\ugust, 191.'i. 



American Vae Journal 



ture in Agricultural Colleges, or are 

 likely to take up that work in the 

 near future is being arranged to tie 

 held in conjunction with the meeting 

 of the Association of Economic En- 



tomologists at Columbus, Ohio, next 

 Christmas. The purpose o£ this con- 

 ference will be to develop and stand- 

 ardize methods of conducting this par- 

 ticular line of work. 



Bee-Keeping <^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Marengo. 111. 



Our Apiary During the Spring of 1915 



It may be of some interest to the 

 sisters, especially the beginners, to 

 have some items concerning our api- 

 ary. Those who are not beginners 

 may be interested in some things a 

 little out of the usual. Certainly the 

 weather has been, not only a little. 

 but a good deal, out of the usual. And 

 weather means much to the bees. 



The fall of 1914 was warm, and the 

 bees were taken into the cellar Dec. 

 8, although generally they are cel- 

 lared in November. Two men took 

 less than 3 hours to carry the 101 

 in. The blooming of the red or soft 

 maple is usually the signal for taking 

 bees out of cellar. This spring a few 

 blossoms were out March 25, when it 

 immediately turned cold, and they did 

 not come out till April 6, making 119 

 days confinement. A few dandelions 

 appeared 4 days later. 



The colonies were strong, and by 

 April 30, with a little equalizing, each 

 colony had at least 4 frames of brood. 

 Many had 6 or 7. That's better than 

 usual. By that time, either on acount 

 of queenlessness, or for some other 

 reason, the 100 had been reduced to 

 92. 



The last week in April was more 

 like June, the thermometer daily 

 standing at 80 to 86. Then it turned 

 the other way, being cold and wet. .".nd 

 by the time June came it was more 

 like April. 



After the equalizing, which had less 

 work than usual, the bees received 

 very little attention. Dr. Miller had 

 made up his mind in the winter that 

 no matter what the season, we would 

 not try to see how much honey we 

 could get, but how little work we could 

 do. And he stubbornly stuck to it. 



May 11 an upper story with three or 

 four empty combs was put on each 

 hive. That served as a sort of safety- 

 valve; if the bees needed room for 

 either brood or honey they could go 

 up stairs; if they didn't need it they 

 could lot it alone. They lot it alono. 

 It wasn't the best thing, for it left 

 a great si)ace overhead for the bees to 

 keep warm. It would have been bet- 

 ter to have put the empty combs be- 

 low; but it made less work to put 

 them above, and so that was done. 



May 27 the first blossom was seen 

 on white clover and also on alsike. 

 The rule is that storing on white clov- 



er begins 10 days after the first blos- 

 som, so supers were put on. In a few 

 cases a little honey was in these 

 combs, but in no case was there any 

 brood. The strange thing about it was 

 that where a little bit of honey was 

 stored in these upper combs, no honey 

 was found in the brood-chamber, dis- 

 proving the theory that bees always 

 fill any vacant space in the lower story 

 before storing above. But tliere is a 

 difference between drawn combs and 

 foundation, and like enough bees al- 

 ways fill the brood-chamber before 

 beginning in the super if the super 

 contains only foundation. 



But although clover bloom was 

 abundant, the prevalence of bad 

 weather awakened the suspicion that 

 instead of storing in supers the bees 

 might not be gathering enough for 

 their daily needs. A look into a tew 

 hives confirmed the suspicion. Brood- 

 chambers were absolutely destitute of 

 honey. There was the possibility — • 

 indeed the hope — that a change would 

 take place within 24 hours, but in less 

 time than that the bees might begin 

 eating brood, so they must be fed at 



once, at least a little. So we poured 

 upon the tops of the sections as much 

 heavy syrup as we could without hav- 

 ing it run out of the hives. A slouchy 

 way, to be sure, with the chance that 

 it might need repeating in 48 hours; 

 but we did what required least work, 

 and took the chances. 



June 21 the bees appeared to be 

 working with frantic eagerness. There 

 was abundance of white clover, and 

 examination showed that bees were al- 

 so working quite plentifully on alfal- 

 fa. Never before had the like been 

 seen. Generally not a bee is found on 

 it, and never more than a very few. 

 No telling why it was so different this 

 year. It may be here explained that 

 the time for cutting -alfalfa is when 

 the new growth is started at the bot- 

 tom an inch or two. without regard 

 to whether bloom is just beginning or 

 is well started. But the weather had 

 hindered the cutting, and when 

 June 21 brought a bright day the 

 mowers started on the alfalfa. On 

 no day since then have the bees 

 seemed to work so hard, although one 

 cannot definitely measure the activity 

 of the bees, and "things are not what 

 they seem" in all cases. 



Considering the character of the 

 weather it hardly seemed the bees 

 should think of swarming, and yet 

 two of the neighbors had swarms. So. 

 June 21 and 22 we went through the 

 hives looking for queen-cells. A few 

 were found and destroyed. Conditions 

 in the hives were out of the usual. 

 A few colonies had only eggs and 

 sealed brood, showing that for a time 

 the queen had stopped laying. Of 

 course that was a loss. But in most 

 cases the frames were fuller of brood 

 than usual. Indeed it was a remark- 

 able sight. Brood extended clear to 

 the topbar and to the bottom-bar and 



The ladies who assured llie success of the Cid.n .dk-c beekeepers field meeiiiii; and picnic: 



I. Mrs. Parker cares for 6S colonies. 2. Miss Julia Schraft owns and cares for 65 



colonies. 5. Mrs. J. G. Jewel. 6. Mrs. W. S. Picket. 7. Mrs. Geo. Eckert. 



