466 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1917 



After reading this letter I once more 

 came to the conclusion that no country has 

 a monopoly of the good or bad things com- 

 mon to man. While we have no doubt been 

 more or less impatient with our extra long 

 spell of cold weather, yet after all no harm 

 in particular has been done, as all vegeta- 

 tion is dormant and the bloom will come 

 along later all right, no doubt. Bees car- 

 ried a little pollen for the first time this 

 spring on April 18. Since that date they 

 have been out of the hives only a few days, 

 and I do not think an ounce of nectar has 

 been brought in yet. 



Almost every day people say to me, 

 " This weather must be hard on the bees;" 

 and while it certainly has not been ideal 

 for the colonies to build up, yet it might be 

 worse. Experience has taught us that, pro- 

 vided the colony is strong and has lots of 

 good stores, it will not suffer so much from 

 steady cold weather that stops all flying as 

 it would if weather were slightly warmer 

 and bees were enticed out for pollen. With 

 intermittent spells of sunshine and cool 

 winds and clouds, many bees are lost. 

 Judging from external appearances, bees 

 are standing the long cold spring quite well 

 indeed, and prospects are fair for a crop, 

 as alsike, altho damaged somewhat by heav- 

 ing, has a fair stand and should come along 

 all right with rains and warm weather. 



Dandelion " yields little or no honey " — 

 April issue, page 252. Is this a question of 

 ''locality," or of mistaken identity"? Al- 

 most every year we hear of some beekeep- 

 ers getting some " dandelion honey " from 

 extra strong colonies. Personally, I think 

 the bulk of this early honey comes from wil- 

 low and fruit bloom here in Ontario; but I 

 am bound to admit that we have already ex- 

 tracted honey out of supers before clover 

 flow came on that had the dandelion flavor 

 without a doubt. Would the abundance of 

 pollen from dandelion, coming in at same 

 time as honey from willows, be the cause of 

 this dandelion flavor? Possibly but hardly 

 probably; and I feel sure that at times the 

 dandelion here in Ontario yields quite a 

 lot of honey in addition to the bountiful 

 supply of pollen that seems to be always to 

 be in demand by the bees. 



Every beekeeper going to a convention 

 in the future should pocket a copy of 

 that letter fi'om " Mary," p. 116, before 

 leaving home. Surely the sketch is true 

 to nature, for is it not true that " every 

 beekeeper has his pet theory " ? and 

 often the convention is the place thai lie 



loolcs to as a means of " getting this off his 

 chest." One man has a pet hive, another 

 a pet method of doing some particular job 

 in the apiary, while still another will take 

 the floor half a dozen times to extol the 

 virtues of some pet kind of packing ma- 

 terial. Yes, members of the 0. B. K. A. 

 do those things just as they do on the other 

 side of the line, for, after all, human na- 

 ture seems the same whether you live north 

 or south of the great lakes. Let me re- 

 peat, that letter is a " gem," and person- 

 ally I think of taking a copy of it with 

 me when I go to the next convention. 



Much has been written about outdoor 

 wintering, and as to how far north this 

 method can be successfully practiced; and 

 while I have been in favor of the outdoor 

 method I must confess to being surprised 

 a few days ago to learn that bees are 

 being wintered outside at a point much 

 further north than I had deemed possible. 

 A friend spent the New Year holidays up 

 in New Ontario, at a point about 450 

 miles due north of Toronto, and he told me 

 on his return that some extensive beekeepers 

 up there were wintering outside exclusively. 

 All going well, I want to get in touch 

 with these beekeepers and find out what suc- 

 cess they are really lia.ving; for if bees can 

 be successfully wintered that far north, 

 •surely some of us need to revise K)ur 



ideas a little. 



* * * 



WHAT SHALL THE PRICES BE ? 



Speaking of prospects of a crop natural- 

 ly brings to mind the question of prob- 

 able prices. If prices are to advance in 

 proportion with other food commodities, 

 beekeepers must prepare their minds to 

 think of figures away above any price ever 

 received by any of us of this generation — 

 bread, 20 cts. for a three-pound loaf; po- 

 tatoes .^S.OO a bushel, and hard to get at 

 that figure; bacon 45 cts., and butter 40 cts. 

 a jDound. These are just a sample of prices 

 familiai% I suppose, to all of us. In the 

 face of these figures a well-known firm in 

 Ontario recently sent out circulars intimat- 

 ing that, because of the goodness of their 

 heart and their great interest in beekeepers, 

 they would buy the crop in advance, wheth- 

 er small or big, and pay the munificent price 

 of 10 cts. a pound, they to supply the tins 

 and the beekeeper to fill all honey into these 

 said tins, which were to be of the 2V2 and 

 5 pound sizes. In view of the fact that 

 many last fall sold for IOV2 cts. in large 

 barrels, f. o. b. shipping station, it is need- 

 less to say not many will tumble over one 

 another in accepting this firm's big offer. 



