GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1919 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



purposes than good queens, if there must 

 be an}^ difference in the quality' of the stock. 

 They are more numerous and they are not 

 the product of cross-breeding as are the 

 queens. They inherit all of their character- 

 istics from their mothers. They are, there- 

 fore, more prepotent than the queens and 

 can exercise a greater influence in up-grad- 

 ing the stock of the vicinity. Beekeepers 

 in some parts of the State have almost de- 

 spaired of keeping Italian stock because of 

 the predominance of black blood around 

 them. Their young queens mate with the 

 black drones with a consequent quick de- 

 generation of the stock. To such beekeep- 

 ers, let me suggest the rearing of such an 

 abundance of first-class drones that young 

 queens of the territory gradually may be- 

 come Italianized. Then the neighboring 

 colonies may produce drones that will be 

 more desirable. To get the maximum re- 

 sults from the purchase of a good queen, she 

 should not only be used as the mother of 

 other queens, but she should be supplied 

 with a liberal amount of drone-comb. 



Readers of these notes know that two 

 years ago the legislature passed a law pro- 

 hibiting the keeping of bees in anything 

 but hives with movable combs. Movable 

 frames do not insure movable combs. In 

 apiaries where inspectors have found illegal 

 hives, owners have been allowed a reason- 

 a-ble time for transferring. It now seems 

 that nearly sufficient time has elapsed to 

 permit all persons wishing to transfer tc do 

 so. Therefore, after July first, inspectors 

 will carry blank warrants to be used for 

 causing the arrest and prosecution of all 

 persons found with bees in illegal hives in 

 their possession. Posters warning beekeep- 

 ers of the approach of the end of the period 

 of probation are being printed, and copies 

 will be mailed to anyone who will post them 

 in conspicuous places. It is hoped that 

 every colony in an illegal hive may be trans- 

 ferred by July first. Tell your neighbors 

 of this. Bring the matter up in your asso- 

 ciation meetings. Send in for copies of the 

 law. Give me the names of box-hive bee- 

 keepers so that I can send them notices. 

 Let us try to see that all are transferred in 

 Time so that no one will have to suffer the 

 penalty. 



At the request of the legislative commit- 

 tee of the State Beekeepers ' Association, 

 Hon. Colin P. Campbell, former president of 

 the organization, prepared a bill and caus- 

 ed it to be introduced into the legislature 

 now in session. The bill made an amendment 

 to the existing law so that the State In- 

 spector of Apiaries may quarantine a dis- 

 eased area of the State and require all bee- 

 keepers in the area to register their names 

 and the locations of their bees with the 

 township supervisor within ten days of the 

 placing of the quarantine. In this way it is 

 hoped to clean out the disease from some of 



the areas where it is very difficult to locate 

 all of the bees. This bill also provides for 

 an appropriation of $10,160 annually for the 

 purposes of inspection. The bill has been 

 passed by the House by unanimous vote, and 

 the leaders in the Senate have agreed to its 

 passage. So, by the time this is read, it is 

 probable that the bill will have been passed 

 and signed by Governor Sleeper. This seems 

 to have been the psychological time for 

 asking for substantial support from the 

 State. The committees of the House made 

 a searching inquiry into the present methods 

 of education and inspection. Several mem- 

 bers expressed themselves as regretting that 

 a larger appropriation was not asked for. The 

 economic necessity of encouraging beekeep- 

 ing because of the value of the industry to 

 agriculture and for the sake of the conser- 

 vation of a natural food seems to be well 

 understood by legislators both from the 

 country and city. Our good fortune was not 

 accidental. It is the result of the organiza- 

 tion of the beekeepers into units which were 

 able to clearly express to the legislators the 

 necessity of action. May the good work con- 

 tinue. B. F. Kindig. 

 East Lansing, Mich. 



In Ontario. — At ^^^^ '^^^\ (^^"^ '\ 



conditions as to bees and 

 honey plants, according to reports received, 

 are about the same as when I wrote a month 

 ago. Wherever bees have had abundance 

 of good stores, they have wintered in fine 

 condition — in fact, anything else was hard- 

 ly possible so far as weather conditions were 

 concerned, as we had very little real severe 

 weather. Clover is also in good shape at 

 this date and barring too much alternate 

 freezing by night and thawing by day for 

 the next three weeks, it should again be a 

 normal crop this season. 



I have just returned from visiting the 

 bees 90 miles away from home (about 300 

 colonies), and the condition they were in 

 gave me a good object lesson on the matter 

 of wintering as related to consumption of 

 stores during a mild winter. The bees re- 

 ferred to are in two apiaries four miles 

 apart, and, since they were left last Octo- 

 ber, the}' were never looked at till my visit 

 of April 3. About half of the number are 

 in eight-frame Langstroth hives, these being 

 all in one yard, with about 40 others of a 

 much deeper-frame style and larger hive in 

 general. These eight-frame colonies were all 

 fed solid in October — at least they were all 

 fed till they would not take any more food 

 from the inverted pails used as feeders. The 

 larger hives were made heavier than the 

 eight-frame colonies but they were not fed 

 all they would take. Of the 150 Langstroth 

 hives, only two colonies had starved, none 

 died from other causes, and the greater part 

 of them were in fine shape with plenty of 



