May, 1916. 



American Hev Journal 



MiSCELUNEOUS ^ NEWS ITEMS 



IsIe-oI-Wight Disease Still Rampant 

 in England. — My bees are gone with 

 " Isle-of-Wight" disease. I lost them 

 all in 1914, but I had a good colony 

 given me last March ; it did not live 

 very long. I finished it off just as it 

 was, honey, brood, and cheese-box in a 

 bonfire. In May I had two stray 

 swarms come to me. The first, a very 

 large swarm, was hived in a Royal 

 Notts hive that had not had bees in for 

 some years. It started well, and in 14 

 days I put a super of sections on, but 

 the bees never occupied them, and soon 

 showed signs of '' Isle of-Wight " dis- 

 ease. The wasps finished them ofif. 

 The other, a small colony, was put into 

 a hive that was burnt out with a paint- 

 er's lamp, and had everything new in 

 the interior, but it never strengthened 

 as it ought to have done (the weather 

 was wet). When I went back to pack 

 it up there was plenty of honey, a lot 

 of brood, but only a few bees, so I ex- 

 pect it will go this winter. 



There were four other swarms that 

 came to the village, but they are all 

 dead. Where all the bees come from I 

 cannot make out, as we have heard of 

 several other swarms going over, and 

 there are scarcely any bees left in the 

 neighborhood. — John R. Truss, UfTord, 

 Stamford, England. — Brilish Bee Jour- 

 nal, Jan. 20. 



^ 



Siberian Beekeeping. — Interesting 

 statistics are translated for us from the 

 Russian Beekeepers' Review, by Mr. 

 P. SchafiEhauser, of Havelock, N. C, 

 concerning bees in the province of 

 Sudzenskoye, Government of Tomsk, 

 Western Siberia. There are in that 

 province 1388 apiaries with 42,507 colo- 

 nies of which 23,675 are movable-frame 

 hives and 18,832 log-hivt-s. The product 

 in 1913 was 99,484 rubles ($51,234). 

 Three different styles of modern hives 

 are in use, the Dadant large hive, the 

 Dalinov and the Root, with crop re- 

 sults very much in favor of the first 

 mentioned. 



The proportion of colonies to the 

 population is only 25.4 per 100 inhabi- 

 tants. Siberia, which most of us have 

 been taught to consider a cold, inhos- 

 pitable and unproductive country is 

 reported to be able to sustain, in some 

 places, more than ten times the number 

 of colonies now existing there. 



Annual Meeting of the Colorado Honey 

 Producers' Association. — The annual 

 meeting of the Colorado Honey Pro- 

 ducers' Association was held in Denver 

 Dec. 27-28, 1915. 



The demonstraions took place at the 

 warerooms of the association. The 

 most important demonstration was the 

 grading and packing of comb honey, 

 and also the way shipping cases should 

 be nailed up and the edges planed off 

 80 that cars of honey can be easily 

 and well loaded. 



Samples of comb affected with Ameri- 

 can and European foulbrood were ex- 



hibited by the writer, and a short tal'- 

 given on the European foulbrood sit- 

 uation. Mr. N. L. Henthorne made a 

 motion that the members be cautioned 

 against bringing in or shipping in bees 

 or queens from localities outside of 

 the State to prevent the spread of bee- 

 diseases. 



The motion was carried. 



The outdoor wintering of bees was 

 pretty thoroughly thrashed over, and 

 the most of those present thought that, 

 all things considered, wintering on the 

 summer stands is the best for the arid 

 regions. The sense of the meeting was 

 that Dr. E. F. Phillips was too broad 

 in some of his statements in the bulle- 

 .tin on the outdoor wintering of bees. 



It was stated by several that chaff 

 hives were very poor for wintering 

 bees, some losing half to all of their 

 colonies so housed. 



Some admitted that better wintering 

 might result from packing in outer 

 cases, but the gain would not pay for 

 the expense. 



It was brought out by Mr. Herman 

 Rauchfuss that we lose many of our 

 strongest colonies by starvation each 

 year as it is those colonies that store 

 the most surplus honey and breed up 

 the best in the fall that are short of 

 honey in the winter. Mr. Rauchfuss 

 practices placing upon these colonies 

 his weak and queenless colonies that 

 are heavy with honey. 



