538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1917 



c 



LJ 



^^j^yT Y expeii- 

 iVl ^nce has 

 led m e 

 to believe that 

 the business of 

 shipping bees in 

 combless pack- 

 ages from the 

 South will be a 

 success, and profitable both to the southern 

 and the northern beekeeper who takes ad- 

 vantage of it under proper conditions and 

 with proper care." — Fay Barber, in Do- 

 mestic Beekeeper, p. 106, March. 

 « * * 



A Timely Word on Southern Honeys — 

 Editorial, Domestic Beekeeper, March, p. 

 125. " There are many sources of honey in 

 the southern states where with intelligent 

 handling and keeping the different kinds of 

 honey separate from the inferior grades, 

 where just as good honey can be produced as 

 in the North." [Greater care, if anything, 

 is needed in the South, in keeping one gTade 

 distinct, and the task is sometimes im- 

 possible; for one flow often overlaps an- 

 other, in some localities. But even there, 

 by extracting at the proper time, the bulk 

 of the good can be saved from the poorer 

 kinds of honey. It takes time to learn this. 



— E. G. B.] 



* » * 



" It takes about 65 days' breeding for 

 spring stock to reach a point where they 

 are truly ready for the honey-harvest." — 

 E. J. Atchley, in Western Honeybee, p. 33, 

 February. [This has been. our experience. 

 If we recall aright, the late Mr. Alexander 

 used to claim that 30 days were enough to 

 build up a colony for surplus strength, by 

 his process of feeding daily every evening 

 for that time. That never seemed long 

 enough, and we never could make it pan 

 out as he described it. — E. G. B.] 



* « * 



" How nice it would be if we could tell 

 ahead just when the honey-flow would start ! 

 My records show a variation of 'over a 

 month in the flow from orange. Now, if 

 we get our colonies big and strong, and' it 

 becomes necessary to feed all those bees a 

 month before the honey-flow starts, it is 

 like wintering over again." — L. L. Andrews, 

 in Western Honeybee, February, page 35. 

 [Same here. In fact, we are now having 

 just that experience in this locality. It 

 looks as tho we might have to keep it up, 

 too, for some time to come, as the orange 

 here is a failure this spring. — E. G. B.] 

 » * » 



On ''Management Before the Main Flow," 

 Floyd Markham, in Domestic Beekeeper for 



Our Neighbors' Fields fp 



E. G. Baldwin 



^=^^^^P^^ 



T=J 



l\Iarch, says a 

 aood thing, j). 

 ]'H: "The best 

 thing to do is to 

 leave t ii e m 

 alone; but they 

 ( the colonies ) 

 must have plen- 

 ty of stores to 

 push breeding. The best way to provide 

 these stores is in frames of sealed honey. 

 Feeders are a last resort." . . " Colo- 

 nies at the outyard gave the same average 

 crop from frames of sealed stores given 

 them as colonies at the home yard that wei;e 

 fed a little every night." [Good!— E. G. B.] 



A communication relative to honey- 

 method of queen introducing has come to 

 hand ; a correspondent writes suggesting the 

 method as a new one, an innovation, and 

 makes no allusion to former articles by 

 half a dozen different writers that have ap- 

 peared in Gleanings^ American Bee Jour- 

 nal, etc. I v^onder how much valuable space 

 has been taken up in the many bee journals, 

 during the past decade, for instance, by 

 articles tliat are but a restatement, often 

 not any better, if as good, of former writ- 

 ings. For example, relative to the intro- 

 ducing method alluded to above, those in- 

 terested are respectfully referred to the 

 1916 issues of Gleanings, pages 525, 800, 

 801, 840, 845, 1036, 1037 ; ""also to the 

 American Bee Journal for May, 1917. 

 Brethren, please let us value space and time, 

 and read our journals a bit more carefully, 

 keeping our files, back numbers, and in- 

 dices, and using them. 



Attention ought to be called here, it 

 seems, to that excellent advice of Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips, in his work " Beekeeping," p. 13 : 

 " To be a good beekee^jer one must read 

 and re-read the books and journals per- 

 taining to the subject." We could also 

 apply wliat he says on p. 23, relative to 

 inventions, to writings as well. We quote : 

 " There should some day be prepared a 

 book. . . if for no other purj^ose tlian 

 to show the ardent inventor. . . tlie 

 steps that have already been taken and 

 passed by, and to prevent the repeated re- 

 discovery of abandoned apparatus." 



* * * 



" A light box, on legs twelve or fifteen 

 inches high, about the same size as a brood- 

 chamber, we have found a great conven- 

 ience. It should have a cloth cover. We use 

 it for carrying combs about in the beeyard, 

 to protect them from robbers." — J. E. 

 Crane, in Domestic Beekeeper. 



