394 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



wheat is in bloom, many other honey-pro- 

 ducing flowers are also secreting nectar, 

 principally goldenrod, which yields a dark 

 honey resembling buckwheat very much, and 

 with us is a better honey-producer than buck- 

 wheat. However, I will try to throw a ray 

 of light on this subject. 



Several years ago I kept nearly 200 colo- 

 nies in a location where there was barely 100 

 aci'es of buckwheat within reach of my bees 

 — that is, within four miles, or in a circle 

 eight miles in diameter. Still, with this 

 small acreage per colony it was no uncom- 

 mon thing to harvest a surplus of 15 to 20 

 lbs. of nice buckwheat section honey per col- 

 ony. This caused me to feel very anxious to 

 keep bees in a buckwheat location where 

 thousands of acres was raised annually, so 1 

 moved to this place. But I soon found out, 

 to my sorrow, that the amount of bloom had 

 but little bearing on the amount of surplus I 

 obtained, and in this respect buckwheat is 

 no exception to other flowers, aside from 

 the fact that it does its best when we have 

 quite cool nights followed by a clear sky and 

 a bright hot sun with little or no wind; then 

 from about 9 o'clock in the morning until 2 

 in the afternoon it secretes nectar very fast. 

 We seldom find a bee at woi-k on it much 

 earlier or later in the day. But on golden- 

 rod they will work fx'om seven in the morn- 

 ing until after 5 in the afternoon. It also re- 

 quires quite cool nights and a very bright 

 sun during the day. Neither it nor buck- 

 wheat amounts to much in cloudy weather, 

 even if the day is warm. With a tempera- 

 ture below 70° on a cloudy day, bees will 

 waste away fast on either goldenrod or buck- 

 wheat. They simply crawl around, unable 

 to fly; and unless they get a bright sun the 

 next day they soon die. 



This question has a close bearing on the 

 subject of overstocking, and it is hard to 

 answer it without touching somewhat on that 

 question. From the reports given in our bee 

 journals the past season, during the com- 

 mencement of the clover bloom in several of 

 our Western States, I noticed that it was all 

 that could be desired; but as to the yield of 

 honey, it has been in many places almost a 

 failure, and we have received many letters 

 of inquiry for clover extracted honey from 

 some of the best clover sections of the United 

 States. The writers of these inquiries state 

 that, although they had a very large bloom, 

 their bees got but little surplus. 



My friends, the time will come when many 

 of you will realize that what is commonly 

 called the "season," which is, the condition 

 of the ground as to proper moisture and the 

 temperature, and the electrical condition of 

 the atmosphere at the time the flowers are in 

 bloom, will have a thousand times more 

 bearing on our surplus than the amount of 

 bloom or the number of colonies we may 

 have in one apiai'y. 



A few years ago, during the commence- 

 ment of our August harvest, when our bees 

 had at least 1500 acres of buckwheat bloom 

 to work on, and were getting honey very 

 fast, a heavy thunder-shower came down 



from the north about 2 p.m., which caused 

 the mercury to drop 21 degrees in less than 

 half an hour. Then this low temperature of 

 about 65 degrees, with windy cloudy weath- 

 er, lasted some 11 days, during which time 

 the bees destroyed large quantities of their 

 brood, for there was no nectar in any flow- 

 ers during that time, and they were ready to 

 rob any hive that was* opened. We have but 

 very little basswood in this locality, and two 

 years ago the bloom was very light. We 

 could hardly find a tree that had any flow- 

 ers on, but still our bees got a fine surplus of 

 over 9 tons of basswood honey; but the 

 weather was all that could be desired. It 

 was clear, hot, and very damp; the moisture 

 of the air condensed on every thing that was 

 cool, and consequently we got the honey. • 



One year ago we had the most profuse 

 basswood bloom I ever saw. Nearly every 

 tree was full of flowers; but the weather was 

 cold, cloudy, and windy during nearly the 

 whole time it was in blossom, and we did 

 not get enough basswood honey so it could 

 be smelled or tasted in our surplus. I don't 

 know that I ever saw the buckwheat harvest 

 stop so suddenly, with apparently little cause, 

 as it did last August. From the morning of 

 the 21st to the night of the 24th, bees got 

 honey very fast. Our hive on the scales av- 

 eraged a gain of about 8 lbs. a day, and we 

 extracted a tankful of a little more than 2 

 tons each day for four consecutive days, and 

 our men all agreed that there was more hon- 

 ey in the apiary each night than there was 

 in the morning. But on the night of the 24th 

 we had had a light shower with a fall of tem- 

 perature of 11 degrees. The bees were very 

 quiet the next morning until about noon; 

 then when it warmed up a little they were 

 ready to rob any thing they could get at, and 

 there were thousands trying to get into our 

 honey-house around the screened windows; 

 and we knew from past experience that the 

 honey season of 1906 was then di'awn to a 

 close. The hive on the scales did not gain i 

 lb. any day after that fall in temperature 

 and shower, although there was considerable 

 buckwheat in bloom. 



Then at other times I have noticed, when 

 the weather remains warm without any rain, 

 the flow of nectar would last until Sept. 5; 

 but if a break in the harvest comes at any 

 time after the 24th of August we at once take 

 off our extracting-combs, run them through 

 the extractor, and put them away for anoth- 

 er year. 



This year we finished the last work in the 

 apiary for the season on Sept. 1, and our 

 honey was then all either in the barrels or 

 tanks, and we had little more to do. We al- 

 ways prepare our bees for winter during July 

 and August, so our summer's work was fin- 

 ished until we put them into the cellar. 



I might continue to write page after page, 

 citing cases where the weather has nearly all 

 to do with our securing a surplus, but I don't 

 think it necessary. The one principal re- 

 quirement in securing a nice surplus is, as I 

 have stated, the season; but this, being far 

 beyond man's control, will always make the 



