OOTOBKB, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I 



c 



ur 



HAVE tried 

 to liax'o .stiiiK' 

 bees in the 



1 d - f ashioned 

 way, thinking to 

 let them take 

 care of them- 

 selves in old 

 box hives, and 

 never go about 



them until I wanted some honey, then get 

 it and run; but I found out, after I read up, 

 got some standard hives, and had my bees 

 transferred, that there is but one right way 

 in everything." — Mel Swallow, Spencer 

 County, Ind. 



"I hope you can put in a good word at 

 Washington for the beekeepers of this coun- 

 try in regard to a protective tariff on honey. 

 We surely need a protective tariff on honey 

 if we need tariff ou anything. ' ' — GJlman F. 

 Egge, Minnehaha County, S. D. 



' ' I wrote you last summer of having dis- 

 covered the annual white sweet clover grow- 

 ing here in my garden, and of Prof. Hughes 

 coming here and pronouncing it absolutely 

 pure. We afterward found a considerable 

 quantity growing near here. ' ' — P. A. James, 

 Hale County, Ala. 



' ' I got for winter protection some corru- 

 gated paper boxes and set the hives in pairs. 



1 covered the hives with this corrugated 

 paper and covered this with tar paper. I 

 believe the corrugated paper next to the 

 hives is a good protection. I also had the 

 hives well protected around the bottom. If 

 a great number of hives are to be protected 

 it would be quite a job to cover them this 

 way, but I believe it would pay." — A. L. 

 Timblin, Douglas County, Nebr. 



"In a poor season, like the last, when the 

 clovers and other flowers, from which our 

 lightest-colored honeys are obtained, do not 

 yield much nectar, the bees have to go fur- 

 ther afield and seek inferior sources of sup- 

 ply that would most likely be neglected in 

 a good season. Catnip grows wild in some 

 districts, and is responsible for much of 

 this inferior honey. A very little nectar 

 from this plant is sufficient to give a strong 

 flavor of peppermint to the whole honey 

 crop. — W. J. Sheppard, British Columbia. 



"I saw the mating of a queen about 20 

 feet up in the air above a little cherry tree. 

 There was a big bunch of drones and tho 

 our bees are all Italians the great majority 

 of this bunch were black. The queen and 

 drone fell at my feet, and when free the 

 queen flew straight toward a certain hive. 

 The result is hybrids in this hive. This 

 bunch of drones came from my neighbors' 

 hives one to two miles away. That is why 

 I buy all my queens. "^Stephen J. Harmel- 

 ing, King County, Wash. 



"Oscar Poe, who has 1400 stands of bees 

 on farms between Chamberino, N. M., and 

 Cauutillo, Texas, reports that his first ex- 



BEES, MEN AND THINGS 



(You may find it here) 



3 



849 



t r a e t i n g this 

 s e a s n vielded 

 50,000 pounds of 

 high-grade hon- 

 ey. The Poe 

 apiary is the 

 largest in the 

 Mesilla Valley, 

 in w h i c h this 

 vear 's outjjut is 

 estimated at from 200,000 to 255,000 

 ])Ound.s. ' ' — August Wolf, Dona Ana County, 

 N. M. 



"I am of the opinion that many bees 

 here in the State will starve the coming 

 winter unless they are fed." — A. E. Cran- 

 dall, Hartford County, Conn. 



' ' We have had a wonderful honey flow 

 here this year, first from mesquite followed 

 by a fine flow from cotton. My average 

 per colony is 100 pounds. ' ' — J. P. Caldwell, 

 Coleman County, Texas. 



' ' We are now getting the bees ready for 

 winter, and taking the small amount of 

 honey which they can really spare, and our 

 crop may yet be one carload, if the west 

 yards are, as usual, heavier than those east 

 of here." — -E. F. Atwater, Meridian, Ida. 



' ' I started my increase the first of July 

 instead of August and they are in fine con- 

 dition. With a Boardman feeder on each 

 one the queens are filling the combs in with 

 brood, as plenty of fresh pollen is coming 

 in." — W. T. Eabb, Travis County, Texas. 



' ' We have had an excellent season for 

 honey. During the clover flow in June and 

 July beekeepers reported seldom seeing a 

 bee working on either the white clover blos- 

 soms or on the alsike, yet they rolled in a 

 large quantity of fine white honey. ' ' — Har- 

 old A. Breisch, Schuylkill County, Penn. 



"My present effort in beekeeping began 

 four years ago when I was 79 years old, 

 with old box hives. I now have five 10- 

 frame Langstroth hives, 5 Danzenbaker, 

 and 5 box hives. I have been an invalid 

 for 22 years, but am in better health at 

 present than during all these years, and am 

 now past 83 years old." — E. J. Howard, 

 Henderson County, Ky. 



"For a number of years I have contend- 

 ed that beekeepers cannot undersell the gro- 

 cers and get away with it. The price honey 

 is bringing today in the wholesale markets 

 proves it. As long as beekeepers retail 

 honey at half or less than half of what the 

 grocers sell for, they must not complain 

 that they arc not getting enough for their 

 honey. Cut prices will do two things: first, 

 it will decrease consumption because the 

 consumer will not buy from the stores after 

 the cheap honey is gone, provided the cheap 

 honey was satisfactory; second, at once it 

 creates suspicion aa to the purity of the 

 honey." — John C. Bull, Valparaiso, Ind. 



