134 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 1, 1900. 



Report of the Colorado State Convention. 



rCoiitiuued from pajje H8.J 



PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Mr. Pease — Tin packag'es can be used again. The fiber 

 package can not. Mr. Doolittle advises wooden boxes. 



Pres. Aikin — I don't know anything about them from 

 experience. 



Mr. Root- I think a lithographt label is so much more 

 attractive than the printing on the fiber package that it 

 would pay the diiference in price. 



Mr. Porter — There has been some talk of a uniform 

 package for extracted honey. If enough would use them, it 

 might pay to have a stamping machine of a certain size. 



[The secretary has lookt up this matter, and found that 

 the dies and other machinery for making 10-pound tin 

 honey-packages would cost about $300, and for making 5- 

 pound packages about $200.] 



H. Rauchfuss — One man should put up the honey to get 

 it uniform. A uniform package of honey would drive corn 

 syrup out of the market ; 35 cars of corn syrup a year are 

 used here. 



SECOND DAY. 



Mr. Lyon thus introduced this subject : 



OVERSTOCKING OF LOCALITIES : 



There is no question that there is great danger of over- 

 stocking a field. Locality and the man have everything to 

 do with it. A man capable of caring for bees as he would 

 care for other things will not feel the overstocking as 

 another would. Wintering has a good deal to do with this 

 question. Our winters here are hard, and we have sunny 

 days that encourage the bees to fly to their detriment. It 

 would pay to close up the hives if it could be done at all. 

 Fifty percent of an apiary was lost at Longmont last win- 

 ter. The cover was sealed down, and the moisture could 

 not escape. A few years ago a man moved his bees to a 

 quarter of a mile from mine, and got no crop of conse- 

 quence. It is the same as with cattle ; there is such a thing 

 as overdoing. I have not hitherto kept over 125 colonies in 

 one place, but next season I will try 150 or 200. It will save 

 the expense of one man. But we can not be too careful of 

 overstocking. There is no question there is room for all. 

 If one sees his neighbor getting a good crop, it is folly to 

 move in close to him. The man that gets his bees in shape 

 to gather the nectar will get the honey. _ 



Mr. Moon — There were two apiaries, one a mile and one 

 a mile and a quarter from mine, and the crop is better since 

 they moved off. I have 330 colonies in one apiary, and 

 there are 100 more within a quarter of a mile. But there 

 are immense quantities of alfalfa and sweet clover near by. 

 My crop this year was 865 cases, the largest crop I have 

 had, from about 275 colonies, spring count. 



F. Rauchfuss — Mr. Moon keeps more bees in one place 

 than any other person in Colorado. 



Mr. Lyon — Wouldn't Mr. Moon get more if he kept his 

 bees in different places ? I received one-third more by 

 dividing up. 



Mr. Thompson — Within a radius of a mile or so, or a 

 circle of something like two miles in diameter, perhaps 2''',, 

 there are some 700 or 800 colonies at the town of Montrose. 

 Wm. Willis has 60 or 70 colonies right in the midst of them, 

 and gets a bigger average than any of the others. George 

 Hone has about 270 colonies in his home apiary, and about 

 240 colonies in his out-apiary, about a mile and a quarter 

 distant, and there are a number of colonies in the neighbor- 

 hood. He thinks his region is somewhat overstockt, but he 

 gets fair crops. He is considered a good bee-keeper. Mr. 

 J. R. Penniston evidently thinks his locality is overstockt, 

 for he is thinking of selling 40 of his 60 colonies and get- 

 ting as much honey from the remainder of 20 as from the 

 60. There are about 100 acres of alfalfa accessible, and a 

 total of 100 colonies in the neighborhood, including his own. 



H. Rauchfuss— In this locality it is hard to keep up the 

 number of colonies in an apiary when it exceeds 75 or 100. 

 Before they rea9h that iinml3er, they increase ; afterwards, 



they do not. I believe an alfalfa locality is easily over- 

 stockt. Sweet clover is better. Last year we had hardly 

 any honey from the first crop of alfalfa at a time when bee- 

 keepers close to the foothills were getting a fair flow. One 

 year the flow commenced June 25 and stopt July 9. If 

 sweet clover had been in the locality it would have con- 

 tinued. It was not because the alfalfa was all cut ; 80 acres 

 remained uncut after that, but there was no gain. 



