1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



761 



warm to hot. In our own locality, for ex- 

 ample, we have had ideal honey weather. 

 The bees are workmg better now than they 

 have been for some time back; and from 

 stray reports from various States 1 judge 

 this to be the condition elsewhere in the 

 clover belt. White clover in our locality is 

 still in bloom. Indeed, it will continue to 

 bloom so long as we have these rains and 

 warm weather. Red and peavine clover 

 have not been cut to any extent for the sim- 

 ple reason that the ground is too soft to sup- 

 port a mower. Consequently we find the 

 bees working well on both clovers that are 

 usually cut long ere this. If the conditions 

 throughout the other sections of the clover 

 belt are the same as here, there will un- 

 doubtedly be a fair crop of clover honey for 

 the market after all. Just now the reports 

 are few and scattering, for the reason that 

 bee-keepers hardly know what to say. The 

 conditions have been so variable that it 

 is impossible to bank on any thing. Honey 

 has been coming in in our locality, interrupt- 

 ed by bad weather, for a period now of over 

 six weeks; and if these warm rains contmue 

 we shall secure a fair yield of honey yet. 



So far there are no reports to indicate a 

 large amount of honey actually secured; and 

 all we can say is that the prospects are much 

 more favorable than we had any reason to 

 suppose they would be, two or three weeks 

 ago. 



In Colorado, under date of June 24, Mr. 

 Frank Rauchfuss, Manager of the Colorado 

 Honey-producers' Association, writes: 



Mr. Root.— The crop situation has not improved any 

 in Northern Colorado since I wrote you last. The best 

 reports I got were, "Bees are making a little more than 

 a living." in some places feeding has to be kept up. 

 Alfalfa is now in bloom, and farmers are cutting it for 

 hay to quite an extent already, so it does not look as if 

 we should get much out of the first crop of alfalfa, 



Denver, Colo., June 24. Frank Rauchfuss. 



Later.— Since making my crop report on June 24th 

 there has been no change for the better. The vicinity 

 of Denver, and all the country north of Denver up to 

 the Wyoming and Nebraska line has no surplus to show 

 yet. In the southern part of the State there was a very 

 light honey-flow for a short time, but 1 am informed 

 that this ceased about ten days ago. 



Along the Grand and Gunnison Rivers, in the western 

 part of the State, there has been a light flow, and some 

 surplus has been stored, but very little finished comb 

 honey in sight even there. 



The Colorado Honey-producers' Ass'n, 



July 10. Frank Rauchfuss, See. 



Since the foregoing report was made we 

 have received the following from the Cali- 

 fornia National Honey-producers' Associa- 

 tion: 



California.— Southern California will have about 

 one-third of a crop. Central California, prospects are 

 for a fair crop. F. E. Brown. 



Colorado. — Crop will be about 60 per cent of full 

 crop. Worms are destroying honey-plants Eastern 

 ilope cold and windy. .1. U. Harris, 



National Bee-keepers' Association. 



Arizona.— Honey crop to date is lightest we have had 

 in many years. Wm. Rohrig, 



Secretary Arizona Honey Exchange. 



Texas.— Fair crop expected. 



Eastern.— Too early to estimate. Weather has been 

 unusually cold and rainy. 



California National Honey-producers' Ass'n. 



Los Angeles, Cal., July 6. H. J. Merger, Sec. 



PROGRESS OF THE BABY NUCLEI AT MEDINA. 



Some two or three weeks ago we were 

 becoming a little discouraged over our baby 

 nuclei, but now they are panning out well. 

 Out of zOO babies we took one day 42 laying 

 queens. We have been taking out since all 

 the way from one to two dozen per day. 

 The dual plan of introducing seems to do 

 as well as it does in larger full-frame nuclei. 

 In some cases we take a laying queen out of 

 a baby box, and, in four days after, take 

 out another. As explained before, in most 

 of these minatures there will be two queens 

 at a time— a virgin that has been released 

 and accepted, so that she is free to take her 

 wedding -flight when she pleases, and an- 

 other one caged. As soon as she is laying, 

 the other virgin already caged for several 

 days in the baby is fixed so that the bees 

 can eat out the little plug of candy and re- 

 lease her. Theoretically, when conditions 

 are ideal we can take out a laying queen 

 every four days; but practically I do not 

 suppose we will come any nearer than one a 

 week, and in unfavorable weather not as 

 well as that. If it were not for the dual 

 plan we would fall far short of these figures. 



Of course, further developments may 

 cause me to change my mind; but the intro- 

 duction of this miniature-nucleus plan, I now 

 think, is the longest step in advance that 

 has been made in queen-rearing for many 

 years. Two hundred bees apparently can 

 do what ten or fifteen times that number 

 could on the old plan with large frames. 



I am free to admit, however, that, when 

 a dearth of honey comes on, we may not be 

 able to secure anything like as good results 

 as we are getting now; but until within two 

 or three weeks, as I have stated, these lit- 

 tle clusters were very disappointing; but we 

 were given to understand that brood was 

 not essential. We have learned since that 

 there must be in addition a virgin or a cell 

 and daily feeding if not well supplied with 

 stores in one of the little combs. I see no 

 reason why the honey-producer with a dozen 

 or so of these babies can not do his own 

 requeening at a very slight cost. A couple 

 of seven-to-the-foot sections in a small box 

 will do almost as well as a factory-made 

 outfit. 



experiments in rendering wax; the 

 value of a wax-press. 



In buying up an old bee-yard we obtained 

 a lot of old crooked combs of doubtful his- 

 tory, and we therefore decided to melt them 

 up. Two or three times lately correspon- 

 dents have said that the old-fashioned way 

 of putting old combs in a cheese-cloth or 

 burlap bag, immersed in a kettle or wash- 

 boiler of hot water, would yield as much 

 clean wax as any of the modern steam- 

 presses. It was argued that the bag of 

 comb under water, frequently punched with 

 a stick, until the comb was thoroughly 

 broken, would yield up all the free wax 

 to be obtainable by any process. I told our 

 wax-room boys to test this out with these 

 old combs very carefully. A large burlap 



