1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



719 



season, and properly handled, ought to have 

 made the owner $2000 clear, as honey brought 

 a better price then than it does now. I re- 

 ceived 18 cts. per pound in job lots for part of 

 my comb honey. 



For the years 1889, '90, '91, and '92, the 

 honey crops were light to fair, but there were 

 no total failures. The year 1893 was a great 

 white-clover year, and gave us a splendid crop 

 of honey. In 1894 there was no white clover, 

 but basswood was a full crop, and lasted as 

 long as it was ever known to in this region. 

 The bees worked on it 25 days. Just after the 

 close of the basswood flow, Ernest Root visit- 

 ed us and found the bees storing quite rapid- 

 ly a very light amber honey, the source of 

 which I never fully learned. The year 1895 

 scored another total failure, bees getting just 

 enough honey to winter on. In 1896 we had 

 a fair crop, mostly from basswood. In 1897 

 we had another great white-clover year. The 

 pastures in this county were covered as with a 

 white sheet. In 1898 there was no honey at 

 all from clover, but basswood gave a fairly 

 good yield. 



Thus we see that, during the years 1885 to 

 1898 inclusive, or fourteen years, we have 

 recorded five full crops, seven of which were 

 light to fair, and two total failures. Taking 

 it for granted, for convenience' sake, that the 

 present season of 1899 will score another fail- 

 ure (which I do not think will be the case), 

 we have, as a result, one total failure for every 

 five years; five heavy crops out of fifteen, or 

 one in three years, and seven medium crops 

 in fifteen years. This gives us a basis on 

 which to estimate the probable results in the 

 future, and is very valuable to the one who 

 expects to make bee-keeping his principal 

 means of support. Some localities can show 

 a better record than this, but there are a great- 

 er number that can not show as good. 



One can see from this record how important 

 it is to have a location with a diversity of 

 honey-producing plants. In my location the 

 fact that the field produces both white clover 

 and basswood prevented me from having sev- 

 eral more failures of crop during the time 

 recorded. 



Some may ask what I consider a full crop 

 on my field. I will state it in round numbers 

 easily remembered: 100 lbs. of comb honey 

 per colony, spring count, for a full crop; 50 

 lbs. half crop, and so on. From this it would 

 not be difficult to figure out just about what a 

 good bee-keeper could have done in those past 

 15 years. 



Location is a great factor; but management, 

 I believe, is the most important of all. How 

 many Doolittles have we among bee-keepers ? 

 Very few. I know that I am not one, for, as 

 I once said to a friend, " I get well paid for 

 neglecting my bees. ' ' That means that I have 

 other business that prevents me from taking 

 the nice care of the bees that they deserve. 

 But there are some keeping bees in Wisconsin 

 who are so ignorant and negligent that they 

 will tell you they expect their bees to do well 

 when the basswood comes in bloom, whereas 

 basswood has come and gone, and the poor 

 bees had no surplus-arrangement provided in 



which to store the honey, so they just plugged 

 their brood-combs what they could, and then 

 loafed, or in some cases built a piece of comb 

 on the outside of the hive. 

 Browntown, Wis., July 15. 



[If any thing, the locality in which Mr. 

 Lathrop lives is better than the average one ; 

 and if that is the case, then the general status 

 of bee-keeping over the United States is not 

 as good as in the immediate vicinity of Mr. 

 Lathrop. We want the plain, unvarnished 

 truth ; and it is only fair to the veterans as 

 well as to the beginner that such truth be 

 known. Many novices become excited over 

 the proceeds procured by a neighbor in one 

 season, and then they go in and "divide 

 profits" by putting more bees into a locality 

 that is already well stocked, and just barely 

 capable of supporting one honey-producer. — 

 Ed.] 



" FIVE -BANDER" EXPERIENCE. 

 Narrow Frame-spacing; Shade for Hives. 



BY A. NORTON. 



Friend Root: — I do not wish to discuss a 

 matter that I have written about in former 

 years, when you intimated that I was partly 

 theoretical, but to confine myself to matters 

 of fact. I wish to say that I have continued 

 to test, since my articles on the subject in 

 1895, the five-banded Italians side by side 

 with the common Italians of three bands. I 

 have had the golden bees of several breeders, 

 and have obtained the three-banders also from 

 various sources. I have not failed to get the 

 stock that promised best. I have purchased 

 queens from breeders of three-band stock who 

 have bred especially for industry, etc., and 

 who have claimed to have a superior race of 

 red-clover three-band Italians. The result of 

 my comparisons for now five seasons is as 

 follows: Just as good "red-clover" Italians 

 are bred by one eastern dealer whose queens 

 are golden Italians as come from ' ' red- clover ' ' 

 strains of three-banders. I do not live where 

 I can test the working on red clover. I refer 

 to their respective merits where red clover 

 does not grow. But I have no doubt that the 

 clover- working carries out the same equality in 

 red-clover countries. All the strains of five- 

 band bees that I have tried are as hardy as are 

 any three-banders. They are as active and 

 industrious, and hence as good honey - 

 gatherers. 



I had this season my best honey-record from 

 five-banders, with three-banders and a Carni- 

 olan cross in the same yard. The bees vary 

 somewhat in temper, but no more so than do 

 the regular Italians. I have found some cross 

 ones, but equally cross three-banders of pure 

 stock, so that I can rely upon the five-band 

 temper with equal certainty as upon that of 

 the three-band Italians. Some of the gentlest 

 bees I have ever seen were five-banders. The 

 five-band (or golden) queens are, "in this 

 locality," just as long-lived as are any queens 

 I have ever had, preserving their usefulness 

 for as long a period. Therefore, with no the- 



