1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



161 



twtlve frames are none too many for the best re- 

 sults. It is not the intention ot this article to go 

 into the discussion of tlie hi e question; but if 

 the beginner will take my advice he will adopt 

 the ten-frame hi^e for the production of comb 

 honey, but especially for extracted honey. 



After deciding on the size of hive it is impor- 

 tant to get the right number of colonies to start 

 with. Beg nners should understand from the 

 first that there is much to learn, and that the first 

 few years will be largely experimental, so that, 

 not much money will be made at first. '1 he ex- 

 perience can be acquired about as well with a few 

 colonies as with a large number, and the expense 

 is much less. When starting on a small scale, 

 the increase of bees and experience go toget^^er. 



It is noticeable that those wno have gone into 

 the bee business on a large scale from the very 

 first, without making an effort to get the neces- 

 sary experience, have usually turned their atten- 

 tion to something else in a few years, usually go- 

 ing back to what they did before. This is the 

 natural thing; for since they knew nothing about 

 the I'roducing of a paying crop of honey the ven- 

 ture proves a failure. 



1 would recommend at the start from two to 

 four colonies, whether the beginner has much 

 capital or not. I do not think that one without 

 experience can go into this business and depend 

 upon hired expeiienced help to do the work, for 

 he must know the details himself before he can 

 manage others in such a way as to make a finan- 

 cial success of his plans. 



HOW TO BUY BEFS. 



In looking for colonies to buy it is well to se- 

 lect them from yards in the vicinity of the place 

 where we expect to establish an apiary, if such 

 ran be found, for in this way no more bees are 

 brought into the locality. This is a strictly 

 business proposition, and the amount that one 

 can atford to pay extra for colonies that are al- 

 ready within perhaps a mile of the proposed api- 

 ary is a little hard to tell The number of colo- 

 nies a location will support, and the number al- 

 ready there, aie determining factors. If the be- 

 ginner has any doubts as to whether the location 

 will warrant its bringing in new colonies, he 

 should buy them near home, even if the price is 

 twice what it would be at a more distant point. 



During my early experience in bee-keeping 

 there were a good many small apiaries around 

 me, isolated from other yards, so that the bees 

 had unlimited pasturage; and these few colonies 

 in a place always gathered more surplus honey 

 than those in the main yards where perhaps a 

 hundred colonies were kept. The fewer bees in 

 a given locat on, the larger the crop of honey, 

 other things being equal. 



WHEN TO START. 



An experienced bee-keeper need not hesitate to 

 buy bees any season of the year. Some of the 

 best bargains are found in the tall, for it is then 

 much eas'er to buy bees than in May, when the 

 prospect of a honey crop is near at hand. How- 

 cer, for one without experience, May is the best 

 month to purchase bees, for he will be sure of 

 having them through one surplus season at least 

 before he has the wintering problem to contend 

 with, and this much experience will help him in 

 the solving of the winteiing problem. 



NOT NECESSARY TO BUY OLD HIVES. 



When buying bees, see that the combs are in 

 good modern frames of Langstroth size. The 

 hive is of secondary importance; for if the combs 

 are of the worker size, and straight and true, they 

 can be transferred to frames in new hives. This 

 is the way most of our buying is done; for after 

 the bees are transferred the old hives are returned, 

 for we do not want them If the beginner were 

 to buy three or four old hives, and use them in 

 connection with new ones, they would never be 

 satisfactory. It usually happens that bees can 

 be bought enough cheaper without the hives to 

 make it more economical all around to buy new 

 hives outright. 



In my next article I will tell how we select the 

 bees, move them home, and I will also have 

 something to say concerning supplies necessary 

 to work with, etc. 



Remus, Mich. 



IRRIGATED DISTRICTS FOR BEE- 

 KEEPERS. 



BY I. A. GREEN. 



[The following came from our old friend and correspondent, J. 

 A. Green, who at the time of writing was in New York, about to 

 engage passage for England. We hope to hear from him on his 

 European tour. — Ed] 



Wesley Foster's warning to those who expect a 

 newly opened irrigated district to be valuable to 

 bee-keepers at once was well put. He might 

 have gone further and told how, in some cases, 

 irrigated d stricts cease to be of value to bee- 

 keepers in the course of time. This is the case 

 in parts of Mesa County already. The land has 

 become so valuable for fruit-growing that alfalta 

 is no longer raised, and sweet clover and similar 

 plants are not alloAed to occupy much ground 

 Land that is worth anywhere from $500 to $2500 

 per acre is too valuable to be allowed to produce 

 much in the way of honey-yielding plants. Of 

 course, the fruit-trees yield their nectar in season; 

 but, though there are hundreds of acres of solid 

 bloom, there are not bees enough at that season 

 to get more than a small part of it, and later there 

 is almost nothing for them to gafher. 



An irrigating project that has rot been men- 

 'ioned is the" High Line Canal "at Grand Junc- 

 tion, which the government has practically de- 

 cided to build. This will open up a large tract 

 of land to the irrigator, but most of it will be so 

 quickly planted to fruit that there is not much 

 encouragement for bee keepers in the project. 



BEtT AND CANE SUGAR. 



W. K. Morrison, in speaking of the produc- 

 tion of beet sugar some time ago, mentioned the 

 beet sugar factories of Colorado and adjoining 

 States, and said that all the sugar they produced 

 was uesd at home. I am away from home as I 

 wti'e this, and can not give the exact figures of 

 Colorado's sugar production, but his statement 

 is certainly far out of the way. I doubt if even 

 one fourth of the product of Colorado's sugar- 

 factories is consumed within the State, or even 

 the adjoining S'ates. 



A feature of this matter that has, perhaps, es- 

 caped his attention, and that is very interesting 

 to me, is the large amount of cane sugar that is 



