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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Iowa and Wisconsin. Here I give a 

 table showing the amount of brood in 25 

 colonies on the different dates in Color- 

 ado. That the amount of honey that is 

 gathered is directly dependent upon the 

 amount of brood the colonies have about 

 30 days before the harvest begins, is 

 remembered. 



The table shows that the eleven colo- 

 nies in chaff hives contain 50 combs of 

 brood, and the 14 colonies in single- 

 walled hives have the same number, in- 

 dicating that the chaff hives are rather 

 the best for winter and spring in Color- 

 ado. The live colonies average a little 

 over 4 combs of brood each at this date. 

 My old rule, and a rule I have followed 

 out in Iowa and Wisconsin for years, is 

 to have the colonies average from 6 to 7 

 combs of brood from May 20 to 25. 

 Only one season in the last ten have 

 they failed to average 6}4 combs of 

 brood on May 25, and that was pro- 

 nounced a very late spring. 



The honey harvest here opens on 

 June 15 to 20, the same time as in 

 Iowa, on the 43rd parallel ; and those 

 colonies which have 6 combs of brood on 

 May 25, are able to take good advantage 

 of it. If a colony has more brood than 

 that, they were reduced to help weaker 

 colonies; and if a colony had only 5 

 combs of brood on May 25, then the 

 honey harvest was a few days ahead of 

 them. What the outcome will bo I can- 

 not say, but, if the harvest comes on 



time, the bees are from pjje to two combs 

 of brood below what they should be. 



In Colorado the honey is nearly all 

 from alfalfa — a plant very much re- 

 sembling clover, but larger in growth, 

 and it is said to yield honey for about 

 40 to 60 days, white clover and bass- 

 wood seldom last over 20 days. With 

 so long a harvest even weak colonies 

 should have time to build up to the best 

 strength, and do good work for a month 

 or more. 



Basswood and clover often yield at 

 the rate of 10 to 15 pounds of honey 

 per colony per day. The harvest being 

 so short, and there usually being sev- 

 eral cloudy days during the harvest, pre- 

 vented our getting a very large yield, 

 and one year there were barely seven 

 days, from spring until fall, when the 

 bees laid up a surplus of honey. Still, 

 in that short space of time my colonies 

 harvested an average of nearly 70 

 pounds of extracted honey per colony. 

 In order to do it the colonies had to be 

 up and doing the first day the yield of 

 honey came. Here, with this probable 

 lengthy honey-flow, it seems to me that 

 the yield per day must be rather light, 

 or we would hear of some astonishing 

 reports from this State. 



Every one here says this has been an 

 unusually cold, stormy STpriny. I have 

 heard that (I was going to say) one 

 thousand times.* I have heard it so 

 much that it has become a veritable 

 "chestnut." 



The best way to make the spring 

 early is to make the bee-hives warmer, 

 and give the bees some stimulating 

 food. There is very little if any honey to 

 gather here before the alfalfa blooms ; 

 also a great scarcity of pollen to en- 

 courage brood-rearing until cottonwood 

 blooms. I saw the bees so eager to 

 gather pollen about April 27, that they 

 would pay little attention to honey, and 

 would not rob. This never happens in 

 Iowa or Wisconsin. There is not enough 

 to assist in supporting the pollen theory, 

 yet many colonies have diarrhea, as I 

 have noticed. 



What is most noticeable in springing 

 bees in Colorado, is the large amount of 

 brood all through March and April, and 

 which does not increase very rapidly 

 until May 15, or later. The cause of 

 this is, that it is very warm when the 

 sun shines, and very cold when it does 

 not shine, and there are many sunshiny 

 days all through the winter. 



These warm days thoroughly arouse 

 the bees like mid-summer, and starts 

 them fo breeding very early ; then comes 

 the cold nights and days that checks 



