April, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C U L T U K E 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



229 



the doubter no ground upon wliich to stand. 

 For instance, I found out that as long as a 

 colonj' liad enough empty cells in the combs 

 to accommodate a cluster one could not 

 give too much winter stores; and I had it 

 brought home to me as never before that 

 perhaps I have been too stingy about giving 

 colonies plenty of stores to be turned by 

 them into young bees. Again, they pretty 

 well demonstrated that even I should pay 

 more attention to requeening colonies; also 

 that the 12-frame Langstroth hive is not too 

 large for a young queen, but too small. 

 Again, it was brought out very clearly that 

 in the vast majority of cases a colony did 

 not reach the peak of its strength when the 

 surplus-honey flow started, but after — this 

 being a loss in honey production. 



G. S. Demuth gave valuable addresses 

 right thru. Geo. H. Eea, who has been con- 

 nected with the extension work at Washing- 

 ton, gave the best method of queen-rearing, 

 on which those present took careful notes. 



There were at least 137 students, among 

 them extensive and well-known beekeepers. 

 Ninety-three of them produced nearly 900,- 

 000 pounds of honey last year. This was 

 compiled from records sent in without 

 names so no one would be disposed to ex- 

 aggerate. 



C. P. Dadant, Hamilton, 111., gave "The 

 Dadant System" of honey production; and 

 so convincing were his arguments for a 

 deeper frame for the brood-chamber, and a 

 larger brood-chamber, that the writer of 

 this article, altho previously considering 

 himself a large-brood-chamber beekeeper, 

 felt that he had erred on the small side. 

 Many others received the same impression ; 

 and should this educational work continue, 

 as, in the interests of beekeeping, it is to be 

 hoped it will, we may expect a breakaway 

 to that system by men who want to reduce 

 the cost of honey production. 



The writer would strongly recommend to 

 any one wanting up-to-date information in 

 becdvceping not to hesitate to go hundreds of 

 miles to attend such lectures. 



E. F. Holtermann. 



Brantford, Out. 



HIS START WITH BEES 



Some Quite Lively Times Around This Amateur 

 Beekeeper's Home 



On Feb. 10, 1918, I went to a public sale, 

 where they put up two stands of bees in 

 homemade hives, but in fairly good condi- 

 tion. I had no more idea of buying them 

 than I have of buying German war bonds; 

 but a friend of mine said to me, ' ' You have 

 had everything from cows down to white 

 mice; now why not buy the bees?" 



I said to him: "Gee, Bill, they would 

 sting me. " 



He said: "No, they won't. I had bees 

 for five years till my wife made me get rid 

 of them. Yon can make some money with 

 them too, and I will show you how." 



Well, I bought them, giving .$8.00 for the 

 one stand, and took them home with me in 

 a closed wagon. On the way the jolting of 

 the wagon caused the bee's to come out 

 and look around. Bill put one on his hand 

 and wanted to allow it to crawl on my hand; 

 but there was absolutely nothing doing. 

 Still, it put more confidence in me; and 

 with a little coaching on his part everything 

 went along lovely until in March when I 

 placed them just" next to my barn. One 

 day, a little later, I was plowing, and stop- 

 ped my horses near the stand; but, believe 

 me, the bees made the horses move. One 

 of them was covered with bees; a few 

 stung me, but it did not swell any. Say — I 

 got the horse into the barn and made 

 straight for the grocery for a quart of 

 gasoline. When I got back with it Bill said: 

 ' ' What are you going to do ? " 



"I am going to get rid of those bees," I 

 answered, and added some very beautiful 

 adjectives. Bill said, "Now jiist set that 

 can down and listen to me." 



I did so, and he said the whole trouble 

 was my own fault in leaving the horses 

 standing so close to the hive that they got 

 to jerking and shaking their heads every 

 time a bee went past, until the little bees 

 thought the horses were after them, and 

 they went to work to defend their home. 

 Well, from that time on I liad bees in my 

 bonnet, bees in my clothes, and, in fact, ail 

 over me, yet I have not felt many stings. 



Some time in June the bees swarmed, 

 and I hived them all alone. I also bought a 

 stand fiom a friend, caught a swarm, found 

 a swarm, and my first colony threw off an- 

 other swarm in July, which I hived. By 

 this time I had been from one end of the 

 hive fo the other — knew all about different 

 kinds of bees and queens^ and became so 

 much interested in them that my wife said 

 I had bee-mare instead of nightmare. She 

 claimed I took all of the drawers out of the 

 dresser one night hunting for the queen. 



This year I had an average of 60 pounds 

 of honey from my five stands of bees, and a 

 beeman said there was at least 7.5 or 80 

 pounds of honey in the brood-frames, be- 

 cause some of the hives w^ere very heavy. 

 I left all of my colonies outdoors all 

 winter. I have a fence on the north, and 

 I put a roof over the top of the colonies, so 

 they would be protected all around. My wife 

 was afraid of them at first, but now she 

 goes right up to the hives. We eat on an 

 average three pounds of honey a week, and 

 are using it instead of sugar. 



Many people try to discourage me in 

 keeping ;'bees; but after looking at the 

 places in which they themselves kept bees, 



