298 



GLEANINGS IX BfiE CULTURE. 



AM. 



Said I, "Good." 



"Why," said he, "this is the time ol year that 

 bees g-ather no honey here." 



"Oh! well, her-e; taste this;" at the same time 

 handing him a saucer of newly extracted honey. 

 Well, when he had satisfied that "sweet tooth," 

 which, by the way, took a good while, said he, " Now 

 let's see the bees." 



After showing him the well-filled combs and sec- 

 tions, " There," said he, " out of that weed patch," 

 pointing toward the sweet clover, " is where your 

 bees get the honey, for no such honey has been 

 gathered around here before." 



He has lived here fifteen years, and kept bees the 

 greater part of the time. For four years I have 

 had from ?4 to 4 acres of sweet clover, and each 

 year bees have done well on it. Last year bees 

 within l'/2 miles of my 4 acres did well, while those 

 outside of that area around have done poorly, 

 many starving in midsummer, on account of the 

 very dry weather we had. AVe had no white clover, 

 and very little red ; but in the height of sweet clo- 

 ver, bees were lively. I had 50 stands. I ran a few 

 for extracting, and got what I called pure sweet- 

 clover honey, from 33 to 39 lbs. per stand. I con- 

 sider it of much value as a honey-plant for our 

 Western country, as it comes here in bloom just 

 when alsike and white clover close, thus lengthening 

 the season from three weeks to five. The past win- 

 ter my bees did well. I have lost none up to date. 



Garden City, Mo., Mar. 34, 1888. G. J. Yoder. 



Many thanks, friend Y. But such reports 

 as yours are few and far between. As you 

 state it, it really looks as if it would pay to 

 raise sweet clover ; that is, if no other use is 

 made of it than for the sake of the honey it 

 yields. 



-^m — I ^ 



NOT STRICTLY EMPTY FRAMES. 



FRIEND W. Z. H. REPLIES TO .1. P. ISRAEL, SEE P. 363. 



fHE graphic and humorous article of Bro. 

 Israel, in last Gleanings, brought a hearty 

 laugh from both myself and Mrs. Hutchin- 

 son. I must say, though, that I was sur- 

 prised at the course taken by its author, and 

 still more that he gives me the credit of advising 

 such methods. In my little book, " The Production 

 of Comb Honey," in the chapter headed "Hiving 

 Swarms upon Empty Frames," page 38, the open- 

 ing sentence reads thus: "By empty frames is not 

 meant those that are strictly empty, but those hav- 

 ing starters of foundation three or four cells wide." 



Could any thing be plainer? Yet, if I understand 

 him aright, Bro. Israel hived his swarms upon 

 frames that were literacy empty. If I hived swarms 

 in such a manner, I should expect results similar to 

 those reported. 



I send this explanation to Gleanings, instead of 

 giving it in the Review, as I wish that all who saw 

 the article of Mr. I. may also see the explanation, 

 and thus none will be misled. 



Flint, Mich., Apr. :J, 1888. W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Well, I declare, friend W. Z. H., I am 

 ashamed of myself to think that I too 

 omitted to mention that you always ad- 

 vised strips of foundation starters under 

 the top-bars. I felt sure there was some- 

 thing wrong somewhere, but I did not at 

 the time get at it exactly. I suppose, how- 

 ever, that friend Israel and every other old 



bee-keeper use some sort of a comb-guide. 

 May be he will tell us what he does have for 

 a comb-guide under his top-bars. 



QUESTION NO. 38 OF THE QUESTION- 

 BOX RECONSIDERED. 



bees consume less stores in localities where 

 they can fly almost every day. 



u 



O bees consume more honey in localities 



where they can flj' almost every day, 



H^ than where they are housed up three or 



'*"^ four months by the cold? " To this most 



of the correspondents answered j-es. 1 



have kept bees in a cold climate and here in Texas, 



so I can tell something about the matter. 



One of the mistakes is the idea that, in a Southern 

 climate, the bees commence breeding earlier. Here 

 they never ccjmmence breeding in s]>ring before 

 some pollen is gathered. In winter, as well as in 

 our dry summer, the bees can not gather any honey 

 or pollen, and then all breeding is stopped. The 

 bees are at that time generally entirely quiet (some 

 few leaving the hive occasionally to look out for 

 something to be gathered), no matter if the mercury 

 is at 110° or down to 30" F. Sometimes they fly out for 

 a cleansing flight. So it is another mistake to be- 

 lieve that our bees are out all the time. 



The dry summer time commences here about 

 the end of July and lasts till the beginning of Sep- 

 tember. In this time the consumption of honey is 

 very slight. I can't tell exactly how much, because 

 I have had no hive on the scales as yet. Our winter 

 commences in November, and lasts till February, 

 nearly three months. In this time a little more 

 honey is consumed than in the summer quietude, 

 because some honey is needed for fuel, if the 

 mercury goes dovvn to 3.5°, or even 30°, for two or 

 three days; but most of the time we have 70° and 

 more. As soon as pollen is coming in, breeding is 

 going on rapidly, and now a great amount of honey 

 is consumed; but about 30 dajs later, all the honey 

 needed for brood is generally gathered. 



In the Northern climate we can observe that bees 

 in a proper temperature, and fully quiet, will con- 

 sume very little honey; but they commence breed- 

 ing in confinement, and sometimes earlier than in 

 the South. In Germany I found, in 1868, Jan. 35th, 

 in a strong colony over 500 square inches of brood, 

 part of it already sealed. This early breeding con- 

 sumes the most honey, and it is very difficult to 

 avoid it in a cold climate, but very easy in the 

 South. 



My experience is, that bees use much less honey 

 in the Southern winter than in the North, if we 

 take for winter the time from the first frost in the 

 fall till some honey is gathered in the spring. 



L. Stachelhausen. 



Selma, Texas, March T, 1888. 



Friend S., I believe you are right in the 

 matter ; and we are very much obliged to 

 you for the points you bring out. I am well 

 aware there are often seasons, even here 

 with us, in August and September, when 

 brood-rearing ceases almost entirely, when 

 the amount of stores consumed is quite lim- 

 ited ; and I know, too, that a powerful col- 

 ony will, in the spring time, when pollen is 

 coming in heavily, and every frame is full 

 of brood, consume enormous quantities of 

 honey, amounting to several pounds in a 

 single day. 



