154 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



as if every hive in the yard was full of bees 

 to overflowing, and we were going to have 

 a case of wholesale swarming. Then it 

 began to rain. The bees loafed, and con- 

 sumed what little stores they had left, and 

 began a hand-to-mouth existence. In two 

 weeks brood-rearing had stopped altogeth- 

 er, and they were in a starving condition. 

 By May 1 it was apparent that we would 

 have to feed to pull the colonies thru till 

 yellow poplar bloomed about June 1. 



With the blooming of poplar the bees 

 worked with a vim; but it seemed as if they 

 gathered very little honey, as the continu- 

 ous rains washed the nectar out or thinned 

 it up so that it was of very little value. 

 After poplar bloomed we then expected the 

 bees to hold their own from white clover, 

 which was just beginning to show on lawns 

 and meadows. The excessive rains brought 

 the blossoms out with a rush, and the bee- 

 keeper again smiled with the anticipation 

 of a white-honey harvest. But tho the bees 

 worked vigorously on the blossoms I guess 

 they did so from force of habit, or to keep 

 from getting the blues, as no honey could 

 be found in the hives. 



By July 1 the colonies began to dwindle 

 rapidly; and in place of spring dwindling 

 we had a genuine case of summer dwin- 

 dling. Ever hear of that before? July 4 

 was spent at the various outyards examin- 

 ing colonies and deciding what was best to 

 do under the circumstances. The cornfields 

 were full of heartsease and bluevine, our 

 mainstay last year at this time, and we 

 thought conditions would surely get better 

 soon. We made several trips to the bottom 

 cornfields to see if we could discover any 

 bees working on the blossoms, but failed to 

 find a single bee, and came to the conclu- 

 sion that all colonies, even the wild bees in 

 the woods, were in as bad shape as ours. 

 We waited a week longer, and then took a 

 look. The bees were too weak to fly, and 

 were clustered outside of the hives in great 

 bunches, as if preparing to swarm. We 

 brushed them ot¥ by the handful. They 

 bai'ely had strength enough to crawl. We 

 rushed to town, and throwing a couple of 

 100-lb. bags of sugar in the back seat of the 

 auto we stopped at the home yard long 

 enough to load up what feeders were in 

 stock, grabbed a huge granite pitcher, a 



A progressive orchardist makes sure of perfect pollination. In case the weather is cold during the blossom- 

 ing period it pays, and pays big, to have the colonies distributed about the orchard, especially 

 if it is a large one. The cover picture shows a corner of this same orchard. 



