338 



October, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



in every apiary that are almost store- 

 less, especially where they have been 

 supered well. The only safe thing 

 to do is to examine them carefully at 

 this time, looking over each comb. 

 The amount of stores each colony 

 should have for successful wintering 

 depends largely upon how soon the 

 spring How will come next spring. If 

 it is late it will take considerable more. 

 My bees in the huckleberry and titi 

 region consume only a very small 

 amount of stores because the flow is 

 on as soon as there is some let up in 

 the weather in very early spring, while 

 in the gallberry and poplar region, 

 when the flow comes on in the latter 

 part of April, my bees consume more 

 stores. 



To be on the safe side in the first 

 case one average frame of honey to- 

 gether with whatever may be around 

 the brood will be sufficient, and in the 

 latter case two frames of stores will 

 be enough. These frames of stores 

 are best placed on either side of the 

 hive up against the wall, and never in 

 the middle of the brood-nest If the 

 frames of honey are not obtainable we 

 have to resort to the honey stored in 

 the supers, and in this case we leave 

 the supers on over winter, but not 

 more than one to each colony. The 

 oft grades or unfinished sections to the 

 amount of 10 or 15 pounds of honey 

 can be left to them and they will carry 

 it down as they need it during warm 

 spells. Sometimes they carry it down 

 and store it in the empty comb below, 

 if it is uncapped. If they do this by 

 early winter, the supers can be re- 

 moved and stored away for baits next 

 spring. 



It is always better to remove all su- 

 pers at the approach of cold weather, 

 as they are of no service at all if left 

 on, and besides they add a lot of extra 

 space for the bees to keep warm dur- 

 ing cold weather, which indeed is a 

 great tax on them at this critical time. 



The necessary heat of the cluster is 

 maintained at the expense of the stores 

 they have, and successful wintering 

 depends upon the amount of stores. 

 We should be thoughtful of our bees 

 in this struggle to maintain their exis- 

 tence, and do all we can to help them 

 over it. Close clustering quarters and 

 plenty of stores are the main require- 

 ments. 



As for building weak colonies up to 

 stronger ones at this late time, it is 

 difficult, but it is better to do it even 

 now than not at all. Only frames of 

 well sealed brood should be added, one 

 to each nucleus every six or eight 

 days from the strongest colonies. You 

 may find but little brood in colonies 



headed by old queens, and here again 

 is where young queens are needed. If 

 the weak colonies only contain a dou- 

 ble handful of bees each, it would be 

 best to unite two together before start- 

 ing to build them up. This can best 

 be done by the Miller plan, setting one 

 on top of the other with a sheet of 

 newspaper between which the bees will 

 gnaw away and quietly unite. Then 

 the bees can all be placed in one body 

 and the other set of combs placed on 

 a strong colony until settled cold 

 weather when they can be removed 

 and set away for ne.xt season's use, or 

 they can perhaps be best used by re- 

 placing undesirable combs that are in 

 the apiaries. 



Conducted by Wesley Foster, Boulder. Colo. 



Rosinweed Honey 



Bees will not begin working on rosin- 

 weed until sweet clover and alfalfa 

 have largely stopped yielding nectar. 

 Rosinweed is very plentiful this year, 

 and some of our late honey will be yel- 

 lowed considerable by it. 



Photo Plates for Shipping Cases 



Mr. W. P. Collins, of Boulder, pur- 

 chased several thousand used photo- 

 graphic plates, .5x7 inches in size. By 

 using this glass for shipping cases a 

 saving of more than one cent per case 

 was made. The glass is cut in two and 

 then cut to length so that two pieces 

 make one length of about 12 inches in 

 a double tier case. This photographic 



glass is clean, and none of the lights 

 are too thick for the groove, as is often 

 the case with so much glass cut to 

 order. The photo glass is cleaned with 

 lye, and a large quantity can be cleaned 

 by filling the cleaning vat, using coarse 

 sand between each layer of glass so 

 that the lye water can reach the entire 

 surface of all the glass. 



Value of Sweet Clover 



I notice that Mr. R. A. Morgan, of 

 South Dakota, is quoted in " The South- 

 west Trail," official publication of the 

 Rock Island railroad, as saying that 

 sweet clover is worth $25 an acre for 

 honey, and that he would pay that 

 much rental for sweet clover acreage 

 within a short distance of his apiary. If 

 Mr. Morgan is correctly quoted, I fear 

 he is valuing sweet clover rather high. 

 Some seasons, sweet clover might be 

 worth $25 an acre, but I think Mr. 

 Coverdale's estimate of $4.00 an acre is 

 nearer correct. 



If Mr. Morgan would contract for 

 two or three hundred acres of sweet 

 clover for a term of several years some 

 one could make a small fortune renting 

 him bee pasturage. I saw hundreds of 

 acres of sweet clover, this year in Colo- 

 rado, that was not worth 50 cents an 

 acre for bees on account of poor 

 weather conditions. 



TUPELO GUM AS SEKN ALONCJ DIXIE STKKAMS 



The Boulder County Fair 



The Boulder County Fair held at 

 Longmont Sept. 7 to 11, was a success 

 in may ways. It was the opening sea- 

 son, and the grounds and buildings are 

 all new. The main exhibit building is 

 the finest one in the State outside of 

 the State Fair, and I do not doubt it 

 has no equal there. The bee and honey 

 exhibit was creditable, although there 

 was only about $25 in premiums offered. 

 Prof. D. W. Spangler had charge, and 

 Mr. J. C. Aikin, of Loveland, was judge. 



The premiums were awarded as fol- 

 lows: General display of honey, bees 

 and apiarian products, S. Francis ; best 

 six cases of comb honey, Milton Can- 



