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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



SEPARATORS. 



Here again we have a demonstration. I 

 feel sure that, in working for comb honey, 

 the best success will come only in the use of 

 separators. I do not care much whether we 

 use tin or wood, as each has its advantages; 

 but I am quite sure that one must be used if 

 we would reach the best success. 

 .^ 



WHEN TO EXTRACT. 



Here again I feel sure that we can speak 

 with positiveness. We must never extract 

 unripe or thin honey. I once thought other- 

 wise, but I am svire now that I was wrong, 

 and am sure that one who does otherwise 

 runs a hazardous risk. 

 .^ 



GENEROUS RAINS. 



In all my sojourn in Claremont, now for 

 more than 13 years, I have never known such 

 bountiful rains as have come to us this pres- 

 ent winter. Our average is 15 inches, while 

 we now have had 22.22 inches and we still 

 have the best part of the winter to come. 

 This insures great crops, and is almost as 

 certain to give a surprising honey crop. 

 There is one thing that gives California pre- 

 eminence as a bee region. We have abun- 

 dant bloom all winter, and the bees are live- 

 ly all through Febriiary and March on the 

 flowers of acacia and the eucalypts. Thus 

 we have stimulation all winter. Of course, 

 this also works to keep the bees healthy. 

 We never have dysentery in this place so far 

 as I have observed. The bright bloom of the 

 acacias the past month, and the merry hum 

 of the bees, have made it delightful to stroll 

 about in the bright sunshine. 



LITTLE SWARMING AFTER POOR WINTERING. 



"Mr. Doolittle?" 



"Yes, Mr. Brown." 



"Do you think that bees swarm less the 

 first summer after they have wintered poor- 

 ly during the winter ? " 



"I hardly think that, taking the average 

 of the poor winters, together with the average 

 of the good winters, little difference will be 

 observed as to swarming of bees during the 

 average summers following. But what made 

 Brown ask that question ? " 



"I was talking with an old bee-keeper a 

 few days ago, and he said it seemed to him 

 that bees never swarmed as much after a 

 heavy loss of bees during the winter as they 

 did the next summer after all had come 

 through the winter in good shape; and he 

 cited me to the summer of 1883, after that ex- 



ceptional loss of bees which he said occurred 

 during the winter of 1882." 



"I well remember the winter of 1882, dur- 

 ing which nearly if not quite three-fourths of 

 all the bees in the United States were swept 

 out of existence. But I was not aware that 

 the next summer was one of few swarms." 



"He said that he lost four-fifths of his bees 

 during that winter, and that the next sum- 

 mer he did not have swarms enough to stock 

 the combs from which the bees had died." 



"Ah! I see why he thought the bees 

 swarmed very little. He wished to save 

 those combs, and so it seemed a small yield 

 of swarms because he could not save the 

 combs But if he had swarms enough to use 

 half of his combs he would have had a great- 

 er amount of swarming than usual, for an in- 

 crease of two colonies from each old one in 

 the spring is considered a large increase for 

 an average." 



"That is so. I did not stop to analyze the 

 matter after that fashion." 



"My loss that year was 75 colonies out of 

 90, and the 15 remaining did not have bees 

 enough in them to make three fairly good 

 colonies on the first day of May. These 90 

 were left out during the winter, but I had 55 

 in the cellar, 53 of which came out in good 

 condition, and my increase was more than 

 enough to stock all the combs from which 

 the bees died. But his locality might have 

 given different results from what mine did." 



"What do you mean by that? If you had 

 a good year for swarming, would not the 

 same be true of your whole State ? " 



' ' No, by no means. ' ' 



"Why not?" 



' ' For the reason that the yield of honey 

 may not be the same throughout the whole 

 State." 



" Wovild that make any great difference?" 



"All the difference in the world. With a 

 yield so poor that the bees nearly starve dur- 

 ing June and July, no swarms issue; and 

 when the honey hai'vest begins early, and 

 continues right along without interruption, 

 very few swarms issue, as a rule; but with a 

 season where just enough honey is obtained 

 to carry forward profuse brood-rearing the 

 swarming mania is liable to break out, when 

 swarming is liable to be kept up till the bee- 

 keeper gets tired and sick of the matter." 



" This is something I had not thought of 

 before." 



"To show you: In 1877 we had a continu- 

 ous good yield throughout the whole season 

 — so much so that my colonies averaged 166 

 pounds of section honey per colony, and I 

 had very little swarming, with colonies all 

 strong in the spring, while another year, with 

 a light flow of honey, 49 colonies of only 

 moderate strength in the spring gave me 348 

 swarms, with less than an average crop of 

 com b honey. At such times as this last, many 

 colonies not strong enough to work in the 

 sections will swarm and keep at it till the 

 apiarist's patience is nearly exhausted." 



"But is there no way of stopping such ex- 

 cessive swarming?" 



' ' Yes, there is now: but in those early years 



