GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December. 1920 



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I HAVE an old 

 dog-eared A B 

 C that I 

 bought about 36 

 years ago. It is 

 about worn out 

 making young 

 beekeepers, 

 starting them 

 right when they 

 first enthuse. I would not swap it to you for 

 the finest morocco-bound book that you can 

 put out, altho Doolittle 's comments are worn 

 off by much use." — Hugh L. Lynn, Daviess 

 County, Ky. 



"This is one of the best places in Indiana 

 for a fall flow. There are tons of honey 

 here that are never gathered. "—T. C. John- 

 son, Deputy Bee Inspector, Logansport, Ind. 



"In walking across my lawn at noon to- 

 day I noticed a considerable bloom of dan- 

 delion and bees working on it. How is that 

 for 'Our Lady of the Snows' on the fifth 

 day of November?" — Edwin V. Hillson, 

 Norfolk County, Ont. 



"We are very much pleased with Mr. O. 

 Jones' very latest plan in transferring, a 

 description of which appeared in your Sep- 

 tember number. We gave it a thoro test 

 and found it very satisfactory indeed."— 

 Goodwin & Fowler, Woodroffe, Ont. 



"My bees did very well this summer. I 

 increased them five to one, that is, I made 

 55 from 11, spring count. After leaving 

 them about 60 pounds I will have a little 

 over a ton of honey to sell." Herman Vol- 

 ler, Aitkin County, Minn. 



"I have been a beekeeper for 62 years. I 

 have taken Gleanings since it started as a 

 quarterly, so I have been with you quite a 

 while now. I shipped honey to D. W. Quinby, 

 brother of M. Quinby, to New York City. — - 

 F. A. Snell, Carroll County, 111. 



"We have had strains of bees that would 

 not start supersedure cells, no matter how 

 old or poor the queen was. Just as long as 

 she was in the hive the bees respected her. 

 Other strains would start cells and have 

 them capped before I had discovered that 

 the queen was failing." — A. W. Lindsay, 

 Wayne County, Mich. 



' ' The average person, I find, has no idea 

 what is meant by ' extracted ' honey. All 

 honey removed from the conib he thinks is 

 taken out by mashing the comb with the 

 hands. The statement, 'This honey extracted 

 from the comb by machinery — never touched 

 by human hands, ' I think is good advertis- 

 ing, and some reference to this fact should 

 be a part of every honey label." — O. K. 

 Paxton, Hamilton County, Fla. 



"While at work in a sanitarium I distrib- 

 uted more than one section of honey where 

 indications pointed to places where it might 

 improve a jaded appetite, and I would often 



BEES, MEN AND THINGS 



(You may find it here) 



^"^^^^^^^ 



u. 



have a convales- 

 cent come to me 

 inquiring 

 whether or not 

 I had allotted 

 to him a block 

 of honey. When 

 I admitted that 

 it was probable 

 that such an 

 accusation might be true, they declared 

 that their appetites had returned with the 

 eating of that honey, and that they had 

 since continued to improved." — Benj. B. 

 Jones, Baltimore County, Md. 



"The honey business in Montana was hit 

 a hard jolt this year by a new pest on the 

 alfalfa and sweet clover. Our state entomol- 

 ogist is at sea in regard to this insect. He 

 claims that it is something entirely new and 

 never encountered anywhere else. Aside 

 from ruining the alfalfa seed crop, the 

 honey crop is cut in two. This is not the old 

 alfalfa weevil but has been named ' Thrips. ' 

 I will average about 75 pounds from 300 

 colonies, which is about half of what it 

 should have been. "— B. A. Bray, Sweet 

 Grass County, Mont. 



"I have 46 colonies of bees, all packed 

 (Nov. 1) twp to four weeks ago. Twelve 

 hives have two ten-story bodies. The whole 

 yard will average 40 pounds. We had a great 

 flow of white aster; and on account of the 

 beautiful warm weather 80 to 90 per cent 

 is capped. I might add that I have never 

 had any trouble with aster honey, whether 

 capped or not. Many young bees are being 

 raised. I consider this all right, as I have 

 plenty of stores. ' ' — O. C. Wall, Davie Coun- 

 ty, N. C. 



"I think the cause of the so-called 'dis- 

 appearing disease' may be having the bees 

 underfed or fed with unbalanced rations 

 when they were in their ' baby ' or grub 

 period. We know that sufficient water, fresh 

 pollen, and honey constitute a balanced ra- 

 tion for grubs. Therefore,- if inclement 

 weather prevents them from going out in- 

 the spring to supply a lack of any of these 

 three rations, the result is under-nourished 

 young bees, which I think might cause the 

 so-called ' disappearing disease. ' ' '• — J. H. 

 Fisbeck, Missouri. 



' ' The bees do not bother the first bitter- 

 weed that blooms in May and June, but 

 they begin on the second crop which opens 

 about Aug. 15 and continues until Sept. 20. 

 If we would take notice and extract this 

 and save it for next spring, the bees, after 

 the bitterweed flow is over, could get a nice 

 crop from boneset, smartweed, goldenrod, 

 and a number of other flowers. I believe 

 that a colony, having a second story full of 

 honey or even a shallow super full in the fall 

 is worth three colonies in one-story hives 

 for either honey or increase. ' ' — J. E. Sutton, 

 Marengo County, Ala. 



