196 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



used only inch starters in the brood-frames, and 

 the average amount of honey was (estimated) 220 

 lbs. of surplus per colony. The best I could do 

 with my other bees handled differently, but with 

 the same chance, was 125 lbs. of surplus per col- 

 ony, spring count, and doubled my increase. 



I feel assured that there is a future for a system 

 built around this idea, especially for comb-hon- 

 ey production in out-apiaries. I see so much 

 promise in it that I expect to establish soon a 

 system of out-apiaries a mile or so apart, none of 

 them very large, and make this idea the dominant 

 one in my system of management. 



Redlcey, Ind. 



[We have already given our testimony to the 

 effect that we believed, from numerous experi- 

 ments of our own, that there was something in 

 this scheme of shaking bees. How far it may 

 prove successful in increasing the amount of hon- 

 ey we can not say. 



We should like to know particularly whether 

 a "shook" swarm is to all intents and purposes 

 the same as a natural swarm. Many have prac- 

 ticed "shook " swarming, and, as a matter of 

 course, there ought to be quite a number who 

 could give testimony on this point. 



In the mean time it is interesting to note that 

 the late E, W. Alexander practiced shaking to 

 induce new energy in a lazy colony. The fol- 

 lowing, from Mr. Cox, will be read with interest 

 at this time. — Ed.] 



PROSPECTS FOR THE WHITE-CLO- 

 VER HONEY CROP. 



A Drouth in May and June Hurts Clover 



More than Any Amount of Dry 



Weather in the Fall. 



SHAKING ENERGY INTO BEES AS PRACTICED AT 

 THE ALEXANDER YARD. 



I see in Gleanings, page 48, Jan. 15, an in- 

 quiry about shaking energy into bees. As Mr. 

 E. W. Alexander is dead, and his writing for 

 ever done, I may be allowed to say that shaking 

 was practiced on the lazy colonies in his big yard 

 at Delanson. 



The first time I saw it tried was during the 

 buckwheat-honey flow of 1906. There was one 

 very strong colony that would not work. They 

 were so strong that the hive looked black on warm 

 evenings, and there would often be several quarts 

 of bees in the grass around it; yet it gave no hon- 

 ey when we came to extract. 



Just after the second trip over the yard, when 

 there was still no honey from that hive, Mr. Alex- 

 ander called me to help him, and we took every 

 comb and frame of brood away and shook them 

 and gave in their place frames of foundation 

 above and below. I remember Mr. Alexander's 

 remarking, " That is the way to fix colonies that 

 will not work;" and as I let the queen run into 

 the entrance he added, " It would not have been 

 a very bad accident if we had dropped that queen 

 and stepped on her. " 



One very hot Sunday afternoon, some ten days 

 later, I saw honey running out at the entrance of 

 that hive. Investigation showed the worst case 

 of broken-down combs I ever saw. That colony 

 had gone to work; in fact, with the help of the 

 hot day they had overdone the matter. 



Sloansville, N. Y., Feb. 1. R. V. Cox. 



[It is remarkable how many tricks of the trade 

 Mr. Alexander knew and practiced — Ed.] 



BY OREL L. HERSHISER. 



There may be isolated localities east of the 

 Mississippi River where 90 per cent of the clover 

 that would have produced honey is dead, and 

 the failure of the crop is an admitted fact; but I 

 believe there are vast areas in that same drouth- 

 stricken region where the clover, down to the pres- 

 ent time, is practically unharmed. I believe 

 we shall have a white-clover honey crop if the 

 weather conditions in April, May, and June are 

 propitious. 



The normal amount of rainfall and generous 

 growth of clover does not necessarily insure a 

 good honey crop. It may be too cold, or the 

 winds may be so drying as to counteract what 

 would otherwise be an abundance of precipitation; 

 and these or other causes militate against the se- 

 cretion of nectar. On the other hand, much less 

 than the normal precipitation does not necessari- 

 ly mean the destruction of the clover or the dry- 

 ing-up of nectar secretion. Sometimes the air is 

 humid when there is little actual precipitation, 

 and the ground is said to dry slowly. It is the 

 hot, humid, sunshiny days that promote the 

 abundant secretion of nectar. 



The summer and fall may be very dry without 

 killing the clover. In this immediate locality 

 the weather was very dry from August 18 to Oct. 

 31, a ppriod of 74 days, during which time the 

 precipitation amounted to but 2.04 inches, where- 

 as the mean precipitation for that period is about 

 8 inches. Although the drouth was severe in 

 some respects, drying up wells and creeks, and 

 causing numerous forest fires, the clover and 

 grass at all times looked green and vigorous, al- 

 though not rank, and did not appear to suffer. 

 The soil contained enough moisture to promote 

 a slow and steady growth; and my impression is 

 that there was more than ordinary root develop- 

 ment. There was little or no destruction of ihe 

 plants that will, underfavorable conditions, bloom 

 next season. Right here let me mention that it 

 is my experience that seedlings of last season are 

 the plants that will attain to greatest vigor and 

 bloom with the greater luxuriance next season, 

 after which, if they do not die the following fall, 

 will be so far exhausted as to be feeble bloomers 

 the third year; and especially is this true of alsike 

 clover. If alsike clover is cut for seed when dead 

 ripe during a continuous dry spell the plants will 

 surely die. This fact is familiar to the alsike- 

 seed growers. But, to return to the weather con- 

 ditions of last fall, there were but few windy 

 days during the dry period; and when the forest 

 fires were raging there was so much smoke as at 

 times to obscure the sun before 8 a.m. and after 

 5 p. M. ; and he was much bedimmed during mid- 

 day. Thus did the smoke screen the sun's rays, 

 shorten the period of daily sunshine, retard evap- 

 oration from the soil, lessen the burning effect, 

 and surround the clover with the best conditions 

 to withstand the drouth. The burning of Min- 

 nesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canadian for- 



