156 



May, 1913. 



American ~Ree Journal 



as we need extra combs of sealed 

 honey. This is one of the next ques- 

 tions in bee-management — how to get 

 combs of pollen Tilled sufficiently to 

 pay to store away. 



Colorado as a Bee Slate 



"Your name has been suggested as 

 one to write to for information about 

 Colorado as a bee State. Where is the 

 most honey produced in Colorado; 

 where is the market for it; and is it 

 sweet clover or what quality of honey ? 

 Does any one make an entire living at 

 it in Colorado, or is it only a side 

 line ?" M.^ssACHUSETTS. 



The Colorado bee-territory is con- 

 fined to the irrigated valleys where 

 alfalfa is groifii, and where sweet 

 clover gi-ozvs. 1 could not tell you 

 where the most honey is produced, as 

 one year one valley produces the most, 

 and another year another. However, 

 you can tell very nearly where the best 

 locations are, by finding out where the 

 most alfalfa is grown. It would be 

 unwise to settle anywhere without first 

 visiting the country and looking into 

 transportation facilities, cost of living, 

 climatic conditions, foul brood situa- 

 tion, etc. There is room for more 

 bee-keepers in parts of Colorado, and 

 these districts will welcome you, but 

 there are drawbacks to all. The success 

 depends upon the man. I am frank 

 to say that I believe there is more 

 money in bees in the eastern part of 

 the United States than in Colorado for 

 the up-to-date bee-man. We have 

 marketing problems that do not trouble 

 the eastern bee-keeper. 



The market for our honey is in the 

 States to the east, and partly in a local 

 market. We have considerable trade 

 in Te.xas and Oklahoma. 



There are probably 200 bee-men in 

 the State who make the larger part of 

 their income from bees. I would not 

 recommend bees as an absolute spe- 

 cialty. Every bee-keeper should have 

 a small garden, some fruit, chickens, 

 cow, etc. 



One of the reasons why bee-men in 

 in the West can care for from 300 to 

 700 colonies with but little help, is that 

 during the working season we have 

 a larger number of working days with 

 but few storms to shut off work. Our 

 wintering problem is not so severe as 

 in the East, though we have our trou- 

 bles along that line. 



Swarming, sometimes, is a problem, 

 and one bee-man last year said that he 

 lost 7-5 swarms because the bees got 

 the start of him. He had about 600 

 colonies, and harvested nearly a car of 

 comb honey. He preferred to lose that 

 number of swarms rather than keep 

 less bees and catch all swarms, but 

 harvest perhaps half as much honey. 

 Western bee-keeping is more extensive 

 than intensive. 



pects are good, there is snow in the 

 mountains, and spring moisture is 

 abundant. Sweet clover is coming up 

 in good shape in eastern Colorado. 



Feeding Bees Directly into Empty Combs 



Herman Rauchfuss, of Englewood, 

 Colo., showed me a pressure tank that 

 is very handy for various uses in the 

 apiary. It is a galvanized iron tank of 

 about 15 to 18 gallon capacity. Near the 

 top is an automobile or bicycle valve, 

 such as is used in pumping up tires. 

 An ordinary bicycle or automobile 

 pump can be used in pumping air into 



the tank. The funnel at the bottom is 

 equipped with a rubber hose feet long, 

 and a nozzle at the end similar to the 

 nozzle of a sprinkling can. Now sup- 

 pose considerable honey is granulated 

 in the combs in the hives; pour in the 

 tank 10 or 1-j gallons of water, and 

 pump in the air to give pressure. 

 Wheel the tank from one hive to an- 

 other, and spray warm water into and 

 over the combs of granulated honey. 

 The bees can make quick work of that 

 honey. 



Or suppose you wish to feed the bees 

 thin syrup ; put that in the tank, get in 

 some air pressure and you can soon 



Mr. Herman Raichfuss and His Son on Their Way to an Oct-Apiarv. 



fill the combs with one to three pounds 

 of syrup. It is better to fill these 

 combs in a bee-tight room if the bees 

 are inclined to rob. The combs may 

 be filled over a tub or vat to catch all 

 the drip. The tank can be used to 

 force swarms to alight by having it 

 nearly filled with water. The spray 

 nozzle must be fine so that the diffu- 

 sion of the liquid will be in small par- 

 ticles, as this is important whether 

 feeding bees syrup or water, or forcing 

 a runaway swarm to alight. 



many of them do this work themselves 

 when it would probably be better for 

 them to hire it done and expand their 

 bee-keeping operations. Nearly all the 

 preparations for a crop can be done 

 with hired help, and the bee-keeper 

 can devote his time to the more im- 

 portant work of getting the bees in 

 shape for the harvest. 



Do It With Hired Help 



Many of our western bee-men are 

 busy scraping and cleaning separators 

 and supers, putting up sections, wiring 

 and putting foundation in frames. Too 



Prospects for May 



Should the weather conditions remain 

 as they are now, this spring will be an 

 " -Alexander plan of increase " spring 

 for western bee-men, and will give 

 them a chance to fill hives that have 

 been empty for several vears. Several 

 carloads of bees will be shipped into 

 the State, and doubtless a good number 

 of nuclei and pound packages also. 



Southern 



Beedom^ 



Cnnducted by Louis H. ScHOLi , New Braunfels. Tex. 



Backward Spring in Western Colorado *P"' Swarming and Honey-Flows 



Early .April reports come from 

 western Colorado that the season is 

 cool and backward, and that bees are 

 weak. It will take them a long while 

 to build up for the honey-flow if this 

 condition prevails. Otherwise pros- 



The forepart of April is as warm as 

 summer time, and bees are busy at 

 work as though there had been no re- 

 cent cold weather and delay in their 

 brood-rearing. The cold snap the lat- 

 ter part of March was severe on the 



nectar-yielding vegetation, and conse- 

 quently affected brood-rearing from 

 the central part of the southern States 

 northward. Letters from the southern 

 portion of our own State say the bees 

 are swarming, and that honey-flows 

 are beginning. From the lower part 

 of the State and the Rio Grande River 



