514 



GLEAXIXUS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 15 



Conversations with 

 Doolittle 



At Borodino 



WHEN TO COMMENCE PKEPARATIONS FOB 

 WINTERING. 



"Mr. Doolittle, I commenced two years 

 ago with five colonies and now have seven- 

 teen. Mr. Jones was telling me the other 

 day that you believed in early preparation 

 for winter." 



".Tones was right. I consider the months 

 of August and September the months in 

 which to i)rei)are bees for winter. In my 

 early bee-kee])ing I put this off as late as 

 December. Jiut after a little there came a 

 winter in which the bees did not have a 

 chance to fly for five and a half months, at 

 the end of which I had very few colonies 

 left. I then wrote to Mr. E. Gallup, a 

 prominent bee-keeper at that time, telling 

 him of my troubles, and he advised me to 

 prepare the bees for wintering not later than 

 September 20; and if I did not have a sur- 

 l)lus in that month, to prepare in August. 

 I have kept doing so e\ er since, doing the 

 most of this preparation in August, except 

 as there was a promise of stores being gath- 

 ered the fore part of September, when the 

 stores i)art was left till about Sei)tember 15 

 to 20. I found that such early jireparation 

 paid well, for since then the V)ees have been 

 kept confined for over six months, and yet 

 have come out in good shape." 



"That is an awful siege for them. How 

 do you account for it?" 



"By beginning thus early to i)ut all in 

 readiness as far as possible, the bees are 

 given a chance to get their stores for winter 

 l)laced just where they wish them, so that, 

 by the middle of October, they are ready to 

 go into that (juiescent state so conducive to 

 the best results." 



"What do you do by way of preparation?" 



"I begin on row one, at the first hive. 

 This is oi)ened, each comb remo\ed, and 

 the amount of bees, age of queen, sipiare 

 inches of brood, and ])Ounds of honey, care- 

 fully noted." 



" How can you tell the number of i)ounds 

 of honey by o])ening the hive?" 



"By weighing a few combs of varying 

 degrees of fullness till the eye gets so train- 

 ed that the weight of every comb can be 

 judged with an accuracy which will not 

 vary half a i)ountl to the hive. The num- 

 ber of scpiare inches of brood is gotten by 

 measuring a few different-sized patches, 

 when it is easy to estimate afterward." 



"Do you think that as good as weighing 

 the whole hive?" 



"I consider it much better. "While weigh- 

 ing is much better than guessing by lifting 

 there is a chance, where a colony has a i)oor 

 queen or has become queen less, that the 

 combs may be stored nearly full of pollen, 

 when the probability for safe wintering is at 

 a minimum all around. This condition 



neither the scales nor the lifting process 

 reveals at all. To be sure of all these little 

 kinks, which, put together, have all to do 

 with our success, the hive must be opened, 

 and, when open, it is but a moment's work 

 to make sure about the stores." 



"But how do you tell the age of the 

 queen?" 



"By looking at the last year's record, if 

 her wings are clipped; if not clii)ped, I know 

 she is of the present year's rearing, as the 

 wings of all my queens are generally clip- 

 ped in fruit bloom." 



"And how about the bees?" 



"'Jhe amount of bees is told, and their 

 age, by observing them on the combs. If 

 two-thirds of the combs are well covered, 

 and the light-colored and fuzzy very young 

 bees are numerous, I know that they are 

 all right." 



" How do you keep track of all the differ- 

 ent hives?" 



"I carry some section material with me; 

 and where I come to any hive where the 

 old record is full I use a new one. After 

 filling out it may read something like this: 

 'Aug. 28. 10: H. 29 lbs.; B. 500; Q. 09; B's 

 O.K.' If the hive is chaff-packed, this 

 piece of section is slid partly down in the 

 chaff; or if in an uni)acked hive, I i)ut it in, 

 some convenient jilace where it will not 

 become obliterated. In this way I have 

 the record of that hive for years, as in some 

 cases there are three and four pieces of sec- 

 tions slid down in the chatT." 



"I supi)ose that any colony having such 

 a record as you have just told me about, 

 you consider in good shai)e for winter." 



"Yes. But if it had as little as 25 lbs. of 

 honey it would still be all right, or as little 

 as 20 lbs. will do very well where the bees 

 are to be wintered in the cellar." 



"If any are found deficient in anyway, 

 what then?" 



"This is noted on the section; and when 

 the hive is closed a stone is jilaced on the 

 center of the top, which tells me that it 

 needs looking after ; so when all are looked 

 over, those having the stones on are looked 

 after again, and whatever is lacking is suj)- 

 plied. That is, if the (pieen is poor she is 

 killed, and a good young vigorous one sup- 

 plied, so the colony may be i)rosperous the 

 next spring. If brood or bees are lacking, 

 and there is not time for a young queen to 

 rear brood, frames of brood from a weak 

 colony or nucleus are given. If honey is 

 lacking, and there is still a prospect that 

 more may be gathered, I wait till Sept. 20; 

 and if at that time the lack is not made u}), 

 frames of honey, set away as a reserve dur- 

 ing the honey-flow, are put in to supply 

 what is needed." 



More Testimony Against Japanese Buckwheat. 



This (Sullivan) is a buckwheat county, and some 

 twenty years ago nearly every farmer who raised 

 buckwheat (myself included) tried the .Japanese 

 variety: but It proved a failure when compared 

 with the other varieties, and I do not know of a 

 farmer around here who has raised any of it during 

 the past ten years. 



Parksvllle, N. Y.. .July 11. A. W. Smith. 



