706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1921 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH fl 



age crop is far below normal. It probably 

 will not total over 40 per cent for white 

 honey and about normal for buckwheat and 

 amber grades. 



The season all over the State has been too 

 dry and hot — much worse in some parts than 

 in others. Following a line east to west 

 along the Mohawk valley and canal from 

 Albany to Buffalo, during the early part of 

 the summer most of this country reminded 

 one of the Sahara desert. I don't think that 

 I ever before saw a country so completely 

 dried up as some portions of this region. 

 Some places south of this line were just as 

 dry. Thru all this region the white honey 

 crop was almost an entire failure. A notable 

 exception to this was the limestone areas in 

 Onondaga County and other like spots where 

 alfalfa and sweet clover gave a good yield. 



The south-central part of the State had 

 frequent showers at the right time to pro- 

 vide ideal nectar conditions. Beekeepers 

 in this region harvested a fine crop of white 

 honey of extra quality. The buckwheat 

 honey crop was good in this region also, but 

 was only from poor to fair in other parts of 

 the State. The Hudson River valley honey 

 crop was very poor. 



A good fall flow, mostly from goldenrod 

 and asters, nearly all over the State, has 

 put the bees in good wintering conditions. 

 We are advising beekeepers to feed from 

 10 to 15 pounds of granulated sugar syrup 

 to each colony, to offset any ill effects that 

 may be experienced from the aster honey. 



No doubt, conditions in the colonies last 

 spring have much to do with the poor yield. 

 Unseasonable warm weather in March and 

 April, with flowers blooming a month ahead 

 of time, caused abnormal brood-rearing. By 

 May most colonies were in June condition. 

 Thousands of colonies used up all their 

 stores and went down rapidly in brood- 

 rearing. Even the provident beekeeper, 

 who had provided an abundance against 

 such an emergency, found a new difficulty 

 in that the queens, apparently having done 

 their best, grew tired and reduced egg-lay- 

 ing at the very time when top speed was 

 needed. Colonies with young queens of last 

 August were not so bad in this, and colo- 

 nies with such queens and lots of honey 

 kept up brood-rearing. 



On May 17 and 18 heavy frosts destroyed 

 much of the fruit bloom, dandelion, and 

 early raspberry bloom at a very critical 

 time. These sources of nectar and pollen 

 would have put into condition many colo- 

 nies that went down badly at this time. 

 Tliis provided a striking example of the ab- 

 solute necessity for pollen for brood-rearing. 

 Beekeepers who fed sugar syrup at this time 

 found that the bees did not respond in 

 brood-rearing, because all old pollen was 

 used up and no new supply could be found. 



The moral is obvious — ^save more combs of 

 honey and pollen in the fall. 



The matter of greatest interest in all this 

 is that the beekeeper, who requeens regu- 

 larly provides ample honey, and winters 

 his bees well, is the one who will have his 

 ' * cup right side up ' ' when the honey flow 

 comes. 



Ithaca, N. Y. George H. Rea. 



« * « 



In Ontario "^^^ month of Septem- 

 ber in Ontario was dryer 

 than usual, with complete absence of frost 

 or very cool weather. As a result, buck- 

 wheat with other late honey was removed 

 from the hives with less effort than in some 

 seasons. Generally speaking, the late honey 

 flow was fair altho some localities never 

 give any surplus after clover is over. This 

 is true at our chain of apiaries southeast of 

 Hamilton, where the main flow is from clo- 

 ver and the soil is a heavy clay, with no 

 buckwheat or other late forage. In all sec- 

 tions where there was a late honey flow, 

 clusters for winter are large and I suppose 

 mostly composed of young bees, so they 

 should winter well, provided they have an 

 abundance of good stores. 



This brings me to the question of feed- 

 ing, and while feeding should have been 

 done before this appears in print, it can be 

 done quite late with proper precautions. In 

 this case it surely is "better late than 

 never," even if it is true that is "better 

 never late." Just now (Oct. 10) we are 

 busy feeding the bees what they need, and, 

 of course, that means that we are feeding 

 sugar syrup; for under no circumstances 

 would we think of giving them the buck- 

 wheat stores out of the supers, even if we 

 sold the buckwheat honey for less than 

 sugar costs us. 



We like to do this feeding as rapidly as 

 possible; and to give an idea of what I mean 

 by rapid feeding, last fall my son with one 

 helper fed as high as a ton of sugar a day 

 in feeding up for winter. 



Some may wonder why we advise feeding 

 sugar syrup for the cold winter months in- 

 stead of using buckwheat stores when the 

 honey is just as cheap as the sugar or cheap- 

 er. Simply because we have found that in 

 at least one season out of three the buck- 

 wheat stores do not give good results, and 

 in such a season the gain more than pays 

 for all the time and extra cost taken up by 

 feeding sugar. 



Contrary to what many of us anticipated, 

 the demand for honey keeps good and many 

 beekeepers, including ourselves, are entire- 

 ly sold out. For the past ten days we have 

 turned down orders until we almost regret 

 that we closed out most of our honey on a 

 carload basis, as we dislike to disappoint 

 customers. 



Markham, Ont. J. L. Byer. 



