1908 (JLKANINCJS IN BEE CUl/lURK. 



PRESIDENT ULRICH KRAMER. 



A Brief History of Bee-keeping in S>vit- 



zerland, Showing the Important Part 



that Kramer Plays. 



.H7*^> 



BV DR. K. BRUENNICH. 



[No American bee-keeper will object to the space occupied in 

 this issue of Gleanings with a lucid account of what our broth- 

 er bee-lieepers in Switzerland are doing in promoting bee-keep- 

 ing on scientilic lines. VVe all admit that we owe much to the 

 Swiss. Huber rendered us indebted for all time, and the little 

 republic is always in the van of progress, be it bee-keeping or 

 any other industry or science. Their love of liberty and inde- 

 pendence enables them to carve out a path for themselves, and 

 they never seem to lack leaders for any great work. From what 

 Dr. Bruennich says, it is evident they possess in President Kra- 

 mer, of the Swiss Bee-keepers' Association, a great man — one 

 who is leading them onward and upward in apiculture. We are 

 all glad to hear from our Swiss friends, and it is a pity we do not 

 hear from them oftener. — W. K. M.] 



The readers of Gleanings have seen from time 

 to time the name of Ulrich Kramer, who, since 

 1896, has been President of our Swiss Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association. To write the life of Kramer is 

 to write the history of the successes of the Swiss 

 bee-keepers, for the history of the S. B. K. A. 

 during the last thirty years is closely connected 

 with the name of Kramer. He is now 63. It 

 was two years ago that I conversed with him 

 about queen-rearing when he said to me, shaking 

 my hand, "Still, it is a delight to live." 



It is thirty years, perhaps, since Kramer the 

 schoolmaster began bee-keeping. At that time 

 the S. B. K. A. was very small, having possibly 

 200 members; but it was at a time when all the 

 European bee-keepers had received a strong im- 



ULRICH KRAMER, PRESIDENT OF THE SWISS BEE- 

 KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



A SWISS TENEMENT HIVE. 



pulse from the bee-masters Dzierzon and Ber- 

 lepsch, and quite a new life bloomed in the bee- 

 yards. 



In 1887 we find Mr. Kramer elected actuary 

 of the S. B. K. A., which had then 270 mem- 

 bers. In 1880 he was the first " wander teacher" 

 to instruct novices in apiculture. Since 1884 the 

 S. B. K. A. has consisted of a number of affiili- 

 ated associations (to-day there are 103), with the 

 following number of members: 1885, 504; 1895, 

 6370. Some years previous, Kramer had had a 

 colony on the scales, and in 1884 he introduced 

 apicultural stations, where the managers have to 

 make exact observations on temperature, weath- 

 er, increase and decrease on the scales (during 

 the season, every evening and morning), etc. Un- 

 til 1906 he was chief of all those stations (to-day 

 there are 33), in which the results of the observa- 

 tions were summed up and compiled. The re- 

 ports of the apicultural stations are printed every 

 year in a book about the size of this journal. 



In these reports we get a general view of the 

 weather during the year; then follow the condi- 

 tions of the year; a table of temperature; winter 

 losses; dysentery; the first brood-nests; prelimi- 

 nary honey-flow; development of the colonies; 

 size of the brood-nest ; May disease (paralysis); 

 the swarming impulse; the period of swarming; 

 consequences of swarming ; the spring harvest ; 

 queen-rearing; the summer harvest; improve- 

 ment of bee-pasture; autumn, wintering. Every 

 report has a colored harvest-picture of a number 

 of stations where we find the daily and nightly 

 changes of the scales recorded in a clear manner. 



In Switzerland, as elsewhere, honey has often 

 been adulterated, or inferior grades of foreign 

 honey have been sold as the finest Swiss honey. 

 Kramer obtained in the town of Zurich a place 



