220 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1919 



pollen from natural supplies. The hint was 

 not lost; and it is now a common practice 

 wherever beekeeping is extensively carried 

 Qj^jj * * * "Shallow troughs or boxes 

 are set not far from the apiaries, filled about 

 2 inches deep with finely ground, dry, un- 

 bolted, rye meal, oatmeal, or even with 

 flour. ' ' 



Dr. C. C. Miller. — "I hardly know which 

 is best, and I have of late used principally 

 corn and oats ground together," * * * 



Dr. E. F. Phillips. — ''It can scarcely be 

 said that we know that the giving of substi- 

 tutes for pollen is serviceable in brood- 

 rearing." * * * "We are not justified 

 in concluding that the giving of substitutes 



for pollen is useless, however, and no harm- 

 ful results are recorded from the practice." 



M. QuLnby. — "When practicable feed rye, 

 ground very fine, and unbolted. " « * * 

 ' ' It should be remembered that flour feed 

 is only advantageous in the earliest part 

 of the season." 



E. W. Alexander. — ' ' Years ago we set 

 out our bees much earlier than we do now, 

 and we frequently gave them rye meal to 

 work on as a substitute for early pollen. 

 This practice caused them to leave their 

 hives in search of flowers many days when 

 the air was too cold for them to fly in the 

 shade, and so we discontinued it some time 

 ago. " 



WORKERS FOR THE HARVEST 



THE first of 

 April is a 

 significant 

 date, for our lo- 

 cation, for it 

 marks approxi- 

 mately the date 

 for the begin- 

 ning of the criti- 

 cal brood-rearing 



period of spring, the period during which 

 the workers for the harvest are reared. Our 

 honey flow may begin about the first of 

 June". It does not always do so but often 

 enough so that we can not aiford to fail to 

 have the bees ready at that time, and we 

 need about two months of constantly in- 

 creasing brood-rearing to get ready for it. 

 Fortunately, in our locality (the clover re- 

 gion), the honey flow comes about two 

 months after the "bees naturally begin brood- 

 rearing in earnest. The workers for the 

 harvest, therefore, are produced largely 

 during the time the colonies are most will- 

 ing to co-operate by rearing the greatest 

 amount of brood, in proportion to their 

 population, of any similar period during the 

 year. 



Workers for the Harvest Should be Young. 

 Brood-rearing usually begins moderately 

 in April, and, unless something happens to 

 prevent, increases steadily until the first of 

 June or later, so that if there is time enough 

 brood-rearing reaches its maximum about 

 the beginning of the honey flow. This 

 makes the vast majority of the bees in the 

 hives on June first quite young or from 

 brood reared during the month of May. It 

 is fortunate that the bees do it this way in- 

 stead of the other way around, even if they 

 could do it that way, for if many bees were 

 reared in April and few in May, we might 

 have colonies of the same strength so far as 

 numbers are concerned but greatly inferior 

 in ability to gather and store a good crop of 

 honey. 



We have had many colonies that forged 

 ahead in brood-rearing during April but 

 failed to keep the pace during May on ac- 



Colonies Should be Built up Prompt- 

 ly and ^ickly for the Honey Flo-w 

 Instead of on the Honey Flow 



By Belva M. Demuth 



count of a fail- 

 ing queen or a 

 shortage of 

 stores. In every 

 case, so far as 

 we know, these 

 colonies, in pro- 

 portion to their 

 population, have 

 done the poorest 

 work during the honej^ flow, presumably on 

 account of the greater age of the workers. 

 We have made up colonies at the beginning 

 of the honey flow entirely of field bees, unit- 

 ing the field force from each of several colo- 

 nies for this purpose, and at the same time 

 made up colonies of equal numerical 

 strength but composed entirely of young 

 bees. In every case the difference in the 

 amount of honey stored by the two sets of 

 colonies was overjwhelmingly in favor of 

 those made up of young bees. 



What Constitutes Strong Colonies. 



When we speak of the strength of colo- 

 nies we usually mean the number of bees, 

 without reference to the difference in the 

 strength and endurance of the individuals, 

 due to their age. Dr. Miller recently used 

 an apt expression to bring out this distinc- 

 tion when he said, ' ' Strong colonies of 

 strong bees." For best results with our 

 short honey flow it is necessary not only 

 that each colony be built up to its greatest 

 possible numerical strength by the time the 

 iioney fl_ow begins, but also that this build- 

 ing up be done so quickly that most of this 

 great horde of workers shall be young bees, 

 recently emerged,. ready to go into the fray 

 while in possession of the full vigor of their 

 youth. 



We are accustomed to thinking of these 

 bees, reared at this time, as a special honey- 

 gathering crew whose purpose in life is to- 

 tally different from all the other bees rear- 

 ed during the year, for with our conditions 

 all the bees reared at other times can be use- 

 ful only in the maintenance of the normal 

 strength and prosperity of the colony until 



