1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



341 



of the largest alfalfa districts on the western 

 slope of the Rockj- Mountains. These colo- 

 nies are in tt-n-frauie (Langstroth size) hives, 

 frames all wired and on full sheets of founda- 

 tion. I prefer the ten-frame- size hive for this 

 location on account of the long and mild 

 winters. F'rost generally comes about the 

 middle of September, which destroys our last 

 flow of hone)'. Then we have nothing until 

 March. During all this time there are few 

 days when the bees do not fly some time dur- 

 ing the dav. About the middle of March the 

 squaw-bush blooms, which grows thick along 

 the banks of the said river, and after that 

 comes the fruit bloom — first the apricot, then 

 the plum, then peach, pear, and apple ; so by 

 the first of June, when the first crop of alfalfa 

 begins to bloom, the bees are generally in 

 pretty good condition to store hon^y. This 

 yard produced last year 160 60 pound cans of 

 extracted honey, and 171 crates of comb hon- 

 ey. I have also two other apiaries, contain- 

 ing 334 colonies — in all, 500 colonies. 



As we women in Colorado enjoy all the 

 rights of voting, from the lowest county offi- 

 cers to the President of the United States, I 

 propose to operate these yards with women 

 help. 



The farmers do not cut their alfalfa as soon 

 here as in some other places, as thev nearly 

 all sell by measurement in the stack for feed- 

 ing cattle ; hence it grows stronger and larger, 

 and, while doing so, naturally blooms longer. 



We also have drawbacks in this part of Col- 

 orado, which I find mostly in freight rates ; 

 but these are not so high as I understand Mr. 

 J. W. Hammersmark says they are, page 46, 

 from the East to Reno, Nevada, or vice versa. 

 At the same time, according to Mr Martin's 

 figures on page 81 it costs i?270 more to ship a 

 car of 30,000 pounds from here to the East 

 than it does from Los Angeles to the East. 

 The freight rate is the same from here on 

 comb honey as on extracted honey; and con- 

 sidering California and Cuba's prospective 

 large crop of extracted honey I shall operate 

 my bees principally for comb honey. 



Delta, Colorado. 



[We admire your spunk and independence. 

 If the right of franchise has this effect on the 

 gentler sex, let's give the women a chance. 

 If the women of the land could vote there 

 would be less of jobbery and wickedness in 

 high places. I'll risk the women every time. 

 —Ed.] 



ROOF APIARIES. 



My Experience in Roof Bee Culture; Rearing 



Queens on a Tin Roof, and their Safe 



Introduction. 



BY C H W. WEBER. 



It is my intention to give my experience in 

 the bee keeping line as few practice it (that is, 

 on a roof), and also a few suggestions which 

 may prove valuable to other bee-keepers who 

 may be in the same kind of boat as I. I have 

 kept bees on a roof in a small way for several 

 years, but not until recently did I find it nec- 



essary to increase my stock and move the 

 same to the roof proper, where I had much 

 more room, and more benefit from our some- 

 times too warm friend old Sol. 



This mode of bee culture has its peculiari- 

 ties, many of which I have already discover- 

 ed, and some not altogether to my liking. I 

 soon discovered, after the weather began to 

 get hot, and combs began to get shaky and 

 tumble down, that some method would have 

 to be resorted to that would shield the hives 

 from the direct rays of the sun, and also from 

 the reflected heat. After some consideration, 

 nothing seemed to possess so many good points 

 as the long-shed arrangement shown in the 

 photograph. This was all right to keep the 

 sun off ; but as the heat was also reflected up 

 from the tin roof I found it necessary to pack 

 all around and under the brood chambers with 

 six inches of chaff, and since that day not a 

 comb has melted down, nor am I troubled in 

 the least from excessive heat. 



Winter also has its drawbacks, and the cold 

 is just as hard to contend with as the heat ; 

 but after having flaps, made of heavy canvas, 

 put on the rear, and the brood chambers still 

 surrounded wiih chaff as in summer, little or 

 no wind can strike the hives directly ; and on 

 the coldest day, if I work my hand down be- 

 tween the hives into the chaff, I always find 

 it nice and warm, and the bees always ready 

 to let me know by their contented hum that 

 they are still very much alive. So much for 

 the protection and shelter. Now let's look at 

 the queen-rearing side of the subject. 



TO RAISE GOOD QUEENS. | 



I have found out as others have before, that 

 the only way to get them is to use extra-strong 

 colonies for this purpose, and I rear all queens 

 in the second story of a double-brood-cham- 

 bered hive, something on the order of Doolit- 

 tle in his book. In the second story I place 

 four frames of well matured brood nearly 

 ready to hatch. Between each two I insert a 

 comb containing some very j oung larvae, and 

 eggs ; then under the whole I place a queen- 

 excluder, and take good care that the queen 

 is on one of the combs below. This puts the 

 bees in the same state as supersedure, and in 

 three or four days one can find queen-cups on 

 the center comb, which the bees have built 

 for the queen to lay in. 



After they are well started I insert on a 

 frame artificial queen- cups previously supplied 

 with a young larva from my choice breeding- 

 queen, and destroy all cells which the bees 

 may have started on the combs. On or about 

 the tenth day I supply myself with a queen- 

 nursery for each cell, and then proceed to sin- 

 gle out the cells which I want to save, by sur- 

 rounding them with one of these little cages 

 which the cells and cell-frames are arranged 

 to take without any trouble. In two or three 

 days I have as nice a lot of virgin queens as 

 any one would wish to look at. They are then 

 introduced into the nuclei, and in another 

 week or ten days they are ready for Uncle 

 Sam's care or to be introduced into their fu- 

 ture homes. 



Before leaving this part of my subject it 



