1078 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



fhe eokl continued. Altho Dutch clover was 

 abundant, it gave only a slow flow, no sur- 

 plus, but just the tiling for the 12 packages 

 to build up on, which they proceeded to do 

 with a vim. 



About July 1, 14 moi'e packages were re- 

 ceived, to be used in forming nuclei, as this 

 yard Avas intended for queen-rearing, con- 

 taining as it did my best breeders selected 

 from the best honey-gatherers for years. 

 The i^aekages were each immersed in a pail 

 of water, to wet the bees and prevent their 

 flying, then one screen was removed, and all 

 dumped into a hive with a screen top. Vir- 

 gin queens were given each nucleus, and the 

 nucleus bees supplied from the packages. 

 They were put on full sheets of foundation, 

 four frames to the hive, each frame half 

 Hoffman size. The bees were fed a candy 

 such as is used in queen-cages the first day, 

 but the honey-flow from sweet clover, just 

 starting, made further feeding unnecessary. 

 About 60 nuclei were started this way. 



Brood and bees Avere constantly removed 

 after July 15 from the colonies started early 

 with packages, usually two frames per week. 

 These were full Hoffman size, as more nu- 

 clei were constantly formed, and some bees 

 and brood were needed to bolster up nuclei 

 where the first queens given failed to return 

 after the mating, on account of the con- 

 tinued rain. No further feeding was neces- 

 sary for the colonies or nuclei, and the hon- 

 ey-flow continued slow but sure until frost. 



From this yard several hundred queens 

 were shipped last year, most of them as fine 

 as I ever produced, being daughters of my 

 breeders saved in the spring, and the drones 

 from the remaining 11 breeder colonies. 



One of these strongest packages was re- 

 lieved of its queen al)out July 1, and was 



White clematis that climbed from a trellis on to a 

 tree and shot up to the unusual height of 40 feet. 

 During the blossoming period in July and August 

 the bees swarmed all over it. — From A. T. Cope- 

 land, Olalla, Wash. 



used continuously afterward for starting 

 cells, a frame of young bees being shaken 

 before the hive each week. 

 Plainfield, 111. 



THE SAND VETCH AS A HONEY- PLAINT 



BY EDWIN TRINDER 



The honey from the sand vetch is mild in 

 flavor, but it has a dark-amber color. As 

 the vetch blossoms at the same time as white 

 clover and alsike, the bees mix the two kinds 

 of honey together, thus, of course, spoiling 

 the color of the white honey. 



The vetch has been grown here on sandy 

 soil for the past few years, but the bees have 

 never worked on it until recently. During 

 the last season especially, I think that there 

 was so much rain and cold weather that they 

 could not go very far away. The vetch was 

 close to the apiary, and for that reason they 

 could get to it. The white clover and alsike 

 are further away. The honey, however, is 



so mild that many of our customers think 

 that it improves the clover flavor. 



We are located three miles from Lake 

 Erie, near Port Dover, the summer resort. 

 The honey crops have been only fair since 

 191.3. We run for extracted honey and de- 

 pend on buckwheat and goldenrod for the 

 main part of our surplus. We winter the 

 bees altogether on buckwheat honey. 



T shall soon be 77 years of age, but am in 

 good health. I have been president of the 

 Norfolk Beekeepers' Association for four- 

 teen years. The Association has been stead- 

 ily growing. Now we have over 50 members. 



Simco, Ont., Can. 



