502 



week. Those Monday and Tuesday nights 

 were so severe that ice formed on a tub of 

 water by the pump at our house. Another 

 on Wednesday evening was not so severe. 

 We also had two frosts last week. I do not 

 know whether clover has been injured. It 

 appears to me that vegetation must have 

 suffered. I remember that, some years ago, 

 after a frost somewhat similar, the farmers 

 did not think frost had injured clover. 

 Later it did not yield much honey, and when 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the farmers came to cut the clover the 

 weight secured from the fields was a great 

 disappointment to them. Time will tell. 



I have a letter from a beekeeper in the 

 Maritime provinces telling me that their bees 

 had not been able to fly more than ten days 

 since they had been placed on their summer 

 stands. We have found it an advantage to 

 give a five-pound jar of syrup to each colo- 

 ny- 



Brantford, Canada, May 27. 



BEAR CREEK APIARY 



BY E. R. ROOT 



One afternoon when I was in attendance 

 at the convention at Denver, Feb. 16 to 18, 

 I took a drive out with Herman Rauchfuss, 

 with several others, in his auto, out to the 

 foot-hills of the Rockies, in the immediate 

 vicinity of Denver. Not far from those 

 foot-hills Mr. Rauchfuss has one of his out- 

 yards called the Bear Creek apiary. This 

 contains 228 colonies of bees, and is arrang- 

 ed in rows in the manner shown. It is a 

 neat, well-kept yard. I stopped long enough 

 to take a snapshot, and here it is. The bees 

 have a range of alfalfa and other mountain 

 plants in the vicinity. The territory around 

 here is not overstocked, says Mr. Rauchfuss, 

 and there are other good locations where 

 there are practically no bees. 



I would hardly dare to make this state- 

 ment that there is room for more bees here, 

 as most good localities are already over- 

 stocked ; but Mr. Rauchfuss is acknowledg- 

 ed to be one of the best beekeepers in 

 Colorado. It is evident he knows this par- 

 ticular locality, and whether it will support 

 any more bees. His attitude toward possible 

 competitors is as generous as it is liberal. 

 He did say, however, that one beekeeper had 

 been there and " had gone, thank fortune." 

 If that man ever came back there again he 



would — well — er, it wouldn't do to say what 

 he said — not that it was not printable, for 

 it was; but it is not wise to say everything 

 you know. 



The Bear Creek apiary at the time of our 

 visit was wintering nicely as far as could 

 be seen; but the thing that interested me 

 particularly was the fact that there were a 

 large number of Caucasians; Mr. Rauchfuss 

 said, contrary to our experience here at 

 Medina, that this strain had given him no 

 more trouble in regard to swarming than 

 Italians. They were earlier to breed up, 

 and, in fact, for all-around bees he liked 

 them. 



The drive in and around Denver among 

 the foot-hills is interesting. On the occa- 

 sion mentioned we went clear up into the 

 hill country; and when I say hill country 

 they are some hills all right. The elevation 

 of this yard must have been considerably 

 over 5000 feet, as we were constantly going 

 up, up, up, all the time after we left Den- 

 ver ; but the little machine was equal to the 

 occasion, and for all-around beework there 

 is hardly anything better than a light car. 

 It costs less to operate it per mile than any 

 heavv machine. 



BITTERWEED FATAL FOR WINTER STORES 



BY S. A. FULLER 



I have lost more bees this season than 

 ever before. My colonies were never so 

 strong in bees and stores in the fall. We 

 had an early cold spell. When it warmed 

 up, dead bees wore hauled out by the thou- 

 sand, and it has continued until now. Some 

 strong colonies died out entirely, leaving 

 quite an amount of stores. In all, up to 

 date, I have lost 14 colonies out of 175, and 



many are now very weak. I have never had 

 such an experience, and do not know what 

 to make of it. Our fruit-trees (peaches and 

 plums) are just now in bloom, a month late. 

 We have had cold freezing weather with 

 snow up to this date. To-day is the first 

 real spring day. 



Later. — I had no aster honey last fall, but 

 did have 1000 lbs. of bitterweed (yellow 



