GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



son from the mountain-ash, from the crow- 

 foot, or the apple, which bloom at this 

 time, or whether it is a consequence of some 

 night frosts occurring, has not yet been es- 

 tablished. 



About fifty years ago English beekeepers 

 were experiencing very heavy losses, and 

 the press of the day contains letters on the 

 subject of poisoned bees. One writer ex- 

 pressed his difficulty in attributing his loss- 

 es to the malignancy of a neighbor, because 

 he knew of no enemy. In another case the 

 editor suggests that a microscopical identi- 

 fication of the pollen in the baskets of the 

 dying bees might throw some light on the 

 subject. 



Berlepsch describes a disease of bees 

 which ravaged South Hanover in 1859, and 

 says, " Many hives were one day healthy, 

 the next morning half were dead, and the 

 next day all were dead. The disease ap- 

 peared in many places about Easter, and 

 in many not till Whitsuntide. It was sim- 

 ilar to human cholera, and ravaged whole 

 neighborhoods." 



The fact that such losses coincide with 

 the flowering of fruit-trees lends counte- 

 nance to the view that there is a connection 

 between the spraying and the deaths of 

 the bees. It is, however, difficult to imagine 

 a disease of adult bees in which death fol- 

 lowing the loss of the power of flight was 

 not the chief symptom. Such a symptom 

 must also arise as the result of bad food, 

 poisoned food, or lack of food, and there- 

 fore can have very little diagnostic value. 



When a stock loses a large number of 

 adult bees they must either die in the hive, 

 in front of it, or away from it. These dif- 

 ferences may be influenced by some factor 

 such as temperature. Yet we find them 

 used to denote three separate troubles, viz., 

 fall honey, paralysis, and spring dwindling. 

 As an alternative explanation we find that 

 fruit-tree spraying is put forward. The 

 latter assertion is seldom accompanied by 

 the evidence that any good analytic chemist 

 could furnish; and until it is usual to ob- 

 tain such evidence there is grave danger 

 that a serious disease of adult bees Avill be 

 disseminated by stricken beekeei^ers who 

 remove the remnants of their apiaries to 

 other localities. 



Albury, Herts, England. 



EXTREME REPORTS DO HARM 



little salt " with some reports from bee- 

 keepers. I have noticed several very un- 

 reasonable reports as to honey crops; also 

 as to the amount of work to take care of 

 bees. Now, out here people generally think 

 a beekeeper has nothing to do but to sit in 

 the shade and sell honey, and that he is just 

 robbing the people by charging 8 1-3 to 15 

 cents per pound for honey; and it is not 

 much wonder when right in Gleanings this 

 year there have been reports of bees mak- 

 ing an average per hive of considerably 

 over 100 lbs. of honey in the short space of 

 10 to 14 days. Then, too, some of our lead- 

 ing beekeepers have made statements to the 

 effect that it takes only two or two and a 

 half hours to take care of a hive of bees a 

 whole year. 



Now, such reports as these may be sub- 

 stantiated in a very few places, possibly, 

 but very improbably, and in New Mexico 

 it is impossible. They are misleading, and 

 do the bee business as well as the beekeep- 

 er a great injustice. At that rate a man 

 could make a fortune in four or five years, 

 and retire, when in reality he must get up 

 and hustle, and then scarcely more than 

 make a living. I hope in future beekeepers 

 will be a little more careful about such 

 statements; but if they are not, I hope the 

 editors will be. 



In answer to H. H. Root's inquiry as to 

 how many beekeepers stack comb-honey 

 supers three high, I will say I use from 

 one to six, but mostly two, three, and four. 



Beekeeping is badly demoralized in Pecos 

 Valley, from the heavy loss caused by 

 spraying fruit-trees in bloom last spring. 



Roswell, N. Mex., Nov. 6. 



WINTER FEEDING AND WINTER FEEDERS 



Many Colonies in Danger of Starvation tills Winter 

 Because of the Shortage of Fall Honey 



BY OREL L. HERSHISEK 



BY R. B. SLEASE 



I have noticed what the editor has had to 

 say about taking newspaper reports. Here- 

 after I think it will also be wise to " use a 



There seems to have been almost a com- 

 l^lete failure of fall honey throughout the 

 eastern States and eastern Canada for the 

 season just closed. In many of the best 

 buckwheat locations no surplus was secur- 

 ed, and goldenrod and other fall flowers 

 yielded only enough to keep up brood- rear- 

 ing. As the honey season closed, the bees 

 were found to be badly lacking in the nec- 

 essary winter stores. 



In conversation with numerous beekeep- 

 ers at the convention of the Ontario Bee- 

 keepers' Association at Toronto recently, 

 it was surprising to learn that every one 

 with whom I had talked on the subject had 

 fed heavily. Purchases of sugar by the ton 



