GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



.Ianuary, 1921 



s 



MOST of the 

 bees in 

 Ireland 

 have died of 

 the Isle of 

 Wight disease 

 during the last 

 few years. Bee- 

 keeping is in a 

 backward condi- 

 tion generally here, most beekeepers having 

 only a few hives. Yet the country should be 

 a grand one for honey production, for goose 

 or furze, hawthorn, lime or basswood, syca- 

 more, and white clover abound; while in 

 autumn there are many thousands of square 

 miles of magnijficent heather laden with the 

 most delicious of all honeys. The Italian bee 

 is almost unknown and is generally sup- 

 posed to be very vicious and still more so 

 in its crosses with the native bee. I im- 

 ported two queens from Penne last sum- 

 mer. "—E. O'Brien, Mount Eagle, Dublin, 

 Ireland. 



"Please educate the queen-breeders to 

 raise but one kind of untested queens, and 

 let's make them of the select variety. Many 

 queen-breeders have lost my trade by listing 

 two kinds of untested queens — the good 

 and the bad. ' ' — Geo. W. Moore, Centre Costa 

 County, Calif. 



"I finished extracting today (Nov. 17) 

 or rather quit for the present, for there is 

 considerable in the supers yet. I began the 

 year with 130 colonies; increased to 264, 

 and took 20,000 pounds of honey that nets 

 me 2.5c per pound. How is that for a be- 

 ginner in what almost everybody calls a 

 poor honey State?" — C. C. Cook, Lee Coun- 

 ty, ria. 



"The fall honey flow during August and 

 September and up till Oct. 20 was the best 

 we have had in many years. This flow was 

 mainly from cotton, it being too dry for 

 either broomweed or goldenrod. All beekeep- 

 ers who have young queens, will have their 

 bees go into winter quarters in better shape 

 than in a long time. Nuclei that I made on 

 Aug. 8 have built up to fine colonies, and 

 gave me 25 pounds on an average and have 

 more than enough to carry them thru. Dur- 

 ing the last of the flow some colonies filled 

 a full depth super in a week, not 35 pounds 

 of honey, but perfect wired combs, the kind 

 that hold honey. Since Oct. 20 we have had 

 much rain, which was really needed." — W. 

 T. Eabb, Travis County, Texas. 



' ' The metal cover of the regular hive is 

 18 X 22 inches, and that of the Buckeye hive 

 is 21 X 25 inches. This is quite an area, prac- 

 tically all of which ordinarily drains off upon 

 the alighting board. This dripping from rain 

 or melted snow and even heavy dew falling 

 directly in front of the entrance is undesir- 

 able. In moist weather in summer this drip- 

 ping continues for some time after the 

 rain has stopped and this results in return- 



BEES, MEN AND THINGS 



(You may find it here) 



ing bees often 

 getting caught 

 (tumbling over 

 in alighting and 

 getting wings 

 stuck to the wet 

 entrance). Why 

 not arrange the 

 hive-stand to be 

 a very little bit 

 leaning riglit or left, so slightly, however, 

 that it would not be noticeable but yet 

 would cause the water on the metal cover to 

 drain off in any direction except on the 

 front 'porch.' " — Geo. J- Griesenauer, 

 Cook County, Ills. 



' ' Bees have gone into winter quarters in 

 fairly good shape, but not overburdened 

 with honey. Our usual last flow from rabbit 

 brush practically failed on account of a 

 heavy rain storm, and a succession of cold 

 nights." — T. V. Damon, Lyon County, Nev. 



"I think it would be a splendid thing if 

 the readers of Gleanings could be given a 

 chance to purchase some of Dr. Miller's 

 gladiolus bulbs some time between now and 

 spring, even if only one bulb were allowed 

 to a purchaser. What could be a more touch- 

 ing memento?" — Herbert Lyon, Westches- 

 ter County, N. Y. 



"My bees did finely this year. Took 800 

 pounds of comb honey off eight hives. One 

 hive made about 132 sections. I am about 

 four minutes' walk from the heart of town. 

 All of my 15 swarms are full-blooded Ital- 

 ians except two which were swarms given 

 to me this fall. I expect to get Italian 

 queens for them next summer." — A. C. 

 Smith, Columbiana County, 0. 



"Altho I usually extract by the last of 

 June, this year it was July 15 when I first 

 found buckwheat coming in bloom, and then 

 I extracted all supers. I had the clearest 

 honey I ever had, a very light amber or 

 lemon color. It sold very fast. Some cus- 

 tomers that I have visited again this fall 

 like the dark better, saying it had more 

 taste." — Robert Elwill, Providence County, 

 R. L 



"I am much interested in the series of 

 articles on comb honey by Editor Demuth, 

 as I have been producing comb honey al- 

 most exclusively for the past 37 years. The 

 last two years I have extracted some but 

 do not find as good a sale for extracted 

 honey as I did 40 years ago. I had one 

 swarm of bees this season that finished 300 

 sections of comb honey. This was the most 

 I ever took from one hive in a single season 

 and I sold it for 37% cents per section 

 at wholesale, making $112.50 for the one 

 hive. This looked good to me. I had another 

 colony that swarmed on May 29 and I took 

 177 one-pound sections from it and 176 from 

 the old hive, making 353 sections from the 

 two at 37l^ cents per section." — Geo. W, 

 Baker, Wayne County, Ind, 



