f'EIiRUARY 15, 1916 



145 



GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE 



SUNDRY APHORISMS 



BY J. E. CRANE 



On page 992, Dee. 1, Arthur C. Miller 

 gives us some " Sundry Aphorisms." First 

 he tells us not to have any weak colonies, 

 which is very good advice, particularly in 

 autumn. However, in mid-summer it is 

 often a very decided advantage to divide 

 our colonies so some of them will be weak. 

 He next tells us that bees winter well with 

 him on aster honey, but may die on sugar- 

 syrup stores, and gives as the reason, 

 "Worn-out bees. Handling a lot of sugar 

 syrup, or a lot of thin nectar late in the 

 season (late means when clusters are con- 

 tracting) puts too much labor on the bees, 

 and ages them, and that late, jDarticularly 

 with old queens." Then he calls on Mr. 

 Crane to sit up and " take notice," which I 

 hereby do. Now, I have fed tons and tons 

 of sugar S3'rup during the past thirty or 

 forty years, and this is the first intimation 

 that it " ages " bees seriously to feed them 

 any winter stores they may lack " when 

 clusters are contracting." I fail to see why 

 it should age bees seriously to carry down 

 five, ten, or twenty pounds of sugar syruiJ 

 into their combs, which is usually complet- 

 ed in twenty-four hours. "Particularly with 

 old queens;" why should it wear out bees 

 with an old queen sooner than bees with a 

 young queen? Our genial friend informs 

 us that the remedy is to put in young 

 queens about Aug. 20. Why, bless you, 

 my good friend, the rearing of brood is 

 nearly over by Aug. 20 in this " locality," 

 and the young bees reared after that time 

 would be few in number. But I suppose 

 Mr. Miller wanted to draw me out and tell 

 why I had so many weak colonies a year 

 ago. I will tell; but it was not by feeding 

 sugar syrup after the clusters were con- 

 tracting, by a long way. It Avas this way : 

 1914 was a very poor season, and July 25 

 found my home yard with little surplus or 

 increase, and even the hives nearly bare of 

 lioney, but a good supply of bees. I had 

 several hundred dry combs that I wanted 

 protected from wax-worms. I also wanted 

 some increase. So I disregarded the old 

 advice to keep all colonies strong, and made 

 some 75 new colonies by dividing about the 

 first of August, giving my new colonies 

 young queens, and then fed both old and 

 new colonies daily a thin sugar syrup to 

 promote breeding, expecting to build all up 



to good strength before cool weather, when 

 they could be given their winter supply; 

 but August proved quite too cool for such 

 work, and I found what I did not know 

 before, that bees will not build up on sugar 

 syrup as well as on honey. However, it 

 proved a financial success, altho I had to 

 go into winter with more weak colonies 

 than I like. 



SHALL THE HIVES BE PUT IN THE ORCHARD? 



Another aphorism. If you must keep 

 bees among the fruit-gTowers, do not put 

 your hives in the orchards, but only near 

 them — say " horse-distance off." Now, I 

 confess I don't just know what a " horse 

 distance " is. Is it the distance you can see 

 a horse distinctly, or hear him whinner? or 

 is it the distance it is safe to hitch a horse 

 from a hive of bees? The dictionary throws 

 little light on the subject, so I conclude it 

 is a pretty considerable way off, more or 

 less. But even with this definition I can 

 not quite agree with my friend, and this is 

 why : 



While attending the annual meeting of 

 the Vermont Horticultural Society recently 

 I learned of an extensive fruit-grower who, 

 without any regard to the advice of our 

 friend to set bees a " horse distance " away, 

 has actually had the presumption to take 

 hives of bees right into his orchard, scat- 

 tering them around here and there, one in a 

 place, with the result that in seasons when, 

 during fruit-bloom, it was cold and cloudy, 

 the three or four trees close to a hive of 

 bees were much more fruitful than those 

 further away — a very important considera- 

 tion, especially as we are apt to have a 

 great deal of such weather in northern New 

 England at this season of the year. 



And, again, he says, " If fruit-gi'owers 

 practice spraying while trees or cover crops 

 are in bloom they should know what will 

 happen. No bees will be kept near them, 

 and all the wild bees will be killed off." Not 

 quite so fast, my friend. While we know 

 that spraying at times does kill bees, it also 

 appears to be a fact that at other times it 

 does not. Would it not be well to look 

 into the subject carefully before we con- 

 demn all spraying of fruit-trees when in 

 bloom? 



Middlebury, Vt. 



