21-4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



BIG BEEKEEPER'S BIG IDEA 



Promises Big Profits by Forcing the Bees to Move 

 Stores to the Brood 



If I could step into your yard and in five 

 minutes explain and demonstrate how to put 

 $10, $100 or $1,000 into your pocketbook 

 every year, you might be interested. Aside 

 from the actual ^•isit to your yard, I can 

 do that very thing. Here it is: $10, $100 or 

 $1,000 free, to those who are prepared with 

 an open mind. No joke, no hoax, for I know 

 exactly the value of the plan, the economy of 

 labor, the results in booming colonies to 

 gather honey — booming colonies to gather 

 honey, the most important, oft-neglected, 

 factor in all beekeeping. 



In spring, or all winter, every good colon}'- 

 must be in a two-story hive, with brood-nest 

 above, super below. When breeding has 

 made a good start in several frames, take all 

 combs containing honey and no brood from 

 the brood-nest and put them below in the 

 lower story; contract the entrance, and fill 

 in the vacant space in the upper story with 

 the very best empty all-worker combs which 

 you own. That's all, except that in unusually 

 bad weather, you can set oif the upper story. 

 scratch the cappings on a comb of sealed 

 honey, and replace, without disturbing the 

 actual brood-nest. Seldom necessary. 



By this plan you so place the honey that 

 the instinct of the bees demands its removal 

 to empty cells near the brood, and, at all 

 times when the temperature allows, that 's 

 what the bees are doing. This increased 

 ' ' handling ' ' of stores means greater activity, 

 more brood-rearing and strong colonies early 

 as a result of this activity- 



Another point: you have provided the 

 queen and bees with a great amount of comb- 

 room, aU in one story, where the increase of 

 brood will not be hampered with any con- 

 siderable amount of sealed stores near the 

 brood. And not so soon will it be necessary 

 for the bees to rear brood in another story, 

 always wasteful in early spring, as there is 

 so much si)ace to heat, containing no comb — 

 only bottom-bars, bee-spaces and heavy top- 

 bars. 



The principle, however applied, is simply 

 this: for big colonies, early, put the combs of 

 honey at a distance from the brood, prefer- 

 ably near the entrance, and the bees are 

 kept constantly active, moving the honey 

 nearer to the brood. 



Less labor, big colonies, added income for 

 you. E. F. Atwater. 



Meridian, Ida., Nov. 1, 1917. 



[We asked E. F. Holtermann of Brantford, 

 Ont., who chanced to be at our office when 

 Mr. Atwater 's exceedingly interesting and 

 enthusiastic article came to hand, to com- 

 ment on the plan. This he consented to do, 

 writing as below. Our readers may be in- 



terested to know that Mr- Atwater is a spe- 

 cial field agent of the U. S. Dep't of Agri- 

 culture, selected by Dr. E. F. Phillips for 

 apicultural work in California, Arizona and 

 New Mexico. — Editor.] 



The article by Mr. Atwater brings forward 

 an excellent idea, viz: That to get the bees 

 to move uncapped honey in the hive will 

 stimulate brood-rearing. To be able to bruise 

 honey in combs in the lower story is also 

 a method which would have a decided advan- 

 tage over breaking the cappings on honey 

 actually in the brood-chamber occupied by 

 the bees. I am afraid that many beekeepers 

 are not prepared to accept the statement that 

 the colony should be in possession of two 

 brood-chambers at all times. This might be 

 true — is true, if an eight-frame hive is used 

 — but I would not be prepared to accept the 

 statement when using a 10- or 12-frame hive. 

 I would not accept it. Then in many locali- 

 ties, including my own, at the time when 

 colonies require stimulating I rarely have 

 enough honey in the brood-chamber to make 

 it worth while having a brood-chamber under 

 the one occupied by the bees — that is the 

 time when bees have the least honey. 



E- F. Holtermann. 



HER LAST YEAR'S CROP 



A Michigan Woman Succeeded with Queenless 

 Colonies in a Poor Year 



Last May I explained thru the pages of 

 Gleanings how I obtain good crops of hon- 

 ey by making each colony queenless as soon 

 as the bees are well started in the second 

 super, nine days later destroying queen cells, 

 giving a comb of young larvse, and at the 

 end of nine more days destroying all queen 

 cells but one. Doubtless some beekeepers are 

 wondering how much of a crop my queenless 

 bees succeeded in gathering during the poor 

 season of 1917. 



In the spring I found 160 of my 170 colo- 

 nies were still alive, but several of the small 

 colonies did not build up in time for the 

 summer flow, on account of my being gone 

 from home three weeks just when they most 

 needed helj). The spring was very backward, 

 which was hard on all the apiaries, but good 

 weather in fruit bloom did wonders, so that 

 most of the colonies were ready for the flow 

 at the usual time. In ordinary seasons, the 

 supers on nearly all of the colonies are heavy 

 with partly capped honey by July 4. This 

 year it was quite different, there laeing very 

 little surplus on even the best colonies, while 

 many had not begun storing at all. I was 

 obliged to keep the colonies strong and ready, 

 waiting for the flow that proved to be three 

 weeks later than usual. During the entire 

 season there were only a few good days that 

 the bees were able to gather honey, and the 



