GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



J. E. Crane 



IFTINC 



liddlebiary, Vt. 



The honey season here has been very dis- 

 appointing. Poor — -very poor. 



Mr. Byer's e.\])erience in different locn- 

 tions is certainly instrnctive, p. 493, July] ; 

 while it is well to choose a location wisely 

 we cannot be sure of a successful season 

 every year ; and the old proverb, " a rolling- 

 stone gathers no moss," is as applicable to 

 beekeeping as to any other pursuit. 



Arthur C Miller well says, page 498, 

 July 1, that he prefers to have foundation 

 draAvn out in upper stories over full colo- 

 nies. The best place, surely; but when he 

 says the best time is when the bees are at 

 work on honey-dew, it is all righf if you 

 have it in quantity, but we do not have it 

 about here plentifully enough for that pur- 

 pose oftener than once in twenty-five or 

 thirty years; in fact, I have known it but 

 once in more than fifty years. 



During last winter many of my hivos 

 were covered with snow for several week.«, 

 yet wifhoiit harm. One yard of over sixty 

 colonies was almost entirely covered, yet 

 only one colony failed to respond to the 

 April roll-call, and that had evidently de- 

 camped, as it contained no bees, either dead 

 or alive. 



» -* * 



I have been in the habit for manj^ years 

 of mixing honey with sugar syrup when 

 feeding in autumn to jirevent gTanulation; 

 but for the jiast two years I have with some 

 hesitation fed the sugar syrup (two of 

 sugar to one of water), without honey, and 

 found no more granulation, either last 

 spring or the year before, when honey Avas 

 mixed with llie sugai' syrup. 



Mr. Chadwick, page 491, July 1, sayr, 

 " A poor cjueen cannot always be judged bv 

 the amount of bees in her colony," as, by 

 changing the hive so she will have more 

 workers, she may prove quite prolific. Now, 

 this is doubtless true so far as the laying of 

 the queen is concerned; but when a colony 

 runs down, as he says, it shows that, if the 

 queen is not a poor layer, her offspring are 

 lacking in stamina, endurance, or longevity, 

 which is quite as important as numbers in 

 the campaign of lione^'-gathering. 



Dr. Miller, page 531, suggests the use of 

 the sharp cutting pincers the blacksmith 

 uses for clipping the hoofs of horses, in- 

 stead of a saw or pruning-shears recom- 

 mended by A. 1. Root for removing the 

 spurs from fowls. Now, if Ave may stop the 

 discussion of beekeeping problems for a 

 little, let me suggest the application of a 

 small amount of caustic to the spurs of 

 young fowls, and i)revent their growth the 

 same as aii|)lied lo calves to prevent the 

 urowtli of lioi'ns. 



Some time ago I inquired in regard to 

 the chemical composition of pollen, and I 

 recently received a letter from a good friend, 

 Adrian Getaz, of Knoxville, Tenn., saying 

 that there is i^lenty of information along 

 this line in the standard works. He says 

 further that " In general the pollen differs 

 but little from the seeds of the plants except 

 that it has more fatty or oily compounds, 

 find seldoin any fecal matter — bitter, poi- 

 sonous, medicinal, or aromatic, which one 

 often finds in seeds. Beans come nearer the 

 average pollen than any ether grain." 

 1 hanks. 



We are greatly indebted to Gleanings 

 for the full discussion of the net-weight 

 laAv as it relates to the packing of honey. 

 The expense of packing, by this law, is in- 

 creased. That must come out of the bee- 

 keeper unless the price of comb honey is 

 laised; and it would seem as though that 

 Avould be the inevitable result. It Avill, I 

 believe, drive many beekeepers noAV produc- 

 ing comb honey to producing extracted, 

 Avhich caij be sold in bulk, and so avoid the 

 bother. I believe it Avill also have a ten- . 

 dency to cause comb honey to be sold by 

 count rather than by Aveight, as at present 

 in the East. 



Wesley Foster asks, page 406, " When is 

 a colony inspected? " A pertinent question, 

 surely, to every inspector. If there is much 

 disease in a yard it Avill almost invariably 

 be found in a feAv of the Aveaker colonies. 

 If none is found in them it seems hardly 

 worth Avhile to go tkrough all, especially if 

 coA'ered Avith heavy supers. So we may 

 inspect by lifting one or all the combs from 

 every hive; but by the last method we can 

 not get over nearly as much territory. Many 

 times I find that it is as cheap to help a 

 man clean up his yard as to destroy the bees 

 and hives if he does not. A little assistance 

 in this Avay produces good feeling between, 

 the inspector and beekeeper. 



