1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1' 



suiting- from eating a g-ood deal of glucose 

 some years ago. to test its eftect on my di- 

 gestive apparatus. I do not anticipate that 

 this new preparation, while perhaps more 

 palatable, will be very much better. The 

 brassy tase is there just the same, though 

 to a certain extent disg-uised with a distinct 

 flavor of New Orleans molasses that ia it- 

 self is not unpleasant. The fact that it 

 tastes better than the ordinary glucose, 

 mak s it a 1 the more dangerous to the aver- 

 age consumer and the more hurtful to the bee- 

 keeping industry for the time being. 



A. POSSIBLE PAILUKE OF THE HONEY CROP 

 IN CUBA. 



A LETTER received from one of our old 

 Gleaninus correspondents, Mr. Craycraft, 

 who has been located in Cuba for many 

 years, will explain itself: 



It looks as if Cuba were desiined at last to lose her 

 hercLolore uiidispulel cUim o never failing to turn 

 out a go d honey crop We are now at a dale when a 

 half of the crop should be harvested, and not a single 

 barrel of the present season s gathering h 'S arnveu in 

 the luaiktri, lor. vvilh the exception oi that taken at 

 j'our yards in Pa-o R al, and a small quantity fr>/m 

 Taco I'aco, the only honey leceiveu. either m Havana 

 or Matanza-, has been from the eaily "cleaning up" 

 extracting made e.irly in the season when prospects 

 Were good for a bountiful flow. 



We have had tiovv over 35 days of continuous cool 

 north winds and copious rains; the rains, however, 

 reached only as lar wes as Sail Cristobal, while vege- 

 tation is shriveling up from lack of rain at Taco T.co 

 and Paso Real In ihis section of the country the 

 white bciliioA'cr has opened but little ; and if warmer 

 weather does co.::e soon, there is a chance yet tor a 

 good flow of honey Ironi it. The tiouble is. though, 

 that colonies have co tiacted iheir biood- rearing so 

 much as lo be entirely too weak to do it justice, even if 

 it does come. 



I remember when I first came to Cuba, in 18H1 and 

 visited our late friend Mr. A. W Osimrn, who I might 

 mention kept a very accurate record, both of tcinper- 

 aiure and atino-pheric conditions, he showed me his 

 diary (I torgel whether ot the winter of 1^S9 or lh90) 

 which recorded a continuous 'orther of 47 days, begin- 

 ning Dec. 12 and lasting until the latter part of J iiu- 

 ary. during which lime the bees pot no honey what- 

 ever. When the wtaiher di I change, however, his 

 record of e.xtracting snowed that he took 47 tieices be- 

 fore the clo-e of the sea.soii. 



It seems that we are having a repetition this year; 

 and onr only hope is that the coming spring will be as 

 favoraole as that o le was K. L,. Ckaycraft. 



Havana, Cu ^a, Dec. 21, 1903. 



Here is another report along the same 

 line: 



As the end of the year i<= here I send in a report of 

 results f«r the b.-nefit of ihe ones wh) are afraid of 

 Cu^au honey ruining the American market. 



I have seen several thousand c loni s in the last few 

 dajs. and have hear.l from ail the thousand-hive men 

 1 kno * of, as well as seeing a lot of them, and. being 

 one of them myself, I am p isted now as to whit the 

 honey crop will be, and cui a-sure the scared oni-s 

 that even if we do get Ih^ 20 per-ceiit rt-ducnon in du- 

 ty to morrow, the American market will n^^t be ruined 

 this wintei by Cuban honey. 



The J) per cent i^ just 4 cts. per gallon, as the duty is 

 now 20 cts.; so with ihe leduction we shall still have to 

 pay It) cts on each gallon that go^ s from heie to the 

 United ->taies And by the way. Cuha has not had a 

 single failure in 20 years the crop being a sure thing 

 down here, or at least has been for 20 _\ ears, .Mice the 

 advent of the frame hive. But t^"" fniliire has now 

 come, an 1 is heie now We are ; 11 .iware of the fact. 

