158 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE March, 1920 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



operation of every beekeeper, for the results 

 •will be valuable only in proportion to the 

 assistance given. This vital information has 

 been lacking in this State, and it- is hoped 

 that the beekeepers will appreciate the 

 value of this endeavor. A letter was sent 

 to 3,500 beekeepers, and there are, no doubt, 

 many more who should be interested in this 

 work. The results of this work will be 

 given to the beekeepers as soon as it is pos- 

 sible to compile the returns. 



The State Apiarist Eeport for 1918 has 

 been mailed from the office of the State 

 Printer to the paid-up members of the As- 

 sociation for 1918. Other beekeepers of 

 the State who are interested in this publi- 

 cation should write to the State Apiarist at 

 Ames, to make arrangements to secure a 

 copy of this report. 



Arrangements are now well under way 

 for the exhibit of the beekeepers of Iowa 

 at the Mid-West Horticultural Show, which 

 will be held this year at Council Bluffs in 

 November. There will be plenty of good 

 prizes for honey, which should attract en- 

 tries from every section of the State. A 

 new feature will be a large prize for the 

 best exhibit by a county association. Plans 

 should be made now by individuals and as- 

 sociations to enter exhibits. 



The organization of the American Honey 

 Producers' League is of great interest to 

 every beekeeper in this State. Everyone 

 will undoubtedly receive complete informa- 

 tion on the objects of the League, and it is 

 fully expected that at the annual meeting 

 of the Iowa Beekeepers' Association next 

 fall action will be taken to ratify the 

 League and membership will be secured. 



The necessary action of authorities in 

 calling off the beekeepers ' school came as a 

 matter of regret to many over the State. 

 There is no doubt but that such action was 

 advisable under the epidemic conditions. At 

 this time definite plans for the school to be 

 held later have not been completed, and just 

 what will be done is hard to say. On the 

 part of many who could not attend the Short 

 Course, there was a very strong tendency to 

 enroll in one of the correspondence courses. 

 This has led those in charge to feel that 

 concentrated effort on the correspondence 

 courses might prove very valuable to the 

 beekeepers of the State. Beekeepers from 

 many other States are enrolling in one of 

 the correspondence courses. 



Ames, Iowa. P. B. Paddock. 



» » » 



In Ontario ^" ^^^ ^^^* issue of Glean- 

 ings I mentioned that 

 Win. Agar had left his bees in New Ontario 

 all alone for the summer, after having piled 

 eight full-depth supers on each colony. Pos- 

 sibly many readers will be wondering where 

 the brood-nest was located when he went up 

 jn the fall to take off the honey, no exclud- 



ers having been used. Contrary at least to 

 wiiat I would have expected, the queen in 

 every case was in the old brood-nest, altho 

 a few of the colonies had small patches of 

 brood in supers next to the brood-nest. 



In a late issue I gave what were current 

 prices of clover seed here in Ontario; but 

 during the last few days seed has taken 

 another big jump, and first-class alsike is 

 now quoted up to $34.00 a bushel, red clover 

 $37.00, and sweet clover $19.50. Just how 

 these extreme prices will work out so far as 

 seeding next spring is concerned, is a ques- 

 tion. Perhaps the seed is so dear that farm- 

 ers will hesitate to buy it, even if the lure of 

 big prices another season is expected, tho by 

 no means a sure thing. These very high prices 

 do mean that a big acreage of sweet clover 

 will be sown, as it is much surer of a 

 "catch" than alsike or red clover; so they 

 will reason that the risk of total loss is not 

 so great as if sowing the other clovers. 



The ground has been continually covered 

 with snow since the New Year came in; so 

 clover now wintering should be faring all 

 right. As to weather we have had during 

 this period since snow came — well, it has 

 been very, very cold altho milder since Feb- 

 ruary came along. January gave tempera- 

 tures down below zero so frequently that it 

 became monotonous, and the January thaw,, 

 that some say always does come, did not 

 come this year till February. How are the 

 bees wintering? Really, I cannot recall a 

 winter when I have gone into the yards as 

 little as I have done this season. I noticed 

 the other day at one apiary, which I went to 

 for the first time since last fall, that two 

 colonies wdth all natural stores were show- 

 ing signs of dysentery, while others in the 

 yard, all with some sugar syrup, appeared 

 to be all right. But the extremely long 

 spell of very cold weather is bound to have 

 a bad effect on the bees especially where 

 there has been little snow protection around 

 the hives. Where colonies are short of stores 

 or have inferior stores, a season like the 

 present spells disaster. On the other hand, 

 where the bees have abundance of first- 

 class stores they usually seem able to stand 

 about anything we may have in the way 

 of winter weather, provided they are packed 

 in a half-decent way. 



Having mentioned that I had built a cel- 

 lar last fall and that some bees were put 

 in the same, naturally I have received quite 

 a lot of letters from good friends giving 

 suggestions as to ventilation, temperature, 

 etc. The great majority of my correspond- 

 ents were from Ontario, but some of the 

 States were represented too, all the way 

 from Ohio to Wisconsin. Incidentally, I 

 might say that my cellar is not proving a 

 success as now constructed. It is too damp 

 for the temperature as low as it is — 43 de- 

 grees ^li the time. Moisture forms on the 



