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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1919 



HEAPS OFCMlNT PPQlii rDIFFERENT FIELDS 



How Much 

 Buckwheat to Sow 



In regard to the prop- 

 er amount of buck- 

 wheat to sow per acre, 

 I have made a number of inquiries, and the 

 consensus of opinion seems to be about one 

 bushel of Japanese or two to three pecks of 

 Silverhull. Broadcast seeding gives best re- 

 sults. A man in western Illinois recom- 

 mends for rich, well-prepared land one to 

 two pecks per acre of the Silverhull variety, 

 and claims that light seeding on good land 

 gives best results. Another in central 

 Michigan, on a lighter and sandy loam, rec- 

 ommends two to three pecks per acre of Sil- 

 \-erhull seed. Rough and poor land re- 

 quires more seed. Wm. Findlay. 

 Basco, 111. 



The experience of these horses is to have heen fed 



on s\ve*t clover only, and kept fat. — W. C. Gath- 



right, Fillmore., Calif. 



The Woman and One year ago my hus- 



the Swarm. band bought a colony 



of bees, and has ever 

 since been a devoted beeman, altho we have 

 now but three colonies. Yesterday when he 

 was at work, and I at home alone, I suddenly 

 heard a frightful roar, and looked out to see 

 what had happened. It looked to me as if 

 all the bees were in the air, and I began to 

 get ready for that swarm. I donned my rain- 

 coat, a pair of cotton gloves and a veil, and 

 started out for the hive which Mr. Cochrane 

 had made ready. Well, that swarm alighted 

 on the fencepost and top rail of a wire fence 

 where I could not put the hive under them, 

 but I put the hive as close to the fence as I 

 could and stood still and wondered what to 

 do, as I could not shake the fence. Finally 

 I got the smoker and some water, so if they 

 became too familiar I 'd be ready, and then 

 I thought of that woman 's weapon, the 

 broom. I carefully brushed the bees off the 

 fence and into the hive, or as many as I 

 could get there, for the rest were on the 

 ground and on the side of the hive where I 



sprinkled them a little, and, leaving the 

 cover off the hive, I went into the house and 

 watched them. A little later I saw one bee 

 that looked different from the others, and 

 concluded she was the queen. I got all the 

 books about bees I could find, and read up; 

 and, sure enough, it described her exactly. 

 When my husband came home I met him at 

 the door and said, ' ' The bees swarmed. ' ' 

 He replied, "And lost them."- I answered, 

 ' ' No. I got them, every one, and got stung 

 only once. ' ' So you see I am now a real 

 beekeeper. Mrs. W. M. Cochrane. 



Watts3 Calif. 



A Small Breeze Here it does not seem 



From the North. to make much differ- 



ence whether a colony 

 is made queenless or not, regarding the ac- 

 cepting of cells, only that more will be ac- 

 cepted in a queenless colony if a second 

 batch is given five or six days after the 

 first grafting. I prefer to use more colo- 

 nies, and only those that are strong enough. 

 After the honey flow in late summer, we 

 have a different proposition, and I then find 

 find it necessary to use queenless colonies. 



Regarding increase, as I am writing for 

 yours, an American publication, I presume 

 it will be permissible for me to use an 

 American style; and since most of our warm 

 air conies from the South, a small breeze 

 from the North would not be noticed. I 

 once bought three colonies of black bees 

 which I Italianized the first season and in- 

 creased to six. The next season I increased 

 to 18, and they gave me an average of 300 

 pounds, spring count. The following sea- 

 son I increased to 45, taking an average of 

 200 pounds per colony, spring count. I feel 

 satisfied that I could take one colony with 

 a good Italian queen and three supers of 

 drawn combs and increase to 500 colonies 

 in five years and make them raise their own 

 queens and pay for everything in connection 

 with them. I hear some one say, ' ' That 

 must be a pretty good location." Well, I 

 don 't know. The first start I made in bees 

 I bought five colonies of blacks. That same 

 spring a friend of mine started in with 120 

 colonies. Comparing notes the third sea- 

 son after, my five had increased to 160, and 

 my friend had eight hives of bees left alive 

 and a lot of empty boxes for sale, and there 

 was no disease of any kind in his apiary. 



Regarding the difference in bees, I have 

 known of a 200-colony yard in which 75 

 colonies of a certain strain produced in a 

 poor season a surplus of 75 pounds, while 

 right alongside of them were colonies as 

 strong, or stronger, that were living from 

 hand to mouth. 



One of my colonies has a five-year-old 

 queen. On May 20 she was occupying a 2%- 

 story hive, tho the spring was cold and wet. 



