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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 15 



There is some mistake with regard to the 

 description of the W. B. C. hive, which is 

 the most popular hive in this country, as the 

 one described is not a W. B. C. hive at all, 

 but one made by E. H. Taylor, of Welwyn, 

 and called "Taylor's Up-to date Twentieth- 

 century hive." It is what we call a non- 

 swarming hive. The illustration you have 

 can be found on page 16 of his catalog. I 

 send you an authoritative block of a W. B. C. 

 hive from the British Bee Journal, which I 

 hope you will print with this letter, so that 

 your readers may compare it with the one 

 you gave on page 1384, Nov. 15. 1908. You 

 will notice that the W. B. C. hive has no 

 frames under the brood-chamber at all. 



We have no stanaard hive in this country; 

 but we have a standard frame, the size of 

 which is 8>< inches deep, not 9 inches, as 

 stated. Though we have not a standard hive, 

 the majority of our bee-keepers use one 

 holding ten of those frames and a dummy- 

 board. 



The method of working a W. B. C. hive de- 

 scribed is not applicable at all, as will be 

 readily seen on reference to the illustrations, 

 neither is the sysiem of doubling now fol- 

 lowed in this country. I am a bee-keeper of 

 twenty years' standmg, and have visited all 

 the well-known bee-keepers and many oth- 

 ers during that time, and I have never yet 

 seen that method practiced in one single in- 

 stance; but the method of doubling adopted 

 here is that explained in the "British Bee- 

 keepers' Guide-book;" and instead of pre- 

 venting brood-rearing in the honey harvest, 

 as mentioned, the bee-keeper works the 

 whole of the season to get as many young 

 bees reared as possible. • 



As a queen-breeder I do not understand 

 the paragraph commencing at the bottom of 

 second column, page 1385, on making nuclei. 

 I can not make either head or tail of it. 



The illustration of a bottle feeder, called a 

 "rapid spring feeder," is our slow stimula- 

 tive feeder, and is used in the early spring 

 and autumn to keep the queen laying. The 

 Canadian feeder is the form we use for rapid 

 feeding in the late autumn. 



The favorite extractor in this country is 

 that known as the "Cowan rapid," which 

 costs 50 shillings. The one you illustrated, 

 known as the "Guinea, "is used in only very 

 small apiaries, and costs 25 shillings. 



Heather honey is produced chiefly in Scot- 

 land and Yorkshire, and does not find a ready 

 sale in England at all. The taste for it is an 

 acquired one, being a bitter sweet. The 

 harvest is precarious, being gathered in Sep- 

 tember, when we often have very wet weath- 

 er. The cHmate of Scotland, where the bulk 

 comes from, is also naturally a very damp 

 and cold one, and this goes against a large 

 return. Good heather harvests are obtained 

 on an average once in three years. The 

 price obtained is 35 to 50 cents per pound. 

 My experience is that the Havor and color of 

 honey obtained from white Dutch clover in 

 this country is very different from that you 

 obtain from sweet clover. 



I am afraid if a teaspoonful of napthol beta 



were put to ten pounds of sugar syrup the 

 bees would refuse to take it altogether. The 

 right quantity is three grains of napthol beta 

 dissolved in spirit to each pound oi sugar. 

 Lulow, England. 



HONEY-CROP CONDITIONS FOR 1909 

 BY STATES. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



In order that we might get a fairly accu- 

 rate birdseye view of the source, quality, 

 and the amount of honey, we addressed a 

 circular letter to a number of prominent bee- 

 keepers over the country, including Ontario, 

 Canada. Another letter we sent to the 

 honey merchants or commission men who 

 quote regularly in our columns, requesting 

 them to give a detailed report of conditions 

 as they fmd them, particularly how receipts 

 and offerings of this year compare with last. 

 We will first give the statements of our 

 commission men: 



It is too early to give much information on the honey 

 crop. So fear as we hear, it will be short in Vermont, 

 very little new honey being offered so far. 



Boston, Mass., July 29. Blake-Lee Co. 



In answer to yours of July 28, we wish to say that 

 there has been considerable honey-dew in our locality. 

 Some of this is mixed with honey. We consider the 

 crop for this territory about one-third. The prices will 

 not depend on this crop, but on other localities. We 

 do not look for high prices on honey. 



Cincinnati, 0., July 29. C. H. W. WEBER & CO. 



The receipts of comb honey are very small as yet- 

 considerably less than at the same time last year. Ex- 

 tracted honey is arriving in small quantities, and, ac- 

 cording to our judgment, the receipts are about half 

 the quantity of last year. The dema> d, however, is 

 very tame, and there is enough honey in this market 

 to go around. R. Hartmann. 



St. Louis, Mo., July 30. 



Your circular letter of July 28 is here. The honey 

 crop in this section is almost a total failure. The few 

 who report some, have it badly mixed with honey-dew. 

 While there are sections of our grand country report- 

 ing a wonderful hnrvest, there will be no shortage in 

 the least, for shipments of honey come ro'ling in, which 

 fully indicates that there will he no famine. Caifor- 

 nia offers us so much honey that we even fear they do 

 not want us to know how much, for fear it will be as 

 cheap as water. There is one thing, however; and that 

 is, a lower level of prices will prevail in order to bring 

 back business to a more healthful state, or otherwise 

 it will he a thing worth while, at least. 



Cincinnati, 0., Aug. 2. Fred W. Muth. 



Mr. E. R. Root: — We are in receipt of your favor of the 

 28th ult., asking us to give you a detai'ed report on 

 this year's crop of honey so far as we cou d. In reply 

 we beg to s-iy we generally write every year to some 

 of the largest producers throughout the country, prin- 

 cipally through York State, as we do not handle West- 

 ern honey to any extent excepting California and Ari- 

 zona, and of this the extracted only. Our first reports, 

 which we received about two weeks ago, were rather 

 unfavorable on account of the poor season of white 

 clover; but nearly every producer writes that basswood 

 looks very promising, and that favorable weather would 

 probably make up the shortage of the clover. During 

 the past week we have received numerous letters from 

 various parties of York State as well as Pennsylvania, 

 saying that basswood was fair; it turned out very well, 

 and that nearly all of them expect to have a fair or 

 average crop of white honey. In fact, some of the pro- 

 ducers will have a large crop— even larger than 1 ist 

 year. Summing uo the reports we received from the 

 Eastern States, including New York and Pennsylvania, 

 we are of the opinion that the crop will not fall short 

 any from that of last season. 



As to the middle West, while the crop will be consid- 

 erably short in some of the States, we think Ihatothers 

 will make up the difference, and that at least a fair 



