1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



841 



people have eventually discarded them on 

 account of the difficulty of getting at the 

 hives, and working them either for comb 

 honey or extracted. It seems that friend 

 H. has not so decided as yet. At the last 

 national convention in Columbus, our 

 friend R. L. Taj lor pretty vehemently "• sat 

 down '' on the idea of packing hives for 

 winter or for summer either; but it seems 

 that, even in the State of Michigan, a cou- 

 ple of veterans like yourself and friend 

 Hetherington still hofd to winter packing ; 

 and the packing you describe is a good deal 

 more voluminous and inconvenient to han- 

 dle than any chaff hive I have ever seen. 

 In our locality there is not a question but 

 that bees, as a rule, are better ofi protected 

 than in single-walled hives left exposed out- 

 side. 



DOOLITTLE'S HEPORT FOKil888. 



72^/4 LBS. OF COMB HONEY, PER COLONY, SPRING 

 COUNT, EVEN DURINfi THIS VERY POOR 



SEASON. 



'HKN the honey season arrived I found that 

 my bees had been reduced by sales and 

 losses to only 17 queens out of the original 

 number (60) which I went into winter quar- 

 ters with. The total loss from wintering- 

 was three, and from spring dwindling the loss was 

 two. " But," says one, " was not the result from 

 spring dwindling caused by poor wintering-?" Well, 

 I am not ready to admit that yet, although I know 

 such is the claim put forth by some. The dwindling, 

 came from those that were wintered in the cellar, 

 while a few years ago I had several cases of severe 

 spring dwindling from those wintered outdoors. 

 Tn both cases the bees wintered well, or fairly so, 

 at least ; and, besides, two weeks previous to the 

 time they commenced to dwindle I had many colo- 

 nies which, to all appearance, were no better than 

 those that were lost, which did not dwindle at all, 

 but came through in excellent condition. When 

 any one will give us a satisfactory reason why one 

 colony dies, and another as near like it as two per- 

 fect peas can be like another, lives, then T will 

 think that perhaps I know something of this mat- 

 ter; but as it is, 1 am wholly ignorant of the matter, 

 and believe it to be a manly act to say so, when I 

 do not know, instead of trying- to excuse it oft by 

 some theory which I know no more about than I do 

 the first. Of one thing 1 am certain; and that is, 

 that losing bees in winter and losing them in the 

 spruig are two different things, for you know that 

 the old man said he could winter his calves first 

 rate; but when it came to springing them, then it 

 was the " 'despit sus." The seasons vary so that it 

 often upsets all of our calculations, and so it hap- 

 pens that the time that is given to set the bees out 

 of the cellar (when the red elm and soft maples are 

 in bloom) does not always prove to be the right 

 time. Some years ] have been three weeks in get- 

 ting my bees out of the cellar, setting a few out 

 each day when the weather was fine; and it has 

 proven as often that those set out first did the best, 

 as it has the other way, so that the late-setting- 

 out theory is of little value. But, to the report: 



Hard maple opened about the 30th of May, which 

 gave the l)ees an abundance of pollen, while the 

 white and golden willow, which were in bloom at 



the same time, gave enough honey so as to start 

 brood-rearing- to a considerable extent. With the 

 apple bloom it came cold so that the bees 

 could get nothing whatever from that source, 

 which held bi-ood-rearing in check for so long a 

 time, that, had not the basswood been late in blos- 

 soming, the bees could not have possibly been got- 

 ten in condition to take advantage of it. This cold 

 weather at this time (June 1st to 10th), was so se- 

 vere that the ground was frozen to the depth of 

 half an inch in places, and the honey-dearth lasted 

 so long that all drones were killed off except in a 

 few colonies which had a large supply of old honey. 

 June 20th, the clovers opened so the bees went to 

 work to some extent, getting a little honey from 

 this source, and from the red and black raspberry 

 bloom, as well as the black locust; yet all of these 

 sources combined did not give any more than was 

 used up in brood-rearing, except from a few of the 

 strongest colonies. Of the clovers, only the alsike 

 seemed to yield honey, for only that of a reddish 

 cast was stored, such as we had a few years ago 

 when a large acreage was sown within the range of 

 my bees. This dark color is against this honey, al- 

 though it is of fine flavor. As to yield of honey, it 

 is ahead of any other variety grown in this locality; 

 and if it would give a prolific hay crop it would be 

 largely sown by our farmers; but when they found 

 out that it seldom held in the ground more than a 

 year and a half after sowing, and did not give one- 

 half the hay the red clovers did, they soon stopped 

 sowing it. Owing to the peculiar season I had less 

 swarms, from the colonies kept, than in any year 

 since I have kept bees, only about a third casting 

 swarms. 



Teasel opened about the fourth of July, but gave 

 very little honey at any time during the season, al- 

 though occasionally a bee would be seen coming in 

 covered with teasel dust, even in the height of the 

 basswood bloom. 



Basswood opened about the 8th of July, and last- 

 ed nearly three weeks, although it gave compara- 

 tively no honey, for the first five days after it open- 

 ed. The weather now came off quite favorable, 

 and honey came in so freely that all of the colonics 

 which were worked for honey were soon in the sec- 

 tions, and the nuclei began to fill the tops of their 

 combs with honey. The yield continued good for 

 nearly two weeks, though at no time large, and then 

 came the closing-up of our honey season for 1888, as 

 this has lieen the eleventh year that buckwheat 

 has failed entirely in this locality. I had hoped to 

 work at least 3.'i colonies for honey, but the <iueen- 

 busiuess boomed so during the month of June that 

 1 had to break up all of the colonies to form nuclei, 

 from which I sold queens that had been wintered 

 over, so that 1 used only the 17 having queens for 

 honey, and many of those were drawn upon for 

 bees to keep the queen-business going. From the 

 17 colonies worked for honey 1 obtained 13:« pounds 

 of comb honey, as I have not used the extractor to 

 get a pound of honey this season. This V£ii pounds 

 of honey divided by the 17 colonies gives 72(4 jtounds 

 as the average yield of comb honey from each col- 

 ony, spring (!Ount, and, (considering the poorness of 

 the season as a whole, I think it is as good as I have 

 ever done. I go into winter again with H(i colonies, 

 which have been obtained by division, doubling up 

 of nuclei, and the few swarms which issued. All 

 colonies worked for honey had plenty of stores 

 for winter, after e<iualixijig the honey ani<uig thenj; 



