266 



August, IHI' 



American ^ee Journal 



cultural College students, specially 

 coached for apiary inspection work 

 has worked well in Ohio and I firmly 

 believe that our County Agricultur- 

 ists, where they have time for the 

 work, can with a short course of 

 training in inspection service, render 

 valuable assistance in the controlling 

 and eradicating of foulbrood. 



Inspection work is largely educa- 

 tional and the police duties of an in- 

 spector need not prove irksome to the 

 County Agriculturists. 



Crop Prospects 



Bees are nearly one month late in 

 storing honey this year. But in spite 

 of the lateness of the season, honey 



is being stored in a good many lo- 

 calities. In the lower Arkansas val- 

 ley the honey flow began about the 

 first of July while in the northern 

 part of the State the honey flow is 

 at least two weeks later. Some honey 

 came from the first crop of alfalfa 

 in the Arkansas valley while none was 

 secured further north and sweet clov- 

 er was very late in getting into full 

 bloom. 



The crop in Colorado and the west 

 will not be uniformly good, but condi- 

 tions probably will be very variable. 

 Good crops will be harvested in some 

 places and poor crops in others. With 

 favorable weather and a fast flow, 

 northern Colorado may have a fair 

 crop but conditions still look very un- 

 favorable at this date, July 14th. 



been disappointing so far, it has not 

 been nearly so bad as last year, so 

 we have at least that much to be 

 thankful for. 



PART OF PICNIC GROUP AT CEDAREDGE, COLO.. JUNE to 

 First field meeting held by Delta County Association 



Conducted by J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



Better Than Last Year 



The season this year seems to be 

 reversed from the usual order. April 

 gave us real summer weather, the 

 temperature for a few days going as 

 high as 8S, while up to date (July 9th) 

 I do not think we have had a single 

 day so hot since that early warm 

 spell. May and Juno were steadily 

 cool and rather dry. As a result, what 

 little clover wo had was very short, 

 and the bees lost many of their field 

 workers during the inclement weath- 

 er of fruit bloom. When clover op- 

 ened, many colonies were short of 

 workers, but had lots of brood aixl 



Two Queens in One Hive 



On page 231, July American Bee 

 Journal I mention having two queens 

 in one hive for five weeks. About a 

 week after that item was written the 

 young queen disappeared and the old 

 one is still on the job. I surmise from 

 this, that the young queen had never 

 been mated, having been reared too 

 early in the season. A surprising fea- 

 ture is that the old queen is doing 

 good work yet even if they tried to 

 supersede her in the early spring 

 months. I shall watch the colony, and 

 if queen is not superseded before fall 

 will take the matter in hand, as she 

 is not likely to be good another season. 

 I have an idea that it happens oftener 

 than we are aware of, that two queens 

 are in the liive at once. About two 

 weeks ago I was requeening some 

 marked colonies, and on examining one 

 that showed unmistakable signs of 

 having a failing queen, a search found 

 the old clipped queen and I dispatched 

 her. As I saw no signs of queen cells 

 I considered the colony safe for in- 

 troducing a young queen, and accord- 

 ingly gave them one at once. Yester- 

 day I was examining all the colonies 

 requeened to see how queens had been 

 accepted, and the colony in question 

 had killed the young Italian given two 

 weeks ago. Eggs and drone larvae 

 were in the combs and I found that 

 like the colony at home yard with two 

 queens, this one also had raised a 

 virgin that had failed to get mated. 

 Of course they killed the young Ital- 

 ian, for, as a rule, so long as they 

 have anything in the hive they recog- 

 nize as a queen, bees are very loath 

 to accept another given them. 



young bees. Naturally surplus from 

 clover is very light here — probably 

 averaging in the neighborhood of 20 

 pounds per colony. Basswood looks 

 well, and localities that have plenty 

 of trees may get some surplus from 

 this source. At our north location 

 we expect better results from clover 

 if we could only have a bit of good 

 weather, as up there earlier rains 

 caused the clover to last longer than 

 here. Soaking rains lately, at all lo- 

 cations, make good prospects for a 

 croi) of late honey in localities that 

 have honey-yielding sources in August 

 and September. While the season has 



Changing Location j 



Someone has said that for commer- ' 

 cial beekeeping, a beekeeper should 

 not tie himself to any particular local- 

 ity, but should have things in shape 

 to move whole outfits easily from 

 time to time as conditions call for. J 

 While many will not agree yet it is a I 

 fact that localities are constantly 

 changing. For instance, when I first 

 started beekeeping, we used to move 

 bees in August some distance north 

 to get buckwheat honey. Now these 

 localities grow little b\ickwheat. At 

 the Cashel apiary where I well remem- 

 ber going one day a few years ago, 

 on a bicycle to see where the bees 

 were getting buckwheat honey — the 

 first ever noticed at that yard, today 

 more buckwheat is sown than at any 

 of our other locations. How long this 

 will last I do not know, but as they 

 grow buckwheat now as a soil clean- 

 er, likely much will be grown for some 

 time to come. Our home district has 

 been one of the pioneer sections for 

 growing alsike for seed, my grand- 

 father being one of the first men in 



