1917 



AMERICAN BFF, JOURNAL 



167 



through the big building I was at- 

 tracted to the honey exhibit, whicii 

 was very nicely arranged. There 

 was a constant stream of visitors to 

 the honey booth, many of whom 

 bought honey to carry away with 

 them, and many others left orders for 

 later delivery. Since there was no 

 other exhibit of bees and honey, 

 most of the visitors to the show 

 stopped to take a look. By sucU 

 means a retail trade for a large 

 amount of honey is establishe.l. 

 which adds a substantial sum to the 

 income from the apiaries. 

 ♦-•-» 



Alsike Clover as a Honey 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Mareneo. Ill 



Queen-Rearing 



Plant 



BY C. H. PAMMEL. 



AT the recent meeting of the Iowa 

 beekeepers in Des Moines, the 

 writer made the statement that 

 alsike clover was somewhat overesti- 

 mated as a honey plant, at least so far 

 as Iowa was concerned. It is not an 

 important honey forage plant in Iowa. 

 The acreage is relatively small. There 

 are a great many spontaneous plants of 

 it in Iowa, however. But there are 

 much larger areas in Wisconsin, where 

 the soil and climate are adapted to it. 

 It is also perhaps a much more impor- 

 tant honey plant in that region than 

 with us. After my return home I 

 looked up our records on its value as 

 a honey plant. I find that it is not vis- 

 ited as frequently as sweet or white 

 clover. The following field notes were 

 made by Dr. L. A. Kenoyer. These 

 notes will be of interest in view of the 

 discussion in Des Moines: 



I want to know the best method of 

 rearing queens for my own use. I live 

 on the farm. I have had some experi- 

 ence with bees, but have never had any 

 with queen-rearing. 



I have five colonies in 10-frame hives, 

 two in eight, and three in log hives. I 

 want to transfer my bees in log hives 

 and requeen them. My bees in the hives 

 are 3-banded Italians, and those in the 

 log hives are blacks. I left on a super 

 full of honeydew and amber mixed. 

 They had some honey in the brood- 

 chamber, but I do not know whether 

 they had enough to winter on. Did I 

 do right? 



[Mrs.] W. B. Robinson, Sr. 

 Defeated, Tenn. 



So much depends upon the queen 

 that it pays well to take a great deal of 

 pains to rear the very best. At least up 

 to the time when a queen-cell is sealed 

 it should be in a strong colony, and the 

 colony should be in the pink of condi- 

 tion, with abundance of honey coming 

 in, so that the royal larvae shall be lav- 

 ishly fed. Don't try to rear queens too 

 early. They are likely to be poor. 

 Wait until the time when bees swarm 

 naturally. Indeed, one of the best ways 

 is to use what are called swarming- 



TRIFOLIUM HYBRIDUM— ALSIKE CLOVER. 



Date 

 6^16^14 



6-17 

 6-18 



6-19 



Place 

 Campus 



Street 



1915 Campus 



Weather 

 Clear, cool SE 



" warm 70deg. 



Cloudy, cool N 



Moderate, S 



\ Cool, wet I 

 / summer ( 



Hon;y bees 

 \ Fewer than ( 

 ( on white ^i 

 Many 



\ A few after 



Other insects Observer 

 Numerous Fazier 



/ 7 :30 

 None 



Plentiful 



f 



Bees rarely i 

 observed 

 alsike 1 



Andrena 

 plentiful 



Munger 



Kenoyer 



on 



Although our observations indicate 

 that alsike is less visited by bees than 

 is white clover, its corollas are but 

 slightly inferiortothoseof white clover 

 in the amount of sugar contained. 



The insect visitors are very similar in 

 kind to those of white clover, flies and 

 hemiptera being frequent. 



Alsike differs from white clover in 

 having ascending rather than prostrate 

 stems, and in the generally more de- 

 cided pink tint of the flowers which 

 may be distinguished also by the ab- 

 sence of the purple spots at the sinuses 

 of the calyx — these spots being charac- 

 teristic of white clover. 



Ames, Iowa. 



lAlsike clover is found quite fre- 

 quently growing in pastures in the East, 

 New York and New England. It has 

 become a volunteer there as white 

 clover is with us. The beekeepers of 

 the East and Canada secure much 

 honey from it. — Editor.] 



cells, that is the cells that are reared 

 for swarming. 



Decide which you think is your best 

 queen, or at least one of the best, and 

 and if its colony is not likely to swarm 

 among the earliest, strengthen the col- 

 ony by giving it brood and bees from 

 other colonies. Then as soon as it 

 swarms and you have hived the swarm 

 you can divide into nuclei the brood 

 and bees that are left in the old hive, 

 giving each nucleus two or three frames 

 of brood with adhering bees. Make 

 sure that each nucleus has at least one 

 queen-cell in the central part between 

 the frames where there is no possible 

 chance that it may be chilled. Gener- 

 erally you will find queen-cells on the 

 edges of combs, but for your purpose 

 that is not so welL If there is no cell 

 where you want it, cut one out and put 

 it there, giving preference to the larger 

 cells and those with the deepest inden- 

 tations. Fasten the cell on the comb 

 with a hive-staple, or any staple with 



legs IK inches or so apart. Let one 

 leg of the staple hug down upon the 

 cell, and push the other end into the 

 comb. In about two weeks look in 

 your nucleus, and if all is going well you 

 ought to find a young queen laying. 



It was all right for the bees to have 

 the honey left for them, except that in 

 some cas-s, if not generally, honeydew 

 is not the best for winter stores. But 

 if the honey was in sections, although 

 good for the bees the sections would 

 not be good to use again. 



A Beginner 



Will you please give me some infor- 

 mation on how to care for bees. I 

 want to know enough to keep them. 



Gravity, Iowa. Ethel V. Ray. 



The care of bees is the same whether 

 you desire to produce honey for mar- 

 ket or for your own use, just as you 

 would raise potatoes the same way 

 whether you intend to eat them or sell 

 them. 



It is an impossibility in a single reply 

 to tell all about the care of bees. There 

 are, however, good books written pur- 

 posely to give the instruction you de- 

 sire, such as "Dadant's Langstrot^ " 

 and Root's "ABC and X Y Z." 



Perhaps you can hardly do better 

 than to send $1.75 to Dadant & Sons, 

 Hamilton, 111., to get the American 

 Bee Journal for a year and with it Dr. 

 Miller's "Thousand Answers." This 

 book contains the cream of the replies 

 given by Dr. C. C. Miller during many 

 years to all sorts of questions about 

 bees, questions asked largely by begin- 

 ners, yet many by those with experi- 

 ence, so that you will hardly fail to find 

 in it the answer to any question that 

 may come up in your work. 



You may, however, not think it worth 

 while to go to even that much expense. 

 Well, then, about as soon as you see 

 the first clover blossom, seeing you are 

 in a white-clover region, put some kind 

 of a box on your hive to contain the 

 surplus honey; be on the lookout for 

 swarms so as to hive them, take off the 

 box as soon as the honey in it is sealed, 

 and put on another box, and as soon 

 as the bees stop gathering in the fall 

 take off all boxes. 



That is exceedingly meager and un- 

 satisfactory, and it would still be mea- 

 ger and unsatisfactory if another page 

 were added to it, or even a dozen 

 pages. On the whole, the likelihood is 

 that if you should make the small out- 

 lay suggested you might more than get 

 it back in a single season with a single 

 colony. 



A Unique Institution 



The School of Horticulture for 

 Women, located at Ambler, Penn., is 

 unlike any other institution in this 

 country. A two-year course is offered 

 and all students entering are required 



