GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1917 



GLEANINGS FROM THE NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, AND WEST 



IH A V E se- 

 cured some 

 grevalia 

 honey this sea- 

 son that is almost pure of its kind, and as 

 dark as any I have ever seen. The taste is 

 anything but pleasant compared with our 

 better varieties. 



IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. 



also, unless the 

 combs are drawn 

 to a great thick- 

 ness. It seems 

 (o me now that I should prefer them as 

 brood-frames only; but where the frames 

 are interchanged it is almost impossible to 

 keep them below. 



The melting down of colonies seems to be 

 greater than we thought possible at first. 



« * * 



It is doubtful if there is sufficient white 

 honey left in Southern California to supply 

 the local markets until another crop is 

 gathered. 



The fact that the navel-orange crop is 

 almost a total failure, due to the recent hot 

 wave, will insure a very heavy bloom on 

 the trees next season. 



■* * * 



My wife is becoming quite an advocate 

 of honey for canning fruit. She has used 

 it this season with apricots and blackberries 

 with great success. 



A demonstrating lecturer at our local 

 high school recently said that the refining of 

 beet sugar had advanced to such an extent 

 that there is now no chemical difference be- 

 tween it and cane sugar. 



* * * 



The majority of the honey shipped from 

 this district w"ent to London. The heavy 

 increase on insurance, due to submarine 

 activities, has had the effect of reducing 

 the market price to some extent. 



* * * 



Ventilating colonies by raising the lids 

 has created "some doubts as to the desira- 

 bility of this method of cooling the hive. 

 Some argue that the raising of the cover 

 only makes the work of the bees more ar- 

 duous, in that it allows the hot air to cir- 

 culate thru the hive in spite of the efforts of 

 the bees, and that they are not able to keep 

 the temperature down on that account. I 

 am rather of the opinion that this may be 

 correct when the temperature reaches 120 

 degrees in the shade. 



* * * 



The bottom-bar of the Hoffman frame is 

 too weak for an extracting- frame. It should 

 either be made thicker or as wide as the 

 end-bars are at the bottom. The self- 

 spacing shoulders are rather bothersome 



It is very important, after requeening, to 

 enter the winter with the greatest number 

 of young bees possible. The future of the 

 colony depends almost as much on a force 

 of young bees to sustain early spring breed- 

 ing as it does on sufficient stores to feed the 

 young larvae. In this connection I am be- 

 coming more and more of an advocate of 

 "autumn" equalizing in the spring. A 

 young quean is the first factor, in that she 

 pushes the breeding to the limit, but there 

 are always some colonies in the yard that 

 may be given brood to very great advantage 

 the following spring; and with an abund- 

 ance of young bees in the spring there need 

 be no alarm felt about spring dwindling. 



SHOULD BEEKEEPERS SELL BY CONTRACT? 



I am going into the subject of selling by 

 contract again. I am not posing as a "wise 

 one," but there are so many beekeepers who 

 have been caught this season that I thinJc 

 my argument will be more likely to find an 

 open ear than on previous occasions. In 

 the first place, it may be figured that when 

 Ave contract our crop we are doing so at a 

 price that seems safe as being a little higher 

 than the general market will reach, so we 

 are trying to get the advantage of the buyer. 

 But the buyer knows daily what the trend 

 of the market is, for that is his business, 

 and he will not offer more tlian he feels safe 

 in making good on, at a substantial profit ; 

 therefore he is trying to get the advantage 

 of us. The average beekeeper's knowledge 

 is so limited as to market conditions that it 

 is not safe for him to contract at any price. 

 It may be figured that the buyer is not 

 going to contract at a figure any higher than 

 the general market will bear at selling sea- 

 son, and one can almost always figure that a 

 price offered by a buyer on contract will be 

 sustained. In the face of this argument I can 

 not but conclude that some one is going to 

 be left, and it is more likely to be the pro- 

 ducer than the buyer. 



This season has been most peculiar in this 

 respect. Contracting started as low as 6^/2 

 cents for white, and continued to advance 



