AUGUST 1, 19i: 



489 



went home feeling satisfied that he had 

 done his duty by his orchard. At the same 

 time I knew that a spray-pump was lying- 

 out back of his barn, rusty with neglect. 

 His peaches didn't need it. He had tried it, 

 and he knew. 



HIVES NUMBERED BY POSITION OCCUPIED 



BY LOUIS MACEY 



SPRAYING IN BLOOM KILLS BEES 



Half the Bees in Pecos Valley, N. M., Killed this 

 Spring 



BY R. B. SLEASE 



The editorial, June 15, on spraying fruit 

 trees while in bloom, makes my blood boil. 

 Of course, these men claim that, under cer- 

 tain atmospheric conditions, the spraying 

 did DO harm to the bees. Now, there are 

 only three conditions under which it would 

 not hurt bees: 1. Plenty of other flowers 

 that bees would rather work on ; 2. Weath- 

 er so cold that the bees were not working; 

 3. Weather too wet for bees to be out. Now 

 I have had bees right beside 600 acres of 

 orchard for the past 15 years, and the last 

 9 years the orchardists have been spraying, 

 and during this time I have had a little ex- 

 perience. In 1904 they tried spraying in 

 bloom. I lost about half of my bees and 

 brood, but only about 25 colonies perished 

 outright. Bees did not get in shape to do 

 any thing till Aug. 1, After this I did not 

 have any serious loss (as the orchardists 

 did not spray quite so early) till 1909, 

 Avhen I lost about 25 or 30 per cent of my 

 bees and brood, and some 30 good queens; 

 but by requeening promptly I lost only a 

 few colonies, and the bees got in shape to 

 make honey by July 10. 



In 1910 and 1911 I had some loss, but 

 not very serious. In 1912 I went over all 

 my bees the first of fruit bloom, and found 

 I had 163 hives in fair condition, with from 

 two to six frames of brood. Now (July 2) I 

 have 121 hives with some bees in. At least 

 a third have a patch of brood from two 

 inches in diameter to as large as the hand. 

 The rest have from half a frame to six 

 fram.es of brood. 



I have never had foul brood in my yard, 

 and find dead brood only when fruit trees 

 are si3ra3'ed in bloom. I then find plenty 

 of dead bees all over the yard. I had some 

 chilled brood one spring when we had a 

 cold wave and snowstorm April 20 and 21, 

 1907. 



So far as I can learn, at least half of the 

 bees in Pecos Valley were killed by si^ray- 

 ing this spring. If siaraying in bloom does 

 not kill bees in New South Wales it is very 

 different from the Pecos Valley of New 

 Mexico. 



Eoswell, N. M., July 2. 



I see Mr. Scholl, May 15, is voicing the 

 need of a satisfactory hive number "that is 

 cheap and readily transferrable from one 

 hive to another." 



When I got above 20 hives the "identity" 

 question began to bother me, and I went to 

 work and painted numbers on the hive 

 fronts in consecutive order as thej' then 

 stood ; but as time went on, and I found 

 mj'self putting colony No. 1 into hive No. 

 32, so as to clean the propolis and burr 

 combs out of their old home, and setting 

 hive 6 away off in another place, and the 

 swarm in a liive numbered 41 on the old 

 stand, etc., I found I was getting a good 

 many different kinds of mixups, besides 

 giving mj' apiary a very much jumbled-uj:) 

 appearance. 



Some of our beemen tell us they are do- 

 ing such a rushing "big business" that they 

 can't afford to bother with any such thing 

 as a record-book; but I think most of us 

 find time to keep track of our queens and 

 the different colonies and their changes; 

 and in any case the main thing we want to 

 identify is not the hive but the liive loca- 

 tion, or what some call the hive stand. 



I have evolved a plan for this that is sim- 

 ple, inexpensive, convenient, and as nearly 

 everlasting as the apiary itself; moreover, 

 this number automatically jDuts itself on. 

 My hives are in pairs in parallel rows, 

 "breaking joints" like tliis : 



DD DD DD DD DC 



DD DD DD DD 

 DD DD DD DD _ DD 



Each hive has two numbers — an individ- 

 ual hive number and a row number. That 

 the hive number comes first is all I have to 

 remember. The north row is 1, and the 

 first hive is 1-1, or "first hive, first row." 

 and the 14th hive in the first row automat- 

 ically numbers itself 14-1, as the next to 

 the last hive likewise proclaims itself 13-3. 



I occasionally paint the number on some 

 of the alighting-boards to save counting; 

 but unless the rows are very long, that is 

 unnecessary. I now have six rows, and 

 find it easy to increase either the length or 

 the number of the rows without tlirowing 

 the numbers "out o' kilter." 



The even-numbered hive is always the 

 east hive of the pair, and the odd numbers 

 are always the west hives in each pair. 



There are also several other advantages; 

 and the longer I use this plan the better I 

 like it; I don't expect it to suit all condi- 

 tions, but give it for all it is worth. 



North Platte. Neb. 



