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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



suggestions, I have this year succeeded in 

 getting his promise to try wintering in the 

 cellar. 



During the last three years I have never 

 had a lower average than 100 pounds of 

 white-clover honey per colony, spring count. 



Britt, la. W. W. BOUTILIER. 



HIS FIRST POUND PACKAGES 



As the 10-frame standard hive was not 

 large enough to meet our needs, we decided 

 to change to the Jumbo hive. Therefore 

 we sold a number of our hives and bees with 

 them. This left us a little short of bees, 

 and so, deciding to try out the pound pack- 

 age, we sent to Ohio for 50 Jumbo hives and 

 to California for 66 two-pound packages of 

 bees with queens. Of these latter, we kept 

 50 and let our friends have the rest. These 

 packages were shipped Apr. 21, 1917, and 

 arrived Apr. 24. I was at the station to meet 

 them on their arrival and found them in fine 

 condition. They were given all the syrup 

 they would take, loaded into the auto and 

 given a 35-mile drive across the desert. 

 As soon as the car started they formed 

 clusters and arrived home all O. K. 



We put them into the big Jumbo hives 

 without any brood. They were each given 

 two Jumbo frames with full sheets of 

 foundation, one frame with drawn-out comb 

 taken from the extracting supers of the 

 standard hive, and a fourth frame which we 

 made into a division-board by pasting over 

 it a piece of paper reaching to the top, ends 

 and bottom of the hive. Over the frames 

 and under the inner cover we placed a sheet 

 of paper, thus providing them with a snug 

 little apartment at the side of the hive. As 

 the weather was cold and stormy we fed 

 about 75 pounds of sugar, using those cheap 

 fiber plates about the size of a saucer. We 

 found we could feed very fast by putting a 

 plate on the bottom of each hive with the 

 edge just under the division-board, which 

 arrangement kept the bees from getting in 

 the way, so that, without uncovering or ex- 

 posing the bees to cokl, we could slip the 

 inner cover back a few inches, pour in the 

 syrup, and replace the cover before the bees 

 knew it. 



On Apr. 24, the dandelions and apricots 

 were in bloom; and by May 13 this first flow 

 was strongly reinforced by that of the 

 strawberries and fruit trees. So that from 

 the arrival of the bees until the main honey- 

 flow there was always a little honey in the 

 fields, altho at least two-thirds of the time 

 bad weather prevented the bees from gather- 

 ing. At such times we fed syrup. 



We soon learned that queen-breeders get 

 blamed for weather conditions and the way 

 bees act, for some of our friends who re- 

 ceived a part of the bees, blamed me and 

 the breeder for poor shipment because some 



of the bees were dwindling and others would 

 not leave their cages at all. We explained 

 to them and showed them how to shake 

 the bees from the cages, but nothing seemed 

 to change their minds in the slightest until 

 the main honey-flow was in full blast. Then 

 they ajipeared to be satisfied. 



It was not all joy with us, for we lost 

 some queens and some of the queens were 

 mismated. The first warm day we had, we 

 made a hasty examination and, finding four 

 queens gone, we wrote the breeder. There 

 were no ' ' if s ' ' and ' ' ands ' ' about it. By 

 return mail we received the four queens. 

 Later when fine weather came, we found 

 more queens missing, but as it was getting 

 late in the season and we knew the breeder 

 v/as rushed to the limit, we united the queen- 

 less bees, thus leaving us 42 colonies out of 

 the 50 packages. 



On July 10 we extracted 100 gallons; July 

 22, 160 gallons; Aug. 8, 90 gallons; and Oct.!, 

 130 gallons. That is, from the original 50 

 packages, we obtained 6,660 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey besides 75 pounds of No. 1 

 wax, and one queen for which I refused $35. 



We are planning next spring to purchase 

 pound packages again, as we believe this the 

 best investment we ever made. 



Parowan, Utah. M. L. SKOUGAED. 



CONDITIONS IN CALIFORNIA 



Last spriii,g (1917) Dr. Phillips advised 

 beekeepers to " spread out, get big colonies, 

 in order to get big crops." Some of our 

 neighbors did so, with the result of having 

 a lot of star boarders to feed or allow to 

 starve. During the six seasons I have been 

 studying conditions in this location, two of 

 them were quite similar to the winter of 

 1916-17, and it took sugar by the ton to get 

 the bees thru those lean years. So, like the 

 burned child that dreads the fire, I declined 

 to " spread," but proceeded to do just the 

 reverse by shaking bees onto foundation, 

 and pinching queens and so on with the re- 

 sults of being able to bring 350 of the 500 

 through to date (Dec. 28.) 



Now we are confronted by another prob- 

 lem that keeps us guessing. The present 

 December has been as warm and sunny as 

 May, and bees have been hustling in pollen 

 at a great rate, which means breeding out of 

 season. If spring comes early and is warm; 

 the conditions are ideal; but if late and 

 cold,— let us change the subject. 



One of the local papers has an advertise- 

 ment for a winter in the " lost, strayed, or 

 stolen " column. It is a common saying 

 that ' ' no one can say what California will 

 do next. " To a Yankee it does seem strange 

 to see rats build nests in trees, and squirrels k 

 dig holes in the ground and share their bur- ^ 

 rows with owls. S. A. NIVER. 



Greenfield, Cal., Dec. 28, 1917. 



