1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1559 



tain prominent bee journal. Those reports came reg- 

 ularly twice a month, when they suddenly ceased at a 

 time when the bee-keepers of the United States need- 

 ed them most. If a bee journal can not give the bee- 

 keepers the desired information at the right time, of 

 what interest is it to them': 



This is a fair question, and deserves a fair 

 answer. In the first place. I may say that 

 we began giving the honey-crop prospects as 

 early as June i this year, asking for postal- 

 card reports. As tliese came in they were 

 summarized and placed at the disposal of 

 our readers in subsequent issues until Aug. 

 15. At that time all the information that 

 was available had been obtained, and there- 

 after, until about Oct. 1. we were unable to 

 get any thing authentic about crop conditions, 

 and consequently iHd not publish any thing. 



In our issue for July 15 a summary was 

 made by us after all the reports had been 

 gathered, and after the main honey-How from 

 the Northern States was over, saying that 

 "the crop of Western honey in car lots will 

 be light. The ]\lississippi Valley south of 

 the Wisconsin line ami north of Missouri will 

 have from a fourth to a third of a crop. 

 Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, fair: Missouri 

 and Nebraska, good: Eastern States, half to 

 a full crop. There will not be much West- 

 ern honey on the market except some from 

 California." August 1. again, we stated that 

 "there is very little to add to what has al- 

 ready been given, except to say there will be 

 some shrinkage from early estimates as to 

 the amount of honey there would be from the 

 Eastern States."' After that we were unable 

 to get hold of any definite information that 

 we thought would be authentic, and so we 

 finally decided to wait until the honey began 

 to be marketed. 



During the middle of September we began 

 to get reports again: and in our October 1st 

 .issue we stated that Ixiyers everywhere were 

 trying to get honey: that the crops had been 

 short, and that "conditions now seem to 

 show that the crop is even lighter this year 

 than last:"' further, " there is some honey in 

 Colorado and California." This item was 

 published a month before the quoted item in 

 Irrigation; but it is possible that Mr. Fran- 

 cis, the writer of it, had not seen our issue 

 for October 1st, wherein the missing infor- 

 mation he sought was given. 



There were other items in Gleanings, all 

 tending to show that the crop was light, so I 

 do not think our readers really lacked for in- 

 formation when we were able to give any 

 that was considered reliable. 



Possil)ly the writer of the item thought we 

 held l3ack the crop reports seeing there was 

 going to be a scarcity, in order that we might 

 buy up in the mean time all the honey we 

 could get hold of. But if that had been our 

 intention we should have been ^ery foolish, 

 from a business point of view at least, to 

 state in August, befoi-e the honey was ready 

 to market, that there was a shortage. If we 

 had had any such desire to take advantage 

 of the market we would have held back this 

 last piece of information, bought up the hon- 

 ey, got a big slice, then came out with fiam- 

 ing statements that the crop was short, in 



order to advance the price and thus make a 

 good profit. 



As a matter of fact, what little honey we 

 did get was after October 1st. and after we 

 had stated in that issue that the crop for this 

 season was lighter than it had ever been be- 

 fore. This would have the effect, if any 

 thing, to advance prices, compelling us to 

 pay the advanced figure. 



SHUTTING THE BEES WITHIN THE HIVES, 



BOTH IN THE WINTER REPOSITORY 



AND OUTDOORS. 



I HAVE been making some experiments 

 during the last few weeks: and while I do 

 not yet definitely know what the results will 

 be, yet they are of such a nature that our 

 readers should know what they are, and be 

 given an opportunity to try the same exper- 

 iments and report next spring. 



On p. 18(57. Nov. Lit will be remembered 

 that Mr. O. L. Hershiser advanced some 

 forcible arguments in favor of shutting bees 

 inside of the hives in the winter repository 

 during winter. He argued that many bees 

 fly out of their hives on to the cellar bottom 

 that are perfectly healthy: but when once 

 out they are unable to return, and, of course, 

 perish. If these bees had been confined 

 within the hive they would, after leaving 

 the cluster, soon join it again, adding their 

 body heat to that of the general cluster. Mr. 

 Hershiser was careful to stipulate that the 

 bees so confined should have a large amount 

 of ventilation— that is to say, large openings 

 q^vered with wire cloth. 



He uses a special hive-stand and bottom- 

 board combined, the sides of which are cut 

 away, and covered with wire cloth. This 

 gives practically an area of ventilation equal 

 to the whole bo'ttom of the hive. The effect 

 of this is to reduce the temperature witMn 

 the hive, keeping the cluster more quiet, 

 even when the temperature rises a little high 

 in the cellar itself. But Mr. Hershiser urges 

 another point — that is, that the cellar need 

 not be darkened when the bees are shut in. 



Our Mr. Calvert called on him, looked over 

 his cellar, and was surprised to see how nice 

 and quiet the bees wei-e, and how few dead 

 bees were in the hive-bottoms: for if they 

 died at all thev would have to die within a 

 few incTies of the cluster, as they could not 

 get out of the hive. 



It has generally been considered bad prac- 

 tice to shut bees' AS'ithin the hive^ for either 

 indoor or outdoor wintering. With the or- 

 dinarv hive-entrance this would be true. 

 The amount of ventilation provided by an 

 opening » deep by the width of the hive is 

 very scant for cellar wintering. If this nar- 

 row opening be covered with wire cloth it will 

 not be long before this space will be covered 

 with dead bees, and the ventilation practically 

 shut off. This, of course, means death to 

 that colony within a short time. Mr. Her- 

 shiser. however, provides a ventilating space 

 so ample that the bees can never want for air 

 at anytime. Those that would die anyway, 

 and seek to get awavfrom the cluster, would 



