1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



489 



Nearly 1200 new names came in during 

 the time from March 15 to April 13. Thanks. 



There have been quite a number of bee 

 conventions held of late, and we are very 

 sorry that we have been unable to get in 

 any mention of any of them for this issue. 



MR. ALEXANDER AND MRS. HOLTERMANN SE- 

 RIOUSLY ILL. 



It is with much regret that we have to 

 report that Mr. E. W. Alexander, of Delan- 

 son, N. Y., is seriously ill, and he will, there- 

 fore, not be able to attend to any of his cor- 

 respondence. Letters concerning his meth- 

 ods may be sent htre, and we will turn them 

 over to Mr. Alexander when he recovers. 

 Fortunately we have in hand enough of his 

 articles to run for three months yet. 



We are very sorry to report also that Mrs. 

 R. F. Holtermann has just come from the 

 operating-table, and the surgeons found her 

 condition such that there is little or no hope 

 for her recovery. She is a daughter of S. 

 T. Pettit, of Ontario, one of the best- known 

 bee-keepers in our ranks. Mr. Holtermann 

 is unable to take care of his correspondence 

 at present. Those in the United States who 

 desire to get his hives or appliances may 

 correspond directly with us. 



THE COMPARATIVE RESULTS IN WINTERING 

 INDOORS AND OUT AT MEDINA. 



We have just taken our 240 odd colonies 

 out of our shop bee-cellar. Notwithstand- 

 ing the temperature has been abnormally 

 high by reason of the warm open winter 

 outside, the indoor bees, strangely enough, 

 fared much better than those outdoors; and, 

 what is more, we put in the cellar only our 

 very weakest and poorest colonies. Many 

 of them were little more than two and three 

 frame nuclei. The very best colonies were 

 left outdoors in double- walled hives. Well, 

 the showing is that these medium and weak 

 colonies wintered indoors are actually in bet- 

 ter condition than some of the outdoor-win- 

 tered colonies that were much stronger the 

 preceding fall. Naturally enough, an open 

 winter like this would show an advantage in 

 favor of the outdoor bees, and this would 

 have been the case this winter had it not 

 been for the extremely cold March that came 

 just at a time when bees were rearing brood 

 and the clusters were well spread out. It 

 appears that the shock of this cold spell put 

 back these otherwise strong colonies that 

 would have been stronger and better than 

 those wintered indoors. 



There were no winter losses in the cellar 

 except some seven or eight of the very 

 weakest and poorest that we had last fall. 

 These would have gpulled through ' had the 

 cellar not been too warmUmuch of the time. 



INCREASING THE HONEY CROP BY SOWING 



ALSIKE, PEA VINE, AND RED CLOVER IN 



THE VICINITY OF THE YARD; DO IT 



NOW. 



In March 1st issue, page 288, Mr. Wm". 

 McEvoy, of foul-brood fame, sent in a short 

 item to the effect that the bee-keeper could 

 increase his honey crop materially by sowing 

 alsike himself and getting his neighbors to 

 do likewise. Our Canadian friend does not 

 write very often; but when he does, he gen- 

 erally gives us a big chunk of something 

 good. 



Since this statement appeared I made up 

 my mind we would test this thing here at 

 Medina a little more thoroughly than we 

 had ever done before. Accordingly we have 

 been supplying the farmers roundabout here 

 with alsike, peavine, and red-clover seed 

 free. We prefer, of course, alsike, as it is 

 a far better honey-plant. 



This morning I had a talk with a neighbor, 

 Mr. Vernon Burt, on this very subject, and 

 he then reminded me that he had for years 

 been trying to educate the farmers in his 

 vicinity as to the value of alsike and peavine 

 clover; and that, while he formerly furnish- 

 ed the seed free of charge, he found it un- 

 necessary to do so any more, as the farmers 

 had learned the value of these two crops. 

 As a natural consequence Mr. Burt has a 

 large acreage of alsike, peavine, and red 

 clover within easy range of his bees. 



Our readers will remember Mr. Burt as 

 being a bee-keeper who secures a crop of 

 honey if any one in our vicinity does. He 

 attributes a large part of his success to this 

 artificial pasturage which is now getting to 

 be a regular thing for his bees. He has for 

 several years been able to keep as high as 

 200 colonies in one locality by reason of this 

 extra bee-pasturage when most localities in 

 our county will support only about 50 colo- 

 nies; for be it remembered we have no fruit- 

 bloom to speak of, and no fall flow. In fact, 

 it is 25 years since I remember our bees get- 

 ting very much honey from fall asters. As 

 a natural consequence we have to bend every 

 energy to get our colonies strong for clover 

 and basswood. 



As I have already pointed out, Mr. Burt 

 has for years been going ahead of us by 

 lengthening his honey-flows. 



ALSIKE AND ITS ADAPTABILITY TO WET 

 SOILS. 



And this reminds me that alsike will grow 

 in a good many places where other clovers 

 would be killed out. It thrives on a wet 

 soil, and, what is more, the heaving frosts 

 do not destroy it as they do peavine clover 

 with its long tap-roots, which are often snap- 

 ped in two by the rising of the soil through 

 the action of the frost. 



What we are particularly anxious to get 



