836 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1917 



weather, and longing for sunshine, so that 

 his young virgins can mate. However, w.e 

 were able to mail queens quite promptly 

 with the exception of some large orders 

 which were somewhat delayed. This last 

 season was the most peculiar o£ anj' in all 

 our experience, covering nearly 35 years. 

 Delphos, Ohio. Fred Leininger. 



TWO WEEKS OF COLD WEATHER ' AXD ALL LS 

 liOST. 



The past season has been bad for queen- 

 rearing, and lots of orders for queens were 

 delayed. In fact, it has been impossible 

 for many queen-breeders to raise queens at 

 all. Under such conditions it seems to me 

 disappointed bu3'ers should not complain. 



Consider the case of the breeder who sells 

 queens by the hundred and has his cells all 

 ready to come out, when about two weeks 

 of bad weather occurs and all is lost. Of 

 course he has promised to fill orders at a 

 definite time, and therefore the buyers be- 

 come dissatisfied and say a good deal con- 

 cerning the matter. Now I think the queen- 

 buyer ought to have some knowledge of how 

 long it takes to rear queens. It requires 

 about twenty-five days from the graft, and 

 sometimes thirty days. Another season I 

 believe the beekeepers will have more pa- 

 tience in waiting their turn if they only 

 realize how hard it is to rear queens under 

 bad weather conditions; and remember that 

 there is no breeder who does not want to 

 send qi\eens by return mail. 



Barnetts, Ya. J. B. Brockwell. 



SOUTHERN BREEDER ESPECIALLY HARD HIT. 



The southern queen-breeder has been hard 

 hit this year. Our bees went into wdnter 

 last fall in tiptop shape, with abundance of 

 good stores, so we were hoping for a good 

 season. Well, time for spring came, and 

 still it was cold and rainy, and continued so. 

 In fact, it was so cold that we had no clover 



bloom at all. During l!-.e summer, about all 

 the honey-tiow we had was from basswood, 

 which did fairly well. In August we were 

 feeding every colony that had had its sur- 

 l^lus removed in July. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to say that, under such conditions, 

 queen-rearing is very difficult. However, 

 we have managed to keep ahead and fill all 

 orders promptly. AVe have not cut any 

 prices, nor offered any cheap queens, but 

 still we have had a splendid queen trade — 

 almost double that of last year, and have 

 had no complaints so far. 



Dowelltown, Tenn. J. Ivan Banks. 



CELLS GAIjORE DESTROYED. 



The past season has been a bad one, for 

 which the cold spring offers the only ex- 

 planation. We would graft a lot of cells 

 hoping for good results, only to find at the 

 time of transferring the queens that the bees 

 had destroyed most of the cells. This was 

 very discouraging when our customers were 

 continually writing that they must have 

 their queens by return mail. We hope next 

 season's queen-raising will be a more pleas- 

 ant and profitable business, and that our 

 customers will be more willing to wait when 

 occasion demands. 



Barnetts, Va. Wm. S. Barnett. 



STEADY rain TOR TWO WEEKS. 



This past season in North Carolina was 

 the most backward one that we have had in 

 many years. The spring was late, and, on 

 account of excessive rain and cold, the bees 

 were very slow in building up, thus making 

 early queen -cells quite impossible. After 

 settled wealher did come, we had a very 

 serious rain lasting for two weeks, a steady 

 dnwiipour, with scarcely a let-up. During 

 this time it was almost impossible for vir- 

 gins to mate. 



Liberty, N. C. H. B. Murray. 



FLORIDA VS. INDIANA 



OR the past 



have kept 

 bees in Indiana 

 in summer and 

 in Florida in 

 winter, and have 

 noted a number 

 of factors in 

 beekeeping which differ 

 different latitudes. 



TEMPERATURE. 



Altho there is a period of hibernation or 

 rest in both states, yet in the South it is 



Keeping ^ees in the North in the 

 Summer Time and in Florida Dur- 

 ing the ^st of the Year 



By J. H. Collins 

 greatly in these 



less remarkoible 

 and of shorter 

 duration. While 

 bees in the 

 North are tuck- 

 ed away for 

 winter, in the 

 South there are 

 but few days 

 wlien they cannot fly out in play and 

 even gather a little pollen and honey, for 

 here there is scattering bloom of peach-trees 

 and a few other flowers all winter. In the 

 North we usually have warm days followed 



