526 



GLEAJSINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



yard at the other end of town, so I had only 

 four colonies to depend on for a crop. This 

 happened about the first of June. 



Before many days passed I had a visit 

 from Mr. Chas. Stewart, one of the New 

 York State bee inspectors. He looked at 

 the worst ones and advised me to clean up 

 by the Alexander method on the frame hives 

 and the shaking plan for the box hives. 

 From thence I waged war on foul brood. 

 It might do to mention here that the Italian 

 colony was working in 56 sections when the 

 inspector arrived. The foundation was 

 rather late in arriving from the factory, 

 so it was well into the clover flow before 

 any actual move was taken to drum out the 

 bees from the box hives. As soon as the 

 foundation arrived, business commenced. 

 Three box hives that were grouped close 

 together were run out by the forcing-box 

 method, and dumped in front of a ten- 

 frame hive filled with full sheets of founda- 

 tion, and provided with one super of 28 

 boxes. All box hives in the yard were treat- 

 ed in this fashion, and the hives with what 

 brood and bees were left in them were piled 

 up one on another at a different location in 

 the yard. In 21 days the 11 boxes were 

 shaken again, and gave me another colony. 

 All together there were 5 colonies from 11 

 box hives. All these shaken colonies aver- 

 aged about 75 lbs. of clover honey per liive. 

 July 25 these colonies were supplied Avith 

 good Italian queens in place of the black 

 ones. Owing to considerable outside work 

 at this period I did not treat every hive 

 with frames by the Alexander method. The 

 bees in the outyard that were given the plan 

 turned out well. But as the season advanc- 

 ed toward midsummer I did not dare to 

 take a queen out and leave the hive queen- 

 less for 27 days, because I feared a heavy 

 winter loss. So during the month of August 

 every colony that had not had treatment for 

 foul brood was requeened. There were in 

 August seven colonies diseased badly. This 

 season I shall watch these very carefully 

 and see if the Italians cure the disease alone. 

 I know that this method will not cure the 

 disease to any extent, but the good stock 

 will help to keep the disease under control. 



To return to the one Italian colony: Its 

 total number of sections last season was 190. 

 It seems almost wonderful to think of a 

 colony producing this amount with foul 

 brood on every hand. The two clean swarms 

 in the outyard produced 274 finished sec- 

 tions besides two sets of combs. Both of 

 these were, by the way, worked on the Doo- 

 little plan for comb honey, while the one 

 in the home yard did not even offer to swarm 

 until the bees started supersedure cells later 

 in the summer. So by the buckwheat flow 



the total number of colonies in the yard 

 numbered 32, and each of these had a fairly 

 good Italian queen. 



When I began to take care of bees, and 

 for a few years after, I thought it was fine 

 fun to watch for swarms and then chase the 

 little fellows around in the tree-tops in or- 

 der to hive them. But in the last season or 

 two experience made me change my mind. 

 It was the custom in most cases to lose a 

 few swarms each summer; however, by the 

 " shaking " method this trouble took care 

 of itself; and the best part of it was that 

 the colonies so treated made so much more 

 honey in return for the extra thought. By 

 the Doolittle plan for comb honey I can re- 

 ceive three and four times as much as by the 

 older methods. 



For a number of years I have been using 

 the Alexander plan for building up weak 

 colonies. In fact, I have never lost a colony 

 by it yet. This is one of the many good 

 plans that one comes across by reading the 

 bee journals and keeping close up with 

 the times. 



A word to the beginner might be helpful. 

 Some in the first stages of bee fever do not 

 use full sheets of foundation in both sections 

 and frames. After one has tried full sheets, 

 no one can hire him to go back to starters 

 again. The section boxes which I use ar*^ 

 split one side and filled with a full sheet of 

 extra-thin super foundation. The sheets 

 are waxed in on three sides in accordance 

 with the Yoder plan described April 1, 1908, 

 p. 431. The split of the section comes at 

 the top and leaves a bee space at the lower 

 edge of the sheet. Sections filled with hon- 

 ey after they have been prepared in the 

 above manner seldom break in transit. 



My home yard is about three-fourths of a 

 mile from the western shore of Seneca Lake. 

 Woods and vineyards stretch along the shore 

 in both directions, and sometimes as far as 

 half a mile inland ; so the limit of forage 

 in the lake region forces the bees to go in 

 other directions for honey-producing plants. 

 Our main crop here is derived from clover 

 and raspberry, while buckwheat sometimes 

 yields a small surplus in a good season. 

 However, we count ourselves lucky if the 

 bees gather enough of that for their winter 

 stores. But, on the other hand, five or seven 

 miles to the west, and sometimes even north, 

 numbers of acres of buckwheat bloom each 

 year, and from all appearances the clover 

 has equal strengih; therefore you see at 

 once why I favor outyards. The only out- 

 yard which I have at present occupied witli 

 bees is but a mile and a quarter from the 

 home yard, and in reality consists of a small 

 overflow from the latter. 



Dundee, N. Y. 



