104 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CtlLtURfi. 



Feb. 



FROM !1 TO 24, AND 300 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I Started in the spring with 11 colonics— H strong- 

 and 3 wealt. I increased to 28 and took 20i) Ibe. of 

 e.xtraoted and nearly 100 lbs. in the lib. section. 

 My bees are all Italians but one. 1 Italianized them 

 this snminer, without losing a queen. I use the 

 Peet cage. I have never seen its equal, to my no- 

 tion. T have never lost a colony in wintering yet. 

 Edgak a. Briggs. 



Manchester, N. Y., Jan. "., 1888. 



4000 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 6.") COLONIES, SPRING 

 COUNT. 



Like most other localities, it 'was too dry here the 

 past season I'or honey; but as I have done better 

 than they have on either side of me, I can't com- 

 plain. I commenced the season with about 65 colo- 

 nics, and obtained 4000 lbs. of honey, mostly ex- 

 tracted, while I see, down the river about Kansas 

 City, they report no surplus, and up the river, in 

 Iowa, they have very little if any surplus honey; so 

 it seems that this is a good honey location. I live 

 at the foot of the bluffs. I have the hills on the 

 northeast of me, and the valley on the southwest. 

 The river here runs northwest to southeast. The 

 honey, all except a little linden, was gathered from 

 the valley, as it was too dry for any thing on the 

 hills. My crop is about all sold, mostly in Kansas 

 and Nebraska, which latter is but a few miles dis- 

 tant. L. G. Purvis. 



Forest City, Mo., Jan. 10, 1888. 



HOPES BLASTED BY FOUL BROOD. 



Y hopes were all blasted by foul brood, and 

 my investment in bees proved to be a poor 

 one and a perfect failure. The bees gave 

 me a great amount of pleasure while I had 

 them ; and now the only way I have of get- 

 ting even again is by renewing my subscription for 

 Gleanings, that I may have the pleasure of read- 

 ing it and gaining information, and be profited by 

 the experience of others in bee culture. 



J. W. White. 

 San Antonio, Bexar Co., Tex., Jan. 5, 188,h. 



ONLY ICO lbs. of honey FROM 81 COLONIES. 



This has been a very poor honey season here. I 

 got only about 100 pounds of honey from 81 colonies, 

 spring count, and two swarms. But my bees 

 gathered plenty from aster and goldenrod to winter 

 on. James M. Denh.^m. 



Valley, Lewis Co., Ky. 



MOVING bees to FIELDS OF ALSIKE. 



While my bee.*! did poorly the last season, I got. 

 enough honey (by moving 22 colonies some .5 or 

 miles to a field of alsike clover) to do fairly well. At 

 our State and county fairs I took a large plurality 

 of the premiums offered at both fairs for displays of 

 honey, bees, supplies, etc. I put 60 colonies in the 

 cellar, in fair condition, and packed .5 on their sum- 

 mer stands, with 23 without any extra protection. 



Elias Cole. 



Ashley, Delaware Co., Ohio, Dec. 30, 1887. 



Friend C, will you tell us the quality of 

 that alsike honey ? Was it as liable to candy 

 as the common white-clover honey V 



HALF THE BEES HAVE STARVED ALREADY. 



We have had the poorest season for honey in this 

 part of the State since 1 came here from Knox Co., 

 O., 17 years ago. About half of the bees have 

 starved already, and I think the first of April will 

 find very few bees alive that have not been fed. 

 Feeding is so seldom required here that It makes peo- 

 ple very careless about it; this is the first season 

 since I have lived here that a good strong colony 

 has failed to gather suflQcient stores for winter. 

 While we do not get as large yields as some sections 

 we are pretty sure to get some surplus every year 

 without feeding. I had a small crop this season. I 

 have read the reports from the different sections of 

 our country for several years; and I think we have 

 as good a count rj- for bees as can be found. We 

 have comparatively little trouble in wintering. I 

 have never lost a stock. We winter out of doors, 

 and bees fly every month in the year. We have a 

 good fruit country, and society is as good here as in 

 Ohio. S. S. Johnson. 



Hudson, Mo., Jan. 2, 1888. 



]Sl0¥Ef5 M^ QUEl^IEg. 



DOES IT PAY TO FURNISH EXTRA QUEENS JUST BE- 

 FORE SWARMING TIME? 



§INCE it requires 26 days to get a laying queen 

 from the egg, will it pay bee-keepers at the 

 North, in heei^, to get queens from the South, 

 provided they can get them promptly 16 days 

 before their bees are ready to swarm? 

 Woodville, Wis. W. W. Fuller. 



[As a rule 1 think, friend F., you would get a larg- 

 er crop of honey, and certainly more increase, by 

 purchasing queens as you suggest. But there is 

 no particular need of sending south for them, that 

 I know of, in order to have them ready at the time 

 you mention. Another question comes in here: 

 Does the bee-keeper wish to increase the number 

 of his colonies?] 



•lAPANESE BUCKWHEAT. 



My report on the Japanese buckwheat is, 25 lb.s. 

 from one sown June 25. The season was so dry 

 that I did not think it would make any thing. I 

 lost probably one-fourth of the seed on the ground. 

 The honey crop this season was only about one- 

 third of an average flow. Wm. S. Spaulding. 



Montpelier, Ind., Dec. 17, 1887. 



OLD newspapers VS. CHAFF. 



Wouldn't 3 inches of newspapers (packed in lay- 

 ers) answer the purpose as well as 3 inches of chaff, 

 in packing bees for winter? How would a dry 

 warm root-cellar, under a granarj-, answer for a 

 bee- repository? W. M. Barnum. 



Angelica, N. Y. 



[Newspapers will oftentimes do tolerably well, 

 but they do not permit the bees to dry out as chaff 

 does.] 



PEAVINE CLOVER ON SANDY SOIL. 



Do you know whether the peavine clover will 

 thrive on a light sandy soil? Do you know of any 

 grass or clover that will thrive on such a soil? 



J. B. Kibble. 



Manchester, Ocean Co., N. J., Dec. 15, 1887. 



[We have never had much experience with pea- 

 vine clover on sandy soil, but know that it grows 

 with great vigor anywhere any other clover will' 

 grow. Will some of the friends who have had ex- 

 perience please enlighten us?] 



