1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1185 



production of the black rich soil, was of an am- 

 ber color (although of good flavor), unlike the 

 wild red raspberry further north, on the light 

 sandy soil, where the nearly water-white red-rasp- 

 berry honey of to-day is produced. The amber 

 raspberry honey, when mixed with the white, 

 gave a natural blend that was superb, both as to 

 color and flavor. 



Another man in the field about Mr. Gardner's 

 time was Mr. Hiram Roop, of Carson City, 

 Mich. Mr. Roop's bee-yard was located some 

 15 miles southwest of the Gardner bees, in Mont- 

 calm Co. This was before there was much 

 known about out-yards, and Mr. Roop kept his 

 bees all in one place until he had 150 to 175 col- 

 onies in his home yard. It was one of those ear- 

 ly "bumper seasons" that he had the distinction 

 of selling $3000 worth of honey from this one 

 yard, in one season — a record probably never 

 beaten in the State. 



At the present time this lower part of Michigan 

 has three main sources of surplus honey — white 

 and alsike clover, and basswood. While there is 

 some buckwheat sown in this territory, I do not 

 include it in the list as a surplus-honey producer, 

 for on the rich soil of Southern Michigan it rare- 

 ly produces any surplus; and when it does I think 

 it would be when it is sown on a rather poor 

 quality of sandy soil. 



Basswood is the most unreliable of the three 

 sources of white honey mentioned above. In the 

 first place, the wood-lots on the farms are getting 

 smaller each year, so that there are but few loca- 

 tions left in Southern Michigan where there is 

 enough basswood timber left to support an apiary 

 of 100 colonies of bees and produce a surplus, ex- 

 cept in very favorable years. Our basswood 

 yields only every second year, and but sparing- 

 ly, even then. Fruit-trees bloom profusely near- 

 ly every year, but there is very much less fruit 

 each alternate year. It would seem that the trees 

 do so much one year that they need the next for 

 recuperation. 



Basswood is the same in this State; but, unlike 

 fruit, it blossoms only every alternate year to the 

 extent necessary to produce a surplus crop of hon- 

 ey. With bloom sufficient for surplus honey 

 every second year, a crop of honey may be secur- 

 ed provided there is any basswood timber in 

 reach of the bees, and providing weather condi- 

 tions are favorable. I have seen a dashing rain- 

 storm cut off the basswood flow when but half 

 over. One of these washing showers seems not 

 only to stop the honey-flow but to pound the 

 delicate blossoms so that they turn black. The 

 ideal time for flowers to secrete nectar is during 

 a rainy season when no rain falls. This condi- 

 tion of the weatner is not essential in all cases, 

 for some of the best flows of honey I ever had 

 from clover came when it rained nearly every 

 day — when the bees had to do their work between 

 showers. They made up lost time because the 

 damp weather kept the clover in bloom for a 

 longer period. 



I am indebted to Mr. O. H. Townsend, Otse- 

 go, Mich., for the idea (which I have since veri- 

 fied) that, when a drouth comes during the mid- 

 dle of a clover-flow, and we are wishing for rain, 

 this is the time of all times when we do not want 

 rain, for this partially dried-up clover would be 

 washed to such an extent as to stop the secretion 



of honey for the year, or until a new crop of clo- 

 ver is grown. On the other hand, if there is no 

 rain at this time the flow may last several days 

 before it stops entirely. 



White clover is more certain than basswood, as 

 a honey-yielder, because it is not quite so sensi- 

 tive to the weather conditions; and if there is a 

 good stand of clover in the fall that is well pro- 

 tected in winter with a good covering of snow, we 

 may, with fair weather, expect a honey-yield 

 from white clover. 



There is one clover that the Michigan bee- 

 keeper can bank on, and that is alsike; and I 

 think I can safely say that it is worth all the oth- 

 er sources of honey in the southern two-thirds of 

 Lower Michigan put together. The bee-keep- 

 ers in these southern counties are fortunate if 

 they are in an alsike-clover location. 



The ideal alsike location for a bee-yard is one 

 where the clover is grown for the seed. In such 

 a place the two red clovers are grown for seed 

 also, especially the mammoth clover, which is a 

 surplus-yielder some seasons. A soil most favor- 

 able for the production of clover seed is a very 

 heavy clay, because the stalks do not grow so 

 large, and more of the plant energy goes into the 

 seed. On the rich loamy soil the tops are too 

 large. 



So far I have said but little in regard to the 

 several minor sources of honey, such as the wil- 

 low, elm, hard and soft maple, etc. These fur- 

 nish honey and pollen during April, which is a 

 great help to the bees in their breeding, since 

 they are in bloom nearly or quite up to the fruit- 

 bloom in May. The fruit-bloom in the fore 

 part of May is the most important of all the nat- 

 ural spring stimulants; and if the weather is fa- 

 vorable, and the bees strong, one may expect them 

 to put into the hive some honey in addition to what 

 they need for their daily use. It so happens in late 

 years that the weather is usually so unfavorable 

 that the bees can not fly during this period; but, 

 taking it all in all, this little honey the bees do 

 get during the spring months helps wonderfully 

 in stimulating the bees to breed up and get strong 

 for the main honey-flow in June. 



In some locations there are a few asters that 

 may help to fill out the last end of the season; for 

 in those locations where they yield, the flow lasts 

 clear to the time of the frosts in September or the 

 first of October. 



In Sanilac Co. large quantities of this aster 

 honey are secured some years; but with such food 

 the bees nearly all die during the next winter, so 

 it is a question whether the aster should be called 

 a good haney-plant from the bee-keeper's stand- 

 point. 



Remus, Mich. 



WINTERING BEES IN A COLD AND 

 DAMP CELLAR. 



A Properly Ventilated Bee-room in a Cold 

 Cellar Made with Building-paper. 



BY GEO. W. BABCOCK. 



It may be as gratifying to some of your read- 

 ers as it has been for me to be able to winter 

 bees in an ordinary damp cold cellar under con- 



