520 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



we must necessarily make a colony run for 

 either when it may be more convenient at 

 times to make it produce both. 



I am not sure that Mr. Taylor and I are so 

 very far apart on many things. If we could 

 "talk it over" we would see some things in 

 the same light. Very likely if I were in his 

 locality I would do exactly as he does. But I 

 feel very sure of one thing ; and that is, he 

 has not read carefully all that I have said for 

 the last year or so on the subject of large col- 

 onies and the swarming problem. 



White clover, at least in the Northern and 

 Middle States, is the main dependence for 

 honey ; and even though basswood may yield 

 well it is confined mainly to particular locali- 

 ties, and would not, therefore, greatly affect 

 the general market. In our next issue I hope 

 to give a more exact estimate of the season. 



THE HONEY season; A SCANT CROP; HIGHER 

 PRICES. 



Up to within a few days, at least, the honey 

 season as reported over the country has been 

 very indifferent, not to say poor. We have, 

 up to within a day or two, received only a 

 very few reports where honey was coming in 

 to any extent ; but these few report an extra 

 honey-flow; but the localities are so scatter- 

 ed that, if no honey should come from now on, 

 there will be a great scarcity of both comb and 

 extracted honey; for in California the season 

 has been almost a complete failure. I think 

 I have never seen such immense areas of clo- 

 ver as I have this 3'ear ; but for some reason 

 or other it does not seem to "give down." 

 Occasionally, here and there, there will be a few 

 bees, but nothing like what we might expect 

 if nectar were being secreted in the usual way. 

 Our colonies at the home yard and at the bass- 

 wood yard have been on the verge of starva- 

 tion, and have had to be fed in order to keep 

 brood-rearing going. Our neighbors report a 

 similar condition with one exception, and to 

 this exception I shall refer later on. 



But since June "2(3 th I can report for this lo- 

 cality, at least, a change for the better. Bass- 

 woods were never more promising than this 

 year ; and by the way the bees are roaring on 

 the trees, and tumbling in at the entrances, it 

 begins to make it look as if we might get our 

 usual quota of honey. But the season has 

 been so peculiar that we do not propose to 

 count our chickens before they are hatched. 

 But as I sit here I can see great droves of bees 

 flying past the window and over factory build- 

 ings ; and our men in the yards tell us that it 

 begins to look like business now. 



In the last few days we have received some 

 very encouraging reports. In some cases clo- 

 ver seemed to be the source, and others bass- 

 wood. Rains have been frequent, and copi- 

 ous at times ; and although clover has been 

 out some six weeks, there are still vast areas 

 of it on the hills and pasttire lands. Perhaps 

 we shall have a second crop. An immense 

 quantity of clover will go to seed this year, 

 and this augurs well for next season's clover. 



I have deferred the writing of this till the 

 very last minute, so that I might be able to 

 present to you as exact an idea of the situation 

 as possible. Taking every thing into consid- 

 eration, honey ought not to sell as low as it 

 did last season ; for I am morally sure that 

 there will be less of it ; and do not be in a 

 hurry to rush it off to the commission men, 

 even if you do get a little crop. As the out- 

 put will be limited, prices should rule higher. 



GETTING HONEY WHEN OTHERS DO NOT ; THE 

 BOARDMAN PLAN OF FEEDING. 



Chalon Fowls, of Oberlin, who called upon 

 us lately, and who, at the time of his visit, 

 reported no honey, on his way back home 

 called on \'ernon Burt, a bee-keeper who 

 needs no introduction to our readers. This is 

 what he wrote back : 



Friend E} iwsl: — We stopped at Mr. Burt's on the 

 way home, and saw some sections nearly completed. 

 It was a stunner. He insinuated that your bees were 

 not the right kind, or you didn't know the ropes, or 

 something. Chalon Fowls. 



Oberlin, O.. June 24. 



I had not time to go over and investigate 

 for myself, but I got Mr. Weed to go in my 

 place. The secret of it is this : Mr. Burt 

 probably had no more nectar in the fields to 

 draw from than we ; but he had been feeding 

 his bees sugar syrup a la Boardman until the 

 brood-nests were/utt. As his bees had a big 

 stock of this in reserve, they did not draw on 

 what nectar they did gather from the fields for 

 brood rearing ; but it went right into the su- 

 pers. I might have known Mr. Burt would 

 have been forehanded. 



Right here, friends, is a pointer. A bee- 

 keeper who takes advantage of good and poor 

 seasons, and can somehow manage to get hon- 

 ey every year, is the chap to pattern after. I 

 am planning to go and see him in a day or so. 

 Mr. Weed says Mr. Burt is tising deep and 

 wide entrances, and other fancy notions. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH THE NATURAL-BASE 

 DRAWN FOUNDATION. 



It has been unfavorable to test the new^ 

 product. But, judging from one colony we 

 have been feeding, it would appear that drawn 

 foundation with walls ///ore than }i inch will 

 not give as frial:)le and delicate a comb as that, 

 which is ys inch deep or less; that is to say, 

 when walls are deeper than ?s inch, the bees 

 do not thin them down to walls of natural 

 thickness. So far, also tests go to show that 

 drawn foundation having walls js inch deep, 

 and with natural bases, is taken by the bees 

 in preference to ordinary foundation, in every 

 instance. 



Perhaps some may think that a dollar a 

 pound for foundation is rather expensive. So 

 it is, but it is in the experimental stage. Even 

 at a dollar a pound it is not too expensive to 

 use as .starters one inch deep, top and bottom ; 

 that is to say, it costs no- more than ordinary 

 foundation in full sheets, and I am of the 

 opinion it will be better bait for the bees — far 

 better. However, we solicit tests of it in full 

 sheets so that we can determine whether it 

 will be advisable to make larger dies whereby 

 we can reduce the cost of drawn foundation 

 so that it will be within the reach of bee-keep- 



