GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFTIISTGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



The honey crop in this section will be 

 light, owing to severe dronth. I hope it 

 may be better in other parts of the State. 



* * * 



This year I have used one-piece sections 

 for the first time. Their only fault so far 

 has been that most of those filled with hon- 

 ey appear to be a little diamond-shaped, or 

 not quite square. 



* » * 



" Once you have foul brood you always 

 have it," says E. D. Townsend in the Re- 

 view. Yes and no. If you are a shiftless, 

 thriftless beekeeper, yes; and if you are a 

 worker and pusher, and you have a fairly 

 good foul-brood law, I say no. 



* » # 



Mr. Chadwick, of California, on p. 250, 

 April 15, refers to the ignorance of bee- 

 keepers. Inspecting is as good as a post- 

 graduate course in beekeeping, and I think 

 it is better. The inspector will learn a great 

 many things not found in the books or 



journals. 



« * * 



In Mr. E. S. Miles' article on feeding 

 back extracted honey for finishing sections, 

 p. 415, June 15, he says that in two or three 

 weeks' time between clover and heartsease 

 he usually gets from 15 to 25 supers finish- 

 ed per colony. This would be more than a 

 super a day. Is not thei'e some mistake 



about this? 



* * * 



Dr. Miller, you say,, p. 418, June 15, that 

 if you find a colony needing treatment, if 

 you wish to prevent swarming you remove 

 the queen and kill all the queen-cells, and 

 again in ten days kill all queen-cells and 

 introduce a laying queen. Now, don't you 

 sometimes get a young queen hatched in 

 ten days that will make you trouble ? 



* * * 



It is undoubtedly true, as Mr. Doolittle 

 says, p. 405, June 15, that in an exception- 

 all}' good flow of honey there would be a 

 waste of wax where foundation is furnished 

 so as to fill sections with it, with the result 

 that the foundation would not all be drawn 

 out. But in practice I find such occasions 

 very rare, while the necessity for full sheets 

 of foundation in the sections in order to get 

 them well filled with combs and honey is a 

 constant factor in the successful production 

 of comb honey. 



* * * 



Mr. Byer refers on p. 412 to the pussy 

 willow as credited with not yielding honey. 



In this locality at least, this is not true, as 

 it produces its seed on its pistillate plants, 

 which produce no pollen, and must be visit- 

 ed by bees after having visited staminate 

 flowers in order to carry the pollen. Hon- 

 ey would be necessary to attract the bees to 

 these flowers. Mr. Doolittle may have no- 

 ticed bees working on the staminate flowers, 

 and have drawn his conclusions from the 

 fact that the bees got no honey from them, 

 and failed to notice them when at work on 

 the pistillate flowers. 



IS ALFALFA POLLINATED BY BEES? 



*' Is alfalfa pollinated by bees? " is asked 

 on p. 267, April 15, with facts given in 

 answer to the question. A year ago, while 

 in Washington, I became very much inter- 

 ested in the experimental work of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture in the introduction 

 and also the production of new varieties 

 by hybridization of colonies. The superin- 

 tendent, whom I looked up, said that I might 

 make some inquiries, gave me to understand 

 that honeybees are of little or no value in 

 the fertilzation of alfalfa, as they are un- 

 able to " trip " the flowers. He showed me 

 a large number of hybrids, one of which is 

 likely to prove of great value to the farm- 

 ers of the country. He told me of varieties 

 that are likely to prove hardy even in the 

 climate of North Dakota. 



I found a beekeeper two years ago among 

 whose bees there was some disease; but it 

 was too late to treat them. I went again 

 last spring, and with him opened every 

 hive and showed him all about how to treat 

 the disease. Again, this spring, I tried to 

 find him to look over the yard; but when 

 he found I wanted him he slipped away. 

 His yard was one of the most slipshod I 

 ever saw, and I could not blame him. Well, 

 nearly half of his hives contained disease. 



I went to visit another beekeeper who 

 had a badly diseased yard two years ago. 

 He met me, his face beaming like the rising 

 sun. " I want you to come out to see my 

 yard of bees," said he. " I have got the 

 prettiest yard of bees in the county," and 

 I want you to look at it." ' The hives were 

 all painted, and every thing was neat and 

 trim. 



"Got any foul brood yet?" I inquired. 



" No," said he ; " I have gotten rid of all 

 of it." 



Of course he had. It doesn't stay with 

 •such beekeepers. 



