1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



379 



him, but as llie colleges had not yet 

 awakened very few knew the value 

 of the plant. I told the editor of the 

 Dakota Farmer that I had for him 

 something worth one thousand dol- 

 lars. He said "Go home and write 

 that down and send it to me and I 

 will place it in the center of a page 

 with lines all around it," and he did 

 so. It was, briefly, how a farmer 

 could make one thousand dollars in 

 one year by sowing sweet clover on 

 forty acres of his land, whether he 

 had rain or not. Well, the most of 

 you know what has been done with 

 sweet clover, and if there are any 

 who do not know, I would ask them 

 to send to the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington, and get the 

 Bulletins on Sweet Clover. 



Sweet clover is now considered 

 equal to alfalfa as a forage plant and 

 superior to anything for pasture in a 

 dry season. The seed is selling for as 

 much as alfalfa seed. What is the 

 result of it? There are thousands of 

 swarms of bees commencing to pene- 

 trate this sweet clover region which 

 is rapidly enlarging northwest of 

 Sioux City, Iowa, for 200 miles and 

 will soon cover the States of South 

 and North Dakota, Montana, Wyom- 

 ing and Idaho. In other words, it 

 will cover one million farms of 160 

 acres each. 



I believe that we can produce 100 

 pounds of honey on each of these 

 farms, or 100,000,000 pounds of honey 

 annually in this sweet clover region. 



What else does it mean? It means 

 that every manufacturer of bee sup- 

 plies or every breeder of queens, or 

 dealer in bees, will have a vast outlet 

 for his goods. 



If any of our eastern friends are 

 looking for a location where bees 

 can be made to produce large profits, 

 try anywhere northwest of Sioux 

 City, for 200 miles. We hope that we 

 can make this distance 500 miles be- 

 fore many years. Beekeepers are 

 scarce in this territory, but it seems 



impossible to keep the bees long out 

 of the sweet clover region. Stray 

 swarms are going into houses and 

 chimneys and bo.xcs of all kinds, even 

 mail boxes. We hope to be able to 

 induce young beekeepers to visit 

 this section with a view of settling 

 here. The following is a report of 

 what I have done this year. I have 

 300 pounds of honey and three colo- 

 nies of bees for each colony, spring 

 count, or in other words, 250 pounds 

 of extracted honey and 50 pounds of 

 section honey and 200 per cent in- 

 crease in bees. This honey is of. the 

 very finest quality. 

 Vermillion, S. Dak. 



Wintering in Two-Story Hives 



By Brother Romain. 



I WISH to state my own experience 

 about that new system which is 

 likely to work not a little revolu- 

 tion in beekeeping. This last winter, 

 the most severe we had in a man's 

 life, the thermometer registering 15 

 degrees C, or 6 degrees F., I wintered 

 three colonies in double-story hives, 

 the one below absolutely empty, the 

 upper one thickly covered with news- 

 papers. After every period of cold 

 I examined the bottoms, which are 

 easily pulled out in front after the 

 French system. Well, I had to wit- 

 ness this incredible fact, the one- 

 story hives had their bottoms cov- 

 ered with dead bees — several hun- 

 dred — while the two-story hives had 

 a dozen only, and this every time 

 throughout the winter. 



The "Gleanings" of February had a 

 paragraph telling the advantages of 

 the system. I have added one more 

 proof. Other beemen could perhaps 

 tell more, and the new way of win- 

 tering be generally followed. It 

 would save time, money, bees and 

 trouble. 

 How to explain that difference: 

 !. The bees in the upper story are. 



ot course, in the warm part of the 

 hive. 



2. There is no depcrdition of heal 

 possible, prevented as it is by news- 

 papers and boards. 



3. The bees are quite out of the 

 reach of cold, outside air, the empty 

 story forming a good non-conductor. 



4. The bees can form their group 

 "freely," hanging from the frames, as 

 I could see from underneath, the bot- 

 toms pulled out. 



5. The bees of the outer rim of the 

 cluster can easily crawl in to a 

 warmer place, while they are chilled 

 if forced to pass at the end of the 

 frames to go to the center, and drop 

 on the bottom and die. Many of those 

 inanimate bees come to life again 

 wlicn put in a warm room. I did that 

 several times. 



6. The bees far from the entrance 

 are not easily attracted outside by a 

 bright sun, when the air is still cold 

 enough to chill those who venture 

 out. 



Shanghai. 



UP TO THE LAST YEAR OR TWO. THE SOUTH HAD PAID LITTLE ATTENTION TO 

 SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT OF ITS BEEKEEPING. NOW THE CHANGE IS COMING 

 FAST. W. L. WILDER, ABOVE, IS DELIVERING A LECTURE IN BEEKEEPING IN 

 THE SCHOOLS OF MACON, GEORGIA. 



Drone-Comb Vs. Worker-Comb 



By the Editor. 



WHY do bees at times build a 

 greater proportion of drone- 

 combs? What is the normal 

 proportion of drone-combs built by a 

 natural swarm when left to its own 

 devices. READER. 



The normal proportion of drone- 

 combs built in the brood-chamber by 

 the bees has been variously estimated 

 at from one-eighth to one-twelfth of 

 the total number of cells. Quinby 

 and several other noted writers as- 

 sert that more drone-combs are built 

 when the queen is old, but they do 

 not state the reason. We propose to 

 try to make it clear. 



It is quite certain that the workers, 

 when harvesting honey, which is the 

 natural time for them to build combs, 

 prefer building large cells, such as 

 are suitable to store the crop and in 

 which drones may be reared. There 

 are two reasons for this, less ma- 

 terial required and greater speed in 

 building. 



However, the bees desire to please 

 their queen. When a new swarm is 

 harvested, if the queen be young, she 

 will fill the cells with eggs as fast as 

 the bees build the combs, for a time 

 at least, or until the first eggs laid 

 hatch out of the cells as worker- 

 bees. By that time the greater part 

 of the hive is filled with combs. So 

 the drone-combs are built on the 

 outer edges, often at the bottom of 

 some of the outer combs. 



If the queen be old, her fertility 

 decreased, she may not keep up with 

 the workers. A quantity of comb 

 may be built ahead of her needs. 

 Then the workers will turn their at- 

 tention to the building of storage 

 cells and a large number of drone- 

 cells will be the result. 



It may be readily inferred that, 

 since the eggs that are to batch as 

 workers are fertilized during their 

 passage by the spermatheca, in the 

 oviduct of the queen, a certain 



