GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1919 



got out all right, but so did the honey- What 

 was the matter?" 



"I have a good colony of bees, but it's 

 all wormy — hundreds of little white worms 

 curled up in the bottoms of the cells. How 

 can I kill them?" 



' ' There is something about supplies as 

 listed in bee-supply catalogs that I cannot, 

 as yet, make out. It is 1 NP, 1 KD, and 5 

 KD. As 1 KD is always cheaper than 

 1 NP, I guess that it is of inferior quality. 

 Am I in the right?" 



"Could I winter my bees in a beehive my 

 father made? It is big enough to hold eleven 

 bees." 



"Gleanings says, to prevent swarming, 

 empty supers should be kept above the 

 brood-chamber. I tried this, but the bees 

 put honey in them every time. What shall 

 I do? I am trying burlap between supers 

 and brood-chambers now. Maybe this will 

 work better. ' ' 



Now we hope to be forgiven for smiling 

 over a few of these, when we frankly admit 

 that if we were to change occupations with 

 the writers of these same letters, we know 

 our questions would be quite as unusual 

 as these mentioned. We will go further 

 than this and say that in the same letter 

 that rouses our mirth and from the same 

 beginner who claims to know nothing about 

 bees, we sometimes learn something decided- 

 ly worth wliile. His brand-new, unusual 

 way of looking at an old truth sometimes 

 throws an entirelj^ new light upon it. Be- 

 cause of the assistance we are able to give, 

 and also because of the help we ourselves 

 receive, we sincerely welcome all letters of 

 inquiry. 



Arrange for Purchase of Bees. 



After fully deciding on entering beekeep- 

 ing, about the first step should be to make 

 some definite arrangement for purchasing 

 bees, to be delivered at the coming of set- 

 tled warm weather, for one would hardly 

 care to invest in beekeeping supplies before 

 making certain the bees would be available 

 at the desired time. 



The very best waj' to get bees is to pur- 

 chase them from a reliable bee-breeder or 

 from some beekeeper near home, and to 

 buy entire colonies in good standard hives. 



If such are not obtainable, good colonies 

 in dilapidated or poorly constructed hives 

 may sometimes be purchased at a very low 

 price from farmers in the vicinity. This 

 would be a good proposition for an experi- 

 enced beekeeper, but might prove rather 

 troublesome for a beginiaer, since the bees 

 would have to be transferred, that is, taken 

 out of the old hive and placed in a new 

 one some time during fruit bloom, which 

 process will be described in a later issue- 

 Again, one may oftentimes secure the very 

 best of colonies at a low price by leaving 

 hives containing necessary fixtures with 

 some farmer-beekeeper, with the under- 

 standing that whenever the bees swarm, 

 the farmer will hive such swarms in these 

 hives and keep them for the beginner until 



he finds time to take them home- Yet in 

 this case the farmer 's colonies might not 

 swarm early enough, and the beginner, 

 therefore, not obtain his bees soon enough 

 to start beekeeping at the first of the season. 



However the bees are purchased, it is well 

 to have them first inspected by a good bee- 

 keeper, in order to be certain the colonies 

 are strong, in good condition, and not dis- 

 eased. 



Besides buying entire colonies it is also 

 possible to purchase nuclei (small colonies) 

 on combs, but, on account of the danger of 

 such combs being infected with disease 

 germs, we consider it a safer investment to 

 buy bees in combless packages, which may 

 now be sent by express or parcel post. 

 When buying nuclei a queen should be pur- 

 chased with each and introduced (that is, 

 put with the bees) according to the direc- 

 tions which accompany her. Directions also 

 accompany ea- h nucleus, explaining just 

 liow the isees may be moved from the box 

 to their new hive, and how fed until they 

 build up into a good colony, which a two- 

 or three-pound package would probably do 

 in six or eight weeks. If a nucleus is pur- 

 chased after the first main honey flow, they 

 may, by feeding, be built up into good colo- 

 nies by fall; but, unless there should be an 

 unusually good fall flow, they would not be 

 apt to store much surplus honey (honey in 

 excess of their winter needs). 



Unless one could obtain one entire colony 

 having a number of frames of brood (un- 

 hatched bees), so that one frame of brood 

 could be given each nucleus, we would hard- 

 ly advise buying nuclei, since it would take 

 them so long to build up. The full colonies 

 are much more desirable even at the higher 

 price. 



Discussion of Next Issue. 



After one has investigated the matter and 

 made certain he can obtain the bees when 

 he gets ready to buy, the next step is the 

 purchasing of supplies, which will be dis- 

 cussed in the next issue. 



Supplementing These Articles. 



Since the procedure to be followed each 

 month differs in the West, North, and South, 

 it is quite obvious that, unless these talks 

 are so general as to rob them of much of 

 their value, they could not possibly apply 

 each month to conditions in all parts of the 

 United States the following month. As far 

 as possible, however, we shall speak of sea- 

 sons rather than actual months, and shall 

 also supplement these talks by referring the 

 beginner to other articles in the same issue. 

 Some of these references will point out the 

 need of different treatment in different 

 parts of the country, while some will give 

 the experiences and successes of other be- 

 ginners. This month we refer the beginner 

 to the Oklahoma Boys and Girls' Club (page 

 82), how fast to increase (page 91), begin- 

 ners in Florida (page 97), beekeeping on a 

 roof (page 99), "Big Eesults from Three 

 Colonies" (page 99), and "Wresting Suc- 

 cess from Failure" (page 105). 



