May, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



conditions; but one colonj' retained the 

 parasite thruout, and may be considered a 

 " disease carrier." Mr. Beuhne advises cer- 

 tain precautions to help bees j^et rid of the 

 parasite. He evidently accepts in general 

 the conclusion that " Isle of Wight disease " 

 is serious in England and that it is due to 

 Nosema apis. Of the latter there may be 

 some question. 



According to these results, there is either 

 something wrong in the results of the Eng- 

 lish investigators or Nosema apis behaves 

 differently in England. Since there seems 

 no immediate danger of an epidemic of 

 disease in America, it may be best for 

 American beekeepers to wait for somebody 

 to settle some of the questions yet unsolved 

 before they begin to worry. 



THERE CAN BE no doubt that there will 

 be a sugar shortage in the United States in 



the near future. 



SUGAR 



SHORTAGE 



AND HONEY 



PRODUCTION 



The price has al- 

 ready advanced 

 gTeatly, and it is 

 apparent that 

 the two Ameri- 

 cas will have to furnish the food for Europe 

 as long as the great war lasts and for some 

 time afterward. The price of everything 

 is climbing, including honey. All indica- 

 tions show that it will be impossible to 

 have an overproduction of extracted honey 

 next year. The market has been cleaned up 

 for extracted in- bulk; and it is apparent 

 that next year's crop will be snapped up at 

 good prices. What those prices will be, it 

 is too early to predict. 



The slogan has gone out that every spot 

 of land should be utilized for the growing 

 of food crops. In the same way every bit 

 of unoccupied bee territory should be 

 utilized. 



If possible, the crop of extracted should 

 be greatly increased. Even tho the amount 

 should exceed that of 1916 (and that was 

 large), there cannot be an overproduction. 

 We are advised that the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology appreciates the situation, and pro- 

 poses to carry on a campaign, by means of 

 circular letters and otherwise, to increase at 

 once the crop of honey in the United States. 



IT IS APPARENT that there has been an 

 enormous demand for bees in package form. 



Many of our adver- 

 BJG DEMAND tisers in the South are 



FOR COMB- booked up to the first 



LESS BEES of June, and some of 



them are working al- 



most day and night to fill their orders. The 

 backward spring has hit some of the pack- 

 age men pretty hard. Weak colonies have 

 dwindled away and brood has been chilled. 

 The result is that some of the breeders have 

 had to cancel orders, and not a few are re- 

 turning money sent for bees. 



We wish to suggest that those who have 

 ordered bees in the pound form be as lenient 

 with their Southern breeders as possible. 

 We chance to know that some (and perhaps 

 all of them) are doing their vei'y best to fill 

 orders on schedule time. While most of 

 them will succeed, others will be delayed. 



It will do their customers of the North no 

 good to cancel their orders if they cannot 

 get prompt delivery, for in so doing they 

 will be at the bottom of the list when they 

 place their orders with other breeders. 



The backward spring has been hard on 

 bees in the North in some localities, and it 

 is apparent that Northern beekeepers have 

 placed orders with Southern men for bees in 

 package form to build up some of their 

 nuclei. But we fear that in some cases the 

 bees will come too late to do much good this 



THERE ARE LYING on our table two 

 new books from the American Bee Journal. 



The first is entitled 

 TWO NEW " One Thousand An- 



BOOKS FROM swers to Beekeeping 

 THE AMERICAN Questions," being 

 BEE JOURNAL answers by Dr. C. 



C. Miller to questions 

 asked in the American Bee Journal and 

 compiled into book form by Mr. M. G. 

 Dadant. It is gotten out in the convenient 

 form of an encyclopedia — that is, the ques- 

 tions are arranged in alphabetical order. 

 The first question relates to Absconding, 

 and the last to Yields of Honey. The fact 

 that the answer's are by Dr. Miller is a suf- 

 ficient guarantee that they are likewise 

 orthodox. 



The second book is a revision of a former 

 edition entitled " New Beekeeping," by C. 

 P. Dadant, bound in cloth. It appears to 

 be, just as the author says, largely rewritten. 

 The first edition was based on Newman's 

 book, " Bees and Honey." The last edition 

 appears to be wholly the work of C. P. 

 Dadant, the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal. It is well gotten up and will be 

 an excellent introduction to the larger work, 

 Dadant-Lang-stroth Revised, by the same 

 author. 



