296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



SIFTINGS. 



By J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



On page 76, Feb. 1, Mr. Morrison speaks of 

 honey bread selling in New York for 25 cents a 

 loaf. Will he tell us how it is made? [See 

 Gleanings from our Exchanges, elsewhere. — Ed.] 



Wesley Foster, page 77, Feb. 1, gives a timely 

 caution about putting comb honey in glass. 

 Some markets expect it; but it's a poor way un- 

 less it can be sold very soon. 



Mr. Foster also caJls attention to the use of 

 very light tin cans for extracted honey. I won- 

 der more of them are not broken. As it is, 

 many of them are jammed out of shape, so that 

 they are worthless for further use. 



Bert Smith, page 89, Feb. 1, objects to having 

 the water in winter run out at entrances, as it 

 freezes and clogs the opening — a good reason for 

 not using sealed covers. Where the winters are 

 comparatively mild, there may be but little ice; 

 but here in the extreme North, where it may be 

 from one to three months before a thaw, there is 

 great danger of the entrance getting clogged. 



Mr. Editor, on page 91, Feb. 1, you advise, in 

 moving colonies 100 yards, first to move them 

 two miles away and then back to their new loca- 

 tion. This seems like the captain who "march- 

 ed his soldiers up a hill and then he marched 

 them down again." A few years ago I had to 

 move a hundred-colony yard some twenty rods 

 after they had been flying for a month. I did so 

 at once by setting some obstruction in front of 

 each hive having bees, and I met with no serious 

 loss. A few bees went back, alighting on stones 

 or sticks where their hives had stood, but at night 

 they seemed to return to their own hives. 



On p. 86, Feb. 1, Virgil Weaver gives us some 

 fine theories about prospective clover crops; but 

 after watching the clover for fifty years I do not 

 feel half so sure in advance as he does as to future 

 crops. Jf his theories were all true I should not 

 know how to account for my failure the past 

 year. There appeared to be clover enough, but, 

 alas! a dry season, or perhaps I should say a 

 drouth, set in, cutting short my crop, while my 

 neighbors only a few miles from me, where they 

 had more rain, secured good crops. He seems 

 to carry the idea that one year the clover comes 

 from the seed and the next it produces a crop of 

 flowers and honey, and later dies, either from old 

 age or because it is too thick. The winters have 

 little to do with it. Well, hereabouts we have 

 more or less new plants every year, and some 

 one and some two year-old plants; and when our 

 summers are favorable we have flowers providing 

 they have not been winter-killed; but we do not 

 always have honey in abundance, by any means. 

 He says, page 87, that " white clover in a normal 

 condition Dec. 1 is, nine times out of ten, still in 

 a normal condition April 1, whether the winter 

 has been wet or dry or a hot or cold one, the re- 

 sult is just about the same. How about the 

 tenth time? We might guess that it was when 



there was an unusual amount of freezing and 

 thawing, with cold dry winds that killed a 

 large share of it. Some weeks ago I wrote an ar- 

 ticle on this subject; but after reading all that 

 has been written it seems to me the subject has 

 been very fully covered, especially by Mr. Doo- 

 little, in the Feb. Island Feb. 15th numbers. It 

 seems probable that differences in soil and climate 

 make quite a difference. Thus Mr. Weaver, in 

 Kentucky, finds the cause of clover dying to be 

 drouth or old age, or because too thick. I no- 

 tice winter grain is more generally grow a south 

 than in the extreme north, doubtless because it 

 winters better. Mr. Doolittle finds it dies from 

 winter-killing, and that he has never known it to 

 be killed by drouth. My own experience is that 

 severe drouth will kill clover, white clover es- 

 pecially, on dry, sandy, or gravelly or very com- 

 pact clay soils. Dry winds in spring add to the 

 injury done by freezing during the winter. The 

 past winter in this section has been very favor- 

 able to clover, and we hope for a moderate crop 

 of honey, even if only a small stand remains aft- 

 er the severe drouth of last autumn. 



BEES NOT A NUISANi E EITHER IN OR OUT OF 

 VILLAGE OR TOWN LIMITS. 



Is it against the law of Ohio to keep bees, espe- 

 cially in the country, outside of the city limits? 

 Can they be pronounced a nuisance? I have a 

 few colonies, and a neighbor of mine told me 

 Saturday that my bees were bothe-ing his water- 

 ing-trough. G. N. Beiter. 



Massillon, O., April 5. 



[There is no law against keeping bees either 

 outside or inside of a village or town limits. In- 

 deed, there are a large number of precedents that 

 go to show that no ordinance inside the limits 

 can be passed, requiring the removal of any bees 

 in any city or in any town in the United States, 

 without being unconstitutional. This question 

 has been tested out a number of times in the vari- 

 ous courts of different States, and each time a 

 verdict has been awarded in favor of the bee- 

 keeper and the bees. 



If you will sprinkle a little weak carbolic acid 

 along the edge of the trough which the bees are 

 in the habit of visiting, you will keep them away. 

 In addition to this, set out somewhere in the yard 

 a large earthen vessel containing water slightly 

 salted. On the surface of the water should be 

 blocks of wood on which the bees may alight. 

 It is because the bees can not get water near at 

 hand that they will very often visit neighboring 

 watering-troughs. In order to get the bees start- 

 ed visiting your water-jars it may be necessary to 

 sweeten the water at the first time; then, after- 

 ward, slightly salt it, as the bees seem to prefer 

 it that way. — Ed.] 



HOW to AVOID the LOSS OF QUEENS FROM COL- 

 ONIES IN HOUSE-APIARIES. 



If Minot C. Young, page 169, March 15, will 

 place a wide board up against the alighting-board 

 at queen-mating time, he will not lose one queen 

 in fifty. I always do, and I never lose queens to 

 amount to any thing f:om colonies in my sheds. 



Marceline, Mo. Irving Long. 



