Al'RiL, 1918 G L E A N I N G S T N B E E U L T U R E 227 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



from otlior states. This State needs more ef- 

 ficient beekeepers and the territory is not so 

 crowded but that many can find good ])as- 

 tures and sufficient room for expansion. The 

 Agricultural College offers its assistance to 

 those who contemplate changing their loca- 

 tions. 



It is planned to hold county beekeepers' 

 meetings during the latter part of March in 

 Washtenaw, Wayne, Lenawee, Hillsdale and 

 Branch counties. Beekeepers in those coun- 

 ties who do not receive notices of the meet- 

 ings should send their names and addresses 

 to the State Inspector of Apiaries. 



The sugar situation seems to be improving 

 very rapidly. From correspondence very re- 

 cently received, it seems that beekeepers are 

 finding it possible thru their letters of author- 

 ity to secure considerable amounts of sugar, 

 and, in some cases, enough to take care of 

 the needs for spring feeding. However, 

 some are unable to secure any sugar at all. 

 In order to supply the needs of those who 

 find that their bees are actually starving and 

 are unable to secure sugar after trying in 

 every way to secure it locally, a small quan- 

 tity of sugar has been set aside for the use 

 of beekeepers by the Food Administration. 

 This sugar will be supplied as long as it lasts 

 to those who must have sugar at once at the 

 rate of 10 cents per pound plus postage. It 

 is being handled at actual cost by M. H. Hunt 

 & Son and the A. G. Woodman Company, but 

 all remittances must be sent to B. F. Kindig, 

 East Lansing, Mich. The sugar will be ship- 

 ped by parcel post or express in lots of 20 

 and 40 pounds. If the cost, including sacks 

 and packing, does not amount to ten cents per 

 pound a refund will be made to the purchaser. 

 Those living within reach of Lansing should 

 come in person, bringing sacks with them. 

 Please do not ask for sugar until you have 

 exhausted every resource locally and until 

 the time arrives that sugar must be secured 

 to avoid starvation. 



Last year the beekeepers of Michigan had 

 the active co-operation of three of the coun- 

 ty agents of the State. To date about 25 

 more have A^olunteered their services. The 

 county agents want to help the beekeepers. 

 Most of them have had little experience with 

 bees and want the beekeepers to tell them 

 and show them how they can give assistance. 

 Get acquainted with the county agent; tell 

 him your problems; take him to your bee- 

 yard, and initiate him, if he is not familiar 

 with the work; ask him to co-operate in the 

 holding of field meetings; request him to fur- 

 nish bulletins and literature to the beekeep- 

 ers who are not using up-to-date methods. 

 In other words, make use of the servant 

 whose salary the beekeepers are helping to 

 pay. Help the county agent to feel that, 

 even tho he is not familiar with beekeeping, 

 yet there is a particular service that he can 

 render to the beekeeping industry. The coun- 



ty agents want to be useful; but it is in gen- 

 eral up to the beekeepers to show the agents 

 how to iielp. B. F. Kindig. 



East Lansing, Mich. 



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From Ontario — ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^'^y ^^ ^^^'^ ^ 



fair estimate yet as to 

 condition of bees, stores, honey-producing 

 plants, etc., but judging by reports at hand 

 which are quite varied, would say that wher- 

 ever colonies were strong, well protected, 

 and, above all, had abundance of good stores, 

 winter loss will be light. Just today I visited 

 one of our own apiaries and found every colo- 

 ny alive and most of them looking well. This 

 yard had considerable sugar fed and colo- 

 nies were all strong. On the other hand, our 

 home yard had mostly buckwheat stores and 

 much of their stores consisted of heavy combs 

 of buckwheat placed in the brood nest in the 

 fall in lieu of light combs removed. I only 

 did this as a matter of sentiment, as buck- 

 wheat was worth more than sugar, but I hat- 

 ed to buy much sugar for reasons that can be 

 imagined. In this yard I find considerable 

 dysentery and a number of colonies will per- 

 ish before warm weather comes. This apiary 

 is also exposed to the southwest and got 

 full force of the great storm of Jan. 12 from 

 that direction- After the storm was over, the 

 ground was bare in most places and bees have 

 been exposed to the unusual cold ever since. 

 That may have aggravated conditions. A 

 neighbor just half a mile from my home has 

 100 colonies and that same storm buried his 

 bees all over. They have been covered ever 

 since, and they are wintering finely. As 

 they have buckwheat stores and the same 

 kind of hives, it looks as if the greater ex- 

 posure had caused poorer wintering with our 

 bees here. Weak colonies are going out by 

 wholesale. A man two miles from my place 

 reported one-third dead a month ago. There 

 was much natural swarming there last year, 

 and I surmise his colonies were weak in b?es 

 and perhaps short of stores. Cellar-wint M-ed 

 bees are reported to be wintering well — in 

 fact, the winter has been ideal for cellar con- 

 ditions. Another man reports to me that 

 he will lose a half of his 100 colonies. He had 

 European foul brood in his apiary last year 

 and many colonies were weak in bees when 

 winter came on, and weak colonies could not 

 stand weather like we have had ever since 

 early December. Summing up as a whole, I 

 predict that the losses among the extensive 

 beekeepers who produce the bulk of the hon- 

 ey will not be nearly as heavy as was feared 

 a few weeks ago. Much, of course, depends 

 upon the weather of the next few weeks, as 

 the bulk of the bees east of a line drawn 

 north from Toronto have not had a flight at 

 this date, Feb. 28. Heavy rains during the 

 last few weeks have taken snow off the fields 

 and covered clover with a solid sheet of ice- 

 It would only be a guess to say how clover 



