662 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



promised much, would give my bees a generous 

 supply; but when a cold rain set in as the blossoms 

 began to open, I realized that there was nothing 

 certain in the honey-crop, even though every thing 

 gave promise of a bountiful yield. All through the 

 bloom, the weather kept cool and cloudy, with the 

 exception of half a day, so that, when the dearth of 

 honey which we always have after apple-bloom ar- 

 rived, there was nothing left for me to do except to 

 feed, which I did for nearly four weeks. A few 

 strong stocks were able to get nearly a living; but 

 for all that, two barrels of sugar vanished out of 

 sight before a living from the flowers was obtained. 

 On June 12th the locust opened, and the bees got 

 but 1 ; 2 days in which to work on that, for, with the 

 afternoon of the 14th, came cold and rain, which 

 lasted till the bloom was past. All through the sea- 

 son the weather seemed to be contrary; tor when- 

 ever the flowers opened upon which we depend for 

 honey, it would be cold, windy, and rainy; while, 

 when there were no honey - flowers in bloom, it 

 would be fine. So it now happened that we had 

 splendid bee weather from June 18th to July 6th (as 

 we had all during the dearth of honey between ap- 

 ple and locust), but as we have little white clover 

 here save by the roadside (our section of country 

 being used for grain-rearing quite largely, thus 

 keeping the white clover out by constant plowing), 

 the bees got scai-cely a living from the clover. 



From raspberry and sumac, a few of the stronger 

 colonies secured a few pounds surplus, but not 

 enough so they worked of any account in sections. 



From July 6th to Aug. 10th the weather was cold, 

 cloudy, and windy (being often accompanied with a 

 mist, or slight sprinkle), with the exception of now 

 and then a day or part of a day when the sun would 

 shine. Basswood ojjened about July 14th, and I 

 kept hoping that another day would bring better 

 weather; yet for a whole week the bees could do 

 little else than get a little water. At this time there 

 was one day when the sun shone all day, and I nev- 

 er saw bees work faster than they did that day; but 

 with the next morning came the same cold, cloudy 

 weather again, which held on four days more. Dur- 

 ing these four days the bee-yard presented the ap- 

 pearance of winter, save that there was no snow, 

 and I began to realize the fact that the year 1884 

 was to be the poorest honey season we had seen 

 since 1869, which was my first year at bee-keeping. 

 After the four days, we had a good honey day again, 

 when the next was bad. In the afternoon of the 

 next, the bees got honey quite freeb', which was the 

 last of the getting of honey from basswood; for bad 

 weather now continued till the bloom was all gone. 



Later on, a little honey was secured from teasel, 

 when the weather would allow the bees to fly; but 

 the major part of it was used for brood-reai-ing, 

 which was kept up more largely than I ever knew it 

 during the last half of July and first of August. All 

 through the last half of August and first 15 days of 

 September, we had splendid honey weather; but as 

 little buckwheat was sown about hero this year, and 

 as we have no fall flowers, no honey was obtained. 



I shall go into winter with about 75 colonies, 55 of 

 which are full, and 20 small ones, made by uniting 

 nuclei. The full colonies mostly have nearly honey 

 enough to winter, while the othei-s must be fed all 

 their winter stores. 



The result of the season is as follows: 439 lbs. of 

 comb honey at 15 cts. per lb., = $65.85; 272 lbs. ex- 

 tracted honey at 10 cts., = $37.20, which, added to 



queens and bees sold to the amount of $500, makes 

 $593.05. From this I have to deduct $60.00 for sugar 

 fed, which leaves $530 as the pay for my season's la- 

 bor, or $13.25 for each colony in the spring, which is 

 not a bad showing for one of the poorest seasons 

 ever known. However, had it not been for the 

 queen business I should have had only 711 lbs. of 

 honey (an average of 27?a lbs. to the colony), from 

 which I must deduct the sugar fed, leaving me only 

 about $30.00 for my work. Viewing it in this light, 

 I could reasonably say that bee-keeping for the year 

 1884 was a failure, resulting from very unfavorable 

 weather. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Sept., 1884. 



And so, friend D., although we can say that 

 you get honey every year, yet we shall have 

 to add that once in a great while you fail to 

 get it in paying quantities. However, $13.25 

 per colony is not so very bad, after all. I 

 should put your report something like this, 

 it seems to me: " 'i'he above result was made 

 from the 40 I had to commence with in the 

 spring, and 14 of these were so weak that 

 they could not really be counted as colonies." 

 At any rate, you had an income of over SoOO, 

 besides leisure to attend to considerable oth- 

 er business which probably afforded you 

 more or less income— strawberries and other 

 small fruits, potatoes, and the like of that. 



THE OTHER SIDE OF BEE-KEEPING. 



SO.ME WORDS OF CAUTION TO THOSE .3UST EMBAHK- 

 ING IN THE BUSINESS. 



TRILLED with text-books. Gleanings, and en- 

 C'i thusiasm, beginners are prone to overdo. They 

 JS^ do too much fooling with bees, time, and mon- 

 -^ ey. They must transfer, Italianize, have ev- 

 ery trap, and try every trick; have everything, 

 and do every thing that anybody and everybody 

 else does. That is the tendency of many, if not all. 

 I have done too much with my bees; have worried 

 them and myself too much. If I have not spent too 

 much money on them, it is because I have not been 

 able to get it to spend. I have not been able to get 

 half the improvements I have wanted to try, and I 

 now thank my lucky stars J have not. 



While on this matter of spending money, I would 

 emphasize the thought that we must take into ac- 

 count ihe comparative prices of supplies and pro- 

 duce. When lumber and beeswax were lower, and 

 honey was higher, it was possibly profitable to in- 

 vest in every modern improvement. But at the 

 pi-esent cost of the two first-named articles, and the 

 generally low price of honey, I am certain it will 

 pay to go slow and step carefully. If accounts wei-e 

 compared, I think we would find that it is the sup- 

 ply-dealers and middlemen, not the honej--produc- 

 ers who are making the money. The enormous 

 growth of the supply business during the last three 

 years, and the plenitude and cheapness of honey, 

 attest the great and increasing tendency to over-pro- 

 duction. Springfield, Ills., is known to be one of the 

 costliest places to live in, in the West; yet, in twelve 

 months out of the last eighteen, her mai-ket has 

 been glutted with honey in the most approved style 

 at 15 cts. per lb. Not one out of ten of her mei-- 

 chants will handle it for less than 2'j cts., leaving 

 12'/2 for the producer. Now, any one who has tried 

 it knows that one must get immense crops at low 

 cost to make any thing at this rate. Hence I say 



