E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



YOU, MR. BP]EKEEPER, are a soldier in 

 this world's great army. Didn't you know 

 it? If you did not, 

 Your Part it 's time you woke 



in the up. You will find 



Great Struggle, it out before this 

 war is over, and the 

 quicker you realize it now and become ac- 

 customed to doing- your share, the more ef- 

 ficient you will be when the crucial test 

 comes that will later show u§ all what we 

 must do, whether we wish to or not. 



Your duty, Mr. Beekeejter, in this great 

 world's crisis, is the dvity of the soldier at 

 home — to do most efficiently and intelligent- 

 ly everything that concerns food production. 

 Don't leave a thing undone that may pro- 

 duce an additional ounce of honey. Get your 

 brains and your hands ' to work. Neglect 

 nothing. Do better than you have ever done 

 before. And don 't forget to speak a patri- 

 otic word wherever you can. Cheer for 

 Uncle Sam. Lend him your money. Get 

 others to do so. While our l)oys in khaki 

 are dying for us and for this country and 

 for humanity's cause "over there," let us 

 "over here" do to the utmost what we can 

 —and e'very man, woman, and child of us 

 can help. 

 Do it. 



Y'EARS AGO W. Z. Hutcliinson in his jour- 

 nal, the Beekeepers' Review, sounded the 

 slogan, "keep more 

 More Bees bees. ' ' He kept 



and How to this u]) until he 



Get Them. made it a general 



propaganda. His 

 idea was that the necessary, fixed expenses 

 in the case of a small number of colonies 

 would eat up all the profits, while the same 

 expenses would be but little more when two 

 or three times the number of colonies were 

 kept. He continued urging his readers to 

 "keep more bees,'' until finally many of 

 them followed his advice. 



The propaganda, "keep more bees," 

 would not apply in the case of the backlot 

 ter nor in that of the farmer who keeps only 

 a few bees for pleasure and a little profit. 

 But the man who makes beekeeping his sole 

 means of livelihood can well afford to con- 

 sider whether his locality will stand more 

 bees, and whether he himself has sufficient 



experience and skill to handle a larger num- 

 ber of colonies. 



Daring these strenuous war tinges the 

 question is of special importance. The Gov- 

 ernment thru its various bulletins has been 

 urging beekeepers to ' ' speed up on honey 

 production." The general shortage of sugar 

 and the difficulty of transportation have 

 brought into the limelight the necessity of 

 raising sugar (honey) right in one's back 

 yard. This the bees can do and save much 

 transportation. 



The i)ast severe winter, during which many 

 bees could raise no brood or died outright, 

 has brought to the beekeeper the problem 

 of spring dwindling. Wherever Avinter or 

 spring losses prevail, thousands of beekeep- 

 ers will need more bees. If they are to 

 "speed u)) on honey production," they must 

 have more. There are two ways of getting 

 them. One plan, and perhaps the more feasi- 

 ble, is to buy or rent bees in one's own 

 neighborhood. The other plan is to buy bees 

 from the South in package form. The for- 

 mer method, perha])s, should be tried first, as 

 there arc many farmer beekeepers and back- 

 lotters who will give their bees scant, if any, 

 attention. The good beekeepers should get 

 in touch with these people and, if possible, 

 enter into an agreement to take care of 

 their bees on shares, or, better still, buy 

 outright. Every colony of bees in the coun- 

 try should be made to tui'n out its maximum 

 output; but it will not do so unless the best 

 beekeejiers in the locality (and that means 

 usually those who have the largest invest- 

 ment in bees) either buy or rent the bees of 

 their neighbors. The farmers and backlot- 

 ters would do much better to get a profes- 

 sional to take care of the bees for them. 

 It then behooves you, Mr. Professional Bee- 

 keejier, and you, Mr. Baeklotter, if you are 

 up to date, to make arrangements so that 

 every colony in your locality will yield its 

 maximum of honey. Y^ou should also see that 

 the entrances of all hives in your locality 

 containing dead colonies are closed, as such 

 a hive, with plenty of honey in it, isl always 

 a menace on account of bee disease. 



In some cases it would be impossible 1 > 

 buy many bees in the neighborliood. On - 

 professional beekeeper writes us that li(> Ins 

 been all aroiuid the country within K) I'i'es 

 of home, and he finds thnt the bees are all 

 dead. Llis own loss, however, thanks to pack- 



