October, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



633 



BOOKS AND BULLETINS 



The U. S. Dep't of Agriculture has just issued 

 two bulletins on the subject of wintering bees, em- 

 bodying the latest ideas Of Dr. E. P. Phillips and 

 other apiculturists in the Bureau of Entomology 

 at Washington. One of these bulletins is entitled 

 " Wintering Bees in Cellars," the other, " Protect 

 Bees from Cold." Ask the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C, for these two bul- 

 letins. 



"THE PEARCE NEW METHOD OP 

 BEEKEEPING." 

 The majority of beekeepers have picked up meth- 

 ods and suggestions from their predecessors or con- 

 temporaries, possibly adding a point or two them- 

 selves, and have gradually pieced all together into 

 what they regard as the very best plan of manage- 

 ment. Such a system is that given in "The Pearce 

 New Method of Beekeeping." The main idea of 

 the booklet is to have colonies unusually strong, 

 from 100,000 to 200,000 bees, always provided with 

 an abundance of room by being kept in two-.story 

 Langstroth hives, which are housed thruout the 

 year in a suitable building. Mr. Pearce is also an 

 advocate of that troi-ble-brewing " let-alone plan." 

 He leaves them in the fall, with many colonies weigh- 

 ing as much as 100 pounds; then on the tirst of 

 May he puts on the supers. He says : " Put as 

 many as four or even more honey cases filled with 

 foundation on top of these two hives. Be sure 

 to have enough, letting them go as they please till 

 near the first of November." If this advice is fol- 

 lowed indiscriminately, it seems to us, it must result 

 in much chilled brood and many lost colonies. Hav- 

 ing such quantities of room, Mr. Pearce holds that 

 swarming will be prevented. Therefore he sug- 

 gests that anyone desiring increase place on the old 

 stand a new hive of empty combs or foundation, to- 

 gether with a new queen and the four outside 

 frames from the old hive, the four frames of empty 

 combs or foundation removed being placed in the 

 middle of the old brood-nest which is moved to a 

 new location. By so doing, however, the queen 

 would sometimes be treated kindly and sometimes 

 she would be killed. To remove honey from the 

 supers, he places four or five supers over an empty 

 hive arranged with an escape-board above and a 

 bottom-hoard below. In the spring he uses the 

 Alexander plan of caring for weak colonies, only 



instead of removing the upper colony at the end 

 of three weeks, lie oi;ly removes one com)) with the 

 queen, thus making a nucleus, l&aving all the rest 

 together in one big colony. Under the heading, 

 " Foul Brood," it is evident that Mr. Pearce is re- 

 ferring only to the American type. His remedy is 

 to put a new hive of foundation on the old stand 

 and smoke the bees until most of them have run 

 into the new hive. The queen is placed in the new 

 hive and the hive covered with a bee-escape board, 

 after which the old hive of brood is placed above. 

 He does not mention the possibility of. the escape 

 becoming clogged with dead bees, nor the impossi- 

 bility of removing the diseased hive to examine the 

 lower one. Of course, if the upper hive were jarred, 

 as it would be if removed, the bees would load 

 up with diseased honey and carry it into the clean 

 hive below. For rearing queens the booklet advises 

 the beginner to feed his best colonies heavily so 

 they will build queen-cells and swarm. Seven 

 or eight days after the first swarm issues he would 

 cut out queen-cells and return them to the hive to 

 hatch, after which they would be placed in nuclei. 

 We regard this as poor advice to be given a be- 

 ginner. Under certain weather conditions, it would 

 be found that the cells would be all torn down at 

 the end of seven or eight days. Even if they were 

 not, just think of all the trouble and confusion that 

 would arise from all these cells maturing at differ- 

 ent times. On the whole, we cannot refrain from 

 the warning that what Mr. Pearce can do, the be- 

 ginner may not and probably will not be able to do. 

 W^e accordingly suggest that students of the book 

 absorb the good in the pamphlet, namely, the idea 

 of having larga colonies with plenty of room and 

 quantities of^tores for winter, and that he discard 

 such suggestions as the giving of four or more 

 supers of foundation the first of May, or the rear- 

 ing of queens by the natural swarming plan. We 

 know a veteran beekeeper who recently commented 

 on the "Pearce New Method," by saying that if a 

 beginner were to ask him about the " method " he 

 would probably reply like this: "Whatever is good 

 is not new ; and whatever is new is not good. 

 Practical beekeepers are generally ready to adopt 

 what is good, but altho Pearce's management has 

 been published several years I don't know of any 

 one who keeps bees on a considerable scale who has 

 adopted it. It may be a good thing for you to let 

 alone, son." (Published by .Joseph A. Pearce Co., 

 Grand Rapids, Mich. Price, $1.00.) 



iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy 



I Cans and Shipping-cases 



I We have a fine stock of 5-gaL cans and shipping-cases; also 

 comb foundation, extractors, honey-tanks, etc. 



fiADE RICTTP 



Quick Shipments. g 



KRETCHMER MFG. CO. Dept. G, Council Bluffs, Iowa | 



iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiii 



