NoVKMBliK, 1919 



G I. K A N T N G S T N BEE CULTURE 



fk FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



-S 



Some winter in single-wailed liive*; wrapped in pa- 

 per. In the North, this is insufficient protection. 



BEEKEEPING IN THE BALKANS 



Methods Primitive ; Homemade Extractor ; One- 

 pound Sheets of Foundation 



Beekeeping in the Balkans is put on the 

 same plane with horticulture and dairying. 

 Bees are kept mostly on a large scale. The 

 equipment is most primitive as in all East- 

 ern countries. A few of the more progres- 

 sive men adopted the Carniolan hive, Da- 

 dant hive, and the Long Idea hive. I met 

 the most progressive and enthusiastic bee- 

 keeper at Monastir. His name is Otsevich. 

 He keeps 50 colonies of bees. The hives 

 resemble our trunks even to the hinged 

 cover and handles on the ends. The frames 

 are jumbo size with a vengeance. He in- 

 vented the wiring of frames independently 

 of us. In Athens somehow he got hold of 

 an old German machine for making founda- 

 tion. He uses full sheets of foundation, 

 each sheet weighing about a pound with 

 four diagonal and four horizontal wires. He 

 extracts the honey with a homemade two- 

 frame extractor and uncaps his combs with 

 a wire brush. The by-products he uses for 

 making honey vinegar and mead. His crop 

 last summer averaged 150 pounds per colony 

 of the best-flavored honey I ever tasted, 

 made from nectar of mountain flowers, sage 

 and thyme. The Olympus mountains being 

 in full sight, this honey may be classed with 

 Virgil's Hymettus honey, or with the fa- 

 mous nectar and ambrosia which are sup- 

 posed to have constituted the chief food of 

 the old Greek gods. 



The Balkan bees resemble the Carniolans, 

 except that they are slightly smaller and 

 a brighter grey. They are exceedingly 

 gentle, very quiet on the comb altho they 

 follow you with their eyes. They seem to be 



little given to robbing. The queens are as 

 proliflc as the Carniolans and are the same 

 color. They have a great strength of wing 

 to judge from the fact that the Macedonian 

 plains during the summer drouth were burnt 

 and parched and devoid of all bee pasture, 

 the nearest source of nectar being the sur- 

 rounding mountain tops where frequent 

 rains cause the mountain soil to bring forth 

 the most wonderful carpet of flowers. My 

 rough estimate of the distance from the api- 

 ary to the pasture in the mountains is about 

 seven miles. 



The ten hives and other equipment, which 

 were sent to the American Eed Cross to 

 start an American apiary in the Balkans, 

 arrived in Solonika in good shape, except 

 five bodies with contents which disappeared 

 on the way. The five remaining bodies I 

 assembled with the help of Serbian soldiers, 

 liad them painted with the paint sent with 

 them, which, by the way, was the only paint 

 in the Balkans and easily worth $100. I ob- 

 tained some straw hives with good colonies 

 of bees in June, transferred them to the 

 new hives on full sheets of foundation, and 

 they immediately went to work drawing out 

 the foundation. By September 1 they had 

 the brood-chamber full of honey, and I was 

 sorry I had no supers to give them. It was 

 too late in the season to give them extract- 

 ing-supers. The Serbian Government and 

 ministers, as well as the war officials, were 

 very much interested in our system of bee- 

 keeping. Crown Prince Alexander himself 

 wished he had a colony of bees like ours, and 

 I gratified his wish. One colony I gave to 

 Mr. Otsevich in Monastir, one I gave to the 

 head of the Serbian Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and two were left at our camp. 



The Serbian people are exceedingly quick 

 to respond to every modern improvement 

 they see in machinery and agriculture. They 

 will discard everything impracticable with- 

 out remorse as soon as they find anything 

 better, and there is no doubt in my mind 

 that after they have seen the advantages of 

 our American system of beekeeping as com- 

 pared with theirs they will be quick to adopt 

 it. Francis Jager. 



University Farm, St. Paul, Minn. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA NOTES 



Fine Honey-production Possibilities for the Man 

 who Adapts Himself to New Conditions 



Beekeeping has a brief history in tliis 

 Canadian province. There was but little 

 farming prior to 1860, and then for a period 

 of years it was not of an extensive nature, 

 cattle-ranching being most important. The 

 province has grown a great deal in the past 

 25 years, and in fruit-growing there has 

 been a veritable boom. Small fruits are also 

 extensively cultivated. In the British Co- 



