478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



Bee-keeping Among The 

 Rockies 



Vy M'KSLEY Foster. ISoulder, Colo. 



HONEY PROSPKCTS. 



From present indications there will be lit- 

 tle surplus gathered in Northern Colorado 

 this year. Late freezes, lack of water for ir- 

 rigation, and grasshoi)pers, are the three 

 main causes. The llrst growth of alfalfa 

 has yielded scarcely any thing; and the col- 

 onies at this writing, July 7, have less than 

 a jiound each of stores. For about a month 

 the bees have just held their own. Sweet 

 clover and the second crop of alfalfa are the 

 only available sources of honey, and unless 

 these furnish a good flow soon* the bees will 

 have to be fed for their winter stores. So 

 far this is the most discouraging season Col- 

 orado bee-keepers have ever experienced. 

 Colonies are strong, and would soon be 

 swarming if we could just have a honey- 

 flow. 



Bees in the Arkansas Valley in South- 

 eastern Colorado are reported to be doing 

 well, and it is not probable that the condi- 

 tions in the northern i)art of the State are 

 general. 



BEES AS INVENTORS OF THE HIVE. 



We are told that bees first appeared in 

 the tropics, where they built their combs 

 on the limbs of trees; but on finding out the 

 advantages of more jirotection they took up 

 their abode in hollow trees, crevices, in the 

 rocks, etc. This change in manner of liv- 

 ing shows a high form of animal intelligence, 

 and is a high form of adaptive ability. 

 Whether the bees took up the living in trees 

 and rocks while in the tropics or developed 

 this adaptive trait after moving into colder 

 regions is hard to determine. We often see 

 bees living out of doors with but very slight 

 protection. A swarm of bees at Delta came 

 from a hive in an apiary and lit upon a 

 clump of sweet clover; and instead of leav- 

 ing for a distant home they built their comb 

 right there in the open with but very scant 

 protection from the weather. They were 

 entirely overlooked by the apiarist, and were 

 not found till about Christmas. A few bees 

 were still living, but the queen had disap- 

 peared. During the summer the leaves of 

 the sweet clover protected the combs from 

 the sun's rays, and they were melted but 

 little. Apparently the knowledge of the 

 need of protection from the weather is an 

 accjuired character of the bee; and when out- 

 side conditions are very favorable she will 

 forget all that the ])ast has taught her and 

 will revert to old methods that suceeed only 

 in the tropical "first home" of the species. 

 Certainly bees that build combs in a sweet- 

 clover bush have a very hazy notion of the 

 rigors of winter. As a rule they seem to 

 have a pretty good idea of protection during 

 the winter; but whether they know just the 



nature of it would be hard to determine. 

 Certainly what they know from instinct is 

 often lost when they revert to a still more 

 primitive instinct by building in the open 

 air. If we take this view of the acquirement 

 of the trait of the bee in seeking the shelter 

 of a tree or rock we shall have to say that 

 the bee herself is the inventor of the hive. 

 Did she do this in the tropics to gain for 

 herself shelter from rain, the sun's rays, and 

 perhaps from other insects? Ordidslie have 

 to encounter the rigors of northern winters 

 before she saw the advantage of more pro- 

 tection? We shall have to admit that the 

 bee is somewhat of an inventor; for is it not 

 a sign of adaptive and inventive genius that 

 she will take the comb foundation we give 

 them and build comb upon it? 



SWEET CLOVER. 



Some of the possibilities of sweet clover as 

 a honey-i)lant and forage crop may be gain- 

 ed from the rej^ort of the conditions in some 

 of our mountain caiions. The streams from 

 which our irrigation water comes flow out of 

 the canons; and in order to get the water as 

 high as possible on the plains it is taken 

 some distance up the cafion and carried in 

 ditches and flumes around the sides of the 

 caiions and thence out on to the high ground 

 of the plains to be irrigated. Sweet clover 

 has been sown along these ditches by bee- 

 keepers, and the seed has not only started 

 u]) a fine growth along the ditch-banks, but 

 wherever the banks have overflowed the 

 sweet clover has gained a firm stand. Fur- 

 ther than this, the clover has followed up 

 some of the damj) ravines and along the main 

 beds of the larger streams, making an abun- 

 dance of find bee pasturage; but, what is of 

 more real value, it enhanced the worth of 

 this waste ground in the mountains as a 

 pasture for cattle. Many cattle are now 

 kept in the mountains, and the feed is good 

 most of the year; but the addition of sweet 

 clover to the pasturage makes it doubly val- 

 uable. In time it is quite probable that 

 these mountain sweet-clover pastures may 

 be profitable fields for the bee-keei)er. 



Here is a further high endorsement of 

 sweet clover as a ration for stock — sheep this 

 time. It is especially valuable, as it comes 

 from Prof. Morton, of the Colorado Agricul- 

 tural College, an expert on the feeding of 

 sheep. I clip what he says from an article 

 of his in Ranch and Range. 



Many people think sweet clover Is useless, but 

 they are mistaken. Not only will stock pasture up- 

 on it, but they will eat the hay from it readily If It 

 is cut early and well cured. The writer has fatten- 

 ed lambs upon sweet-clover hay and corn, and found 

 the combination almost equal to alfalfa hay and 

 corn. I distinctly rememlier the first time 1 fed 

 sweet-clover hay. I had a bunch of range lambs 

 upon native hay. I threw in a forkful of sweet-<-Io- 

 ver hay that was very stemniy, and bleached. The 

 lambs started for it: and as soon as the.v got a taste 

 of it they almost piled on top of one another in their 

 eagerness for It. It was amusing to see a sixty- 

 pound lamb start in on a stem as big as one's little 

 finger, and chew at it until he finished it. Previous 

 to that time I was somewhat skeptical as to the yal- 

 ue of sweet-clover hay, but I became convinced. 