J. B. Adams — I believe the reason a large apiary does 

 not increase here is that the yield from apple-blossoms is 

 very light. 



Mr. Lyon — Believing my locality was overstockt, I 

 moved to Longmont. That shows my faith in the possi- 

 bility of overstocking. We are just on the point of over- 

 stocking at Longmont. 



H. Rauchfuss — Along Bear Creek there are 2,000 colo- 

 nies within seven miles, including several large apiaries. 

 The cultivated portion is not seven miles wide, and there is 

 much barren country included. But it is an exceptionally 

 good locality. There is much sweet clover, and the foot- 

 hills, which furnish spring flowers, are close. 



F. Rauchfuss — I think Mr. Adams is right — we can not 

 breed up our bees in the spring in the average alfalfa 

 locality here. That is seen by comparing the apiaries east 

 of Denver with the bees at the foothills. In regard to over- 

 stocking, the bee-papers have been making various allu- 

 sions to the large unoccupied fields of Colorado. All the 

 good fields within easy reach are occupied. Only about one- 

 twentieth of the area of the land is in alfalfa, and only in 

 14 counties, principally in the valleys of the Platte, Ar- 

 kansas, Grand, Gunnison and Uncompahgre. The biggest 

 portion of Colorado is unfit for bee-culture, owing to a wide 

 area of high mountains and desert lands, fit only for 

 grazing. 



Mr. Porter — At Lakewood there are at least 800 colonies 

 within an area of 2^'2 miles square. The yield is not so 

 good there as five or six years ago, altho sweet clover 

 has increast. 



H. Rauchfuss — In former years it seemed as if alfalfa 

 yielded more than it does now. 



Ch. Adams — One reason is that hay is cut earlier than 

 then. 



One year there was a great deal of bloom, and I could 

 not see more than a dozen bees on it. My 'average was 17 

 pounds. 



Mr. Lyon — Another very important reason has not been 

 taken into consideration. There are ten bees now on the 

 flowers where there used to be one. That depends upon the 

 sfreng/h of the colonies — that is the ))ia!i part of it. It is 

 true that alfalfa does not yield some years as it does others. 

 Mr. Porter — The dairy interests affect the alfalfa 

 around Denver, and in the northern part lamb-feeding, 

 which has assumed great proportions, requires tender 

 alfalfa, cut early. The main point is the grasshopper. 

 Take awaj' the grasshopper and you will double the yield. 

 It prefers the bloom. 



A Member^ — The grasshoppers eat the alfalfa which is 

 left along the ditches, and the sweet clover also. 



Pres. Aikin — I never cared to have more than 100 colo- 

 nies in one place, partly because the robbing is much worse 

 in a large apiary, and also the annoyance in working among 

 the bees. I prefer a small apiary. I think Mr. Lyon put it 

 mildly. There are probably 20 bees now where there was 

 one formerly. The farmers cut later this year in my 

 locality, and my crop was better. The first year I had the 

 best flow, and the bloom was continuous. I can almost time 

 the flow to a certainty by the amount of hay cut. I seldom 

 get any from the second bloom. At present, the farmers 

 aim to cut it just as it is in bloom. Last year there was an 

 abundance of moisture in my locality when it was dry here, 

 and the result was, the farmers got behind in their work, 

 and there never was such a good flow as this year, because 

 the alfalfa never had such a chance to bloom. Three or 

 four years ago there was lots of bloom, but little honey. 

 There were black spots on the leaves. One season there 

 was a large amount of web-worms, and if the grasshoppers 

 commence the flow is no good. Overstocking, therefore, is 

 not all. Mr. Farr told me he kept a large number of colo- 

 nies in one place in Utah, and could not see that the yield 

 was reduced enough to pay to divide. For some reason in 

 Iowa the flows dropt off. The bees decreast so there are 

 not nearly so many, but to-day they don't get the yield they 

 used to. 



Mr. Lansdowne — I agree about the grasshoppers. One 

 year I sowed alfalfa with wheat, and the grasshoppers ate 

 it all off. 



Prof. Gilletts— I think the .flamagr? from grasshoppers 



