826 



.THAT AUTOMOBILE TRUCK FOR OUT-APIARY 

 WORK A GREAT SUCCESS. 



TiiK little machine has been kept busy in 

 hauling bees and equii^ment to eight diffei'- 

 ent outyards. It is capable of a maximum 

 speed of 22 miles an hour when running 

 light, and carrying a maximum load of over 

 1000 lbs. We can take easily 25 colonies 

 at a load; and as it requires only a very 

 short time to make the round trip, we can 

 take another load of 25 and make up a 

 whole apiary in the forenoon. 



Our policy last winter was to haul bees 

 home on a sled when snow was on the 

 gTound, winter them in our mammoth cel- 

 lars, and then in the spring, after the roads 

 hardened up, put the bees back again in 

 their several yards with the auto truck be- 

 fore mentioned. The scheme is working 

 out to our fullest expectations. Never be- 

 fore have we been able to secure any con- 

 siderable amount of honey from fruit 

 bloom; but the little auto truck has enabled 

 us to scatter our bees early in the season, 

 and carry them long distances to where the 

 fruit-trees are located. In one case we had 

 only ten colonies in a cherry-orchard ; and 

 in another case we had 40 colonies in a 

 fifty-acre apple-orchard. After we began 

 locating bees in the fruit regions, the farm- 

 ers all around us began to ask to have bees 

 put on their places, and next year we pro- 

 pose working for fruit-blossom honey as 

 we never have done before. 



While we shall not get any honey in su- 

 pers to speak of, it is worth something to 

 have the brood-nests filled with fresh honey, 

 and brood-rearing in all stages of develop- 

 ment. It is worth something to have fruit- 

 men ask to have bees put on their places, 

 because this saves the cost of rental. 



As soon as the fruit-bloom season is over 

 we shall move some bees from fruit-yards 

 wliere clover is scarce to localities where it 

 is abundant. This can easily be done with 

 a light truck at comparatively small ex- 

 pense. It does not make any difference 

 whether the entrances are perfecth' tight 

 all around. When the bees are once on the 

 road, the fighting equalities are taken out of 

 them; and even if they do get out, as they 

 sometimes do, there are no horses to be 

 stung. The truck we have is called the 

 Commerce, and was made in Detroit by The 

 Commerce Motor Car Co. Ours cost $875, 

 equipped with top, lamps, and all comi->lete. 



On one occasion our boys went out to a 

 distant yard prepared to stay over night 

 and sleep in the truck (which is covered), 

 get up early, close the entrances, and drive 

 back. But the bees fortunately went to 

 bed early. We closed them up and came 

 back that night. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



To show you the possibilities of the truck, 

 our yard-man who operates it and works 

 with the bees at the same lime went off on 

 a trip yesterday to a place 60 miles distant. 

 He left here at 6 :30, loaded up, got his din- 

 ner, and was back here by 4 o'clock. The 

 truck is used daily to carry the boys to the 

 outyards; but when they go they always 

 carry something with them. One crew of 

 three men are now running seven yards. 

 These will be operated for the raising of 

 bees for nuclei and pound packages, for the 

 production of honey, and the rearing of 

 some queens. 



SCHOOL FOR BEEKEEPERS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



Perhaps the most complete — certainly 

 the best equipped — school for instruction in 

 apiculture is the one located at Amherst, 

 Mass., at the Agricultural College. Wlule 

 there are regular students taking a course 

 in apiculture under Dr. Burton N. Gates, 

 the AgTicultural College announces a spe- 

 cial two-weeks' school for beekeepers to be- 

 gin May 28, followed by a convention on 

 June 11 and 12, at which time a number of 

 prominent beekeepers from all over the 

 United States will be present to give ad- 

 dresses. The following is the announcement 

 that has been sent out: 



The faculty and the courses which they will give 

 are as follows : Practical Phases of Beekeeping, Dr. 

 Burton N. Gates; Crops for Honeybees, .Prof. S. B. 

 Haskell; The Relation of Bees to the Pollination of 

 Plants, Dr. George E. Stone; Structure of Bees, Mr. 

 I. W. Davis; Bees and Beekeepers' Supplies, Dr. 

 James B. Paige. 



Students will have the use of the regular apicul- 

 tural equipment of the collegei consisting of about 

 two acres with fifty colonies of bees and a modern 

 building constructed especially for the teaching of 

 practical apiculture. Practically every device used in 

 American apiculture will be shown, it being the aim 

 of the department to procure new inventions as fast 

 as they appear, for the purpose of study and com- 

 parison. A library of over 700 volumes and papers 

 of apicultural literature will also be available to 

 students. 



It has been found necessary to limit the registra- 

 tion to fifteen, and applications will be accepted in 

 the order received. A registration fee of $2.00 will 

 be charged, and will constitute the laboratory ex- 

 penses. 



For bulletins or other information address Prof. 

 \V. D. Hurd, Amherst, Mass. 



Besides the lectures there will be field-day 

 work, showing how to take honey out of 

 the hives, how to extract — in fact, do a 

 hundred and one things connected with the 

 general work of handling bees. The College 

 lias erected a modern bee-building for wax- 

 rendering, extracting — in fact, for doing 

 any kind of work connected with a modern 

 beeyard. It is equipped with the latast 

 machiner3% including a power extracting- 

 outfit, with a honey-pump. 



The field day will be an exceptional op- 



