824 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 2b, 1901. 



Report for 1901-Sweet Clover and Alfalfa. 



BY WM. STOLLEY. 



Like most of the readers of the American IJee .lournal. I 

 also will make my annual report, as usual. 



Although drought-stricken as was the entire West, the 

 past season, the great value of sweet clover and alfalfa as 

 forage-plants and nectar-yielders is again clearly proven, bv 

 the crops of hay and honey I harvested. 



Reirarding the product of my apiary, my report is as 

 follows: 



From iil colonies run for extracted honey, I got 3 105 

 pounds, or an average of about 148 pounds per colony. From 

 5 colonies in Xew Ileddon hives run for comb honey. I got 

 3S0 well-filled and perfectly capped sections, or an average 

 of 76 sections per colony, and, besides, 60 pounds of extracted 

 honey. 1 thus got a total of 8545 pounds of surplus honey 

 from 26 colonies of bees, spring count, and plentv for the bees 

 to winter on besides. 



I had but 5 swarms, all told. My best colony run for ex- 

 tracted honey gave me 193 pounds of surplus, and my best 

 colony run for comb honev gave me 136 sections and 12 

 pounds of extracted. Tgot'46 pounds of bright yellow wax 

 from cappings, and reared 19 extra-fine queens from mv 

 choicest colonies for my own use : and increased, bv the 

 nucleus plan, from 26 to 36 colonies. Ever since October 

 18, my bees have been packed for winter, and had a general 

 flight to-day (Nov. 12.) But I sustained quite a loss, in the 

 [last season's surplus, on account of the purchase of 5 queens 

 in the late summer of 1900.' The queens I got were reputed 

 as of extraordinary value, and a remarkably superior strain. 

 When these queens arrived, they proved to be undersized ; 

 but that did not scare me, because I have seen many a small 

 ijueen which was much the superior of larger queens." 



But when one of those queens proved herself to be a most 

 miserable hybrid, my confidence in this extra "superior 

 strain'" was greatly shaken, and with considerable apprehen- 

 sion as to the value and worth of the other four, I waited re- 

 sults after wintering them. 



The hybrid queen was replaced by another (lueen, and 

 was introduced as late 'as O.-tober 12, 1900. In the spring 

 following, three queens of that -'superior strain" of bees 

 proved to be practically worthless, and very poor layers, 

 while one of them averaged as medium-good. Only the one I 

 received in October, to take the place of the little black hybrid, 

 proved to be a really fine queen, and her colony is one of the 

 very best in my apiary uo^/. 



Two of the queens, which I bought as superior stock, I 

 killed in early summer, and united their colonies with the 

 colony of the queen that was lacking, to give her a trial in 

 the season. 



The united three colonies of this "superior strain"' did 

 not average in strength with anyone of my ordinary colonies, 

 after forming but one colony. The united colonies, if their 

 queen had been all right, would have given me about 450 

 pounds of surplus extracted honey for the season that I re- 

 moved good queens to make room f .r the "suoerior stock '" : 

 while the three united colonies of this " superior strain " have 

 actually given me only 43 pounds surplus ! Hence, I ac- 

 tually lo'^t about 4011 pounds of honey, in consequence of the 

 inferiority of these 3 queens— a loss of $60. since I sell my 

 honey at > 5 cents per pound. 



I have but a small apiary, but I aim to have a superior 

 queen in every hive, and if any one of them is lacking, she has 

 to make room for something that grades well. 



Some 18 or 19 years ago a Rev. Mr. Hriggs, of Iowa, (if I 

 remember the location rightly) made, in substance, the follow- 

 ing proposition in the American Bee Journal, to breeders of 

 queens generally : 



I (Rev. Briggs) will pay S100 for M^ (5^.r;f 5f?/^^« sent me 

 by any queen-bee breeder, upon the following conditions, 

 to-wit : 



1.— All queens entrusted to me by any partv, will receive 

 at my hands, the very best of care and attention, and an ac- 

 curate record of her work will be kept. 



2. — At a certain date (stated) a disinterested committee 

 (here the widely known parties comprising that committee 

 were named) will be the judges in the contest, and the party 

 whose queen is declared to be the premium queen will get the 

 $100, but the queen thus awarded becomes my (Rev. Briggs') 

 property. 