 The Cuban beekeepers area gloiiiij set tor the Christ- 

 mas of 1905. and this winter will long be remembered 

 by the bee men ot Cuba as the win er Ihat froze th.-ni 

 out, not with real frost, but with a cool north wind 

 week after week, right alung and it is still blowing 

 almost a gile. Such a winter here no one remembers 

 having seeh before. 



It is too cold in Cuba for the bees this time, as the 

 early cool weather stopped brood-rearing light at the 

 commencement of the honey-flow in October. The 

 flowers are here as usual, but no bees to gather, and 

 theie will not be, a-* brood rearing has been down to 

 two and three frames of brood lo the hive for many 

 weeks, and co ouies are all weak ; and as the flow is 

 over with March, it is too late to make the bees for this 

 crop of honey, and it is with us all failure this time. A 

 gnllon to the hive, instead of twenty, seems lo be the 

 cry this time. S"me of the thousand-hive men have 

 not taken that much — in fact, will not get any unless 

 surprised. 



These are cold clammy facts that will rest heavily on 

 some of us, as we count our honey crop heie a sure 

 thing e^ery time. Worse still, ihere lots of bees starv- 

 ing lo death right now during the time of harvest — 

 b^e men buying sugar at Chri>tiTias to feed in harvest 

 time Such is this lime Cuba s lot, and In the future 

 theie are not likely to be any more shipments of bees 

 from the Stales to Cuba to get rich here raii-ing honey 

 to send to America, wlh the Cu an price for iioney 2 

 cts. per lb,, in spite of no honey lo offer. 



Comb hoiiev this time has it " in the neck" even 

 worse than extracted, and it won't get over this win- 

 ter's frieie-out in a long time lo come. 



Bee-men are goi ig begging down here, as the crop 

 won't pay help, so Some ot the boys are hunting a job, 

 while some have gone into the tobacco business as a 

 suier thing than bee-. 



Foul brood is doing but little damage this winter, 

 and will generally be cleaned our in thr spring, as the 

 h iiey men will have to melt the combs into wax in 

 order to live through the summer of 1904. 



Caimito, CuL)a, Dec, 15, W. W. Somekford. 



CELLAR WINTERING AT MEDINA. 



We have just been examining the bees in 

 our three cellars. The winter has been 

 rather severe. The December just passed 

 has been one of the coldest known for many 

 years. So far our indoor wintering has 

 been very satisfactory. Very few bees are 

 found on the cellar floors, and clusters are 

 quiet. At the bassvvood yard cellar (built 

 after the Bingham plan) we put in a venti- 

 1 itor shaft 16 inches square, running from 

 the top of the roof down into the cellar. 

 Last year we had a shaft only 4 inches 

 square, with the result that the ventilation 

 was poor and the wintering not good, and 

 many dead bees on the cellar bottom. 



At the Harrington yard the bees are in a 

 very large old-fashioned cellar under a 

 house, with no ventilator. It is so large 

 that the atmosphere does not foul. These 

 bees are doing finely. 



In the cellar under the machine-shop, at 

 the home yard, the results are good; but we 

 found it necessary to open and close the 

 doors at night during moderate or warm 

 weather, to provide for sufficient ventila- 

 tion on account of the large number of colo- 

 nies confined. We kept the doors and win- 

 dows shut at first, but found the bees were 

 flying out and becoming uneasy. Then 

 when we began ventilating every night 

 during warm spells the bees quieted down, 

 and have been quiet ever since. In cold 

 weather, no opening and closing of doors 

 seems to be required. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BEE- 

 KEEPEWS' ASSOCI.VnON; SOME INTEREST- 

 ING FACTS AND STATISTICS. 



The last annual report of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association is by all odds the 

 most elaborate that has ever been put out by 

 this organization. Since General Manager 



