(Entered at tho PosWJEDce at CUlcugo as Becond-ClaBU Mall-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,, APRIL 11, 1907 



VoLXLVII— No, 15 



editorial ^otes 

 and Commenfs 



"Keep Your Colonies Strong" 



This motto, under the title of Oettl's Golden 

 Rule, is given in the closing paragraph of 

 Langstroth's classic work as the essence of 

 all prolltable bee-keeping. It is generally 

 agreed that the strong colonies are the profit- 

 able ones; and probably few would dispute 

 the statement that 3 colonies of 30,000 bees 

 each will not store as much as the united 

 force of 60,000 bees in one colony. 



Yet some modify the motto by saying: 

 Know the honey-resources of your locality, 

 and have colonies strong for the harvest; but 

 do not have a lot of bees reared to come upon 

 the stage as a lot of idle consumers when 

 there is nothing for them to do. Certainly it 

 ought to be worth while to avoid needless 

 consumption, when it is considered that the 

 annual consumption of a colony is somewhere 

 from 100 to 200 pounds of honey. But when 

 we come to particulars, the problem does not 

 seem so easy. It is not easy to tell in advance 

 at what time a given plant will be ready to 

 offer its nectar, nor indeed whether it will 

 offer any. If one knows about when a flow 

 may be expected, one may figure when the 

 queen should lay eggs to be ready for it; but 

 how is one to manage to have a small force in 

 the hive during a dearth between two flows? 

 Those who can so control matters as to have 

 a strong force when a flow is on, and a strong 

 force only then, are wise to use such control ; 

 the average bee-keeper will do well to get his 

 colonies strong as early as he can in the sea- 

 son, and then try to keep them so. 



Narrow Frames for Extracted Honey 



E. D. Townsend says in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review that manufacturers list no proper 

 frame for extracting purposes, which, he 



thinks, should have neither top-bar, end-bar 

 nor bottom-bar more than %-inch wide. He 

 says: 



With this style of frame in our supers, 

 spaced IJi' inches from center to center, we 

 get great, fat combs; then, with a long un- 

 capping knife, out clear down deep, clear to 

 the frame. In this way we get more wax in 

 the uncapping tank; but the greatest advan- 

 tage is, we can uncap a whole comb at one 

 stroke. 



That seems reasonable, and perhaps there's 

 nothing original about it. But did you ever 

 think of such narrow frames as affecting the 

 quality of the'honey ? Here's something well 

 worth thinking over : 



In producing honey for exhibition pur- 

 poses, we insert full sheets of foundation in 

 between our extracting combs, in the supers 

 of some of our most powerful colonies ; and, 

 after quite an experience along this line, we 

 have never found a better way to produce a 

 superior article of extracted honey. While it 

 would not be practical to produce all our ex- 

 tracted honey direct from foundation, the 

 next best plan is to fill our supers with these 

 deeply uncapped combs. With these the cells 

 are only about half an inch deep; and this 

 drawing out of the combs when being filled 

 with honey, gives the bees an opportunity to 

 cure the honey nearhj as well as they would 

 in drawing out foundation. Never give thick 

 extracting combs during a heavy flow of 

 honey. 



How Much Nectar Per Acre? 



The man who should make out a reliable 

 table showing the number of bees that could 

 be supported upon each one of the more im- 

 portant honey-plants on a given surface would 

 be entitled to a high niche in the bee-keepers' 

 hall of fame. The data are so changeable, so 

 elusive that no one can say with any degree 

 of certainty how many acres per colony are 

 needed in any given case; and the worst of it 

 is that with the passing years we seem to 



be making no progress in gaining the desired 

 knowledge. Here comes a note from Dr. 

 Miller, saying; 



"Mr. Editor:— Before we get to blows 

 will you please settle a little matter between 

 Mr. Atwater and me? On page 208, he takes 

 exception to my guess that 200 colonies might 

 have good picking on 300 acres of white 

 clover if said white clover happened to be in 

 the mood of yielding. He doesn't say just 

 what the figure should be, but evidently he 

 thinks I expect too much of white clover. 

 Which of us is right! 



" I may say to you privately that after get- 

 ting a little additional light from his article, 

 and after thinking over the matter a little 

 more fully, it begins to seem to me that he's 

 nearer the right of it than I am; but please 

 don't side with him any more than you have 

 to, for I don't want him to crow over me too 

 much. The only datum I can give you on 

 which to work, is a rough guess at how thick 

 bees are on a piece of white clover when bees 

 are doing good work on it. Of course, it can 

 only be a rough guess; but just as I now re- 

 call, I should say that when bees are 5 feet 

 apart all over the field they are doing good 

 work." 



It is not an easy thing to decide between 

 two guessers, with no foundation to work 

 upon except a single item, and that a guess. 

 Other things being equal, Mr. Atwater ought 

 to make the closer guess in the case, for 

 " Utah's " conditions are probably more like 

 conditions in Idaho than in Illinois. Cer- 

 tainly in Illinois, when " hundreds, or even 

 thousands, of acres of as fine white clover as 

 one could wish, are covered with a mass of 

 bloom" covering a period as long as " during 

 part of May, often all of June, with more or 

 less bloom for many weeks later," one would 

 expect as a rule good crops, whereas in Idaho 

 Mr. Atwater says they are light. 



It may be well in passing to note the one 

 point on which Mr. Atwater makes a definite 

 guess. It is that in favored locations each 

 acre will support one colony of bees, provided 

 10 percent of it is covered with sweet clover 

 and the other 90 percent with alfalfa. That 

 guess stands till some one gives reasons for a 

 different one, and it is of value, even though 

 somewhat vague. 



As between white clover and alfalfa, it may 

 be mentioned that unless a field of alfalfa Is 

 used for raising seed its seasons of bloom, 

 however abundant, are likely to be short, the 

 mower being likely to level it as soon as it is 

 of most value, if not before; whereas white 



