting 

 together. Such good results were obtained 

 that the club has now increased to a mem- 

 bership of 50. 



* * * 



In an Experimental Farm Note in the 

 September Canadian Horticulturist and Bee- 

 keeper, sugar syrup is spoken of as a better 

 winter food than good natural stores. 



* * » 



When a grocer fails he soon finds it out; 

 but thousands of beekeepers are miserable 

 failures and never do make the discovery. 

 This is absolute proof, of course, that bee- 

 keeping is a branch of industry well worthy 

 of effort; for if one can fail and still keep 

 going it speaks well for the returns to be 

 attained under the right management. — E. 

 F. Phillips in American Bee Journal for 



September. 



* * * 



In an article concerning M. H. Mendleson, 

 in the American Bee Journal for September, 

 are the following interesting points: 



' ' He formerly made a practice of requeen- 

 ing all his colonies every two years. Since 

 he has had to contend with European foul 

 brood he requeens every colony that does 

 not build up quickly in spring, and never 

 allows any queens more than two years 

 old." 



"It is his practice to leave about twice 

 as much honey on the hives as will be need- 

 ed in a favorable season." 



' ' A special feature of the Mendleson 

 equipment is the series of big tanks, four 

 each holding seven tons, two eight tons, and 

 one ten tons, providing a combined storage 

 capacity of 54 tons. In addition to these he 

 has several four-ton tanks." 



' ' With a crew of six men he has extracted 

 and filled with honey a seven-ton tank every 

 two days during the rush of a good season. ' ' 



"On one occasion, as a test, he took off, 

 alone, and extracted 1,500 pounds of honey 



in half a day." 



» * » 



By the burning of nearly 2,000 hives af- 

 fected with foul brood, as reported in the 

 July Gleanings, Jamaica proved her real 

 interest in beekeeping. In the annual 1919 

 report of the Jamaica Department of Agri- 

 culture we find the following: 



"I am glad to be able to report that there 

 is every reason to believe that foul brood 

 has been effectively stamped out, and that 



lona Fowls 



r^^^^^3^ 



October, 1919 



this prompt and 

 drastic action 

 has freed the 

 honey industry 

 of the Colony 

 from the inroads 

 of a most de- 

 structive dis- 

 ease. The Legis- 

 lative Council is 

 to be congratulated on its action in authoriz- 

 ing this large expenditure at a time when 

 general revenue was not in an easy condition 

 for meeting extra demands for money. ' ' 



* * * 



Altho rearing no queens for sale, I pro- 

 cure the best blood obtainable from all 

 parts of the United States, testing each one, 

 and rearing queens and drones from the 

 best. A high-class strain is thus assured, 

 and has resulted in the elimination of the 

 Isle of Wight trouble. — Gilbert Barratt, in 

 The Bee World, July. 



* « » 



In an unsigned article in the American 

 Bee Journal for September, the truth of 

 which is vouched for by the editor of that 

 journal, we find the following on page 304: 



' ' At our State convention, Mr. , a 



representative from the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, gave us a lecture, the principal part 

 of it being that they had found a new and 

 much better way of wintering bees than 

 was generally known. He said it had been 

 thoroly tested, and found to be far superior 

 to any other method. He said if the tem- 

 perature of the cellar was 50 degrees, the 

 bees were so quiet and comfortable, and in 

 such a dormant condition, that they requir- 

 ed very little oxygen, and wintered very 

 much better with all ventilators clos- 

 ed perfectly tight than if given air. The 

 cellar must be at that temperature when the 

 bees were put in. ' ' 



The writer of that article said that, altho 

 he had never had his cellar as warm as that 

 when the bees were put in, he decided to 

 try the plan. Before doing so, however, he 

 talked the matter over with a professor who 

 had charge of the State University bees, 

 and found that he, too, intended to winter 

 in this way. He, therefore, bottled his bees 

 up tight without ventilation in an outdoor 

 cellar at a temperature of 50 degrees and 

 left for another State. In February he 

 wrote home for a report of cellar conditions, 

 and learned that the bees were in a deplora- 

 ble condition, several inches deep on the 

 cellar bottom. A good many of the bees had 

 detected a little better air near the door, 

 and there were found piles of bees four to 

 six inches deep. The uneasiness of the bees 

 had increased the temperature to 62 de- 

 grees, and eight bushels of dead bees were 

 on the floor. Out of 109 fine colonies he had 

 less than 25 three-frame colonies left. The 

 university bees also perished, altho the pro- 

 fessor attributed their death to dysentery, 

 and made no reference to ventilation. 



