GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



SIFTINGS 



Middlebury, Vt. 



My observations agree with Dr. 

 Miller as given on page 469, June 

 15, that queens very decidedly pre- 

 fer old comb to new, especially in 

 early spring. After the weather 

 is hot it does not seem to make so 

 much difference. 



More clover in bloom than I ever saw be- 

 fore in one year. I think I have seen just 

 as much white clover before, but now it is 

 white and alsike. 1 never saw an alsike- 

 clover blossom till after I was twenty-eight 

 years old. 



Riding tln'u a large fruit-farm recently 

 where cherry-trees had been set between 

 every other apjjle-tree, I couldn't help notic- 

 ing how much more heavily the trees were 

 loaded with fruit as we came near where the 

 bees were placed in the orchard. 



There is a difference of opinion as to the 

 advisability of our country making large 

 expenditui-es in preparing to meet an im- 

 aginary enemy. But there is but little ques- 

 tion as to the wisdom of the beekeeper be- 

 ing prepared for the flow of honey when it 

 comes. I believe in this kind of " prepared- 



Swarmed, swarm, swarming! I never 

 knew such a year. Bees began the latter 

 part of May, and they are still vigorously at 

 it, July 16, and it looks now as tho they 

 would keep it up till August or September. 

 If honey had been stored in proportion we 

 might rejoice; but it was too cold and raw 

 till June 23, since which honey has been 

 coming in in a pleasing way. 



I was pleased with the editorial in 

 Gleanings for June 15, on " Exaggeration 

 in Advertising;" in fact, I was delighted. 

 It cannot be denied that, during the last 

 year, there has been more or less advertising 

 that was no credit to the advertisers nor to 

 the journals publishing them. It is a source 

 of pleasure to know that this sort of thing 

 is to be cut out in the future, and that the 

 brakes are on with a vim. 

 * * « 



Dr. Miller, on page 427, June 1, refers to 

 drones reared in queen-cells, or, rather, an 

 attempt of bees to rear a queen from drone 

 eggs or larvfB. We run across such, T be- 

 lieve, every year, and sometimes many of 



them. I have never known a dr; no larva 

 to be exchanged foi' a Avorker larva; nor 

 have I ever known s loh to hatch, altho the 

 drone larva in such cells seems to 'reach 

 nearly maturity before it dies. 

 « * » 



I am much interested in that new edition 

 of the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. 

 At^first it was the A B C book; and when it 

 had grown older and larger it became the 

 A B C and X Y Z book. Now, isn't it 

 about time it lay aside these juvenile and 

 youthful names and take on the more 

 mature and dignified name of " Encyclo- 

 pedia of Bee Culture," which it really is f I 

 am astonished at the amount of informa- 

 tion it contains when I look it over, an.d it 

 is a pleasure to recommend it to beginners 

 s?eking information. 



* * S:- 



Mrs. Allen, p. 428, June 1, expresses her 

 amazement that the tradition of the neces- 

 sity of informing bees of the death of any 

 member of the family is still believed by 

 many persons. This is an old and instruc- 

 tive tradition or superstition, as we may call 

 it. HoAV did it start, and why has it been 

 handed down from generation to genera- 

 tion ? In earlier ages, when less was known 

 of bees than at present, some one died; his 

 bees were neglected, and they, too, many of 

 them died. Many such cases may be re- 

 membered by some one who then tries to 

 account for it. It may have been suggested 

 that, as bees were very wise and sensitive 

 creatures, they should have been informed 

 of the death of their^master. No one had 

 done so, and the bees have died. Surely 

 this must be the cause. So it is handed 

 down from one to another, no one taking 

 pains to study into the real cause of the 

 death of the bees. These thoughts have 

 been suggested by looking over a yard 

 where the owner died last fall; and I said 

 to myself many times as I looked them o\'er, 

 " I guess no one informed these bees of 

 their master's death." It was in early May. 

 I was told there were 128 colonies last fall, 

 but I found only 100 alive. Some 50 more 

 were neaily gone. There were, indeed, only 

 a few really good colonies. Some had starv- 

 ed. Some I found with feeders still on the 

 hives; some with leaky covers; some with- 

 out packing. A great gap had been left in 

 a fence put up for a windbreak, so the 

 north wind had a fair sweep thru the yard. 

 Surely it was a sorry day for that yai'd of 

 bees when their master died, and they had 

 to pass the winter with so little care. 



