1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



657 



BEE-KEEPING AMONG 

 THE ROCKIES. 



By Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. 



sweet-clover growth. 

 The new growth of sweet clover is up in 

 fine shape along ditch-banks and roadways. 

 It looks favorable for a plenty of this plant 

 for another season. The new growth is 

 much more plentiful than the old growth. 



PAINT. 



The paint wears off two or three times as 

 rapidly on a cover as the rest of the hive, 

 and now is a good time to paint the hives 

 and covej's if they need it. These days are 

 right for a slow and hard drying of the paint, 

 which makes it wear longer. The weather 

 has been dry, as usual, in the fall, and the 

 wood is in fine condition to take paint. 



COTTONWOOD PROPOLIS. 



The propolis collected from the narrow- 

 leaf Cottonwood is red, and copious in quan- 

 tity. It grows along the streams and in the 

 mountain canons, and the bees near the foot- 

 hills and streams that have much of it along 

 their banks daub up sections, supers, and 

 hives with it. If there is any choice of loca- 

 tion in a district I would keep out of the 

 range of this tree if running for comb honey. 



Removing the last supers from the hives 

 has always been quite a difficult job. To 

 get all the bees out without having them un- 

 cap finished honey, and then to remove all 

 the supers in the yard without causing rob- 

 bing, has called for great care and speed in 

 working. One method I tried, which work- 

 ed well, was to go into the yard on a cool 

 evening about dark, remove the supers, and 

 lean them against the front of the hives so 

 the bees could easily pass from the super to 

 the hive. The night was cool enough so the 

 bees in the super felt the need of seeking 

 the hive, and it was not warm enough for 

 them to carry any of the honey from the su- 

 per to the hive. In the morning there were 

 over one hundred supers free from bees. 

 Only two supers contained any bees what- 

 ever, and these were quickly jolted out, and 

 the whole load put on the wagon and hauled 

 to the home honey-house without bees about. 

 The supers were gathered up before sun- 

 rise, and there was no uncapping of honey 

 at all. If the weather is right, not ton warm, 

 this is one of the best plans I know. A 

 warm evening might encourage the bees to 

 carry considerable honey to the hive. 

 ■^ 



COVERS AND MOISTURE. 



Now is a good time for a series of observa- 

 tions on the best covering for bees in the 

 winter. Here in the arid country things do 

 not get so very damp; but moisture often 

 collects in the hive and over the frames. 

 Colo-lies are all wintered on their summer 



stands with but little if any extra covering, 

 and this is usually sufficient. 



I have uncovered colonies in the same 

 yard, apparently of equal strength. One 

 hive would have moisture around the edges, 

 over the frames, while another would be 

 perfectly dry. The covers seemed to fit 

 alike — they were flat covers made of inch 

 stuff, but a little opening under the edge 

 will account for the difference. Ventilation 

 at the top is necessary to the best condition 

 of the brood nest, I am sure. Warmth, up- 

 ward ventilation, and evaporation are best 

 secured with the use of an inside cover, a 

 passage leading through this upward into 

 the air-space under the cover. If the cover 

 is not ventilated, the looser it fits the hive 

 the better. 



It is pleasant to know the bees are dry and 

 warm, well placed, and a cluster of bees 

 compact and snugly dormant. Bees fly so 

 much during the fall, winter, and spring that 

 a large amount of stores is used, and brood 

 is quite plentiful in hives that are in well- 

 sheltered places. 



4?- 



MEAT AND HONEY. 



I was never especially impressed with the 

 combination nf milk and honey, but good 

 thick extracted honey of mild flavor spread 

 over cold meat makes a morsel that is edible 

 in the highest degree. It sweetens the meat 

 without making one aware that it is honey 

 that sweetens. Try it and see if I am wrong 

 on the taste. 



I spent the first week in October camping 

 in the mountains at about 9000 feet eleva- 

 tion. The nights were cool, one, especially, 

 being quite cold. Our appetites were keen, 

 and every thing tasted away up in quality; 

 but honey seemed to make us feel that we 

 had a sweet of the wild outdoors. A spoon- 

 ful brought a whole mountain-side of wild- 

 ness and wild flowers to the mind. 



Bees in the rocks and hollow trees are 

 plentiful in the mountains, and miners and 

 woodsmen often get some honey this way. 

 The honey flora of the mountains is rather 

 limited, and most of the bees die of starva- 

 tion during the winter. This does not deter 

 the swarms from the valley going to the 

 mountains every good chance they get. 



Swarms within a few miles of the foot-hflls 

 almost always strike for the mountains when 

 they get away from the bee-keeper. They 

 leave their best pasturage, the alfalfa-fields, 

 and go toward the high wooded barriers that 

 show against the sky. Do the bees smell 

 the woods, pines, wild flowers, etc., or do 

 they see the mountains several miles away? 

 The foot-hills are so much in evidence that I 

 can not but think the bees see them, though 

 quite distant Several have reported swarms 

 going into the hills, staying several days, and 

 coming back, apparently dissatisfied with 

 the prospects of honey, starved out and cross, 

 willing to take up the more prosaic work of 

 calling upon alfalfa-fields instead of the more 

 romantic work among the wild flowers on 

 the rocky slopes. 



