106 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1920 



I HAVE treb- 

 led the num- 

 b e r of my 

 hives, and for 

 the season of 

 1920 I shall be 

 able to sell many 

 swarms and 

 queens. The 

 spring was fa- 

 vorable to the bees, but the summer was the 

 driest we have seen since 1893. In July the 

 thermometer went down to 34 degrees Fah- 

 renheit — the coldest July since 1849. The 

 buckwheat was not good in 1919. In 1917 

 and 1918 I had some colonies which gave me 

 220 pounds of buckwheat honey. — E. Giraud, 

 Le Landreu, France. 



Being a returned soldier from France, I 

 would like to answer in a way the reference 

 to beekeeping in France, page 29, January 

 Gleanings. It is true that I saw many back- 

 ward beekeepers. It was my first sight of 

 straw skeps. I never saw an Italian bee in 

 France. I saw a few movable-comb hives, 

 usually in apiaries with box hives. I was 

 told by Mr. Giraud, the queen-breeder, that 

 many thousands of colonies were brimstoned 

 every year in France. My experience there 

 made me happier and broader. I liked 

 France, and I liked it for the reason that 

 so many Americans disliked the country. 

 All that I saw made me proud of my own 

 great nation.- — Clinton VanPelt, Clark Coun- 

 ty, Ind. 



I quote the following from Dr. Merrill: 

 "Upon examining the above figures the 

 value of the different forms of wintering is 

 apparent. Whether protected by windbreak 

 or not, the 2-story hives have about 5,000 

 more bees in the spring than the 1-story 

 hives, and the packed hives would have 

 about 25,000 more bees. Figuring 5,000 to 

 the pound, valued at $2.50 a pound, the 

 packed hives would have $12.50 worth of 

 bees more than the unpacked hives. The 

 difference in the value of a windbreak is 

 more apparent, as would be expected with 

 the hives which were not packed, altho there 

 is about 2,000 bees difference in the packed 

 hives in favor of the windbreak." — B. F. 

 Kindig, Ingham County, Mich. 



The report of the Chief of the Division 

 of Publications, for the year ending June 30, 

 1919, shows that 62,218,829 copies of all 

 publications were issued. This includes pe- 

 riodical publications and all others. The dis- 

 tribution of Farmers' Bulletins was 17,159,- 

 294 copies. The distribution of bulletins on 

 bees represents about one per cent of the 

 whole, while the appropriation for beekeep- 

 ing is 1/10 of one per cent of the whole de- 

 partment appropriation. — E. F. Phillips, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Egypt is termed "a perennial Eip Van 

 Winkle of history," in a bulletin from the 

 National Geographical Society. » * * * 

 In February, 1905, an American explorer, 



BEES, MEN AND THINGS 



(You may find it here) 



^^TUI 



T. M. Davis, dis- 

 covered the tomb 

 of Yuaa and 

 Thuaa, father 

 and mother of 

 that Queen Tyi 

 whose influence 

 played so great 

 a part in Ak- 

 henaten's religi- 

 ous information. The tomb was intact, and 

 the objects it contained were as perfectly 

 preserved as if they had been shut up only 

 a few weeks. Most startling of all was the 

 discovery of a jar of honey, still liquid and 

 still preserving its characteristic scent after 

 3,300 years.— The Daily News. 



I have an uncle that lives in Boone about 

 five blocks from the business part of town, 

 which has a population of 15,000. He has 

 39 hives, and has not had any complaints 

 about them except that when he took the 

 honey off, a neighbor got stung; but he did 

 not say anything, as it does not often hap- 

 pen.- — Forrest McHose, Boone County, Iowa. 



We might have added a big postscript in 

 extra big letters to the article you received 

 some time ago. In that article we bluntly 

 stated (and considered it the truth) that we 

 needed no cellars. If you could see us to- 

 day, you would think we were simple pre- 

 varicators. With the thermometer hovering 

 about 10 degrees, snow anywhere from two 

 to four feet deep, everything paralyzed, and 

 no street cars running you might wonder 

 how we expected to save our poor bees that 

 were exposed to such conditions. Yesterday 

 the writer spent considerable time in cover- 

 ing his completely up with snow, believing 

 that that would be better than to leave 

 them exposed to a biting wind. Doubtless, 

 there will be some losses — more than we 

 anticipated. — E. J. Ladd, Multonomah Coun- 

 ty, Ore. 



On page 441, July, 1919, Gleanings, men- 

 tion is made of one colony robbing a queen- 

 less colony. Why, boys, just take the queen- 

 less colony and put it on top of the robber 

 colony. — James Spray, Madison County, 

 Mont. 



I am trying a new scheme this winter 

 whereby bees are wintered in double brood 

 bodies, by placing a regular cover between 

 the two bodies with the Porter escape left 

 out. All so fixed are wintering in the upper 

 story, which should prove much warmer as 

 arranged. Has anyone ever tried it? — John 

 E. Eoebling, Hamilton County, Ohio. 



We had a bad drought for over 12 months 

 all over Australia. The bee industry suffer- 

 ed great loss, and honey went up 100 per 

 cent in price. Even if this drought gets 

 broken soon, next season can give only a 

 poor harvest, as bees that are left are very 

 weak and sickly- — and so is the Australian 

 flora.— T. Volkofsky, Mount Boppy, N, S. 

 W., Aus. 



