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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping Among the Rockies 



Wesley Foster, Boulder, Colo. 



SUNFLOWER HONEY. 



We are having our honey this year well 

 colored by the flow from the sunflowers. 

 This is the flrst year that enough nectar 

 has been collected from them to color our 

 alfalfa and sweet-clover honey. 

 i * * * 



i WHEN TO CUT ALFALFA. 



The older stockmen and ranchers still 

 maintain, in the face of the advice of ex- 

 periment stations, that alfalfa should not 

 be cut till in full bloom, and so I saw many 

 fields of beautiful purple on the western 

 slope that were a joy to the heart of a bee- 

 keeper, iji ^ 5(; 



NO NECTAR IN CLEOME THIS YEAR. 



Cleome, or Rocky Mountain bee-plant, is 

 to be found in large quantities over the 

 whole State ; but so far it seems to be yield- 

 ing no nectar this season. Many beemen 

 had hoped that it would furnish a fine fall 

 pasture for the bees, but this does not seem 

 to be probable this year. 



* * * 



Sweet clover is ten feet high beside our 

 orchard, and a man on horseback would al- 

 most be lost in the luxuriant growth. The 

 season has been a wet one for Colorado, 

 and the clover is yielding honey well. 

 Southwestern Colorado has red soil, and 

 the sweet clover there is more fragrant, 

 and I should judge it secretes more nectar 

 than in Northern Colorado. 



* « * 



STEALING HONEY. 



Honey thieves tried to drive the bees 

 from one of my filled supers with a shot- 

 gun, half a dozen shots being fired into it. 

 The super was jDulled otf and put into an 

 irrigating ditch to help get the bees out. 

 The hive was tijDped over in getting the 

 super off. Mud and dirt were daubed all 

 over the honey. The thieves were run 

 down by a young farmer, and their names 

 secured. He knew most of them. They 

 all had guns, and had been out hunting; 

 but he, unarmed, caught and lectured them. 

 The outcome will be interesting. 



* * « 



THE ROBBER TENT. 



Last fall Robert E. Foster, county bee 

 inspector for Montrose County, and myself, 

 made a tent without a top, as described 

 by the editor, August 15. We got the idea 

 from Dr. Phillips. Perhaps he got it from 

 the editor. The tent worked all right for 

 fall inspection if the apiary was not too 

 large ; but the bees finally do find they way 



over the top of that tent. Ohio bees may 

 not, but Colorado bees have a habit of 

 finding all six sides of a cube — perhaps 

 from their experience with the steep sides 

 of the Rocky Mountains. 

 » * * 



MAKING THE LOAFERS GET TO WORK. 



Bees which cluster on the outside of the 

 hive are wasting their time. A hatful of 

 them could fill a super in a week. Try 

 this plan : Lean a drawn comb beside 

 each outside cluster. The bees will soon 

 desert the side of the hive for the comb. 

 When eight or ten of these combs are cov- 

 ered with bees, beside as many hives, put 

 them all together into a hive; screen them 

 in, and haul to the next apiary. In three 

 or four hours they will be very glad to 

 have a virgin queen run in among them, 

 and such a colony will work with the vigor 

 of a new swarm. 



* * * 



UNOCCUPIED BEE TERRITORY. 



Colorado has a good number of unoc- 

 cupied fields for beemen, as a trip of in- 

 vestigation will show. A few districts 

 are overstocked, and it is not necessary to 

 warn against locating in these places. 

 There is hardly a county where a person 

 could not buy out one or more apiaries, 

 getting the range with the purchase. Bee- 

 keeping is not so profitable that there is 

 much crowding. Winter losses, foul brood, 

 arsenical spray poisoning, honey failures, 

 have all combined to make a cloud which 

 at least has no golden lining. We hope a 

 silver lining will still be in evidence. 



FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY FOR COMB 

 HONEY PRODUCTION. 



The inter-mountain region is one where 

 feeding back extracted honey for the finish- 

 ing of bait combs has been a demonstrated 

 success. Some few points should be borne 

 in mind if the best results are to be obtain- 

 ed. The colonies selected to be fed should 

 be strong in bees, and each should have a 

 young vigorous queen. It is important that 

 they be good wax-builders and wliite-eomb 

 makers. Feeding should be. started before 

 the honey-flow has ceased. As the flow ta- 

 pers off, the feeding should start. Combs 

 of even capijing and color should be placed 

 on hives doing a corresponding class of 

 work. The feeding should be discontinued 

 when the weather gets cool. September is 

 the last month for successful work, and 

 August is the month to begin. Such colo- 



