166 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Maech, 1918 



HEADS OF GRAirn PPQMlQ TDIFFERENT FIELDS 



of the delay necessary to get the other 

 queens from the breeders, I decided to unite 

 with several of my weaker colonies. It was 

 about 5 p. m., weather fair, no wind, tem- 

 perature about 50 degrees. I sprinkled the 

 bees with thin sugar syrup and shook the 

 one-pound and also the five-pound package. 

 In both cases fighting followed, which result- 

 ed in both queens being killed. The next 

 day the package having the live queen, I 

 shook onto drawn combs partly filled with 

 pollen and honey and freed the queen. I also 

 gave them the brood with adhering bees 

 from the hive containing the pound package 

 that had just killed their queen. After re- 

 moving the frames I noticed a small cluster 

 on the bottom-board which I shook on top 

 of the frames — when, lo and behold! the 

 cluster contained a virgin queen. I caged 

 her immediately, as she was the cause of the 

 destruction of the original queen in the hive 

 and also of the one in the cage. An ex- 

 amination of the five-pound package also re- 

 vealed two virgins running over the combs. 

 The breeders no doubt had their troubles 

 last spring, but those at my end of the line 

 could have been avoided by the shipper 's 

 pasting a direction slip on the cage advising 

 which end to open and cautioning to look out 

 for queens being loose among the bees in the 

 package. They surely had had this trouble 

 before and should have given warning ac- 

 cordingly. 



Baltimore, Md. M. E. Delaney. 



C£= 



Beekeepers Get Beekeeping in Switzer- 



Sugar for Feeding land could not long 

 Just the Same. be carried on without 



liberal feeding of su- 

 gar for winter stores every fall. The condi- 

 tions for beekeeping are not nearly as fa- 

 vorable in Switzerland as in the United 

 States. The seasons seem to be so short 

 in Switzerland and the honey flow so early 

 that only by the very best management with 

 extra strong colonies of a non-swarming race 

 can surplus honey be obtained. Most of us 

 honey-producers would miserably fail, if 



our honey-flow came in May and then ended. 

 The Swiss beekeeper must figure closely. His 

 bees must winter perfectly, must not swarm 

 and must fill the extracting supers before 

 June. The colony of bees that does this is 

 not likely to store much honey in the brood- 

 chamber, for a good colony will keep the 

 broodcombs full of brood during May to the 

 exclusion of stores, and when fall comes the 

 beekeeper finds no stores whatsoever in these 

 broodnests, and must resort to feeding sub- 

 stitutes. This has become such a universal 

 practice that provisions are made by the 

 Swiss government so that 15 kilos of sugar 

 (33 pounds) per colony for feeding purposes 

 has been supplied to the beekeepers at a low 

 cost. At present, the beekeepers are handi- 

 capped in Switzerland as much as we are in 

 America. Sugar cannot be obtained in suf- 

 ficient quantities to meet the demands of 

 the people even for table use, let alone for 

 bee-feed. Yet the Swiss government has 

 granted the beekeepers an allowance of eight 

 kilos (about 17 pounds) per colony. I sup- 

 pose the beekeepers had to fight for this al- 

 lowance for they could not show that they 

 produced enough honey to oifset this expen- 

 diture of sugar. In fact, they made but 

 little attempt along this line, but laid most 

 stress upon the fact that the honeybee was a 

 most necessary factor in the economics of 

 horticulture, as distributors of pollen, with- 

 out which fruit culture would suffer im- 

 mensely. This seems to have been the con- 

 vincing argument with the Swiss govern- 

 ment. The advice is given in the leading 

 bee journal of Switzerland to take only good 

 colonies into the winter, to unite weak ones, 

 to weed out unproductive stock and to sup- 

 ply the selected colonies with sufiicient stores 

 but in fewer combs, six or eight at the most. 

 This is along the same line as advocated in 

 Amercan bee journals, a practice which had 

 followers here 30 or more years ago. In 

 uniting colonies it is advised to hold the 

 to-be-united bees separated at first by wire 

 screen; then let them unite by the candy 

 method. 



Naples, N. Y. F. Greiner. 



'Better Jjeekeepiiig is t'liniiii;;- Fast in Noi'tli Carolina. Aliove is 

 N. 0. St.ate Beekeepers' Association Who Attended Their 



I'rinled a Picture of the 

 State Convention Held i 



Memliers of the 

 n January. 



