March, 1915. 



American Hee Joornal 



Minnesota's Surprise 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



MINNESOTA is not in the habit of 

 doing things by halves. She 

 boasts of her leadership, and, as 

 a rule, she has good reason to do so. 

 Two years ago when the committee 

 representing the beekeepers' associa- 

 tion asked the university officials that 

 beekeeping be given some recognition 

 in the university, they were informed 

 that there was no demand. The presi- 

 dent of the association, Mr. P. J. Doll, 

 and the secretary. Dr. L. D. Leonard, 

 togeiher with some others of the more 

 active members went directly to the 

 legislature, asking for the same recog- 

 nition given to the poultry, dairy and 

 other farm industrie<. The legislature 

 was convinced and the department es- 

 tablished. However, the readers of 

 this paper already know about the de- 

 partment of beekeeping in Minnesota. 



The thing I started to tell about is 

 the short course held at that institution 

 in January. It was my good fortune 

 to be present for two days, and to say 

 that I was surprised at the interest is 

 putting it mildly In all departments 

 there were about 400 students in at- 

 tendance at the short course. Of these 

 78 registered for the course in bee- 

 keeping, and at some of the classes 

 nearly 100 were in attendance. It was 

 talked of everywhere as a matter of 

 great surprise that the class in bee- 

 keeping should be larger than any 

 other in the whole bunch. 



While dairying, poultry keeping and 

 other lines have been established for 

 many years and are generally recog- 

 nized as important industries in the 

 State, the beekeeping department was 

 not yet established two years ago. 

 Prof. Jager was kept very busy with 

 his classes, some days putting in eight 

 hours of continuous lecturing, with a 

 short interim for dinner at noon. The 

 fun of it is that the local demand for 

 honey seems to be greatly increased 

 because of the publicity the increasing 

 interest gives, and the local associa- 



INSIDE CORNER OF .STRITTMATTER'S HOUSE APIARY SHOWING HIVE 



ARRANGEMENT 



tion finds it necessary to buy quantities 

 of western honey to supplement its 

 own crop. 

 Atlantic, Iowa. 



House Apiaries 



BY F. J. STRITTMATTER. 



A NUMBER of enquiries having been 

 sent concerning the Strittmatter 

 house apiaries, described with 

 cuts in the November number, Mr. 

 Strittmatter replies as follows: 



We have had a number of enquiries 

 as to the details of construction of our 

 house apiaries, and find it impossible 

 to give full answers for lack of time, 

 as we are very busy with our honey 

 marketing in winter and with the bees 

 in summer. However, this will cover 

 about all the questions sent in to date. 



In regard to swarming, we run our 

 bees at our out-apiaries for extracted 

 honey, and have no swarming unless 



ART OK THOSE IN AiTENDANCK AT 

 AT THE UNIVERSI 



THE SHORT COURSE IN BEEKEEPING 

 rV OK MINNESOTA 



we neglect to give plenty of room. At 

 the home apiary we run a part of the 

 colonies for comb honey, and have an 

 occasional swarm, but so far have not 

 had as many swarms in the house api- 

 ary as we had outside. We hive the 

 swarms either by the returning plan, 

 by exchanging the frames while the 

 swarm is out, or hive it in a single- 

 walled hive, and as soon as the bees 

 are in the hive place it over the hive in 

 the building where we wish to have it 

 stay, and later exchange the frames, 

 putting the swarm down, or it may go 

 down itself. We have not had over 10 

 percent of the comb-honey colonies 

 swarm from the house apiary. We 

 certainly like the house apiaries better 

 every year, either for comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. 



We have not had much trouble with 

 young queens entering wrong hives, 

 but we usually try to have queens 

 mated in corner hives. The most we 

 have in one row is 15 hives, on the 

 long side of our home apiary, and with 

 four colors of paint the bees have no 

 more trouble getting to the right place 

 than by the usual method outside. We 

 leave the packing around the hives all 

 the time. In fact, it is built solid. We 

 use sealed covers in winter with about 

 5 inches of sawdust on top, and in 

 spring we use home-made quilts made 

 of cotton or rags about three-fourths 

 inch thick. These we keep on the 

 sawdust in winter, too, as we have no 

 other use for them then. We use an 

 entrance about Hi inches long by a 

 scant three-eighths high, and a heavy 

 strand of wire tacked on the upper side 

 to be sure it is mouse proof. An open- 

 ing about 4 inches high, from the hive 

 proper, out through the wall of the 

 building, is left open in summer, and 

 in winter we have a sort of storm 

 board we drop down in front, with an 

 entrance about 3 inches long by three- 

 eighths inch high left in bottom. 



We use hemlock boards to make the 

 hives in the building, having them 

 surfaced off. The offset where we nail 

 on the tin rabbets for frames to hang 

 on is provided by having the side- 

 boards and end boards of hives seven- 

 eighths inch lower than the hive is to 

 be. The board lying flat over the saw- 



