NOVEMBER 15, 1913 



809 



Colored students from the Langston Agrri^ultural and Normal University taking a lesson on bees. 



was awarded by the State President, Mr. N. 

 Fred Gardner, of Geary, Okla. 



With the increased acreage of alfalfa, 

 sweet clover, and cotton, Oklahoma will be 

 one of the leading honey-producing States 

 of the Union. 



Coyle, Okla. 



BEEKEEPING IN NEW ZEALAND 



Some of the American Methods a Failure Due to 

 the Difference in Locality 



BY C. A. OLDMAN 



Naturally I thought I was on a fairly 

 safe wicket by following the plans of man- 

 agement given by such prominent beekeep- 

 ers as Dr. Miller, Alexander, Doolittle, and 

 others; but expensive experience has proved 

 otherwise, and now I can agree with Hutch- 

 inson that " The question of all questions is 

 that of locality." 



In short, I find by experience that, if one 

 would be successful in beekeeping, locality 

 must first~be studied thoroughly, and then 

 any desirable plans modified to conform to 

 the conditions that locality enforces. Weath- 

 er conditions in the same locality vai-y, and 

 a plan that works to perfection in a normal 

 year will require modifying to suit unusu- 

 al seasons. For instance, four seasons ago 

 shaken swarming on foundation was a per- 

 fect success, the season being a fairly nor- 



mal one, and the weather warm; but the last 

 three seasons it has been far from success- 

 ful, owing chiefly to very changeable weath- 

 er, and I had to give a frame of brood and 

 two or more drawn combs (the rest being 

 foundation) when shaking, or I found that 

 no attempt was made to begin operations in 

 the brood-chamber. An excluder was used 

 in every instance. 



The plan of placing the shaken brood- 

 chamber to one side in order to allow brood 

 to hatch out also had to be modified, and I 

 practiced putting it on top of a colony that 

 could use the extra bees, giving the shaken 

 swarm a brood-chamber from another shak- 

 en colony later on, if they required it, when 

 their own brood-chamber was well advanced. 

 I have had too many cases of maturing 

 bi^ood perishing, owing to cold changeable 

 weather, and I have no intention of again 

 leaving brood-chambei's to care for them- 

 selves, as I consider it far better to be sure 

 than sorry. 



Alexander's plan for increase i^roved a 

 dismal failure, so far as I was concerned 

 last season. I tried it rather extensively, 

 with the result that I materially reduced my 

 prospective honey crop. Most colonies treat- 

 ed made no attempt to start a brood-cham- 

 ber and the majority of them started cells 

 on the frame of brood given below, and 

 superseded their queens even though their 

 queens were young and had proved to be 

 first-class before the change was made. It 



