518 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



Dr. Phillips, in speaking of the two kinds 

 of foul brood, says, on page 407, July 1, 

 "There is usually little odor in European 

 foul brood." I hardly think that will apply 

 to the Ontario brand, as some of the worst- 

 smelling cases I ever came across have been 

 of the European foul-brood variety. A few 

 weeks ago I was called to look at a case of 

 this disease, and the combs could be smelled 

 ten feet awa>' on the windward side of the 

 hive. The colony had been an extremely 

 strong one, and had evidently got the dis- 

 ease by robbing, or finding a vessel that had 

 contained honey, as practically all the 

 brood was dead. Probably the large amount 

 of dead brood was responsible for the rank 

 odor; but whatever the cause, the smell was 

 certainly disgusting. 



EXTRACTING THE LIGHT BEFORE THE 

 DARK HONEY COMES IN. 



Editor Hurley says, in the .luly Canadian 

 Bee Journal, "at the close of the basswood 

 flow or other light-honey-jiroducing plants, 

 start the extractor going promptly if you 

 are living in a locality which gives you a 

 buckwheat How. There is no excuse for let- 

 ting the two become mixed." Begging 

 your pardon, friend Hurley, this scribbler 

 would beg to difTer with you, and say that 

 often there is a really good excuse for allow- 

 ing the two to become mixed; and I want 

 to say right here that in many seasons, in 

 quite a few localities, the anxiety to keep 

 the two separate results in a lot of green 

 honey going on the market. By all means 

 keep the two separate when possible; but 

 rather have a mixed ripened honey than 

 green pure basswood or thistle honey un- 

 ripe. We have been there, and have been 

 under temptation, too, and that at no later 

 a date than the season of 1910. Basswood 

 gave a light flow, and thistles yielded the 

 best I ever knew. Just as they were about 

 over, some fields of buckwheat began to 

 bloom. The honey was unsealed and thin; 

 but my! how we were temjjted to get off an 

 extra thousand of white honey, especially 

 after the season had been none too good! 

 In fact, we yielded to temptation and took 

 oil" a few hundred, and then were ashamed 

 of the quality we had. I may as well con- 

 fess that I was afraid to dispose of the 200 

 odd pounds taken off, and later on I fed it 

 back to a strong colony and had a lot of sec- 

 tions finished with it. 



1911 A YEAR OV FAILURE. 



This is Aug. 12, and still the weather is 

 dry — verij dry. The season of 1911 will go 

 on record as a series of disappointments for 

 the bee-keepers of our vicinity, for now it 

 looks as though the buckwheat would not 

 yield more than enough for winter stores, if 

 it does that much. First of all, the clover 



was badly damaged in the early spring; 

 then warm rains freshened up what was left, 

 and the farmers left many acres for seed 

 that should have been plowed under. The 

 extreme drouth and heat of May seemed to 

 take all the vitality out of the alsike, and, 

 as a result, it yielded practically no honey, 

 and, as thrashing proved later on, practical- 

 ly no seed. From one to two bushels to the 

 acre is the average, whereas seven and eight 

 is not an unusual yield other years. Twen- 

 ty miles west of us, where the clover win- 

 tered well, I am informed that the yield of 

 seed is proving to be good. The extreme 

 heat of July, coupled with the great drouth, 

 made it look for a while as though we 

 should have little if any buckwheat; but 

 some heavy showers for a few days in suc- 

 cession soaked the ground so that quite an 

 acreage went in. Our hopes again soared 

 up with visions of a cro]) of buckwheat hon- 

 ey, and the feeding bill cut out — a nice 

 prospect, you know, after a failure in the 

 white-honey crop. Now it is so dry that 

 many acres of buckwheat are in bloom 

 while the i)lants are not over a few inches 

 high. There is still hope if we get rain in- 

 side of a few days; but at present the weath- 

 er looks far from showery. 



CLOVER KILLED ; MOVING TO PASTURES 

 NEW. 



As mentioned in a former issue, the clo- 

 ver sown this spring is rei)orted to be about 

 all killed, and the problem now is what to 

 look ahead to for another year. With this 

 thought in view, we have already picked 

 out a location about 100 miles from home; 

 and if all goes well, two or three hundred 

 colonies will be shipped there next spring. 

 It is the old story of taking the mountain 

 to Mahomet, if Mahomet will not come to 

 the mountain; and, under the circumstances, 

 I know of nothing better to do; for with 

 no clover in our locality, nothing short of a 

 miracle would give a crop of honey. True, 

 basswood did give a good surplus crop ten 

 years ago, so perhaps we have a chance of 

 getting a crop from that source. 



The conditions I have described will also 

 apply to a great many other localities in 

 Ontario this year, judging from letters I 

 have received from ditTerent parts, and it 

 looks as though the man who depends more 

 upon wild feed for his bees than on culti- 

 vated iilants as a source of nectar will be 

 better situated for a year or two until things 

 are normal again. The location I have 

 mentioned, and which was visited a few 

 days ago, is one of the kind that does not 

 depend on cultivated plants for nectar. 

 Aside from the alsike and white clover that 

 are in the meadows, thousands of acres of 

 raspberry, willow-herb, goldenrod, and an 

 abundance of basswood constitute the main 

 source of supply. 



