GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1919 



lives, is getting a reputation for honey al- 

 most equal to that of Hvniettus. 



His name is Gill, and any man in Utah 

 who wants to know anything about bees will 

 do well to visit him, see his apiary scattered 

 thru his orchard on the warm, wind-protect- 

 ed western slope and hear his honeyed words 

 about the profitable little insects that work 

 so well. He knows everything about them 

 from Maeterlinck to markets. 



"Northern Utah," he begins, "has won- 

 derful bee pasturage with its alfalfa fields 

 and irrigation canals lined with sweet 

 clover. When I came here eight years ago 

 I was much impressed with it. I had been 

 living in Longmont, 

 the bee center of 

 Colorado, and three 

 years of drought 

 and grasshoppers 

 had driven me to 

 desperation. There 

 were 11 carloads of 

 us including bees, 

 emigrants, and 

 household goods, 

 that left Longmont 

 together. Some 

 went to Idaho, some 

 to Montana, and I 

 was the only one 

 that came to Utah. 

 And I am glad I 

 came. As I say, 

 Cache Valley up in 

 northern Utah look- 

 ed to me like a 

 good bee country, 

 but until recently 

 it has been over- 

 pastured. The bees 

 in the fall were in 

 poor shape. It was 

 a hard winter for 

 them. Everyone lost 

 some colonies. I 

 had 220 left out of 

 800. One man lost 

 1,100. Another 

 man, one of the 

 largest honey - pro- 

 ducers in the Unit- 

 ed States, lost all 

 of 2,200 colonies 

 except 80, sold 

 those in disgust and 



retired to California. I wintered mine in 

 the cellar, tho ordinarily an outdoor pack is 

 enough in Utah, if there is protection from 

 windbreaks. Summer honey-gathering con- 

 ditions are good here. Alfalfa and sweet 

 clover furnish abundant honey. Logwood is 

 the best yielder of nectar and linden trees 

 come next. That is why I'd like to see more- 

 of the latter growing in Utah. But alfalfa 

 is wonderful. I always have a colony of 

 bees sitting on scales and I look at the bal- 

 ances morning and night. During the alfalfa 

 month of August the scales some days regis- 



ter an increase of as high as eleven pounds 

 of honey. 



"1 learned to love bees as a boy in Wis- 

 consin. There I used to go out treeing wild 

 bees with an old bee-hunter who found my 

 eyes better than his. It was fascinating 

 sport, and when I got married I began keep- 

 ing a few colonies. Then when I moved to 

 Colorado I made it my main business and 

 had always from 1,000 to 1,500 colonies. 

 There is more money to be made in extract- 

 ed honey, but I love to work with comb 

 honey. It is neater, more expert work. Any- 

 one with intelligence enough to turn a 

 grindstone can produce extracted honey, but 

 it takes an artist, 

 a born beeman, to 

 handle bees for 

 comb honey. You 

 have to crowd them, 

 they swarm more 

 excessively, and 

 you sell the whole 

 product of the bee. 

 My wife is a great 

 help to me in this 

 work, and we work 

 together so calmly 

 that the bees take 

 us right into the 

 family and never 

 sting us. Some old 

 writers say that 

 bees hate bad odors, 

 such as garlic and 

 human perspiration ; 

 but what they hate 

 most is nervous, 

 jerky, excitable, 

 swearing people. It 

 was Maeterlinck 's 

 serene temperament 

 before the war that 

 made him watch 

 the bees so careful- 

 ly and write about 

 them so well. I 

 have his book and 

 it is absolutely ac- 

 curate, tho there 

 are many poetical 

 wrappings about his 

 facts. 



' 'As for markets, 

 you can always sell 

 honey. It is as 

 much a staple as wheat. I have a big 

 local market among the cattlemen of Wy- 

 oming and Idaho, and there is always a 

 demand in Los Angeles and Kansas City 

 for carload lots. Consumption of honey 

 has doubled in the United States in the 

 past ten years. No, there is no trouble 

 about markets. The great trouble is dis- 

 ease. European and American foul brood are 

 the great enemy, and Utah beemen are not 

 fighting them as they should. The State bee- 

 inspector will examine hives and notify the 

 owners of disease and prescribe the remedy, 



in the car at Copeiuish, 

 start. 



