GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dr. C. C. MirxER. Marengo, HI. 



Just been out looking at the white clo- 

 ver, April 29. Looks rather scarce. 



As a SOIL-IMPROVER, sweet clover is not 

 half appreciated. At the Ohio Experiment 

 Station sweet clover land yielded 45 per cent 

 more corn than similar land not in sweet 

 clover the previous year. 



The SUGARED HONEY in your brood- 

 combs will be wasted by the bees, W. P. F. 

 Spray them with water, preferably hot; and 

 as often as the bees lick them dry, spray 

 again. [Right you are, doctor. — Ed.] 



If nectar contain 75 per cent or more 

 of water, and honey contains 25 per cent or 

 less of water, then for every pound of honey 

 stored, two pounds or more of water must be 

 gotten rid of. [This is about right. — Ed.] 



"To PAINT hives is not advisable, because 

 painted hives favor dampness inside. At 

 the most, paint only the front." That's an 

 answer in the question-box of Bienen- Vater, 

 p. 350. Doolittle and I would feel quite at 

 home over there. 



"Sweet clover" is the title of a new 

 government bulletin. It's fine. Also it's 

 free. Send to your congressman or to the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. 

 C, for Farmers' Bulletin 485. Get your 

 farmer neighbor to send for it. 



.1. Super reports, Schweiz. Bztg., p. 47, 

 that he had a colony with many bee-lice. 

 In the evening he shoved a piece of cam- 

 phor under the bottom-bars upon a paste- 

 board. Next morning he drew out the paste- 

 board and found upon it about 200 dead lice, 

 with no harm to queen or bees. 



The discussion as to bees throwing out 

 excess of water while on the wing has been 

 taken up in European journals. There is a 

 general agreement with the views of Messrs. 

 Root and Hand. Only a very few think 

 the water is, perhaps, thrown out by the 

 mouth. [We are glad to know that our 

 views have been confirmed. European writ- 

 ers on bees are usually careful observers. — 

 Ed.] 



How many field bees in an average col- 

 ony? Pf. Burghardt, Leipz. Bztg., 24, says 

 13,300. Coel. Schachinger, same journal, p. 

 47, says 8000. It's of some consequence to 

 have the matter settled. Who will help set- 

 tle it? And, by the way, what is an average 

 colony? [We should say the answer to this 

 question depends on the locality, the kind 

 of hive, and the methods used. A hundred 

 different beekeepers, variously situated, 

 might, therefore, give a hundred different 

 answers. — Ed.] 



Is there not some mistake about Father 

 Langstroth living at Hamilton, O., as men- 

 tioned p. 232? In 1858 he moved to Oxford, 



O., where he did, for that time, an immense 

 business in Italian queens. From there he 

 moved to Dayton in 1887, where he died 

 Oct. 6, 1895, falling dead in the pulpit after 

 preaching a sermon. One of the things I 

 have to be proud of is that in 1873 he made a 

 call on me while I was living in Cincinnati. 

 [We know that he lived at the places you 

 mentioned, and he probably lived at Hamil- 

 ton. Who can tell us? — Ed.] 



Herr Bohn, editor Maerkischen Bztg., 

 has for years followed the Swiss method of 

 queen-rearing, and sounds a warning against 

 it. It involves the American plan of start- 

 ing cells, which he thinks sufficiently 

 against nature to result in deterioration in 

 the course of time. Any way, my plan of 

 letting the bees start cells on their own 

 combs is not open to this possible objection, 

 and I can raise just as good queens, even if 

 I can not raise so many thousands — Bienen- 

 Vater, 322. [A great deal depends on who 

 starts the cells. There is a right way and a 

 wrong one. Some beekeepers can never 

 make a success of any plan. A few do. — 

 Ed.] 



Pastor Fleischmann, III. Monatsblcet- 

 ter, 15, quotes the editor of Gleanings as 

 estimating the annual consumption of a 

 colony at 200 to 250 lbs., and says "neither 

 estimate suits our conditions. With 30 lbs. 

 of winter stores a colony comes through 

 very well till the next harvest; and so large 

 a consumption in summer is incredible, and 

 colonies on scales show that it is impossible. ' ' 

 I'll swear by the editor of Gleanings; but 

 it might be a good idea to have some figures 

 to settle the question. [We wonder if Pastor 

 Fleischmann is taking into account the im- 

 mense amount of stores it takes to rear 

 brood. While 30 lbs. of winter stores will 

 carry a colony through till the following har- 

 vest, yet, if it could not gather any more 

 stores from the time bees are able to fly un- 

 til the harvest, it would use up its 30 lbs. in 

 short order if brood-rearing were started, 

 long ere the beginning of the honey-flow. 

 It would seem to us that Pastor Fleisch- 

 mann is not taking into account the fact 

 that in most localities, and probably in his 

 own, bees in the spring and early summer 

 are constantly gathering some stores — 

 nearly enough to keep up brood-rearing, so 

 that the 30 lbs. given in the fall will supple- 

 ment the amount that they gather from 

 week to week to carry them through till the 

 harvest is on. Our estimate of 200 to 250 lbs. 

 took into account not only the amount the 

 bees had in the fall to go into winter quar- 

 ters with, but the amount that they gather 

 during the following spring and summer 

 that is absorbed in brood- rearing. These es- 

 timates have been confirmed by a number 

 of beekeepers on this side of the great water. 

 —Ed.] 