3.— I (Rev. Briggs) also reserve the right, while making 

 this offer, to retain any and all the queens sent me. upon the 

 payment of $2 for each queen retained by me, and I will re- 

 turn all queens not wanted by me, free of charge, if so desired 

 .by the party or parties sending me queens. 



Xow, I do not remember the name of the party whose 

 queen won the $100, but I ordered one of the queens reared 

 in the subsequent year from the $U 'O cpieen by Rev. Briggs 

 and paid !p5 for that queen, and it was the cheapest and 

 best qui'cn I ever bought. 



Fifteen of the 36 queens now in my apiary are " Briggs 

 ciueens,'" and they are in the »lead as mothers of honey- 

 producers. 



1 have other valuable strains of bees, obtained from other 

 dealers in queen-bees, but the " Briggs strain " proves, best of 

 all of them, that '■ blood will tell." 



Now, Mr. Editor, I wish that another Rev. Briggs, as hon- 

 est and reliable as was the one I have mentioned above, would 

 work a similar scheme. and-I, for one, will cheerfully pay $5 

 for one of tlie offspring of such queens reared " in a natural 

 way'"; but I want the bees to rear the queens under the most 

 favorable conditions: and I want them to build their own 

 queen-cells from bottom to tip. too. No stick-made queen- 

 cups for any queens that I wish to introduce into any colony 

 in niy apiary ! 



I read with great interest the proceedings of the meeting 

 at Buffalo, and always "reach out at once " for the "Old Re- 

 liable " when it comes. Hall Co , Neb. 



% The Afterthought. ^ 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



TIME OP QUEEN EMERGENCE. 



Yes, sir'ee. Dr. Miller, if it's true with regularity, or 

 anything like regularity, that queens emerge in full cofonies 

 in I 5 days, and only in nuclei or other depressing circum- 

 stances take 16 days, then that venerable (not sweet) 16 

 must come out of the books. But first let us hear from Maine, 

 and Oregon, and Texas, and other places — honey-flow and 

 dearth — early, mid-season, and late. Locality, crop condi- 

 tions and season are normal things ; but nuclei are abnormal 

 things which should not rule. Page 685. 



SWARMS AND FILL SHEETS OF COMB FOUNDATION. 



Sounds reasonable that a swarm might consider sheets of 

 foundation simply as partitions, and oliject to so many ridicu- 

 lously narrow rooms. But a good many swarms have been 

 successfully hived on full sheets. I take it. Page 686. 



SIX HONEY CROPS IN TWELVE. 



Six paying crops in twelve years, as an actual experience; 

 rather takes us down in our estimate of bee-keeping in the 

 irrigation regions. And it seems that we can hardly expect 

 as good as six out of twelve unless there is something else be- 

 sides alfalfa to prop >ip with. Page 695. 



THAT UNFORTUNATE GLUCOSE-FEEDING. 



Once more I will refer you to that ton of glucose on pages 

 579, 681 and 707. I supposed that it marked another mile- 

 stone on a road that we would prefer fenced up — or rather 

 never graded out. It used to be the case that pure glucose 

 would only be taken when bees were in a state of semi-starva- 

 tion, and that they would stop taking it as soon as they had a 

 rather small supply — never building comb and storing surplus 

 with it. When 1 read of so large an amount as a ton I feared 

 that improvements of the article had changed some if not all 

 of this. Glad if we don't have to believe so just yet. I must 

 cry for mercy as to the dull way I read the editorial. The 

 time of year forbids the idea of fraudulent surplus. We do 

 not know that he succeeded in feeding it all. And to work off 

 what he did feed he may have mixed it with something better. 



STARVATION FOR BLACK BROOD. 



That was a wise remark of McEvoy's on the black-brood 

 question, page 7 l<>. Imprisoning bees off the combs for four 

 days without feeding uses up the infei-ted honey all right— so 

 far, well : but it also gets the bees themselves into such a lean 

 and inactive condition as they must not be in if they are to 

 combat disease to advantage : and it takes days to "get them 

 out of that condition. So it is in doubt whether that particu- 

 lar manipulation does more good than harm, or more harm 

 than good. 



