OCTOBKR, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



c 



LJ 



BF. KINDIG 

 ^ is doing for 

 Michigan 

 beekeepers what 

 might well be 

 imitated in other 

 States. He sends 

 out periodically 

 what he calls a 

 " B e e k 6 e p u r s ' 



Letter" containing information and advice, 

 served up in very readable style, which will 

 surely result in bringing him in closer touch 

 with Wolverine beekeepers. 



• « « 



Speaking of M. S. Mendelson in American 

 Bee Journal, Frank C. Pellett says: "It is 

 his practice to leave about twice as much 

 honey on the hives as will be needed in a 

 favorable season. He insists that surplus 

 left with the bees pays big interest, as it 

 saves feeding in times of shortage and in- 

 sures that brood-rearing will be continued 

 at jnoper times, even tho no honey is coming 

 in.'' Perhaps that practice helps to account 

 for the tons of honey he gets from his 1,400 

 to 2,000 colonies. 



* » * 



"A strong force of bees at the right 

 time" is a slogan much in use nowadays. Of 

 course it's a good slogan; no one will make 

 a mistake in acting upon it. But I suspect 

 that many a beginner is worried to know 

 just when is "the right time," and just 

 how to make colonies strong at that particu- 

 lar time. The right time in one locality is 

 not the right time in another locality. In 

 any given locality ' ' the right time ' ' last 

 year may be later or earlier this year, and 

 I don 't know of any rule by which the most 

 experienced veteran can tell very much in 

 advance when the right time is to be. Well, 

 if your location is like mine — and I suspect 

 the majority of locations are like mine in 

 that respect — you needn 't worry over it. I 

 wouldn 't give any large amount to be told 

 just when the right time is to be, nor how 

 to make colonies stronger at that time than 

 at other times. Oetll 's golden rule, ' ' Keep 

 your colonies strong," with emphasis on the 

 "Keep," fits well in this locality. I don't 

 know that I ever got a colony strong too 

 early, nor had one too strong later on. So 

 my effort is to have strong colonies as early 

 as possible, and then to keep them so. How- 

 ever, I've no quarrel with the other fellow 

 whose location differs from mine, only I 

 have some doubt whether there are so very 



many of him. 



* * * 



That 's stimulative reading the editor has 

 given us, page 565, September Gleanings, 

 about the Nevada comb-honey wizard. I 

 take off my hat to Harry Warren as a man 

 who does things. But don 't all you young- 

 sters get the idea that the proper thing for 

 you is to double up colonies to increase your 

 harvest. It may not work with you. What's 

 best for one may not be for another. Alex- 

 ander increased his crop by dividing; Harry 



STRAY STRAWS 



Dr. C. C. MiUer 



1 



harvest, then j'ou would 

 loss. "Prove all things 

 which is good." 



your harvest. If 

 each of y o u i- 

 colonies can be 

 made strong 

 enough for the 

 only double at u 

 ; hold fast that 



"In adding empty supers we have no def- 

 inite plan to follow. Sometimes we put them 

 below the partly filled, and again above. 

 The transaction just depends upon the 

 amount of time we can spare. Personally, 

 I am inclined to believe that the best meth- 

 od is to add the supers to the top. ' ' Thus says 

 Harry Warren's foreman, Mr. Damon, page 

 568. But he immediately adds that he 

 wouldn 't put an empty on top of one com- 

 pletely filled. Evidently it doesn't seem 

 easy to find any one plan that is always 

 best; and the fact that good beekeepers dif- 

 fer as to practice would rather indicate that 

 it doesn 't matter much what plan we follow. 

 Yet there are some points of importance 

 worth considering. If a super is left at the 

 bottom till ready to take off, it will be fin- 

 ished sooner than if higher up. Yet pretty 

 certainly the beautiful white cappings will 

 be darkened; and that's bad. If any empty 

 super is placed under during a good flow, 

 the bees will begin work in it sooner than 

 if it is placed over. In the former case the 

 bees are coaxed into the new super; in the 

 latter case they are crowded into it, and 

 that crowding tends toward swarming. Take 

 two colonies alike in every respect, and on 

 the one. A, let the empty super be added 

 always on the top, so that each super on 

 the hive is older than the one above it. On 

 the other hive, B, let each empty super be 

 put at the bottom, so that each super on the 

 hive is older than the one below it. You 

 may count that the first super will be fin- 

 ished sooner on A than on B; but, as already 

 intimated, it will be darkened, and A would 

 be in more danger of swarming than B. B 

 would occupy new territory more readily 

 than A, and so would be spread over more 

 ground. Now, with a larger surface to 

 work on, and with comb drawn out a little 

 more in advance of its needs than is the 

 case with A, don't you think that B will 

 store just a little more surplus than A, some- 

 what on the principle that more is stored 

 in extracting-combs than in sections? At 

 any rate, if I were obliged to follow strict- 

 ly one plan or the other, I surely would add 

 the empty supers below. But I should rather 

 not continue it at the tapering off of the 

 flow, when it's a little uncertain whether any 

 more room will be needed. At that time an 

 empty may be given on top as a safety 

 valv'e, and the bees needn't use it if they 

 don 't want to. Moreover, if you give an 