Oliver Foster tried about every 

 method known to beekeepers, and his 

 least loss came when he quit giving 

 protection and requeened his colonies 

 with young queens of his own rearing 

 in July and August. Two different 

 years he wintered an apiary of Cau- 

 casians of more than 100 colonies on 

 the summer stands in 8 frame, single- 

 walled hives and flat wood covers with- 

 out the loss of a single colony. This 

 was at a time when he was operating 

 over 400 colonies, with hired help. 

 These bees were not pampered or given 

 any special attention. 



The usefulness of the association to 

 its members was brought out by Mr. 

 Frank Rauchfuss, the manager. He 

 told of the facilities for combining in 

 the purchase of apples, pears, produce, 

 etc. Many members were not availing 

 themselves of the opportunity to secure 

 many articles at wholesale through the 

 association. The association's help in 

 the sale of bees, securing beekeeping 

 labor, transfer of stock and beekeeping 

 exchanges, was discussed, and the fea- 

 sibility of issuing a monthly sale and 

 exchange list. 



The evening of Dec. 27, the associa- 

 tion served a supper to the members 

 present, 31 being in attendance. After 

 the supper, the question of honey pro- 

 duction in outyards was taken up, and 

 the writer was asked by the president, 

 Mr. George Miller, to begin the discus- 

 sion. The importance of some plan or 

 system was emphasized. It is impossi- 

 ble to follow in detail one's plans for 

 the reason that no two seasons are 



alike, but if one can come close to 

 working one outapiary a day, then five 

 or six outyards may be worked each 

 week, with an extra day or two to go 

 on if one gets behind or bad weather 

 intervenes. 



Mr. M. W. Harvey, formerly of Mon- 

 trose, Colo., now of Nevada, follows 

 the plan of having a honey-house at 

 each outyard and storing all supers, 

 sections, etc , at each yard. The plan 

 followed by most beekeepers entails the 

 hauling of supers to the outyards and 

 back each year, as the honey is packed 

 and stored at the home honey house. 



On account of the frequency of bee- 

 keepers having to move their bees, not 

 very many use honey-houses at the 

 outyards. 



Mr. Herman Rauchfuss pointed out 

 that no plan one could make in advance 

 will work in practice. Weather condi- 

 tions are too disturbing. 



The morning session, Tuesday, Dec. 

 28, was the business session. The presi- 

 dent, George Miller, read his address, 

 pointing out the main features of the 

 year's business. 



Mr. Frank Rauchfuss gave the secre- 

 tary and treasurer's report, which im- 

 parted the information that the finan- 

 cial affairs of the association were in a 

 very satisfactory condition. 



It was gratifying to learn that the 

 commission required to sell the mem- 

 bers' honey was but about 1'4 percent, 

 3;'4 percent being rebated back to the 

 members. 



The election of a board of directors 

 resulted as follows : President, George 

 Miller ; vice-president, Fred Wick ; sec- 

 retary and manager, Frank Rauchfuss; 

 treasurer, Harry Crawford ; directors, 

 Herman Rauchfuss, A. Elliott, Fred 

 Stone. 



The afternoon session was probably 

 the most important. A committee was 

 appointed to secure legislation on the 

 matter of stealing honey and molesting 

 apiaries. This Legislative and Protec- 

 tive Committee consists of Herman 

 Rauchfuss, Wesley Foster, B. F. Hast- 

 ings. A fund of $18 was contributed 

 by members, and this is just a starter, 

 as the committee plans assessing all 

 members who comply with the provis- 

 ions up to 5 cents a colony to create a 

 fund sufficient to prosecute cases of 

 tampering with bees and stealing honey. 



The members voted to accept the in- 

 vitation of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Linden- 

 meier, Jr., of Fort Collins, to hold the 

 next summer field meeting at their 

 park — Lindenmeier Lake. This is a 

 beautiful spot on the edge of Fort Col- 

 lins, and is reached by good roads 

 from all points in northern Colorado. 



Boulder, Colo. Wesley Foster. 



Queen-Rearing at Wisconsin Agricul- 

 tural College A very interesting paper 



read at the Wisconsin meeting last 

 winter was the report on the rearing of 

 queens at the college, which was in 

 charge of Mr. C. W. Aeppler. 



The proposition of furnishing queens 

 to beekeepers for 50 cents each was 

 tried for the first time last season. 

 There were handicaps which kept the 

 venture from being the great success 

 it might have been. Two of these were 

 lack of funds and supplies to work 

 with, and bad weather conditions dur- 

 ing the mating season. In spite of 



