DECEMBER 1, 1912 



Beekeeping Among the Rockies 



Weslev Foster, Boulder, Colo. 



Kditor Root made a slight mistake, Oct. 

 13. p. 647, in saying that fourteen per cent 

 of the bees were diseased five years ago, 

 and less than two per cent in 1911. This 

 did not refer to Colorado, but to Mesa 

 County. 



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The Colorado State Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion will hold its annual convention Dec. 

 12. 13, at the Auditorium Hotel in Denver, 

 14t]i and Stout St. There will be three 

 sessions a day, and live ones too. We should 

 have a larger attendance than for several 

 \e:irs. One of the features of the meeting 

 will be the automobile session, when deal- 

 ers will show the merits of their different 

 makes. 



Rober.t E. Foster, bee inspector for Mont- 

 rose Co., and myself, called upon a farmer 

 for the purpose of inspecting his apiary. 

 The time of day was about noon, and the 

 farmer inquired whether we had been to 

 dinner. We replied that we had. He then 

 said, "You better wait a little before open- 

 ing the hives, for the bees are in to their 

 lunch, and if disturbed they may stick their 

 forks into vou." 



and g'ive him a i^ercentage or can make 

 and sell them himself. Don't waste money 

 on a patent. If the money lost on worth- 

 less patented bee goods were available for 

 commencing co-operative effort the bee- 

 keeping world would be far more prosper- 

 ous. But for the good of co-operation it 

 is best that it should develop slowl3^ 

 * » -» 



THE EFFECT OF WEATHER OX COMB HONEY; 

 HUMIDITY AND GRANULATION. 



It has been stated a multitude of times 

 that such and such a locality produces a 

 white, well-ripened quality of comb honey; 

 and it has been the prevailing opinion here 

 in the West that such honey does not read- 

 ily granulate. There are disturbing factors 

 in these so-called rules. A rainy season 

 during the heavy flow tends to limit the 

 flow, and, in addition, to cause the honey to 

 be stored and sealed before being thorough- 

 ly ripened to the thickness that is common 

 with arid State honey. Such honey was 

 gathered this year in parts of the West, 

 and it is white or light amber, but thin in 

 consistency, and will show signs of granula- 

 tion sooner than would be the case if the 

 season had been drier. 



THE NEED OP NEW IDEAS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Let US soon have work in bee culture at 

 our agricultural colleges and high schools. 

 Twenty or thirty _young men could readily 

 find places with beekeepers in Colorado 

 each year if they were gi'ounded in the 

 ]n-ineiples of queen-rearing, making in- 

 crease, and comb-honey production. Api- 

 ary management and system, if taught in a 

 course in agriculture at an agricultural 

 school, would equip a good number of 

 young men to bring money-making ideas 

 to the specialist beekeeper, and help him 

 'plan his work in a way that would save 

 many a day's labor. 



* * * 



H. H. Root tells us, p. 585, Sept. 15, that 

 2000 patents on hives have been taken out 

 in this country, at an average cost of $100 — 

 that is $200,000 — a large sum, and proba- 

 bly more than 99 per ceiit is loss. Bee- 

 keepers should i^ut it down as a rule that 

 new hives are not worth patenting. The 

 difficulty here is that every one of these 

 hive inventors tliinks his invention is an 

 exception to the rule. If one has a new 

 hive or bee appliance in his head he should 

 try it out ; and if it proves good he can 

 doubtless get a manufacturer to make them 



Geo. J. Kindel, the Denver freight-rate 

 fighter, won out at the primaries for the 

 Democratic nomination for Congress. He 

 is one of the best-posted men on freight 

 and express rates in the United States, and 

 Colorado will be ably represented at Wash- 

 ington with him as our mouthpiece. Those 

 of our members in the Colorado Associa- 

 tion will remember what a stirring and 

 vigorous address Mr. Kindel made before 

 our last convention. I can assure western 

 beekeepers that all we need to do is to 

 l^resent the facts of freight and express 

 rates on honey before Mr. Kindel, and he 

 is all action at once. Mr. Kindel states it 

 as a fact that he has never gone before the 

 Inter-State Commerce Commission with a 

 grievance without securing a reduction in 

 rates. That is a good recommendation for 

 him. While Mr. Kindel is running on the 

 Democratic ticket, he has shown his inde- 

 pendence by running on the Prohibition 

 ticket wdien he could not get any of the 

 other parties to place him on their tickets. 

 Mr. Kindel will undoubtedly be elected, as 

 he has been actively engaged in work of a 

 public character for years. It seems the 

 Democratic machine was against him, but 

 he won just the same. 



