10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CtiLTUftE 



. January, 1921 



THE FARMEES' BULLETIN on Alsike 

 clover, to which reference has been made 

 in our Books and Bulletins 

 Alsike Department, should be in 

 Clover, the hands of every bee- 

 keeper in the clover re- 

 gions, but better still it should be in the 

 hands of every farmer within this region. 

 As the farms grow older and the difficulties 

 in securing a stand of red clover increase, 

 this excellent honey plant is gaining in 

 favor among farmers, especially when 

 mixed with red clover or timothy, thus in- 

 suring a stand on cold or wet soil where 

 red clover fails to catch. If you are in the 

 clover region, why not see that your farmer 

 neighbor gets one of these bulletins? 



THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the discovery 

 of the cause of the "Isle of Wight" disease, 

 which appeared in 

 Isle of Wight press reports in Eng- 

 Disease. land last month, has 



been confirmed by 

 later reports, and we hope that Dr. Rennie 's 

 report on the investigations leading to this 

 discovery will be jsublished soon. According 

 to the press reports the cause of the Isle 

 of Wight disease is a mite "which enters a 

 particular breathing tube of the bee, feeds 

 on the bee 's blood, blocks the air passage, 

 and thus cuts off the supply of oxygen from 

 certain muscles and nerve centers concerned 

 with locomotion. ' ' The name Tarsonemes 

 Woodi has been proposed for this mite, in 

 honor of A. H. Wood, who, it appears, as- 

 sisted in financing the investigation. 



It is to be hoped that the many puzzling 

 things in connection with this disease will 

 be cleared up by this discovery. It may also 

 throw some new light upon the diseases of 

 adult bees in this country. 



WEATHER CONDITIONS during Novem- 

 ber were not favorable to the kind of 

 cleansing flight 



Unsatisfactory 



Flights Before 



Cellaring. 



which the beekeep- 

 ers who winter in 

 the cellar like to see 

 just before putting 

 tlieir bees away for the -winter. It was not 

 cold enough early in the month to put the 

 bees in a condition to desire a flight, and 

 during the few days when flight was pos- 

 sible later in the month the bees did not 

 fly freely, tho within the southern range of 

 cellar wintering these flights were probably 

 adequate. There was no time late in No- 

 vember when the temperature was high 

 enough to tempt the bees not needing a 

 cleansing flight to fly freely, and many bees 

 were, therefore, put into the cellar without 

 a satisfactory cleansing flight. It is to be 

 hoped that this condition is not a serious 

 one, since the bees were not exposed to 

 ^ ery low temperatures before being put into 



the cellar; but, unless the stores are of the 

 best quality, the bees maj' become quite 

 restless before they can be taken out of the 

 cellar next spring. Here at Medina the 

 bees outside flew freely on December 12 

 and 13- Colonies wintering outside are now 

 in excellent condition to endure a period 

 of confinement if necessary. 



IT IS with great satisfaction that we an- 

 nounce that Morley Pettit will contribute 

 a series of articles for 

 Business Gleanings, the first of 



Methods in this series appearing in 

 Beekeeping, this issue. Mr. Pettit 

 needs no introduction 

 to our readers, since he has been prominent 

 among beekeepers for some time as the 

 founder of the department of beekeeping in 

 the Ontario Agricultural College, and more 

 recently as a successful honey producer at 

 Georgetown, Ontario. Mr. Pettit and his 

 sister, Miss R. B. Pettit, have built up a' 

 thriving business in honey production by 

 applying carefully thought-out business 

 principles to the operation of a series of 

 out-apiaries, and he now proposes to tell the 

 readers of Gleanings how this has been ac- 

 complished. 



AT THE very beginning of the recent great 

 expansion in beekeeping by the establish- 

 ment of out-apiaries 

 Keep More for extracted-honey 

 Bees Per production, W. Z. 



Hive. Hutchinson launched 



the slogan, ' ' Keep 

 More Bees. ' ' Later, when it began to look 

 as tho some of the big fellows had gone 

 beyond their limit as to number of colonies, 

 the slogan was changed to ' ' Keep Bees 

 Better ' ' and ' ' Keep Better Bees. ' ' Now 

 comes Jay Smith, in the Western Honey 

 Bee, with a new slogan that fits exactly the 

 present-day needs and the present-day ten- 

 dency in beekeeping when he says ' ' Keep 

 More Bees Per Hive. ' ' This should be the 

 beekeepers' slogan for 1921 and perhaps 

 for manv vears to come. 



AT THE Ontario convention the question 

 was raised as to the possibility of the bee- 

 keepers' being able 



Distinguishing 



Between 



to distinguish with 

 any degree of cer- 

 Brood Diseases, tainty between 

 American foul brood 



and European foul brood without sending a 

 sample for laboratory diagnosis. It was 

 brought out in the discussion of this ques- 

 tion that there is still much confusion 

 among beekepers and even among some of 

 the inspectors in regard to these brood dis- 

 eases. 



The beekeeper who has had experience 



