GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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Wesley Fostee, Bould»r, Colo. 



The beemen of Fremont County have an 

 energetic inspector in Mr. Flo. Brainard. 

 Mr. Brainard inspected over 100 apiaries 

 in 1911, containing about 1000 colonies. 

 The foul-brood situation looks much better 

 than last year, and witliin a short time it is 

 probable that the loss will be reduced Lo the 

 minimum. Mr. Brainard operates about 

 200 colonies of bees, and has a 7';';>-acre 

 fruit place. He sells the most of his aoney 

 and fruit in the Cripple Creek mining 

 country, and gets a better price than most 



Colorado beemen. 



* * * 



A good many bees have been killed by the 

 fruitmen in the Canon City fruit districts 

 by spraying with arsenate of lead for the 

 leaf-roller. Probably some colonies will be 

 depleted in strength, but few killed com- 

 pletely. The leaf-roller is a very serious 

 pest, and the fruitmen feel that spraying 

 is the only way to save their orchards from 

 total destruction. They admit, however, 

 that the spray is killing only a few of the 

 rollers, but as long as they kill a few, some 

 will continue to spray. Not all spray when 

 the trees reach full bloom, although I saw 

 two orchards in bloom being sprayed. Very 

 few fruitmen now spray for codling moth 

 at a time when the bees can be injured. 



* * * 



May 10 sweet clover was up one foot at 

 Canon City, and colonies averaged four to 

 six frames of brood. Freezing weather had 

 hardly passed either. Canon City is further 

 along with the season than any other part 

 of the State. It is the distributing point 

 for spring weather in Colorado. And there 

 is one tiling I want to say about this Canon 

 City district. It is the most highly devel- 

 oped rural section of the State — perfect 

 roads, rural delivery, tidy, comfortable 

 homes (the houses are not oversize, as is 

 so common in many rural communities), 

 rural phones, small fruit-farms that are 

 not a burden in earing for them. The cli- 

 mate is Californian with the rainy season 

 left out. Canon City -48 a rural town ; the 

 town folks are the same as the country 

 folks, and I'll dare any one to tell where 

 the city limits of Canon City are. The 

 town and country are one, and blend into 

 each other imperceptibly. The town folks 

 have Ihe country spirit, and the country 

 folks have the city advantages. I am often 

 told that Boulder is the prettiest town in 

 Colorado. If Boulder had the fruit dis- 

 trict of Canon City surrounding it, my home 

 town would be the best place on earth. 



WINTER LOSSES AND HONEY PROSPECTS. 



Bees have not wintered very satisfacto- 

 rily, and in a number of places spring 

 dwindling is depleting the colonies. The 

 losses amount to about 25 per cent in the 

 Platte Valley from Denver to Sterling. 

 Some reports give a loss of 50 per cent 

 near Sterling. While I have no report on 

 the percentage of loss in the Arkansas 

 Valley, word has come to me that bees did 

 not winter well in that section. Several 

 Wyoming beemen have written to me want- 

 ing to buy bees, and one gentleman said 

 his losses had been heavy. From the low 

 temperature recorded last winter in Wyo- 

 ming, and the fact that most of the bees are 

 kept in single-walled hives, heavy losses 

 would naturally be expected. Some Idaho 

 beemen ax'e after more bees, jDartly due to 

 loss of colonies and partly to a desire on 

 the part of some to expand their opera- 

 tions. Idaho suffers as does Colorado, and 

 doubtless other States, from overstocking 

 in one locality and a lack of colonies in an- 

 other. I can not say whether Utah beemen 

 have suffered any losses or not, as I have 

 no reports ; but parts of the western slope 

 of Colorado have had heavy losses, the 

 largest loss being Montrose, where the mor- 

 tality in a few a^Diaries was 50 per cent 

 with many weak colonies trying hard to 

 survive during the month of May. 



I am writing this May 12, and the Mon- 

 trose men say that two or three frames of 

 brood are about as much as can be found 

 at this time. Some hives have more and 

 some less. It should be said here that the 

 season is at least three weeks late, and there 

 is still hope; but the backward season is 

 playing "hob" with the weak "uns." 



Now, in my judgment the prospects are 

 good, there is an abundance of water for 

 irrigation, and sweet clover is coming up as 

 well as if not better than usual. Tliis does 

 not seem to be the case near Denver, but is 

 true everywhere else||that I have observed. 

 The price of hay (alfalfa) is now $18.00 

 to $20.00, and at such a price the farmers 

 will not leave the first cutting till it can 

 bloom. 



The fruit bloom is coming out in a grati- 

 fying manner, and a great fruit yield is ex- 

 pected if no freezing occurs. The fruit 

 bloom is of considerable importance to the 

 bee interests where it abounds, and stimula- 

 tion to breeding and early swarming is the 

 result. It seems here in the West that the 

 swarming problem is a problem only in the 

 regions of fruit bloom. 



