1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



851 



THE HONEY SEASON ON THE EAST COAST OF 

 FLORIDA; OVERSTOCKING AND PRI- 

 ORITY RIGHTS. 



The honey crop on the east coast of Flor- 

 ida is short — in some places a failure. On 

 the west coast the yield was good. From 

 about 700 colonies Mr. Marchant extracted 

 258 barrels, of 32 gallons each; also got 

 about 1500 lbs. of comb honey. The bees 

 were located in three apiaries on the Apa- 

 lachicola River— one, two miles north, the 

 other two miles south of the home apiary. 

 You will see the bees did not work a very 

 extensive territory, but all were busy as 

 long as the flow lasted, which was about 25 

 days. We consider this a very fair yield, 

 and do not think the range was overstocked. 



In regard to overstocking a range, we 

 may say that some ranges are overstocked 

 before any bees are put there, or otherwise 

 some people will stock a range that is not 

 capable of supporting bees at all, so such a 

 range can easily be overstocked. Other 

 places will seem some years to be incapable 

 of being overstocked, when the next year 

 the range will yield little or nothing. There 

 is no definite way to tell what is going to be; 

 but common sense should tell a person that 

 it is policy to get as far away as possible 

 from a range already occupied with bees; 

 for if such range is not filled to its full ca- 

 pacity the people there will, no doubt, put 

 all the bees there that can be kept with any 

 profit one year with another. Then we may 

 ask how far an apiarist's rights of priority 

 extend. Is it as far as he pleases, or just 

 as far as he can occupy it and do it justice? 

 May be some of us demand too much. If 

 my neighbor locates an apiary on a range 

 adjoining my own, but beyond the flight of 

 my bees, is it any of my business? or have 

 I a moral right to claim every thing that 

 joins me? This matter will never be settled 

 to the entire satisfaction of every one; but 

 let us not claim too much as ours when we 

 can show but a poor title or perhaps none at 

 all, only to say, " I was here first, and claim 

 all within reach." If you have a nice apia- 

 ry on only a fair range, and I come and es- 

 tablish another one just over the street from 

 you, it shows a very poor business policy on 

 my part, and little regard for what is right 

 from a friendly point of view; but every 

 one will have his views all the same. 



Hollister, Fla. M. W. Shepard. 



they are finally given larvae or eggs they 

 will commence cell-building, and feed the 

 cells lavishly with royal food.— Ed.] 



QUEENLESS AND BROODLESS; WHAT DOES IT 

 MEAN? 



What is meant by making a colony queen- 

 less and broodless? Do you remove all the 

 brood at the time you do the queen, or sim- 

 ply wait four or five days until all the eggs 

 have hatched into larvae? 



Gorda, Cal. W. N. Hubble. 



[To make a colony queenless and brood- 

 less simply means that we take away queen 

 and brood in all stages, including eggs. The 

 purpose of this is to get the bees in a condi- 

 tion where they are crying for prepared 

 cells, brood, eggs, or a queen. Then when 



OUTSIDE FEEDING. 



Several of my apiaries are located some 

 miles from any other; and when I find that 

 they are short of stores for brood-rearing 

 I feed granulated-sugar syrup outside. I 

 have fed a barrel of sugar at a time, and 

 had no difficulty with robbing. I leave the 

 entrances of the strong colonies wide open, 

 and contract those of the weak ones in pro- 

 portion to their strength. It seems to me 

 quite as satisfactory as inside feeding, with 

 much less trouble. E. B. Rood. - 



Braidentown, Fla. 



[See answer to C. E. Woo:iward in our 

 last issue, p. 811, and editorials in this one. 

 -Ed.] 



mortality of bees in utah. 



I saw in your July 15th issue an article 

 on mortality of bees in Utah. I saw the 

 same disease, and it stood altogether in the 

 honey that was in the hive. The remedy 

 we used for it was to extract all the honey 

 from the hive and feed the bees. The dis- 

 ease described in Gleanings just matches 

 the one I saw. The bees, old and young, 

 would crawl out and begin to hop, and some 

 would go as far as fifty or sixty feet, hop- 

 ping till they were exhausted. After the 

 colonies were thus treated they came out all 

 right. H. A. Ross. 



Evansville, Ind., July 21. 



[This is respectfully referred to the suf- 

 ferers or losers of bees in Utah. —Ed.] 



ARE COMBS AFFECTED WITH PICKLED BROOD 

 FIT TO USE AGAIN? 



Pickled brood got into my yard pretty 

 badly this spring, and I have saved the 

 combs and honey. Would the combs and 

 honey be all right to use again next year? 

 I have been reading on page 763 what A. J. 

 Halter has to say about it. But with me, it 

 began with two colonies with the first brood 

 they had in the spring, and kept spreading 

 all through the yard. E. A. Harris. 



North Petersburg, N. Y. 



[I would not advise the use of combs 

 which have contained pickled brood. It is 

 cheaper by far to melt them up and use 

 foundation in them again. The combs of 

 honey certainly would not be fit to give 

 again to the bees. While pickled brood is 

 not a serious disease, it is very annoying, 

 cropping out every now and then, and then 

 disappearing. — Ed. ] 



Under ordinary conditions will bees store 

 enough honey in a one-story eight-frame 

 Dovetailed hive to last them through the 

 winter? Albert Hurt. 



Memphis, Tenn., July 29. 



[Probably not; but a good deal will de- 

 pend on conditions. If there is no fall hon- 



