1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



345 



hive in the windbreak gained ID.OOO, 

 while the packed hive, similarly 

 placed, gained only 3,700. In 1918-1920. 

 the two-story hive in the windbreak 

 gained 5,936, whereas in 1920 it gained 

 8,125. These results would seem to 

 overthrow any evidence that we may 

 have had in the past as to the value 

 of winter protection, especially when 

 we consider the fact that the packed 

 hive in 1918-1919 had 24,331 more bees 

 than the unpacked hive, while in 1919- 

 1920 it had 6,300 less. This would 

 seem to indicate that the packing had 

 not been of any great value to it, es- 

 pecially when the unpacked one-story 

 hive had five frames of brood, while 

 the packed hive had only three 

 frames. Had it not been for the fact 

 that daily records of the changes of 

 weights were kept, these results 

 would have been very disconcerting, 

 and extremely hard to account for, 

 but upon turning to the daily record 

 we found that on April 20 the packed 

 hive reached its lowest weight. From 

 then until the 19th of May the gains 

 and losses ranged from nothing up to 

 an eighth of a pound, showing that on 

 April 20 the winter stores were ex- 

 hausted in that colony, and from that 

 time forward they were barely able 

 to secure enough nectar from the field 

 to even maintain the existence of the 

 colony. On the 19th of May, when 

 the colony was weighed, no honey at 

 all was found in the packed hive, 

 while in the one-story unpacked hive 

 there remained 3^ pounds of uncon- 

 sumed stores. The unpacked hive had 

 five frames of brood, whereas the 

 packed hive had only about three. To 

 all ordinary appearances, the packed 

 hive was a good, strong colony of 

 bees on the 19th of May, and anyone 

 would have been justified in thinking 

 that it had wintered well. However, 

 when the fact is taken into considera- 

 tion that during the previous year 

 this colony gained 24,8-14 bees between 

 the fall and spring, and this year only 

 gained 3,700, we can see that some- 

 thing w^as radically wrong. As the 

 one-story unpacked hive contamed 5 

 frames of brood, while the packed 

 hive only had three frames, we can 

 understand w-hy this weakened condi- 

 tion was brought about. On the 19th 

 of April, when the stores were ex- 

 hausted, the queen in the packed hive 

 did not lay as many eggs as the one 

 in the unpacked hive. To all appear- 

 ances this colony had wintered well, 

 yet when we consider that the date of 

 weighing was two weeks later than 

 the previous year, and that during 

 these two weeks the queen should 

 have deposited from 30,000 to 40.000 

 eggs, which would have filled six to 

 eight frames of brood, when as a 

 matter of fact it only had threi- 

 frames, it show-ed plainly that the 

 queen was seriously affected by the 

 shortage of stores. Had we not the 

 daily records of the changes in 

 weights in these colonies, we would 

 never have known why this colony 

 did so poorly. Although in this arti- 

 cle I have spoken of one colony, the 

 same fact holds true for the rest of 

 the colonies which became low in 

 stores. 



When the one-story unpacked hive 



in the windbreak is compared with 

 the one-story unpacked hive in the 

 open, the odds in the number of bees 

 gained, and in the amount of brood 

 are largely in favor of the one pro- 

 tected by a windbreak. Both of these 

 hives had unconsumed stores when 

 the spring weighing was made, but 

 the hive in the windbreak had con- 

 sumed 9 piiuiids more than the one in 

 the open, which it had used in brood- 

 rearing. The one in the windbreak 

 b;id five frames of brood and gained 

 10,000 bees, while the one in the open 

 only had 3 2-3 frames of brood and 

 gained 575. The fact that the packed 

 Iiive in the open gained more than 

 the unpacked hive in the open, both 

 in number of bees and the amount of 

 brood, demonstrated that, with other 

 things being equal, packing was of a 

 distinct advantage. Here again was 

 shown the value of a windbreak over 

 no windbreak, and, as in the open, 

 the two-story unpacked hive gained 

 8.000 more bees than the one-story 

 unpacked hive, the superiority of the 

 large hive over the small one for win- 

 tering was shown. The superiority of 

 the packed hive over the unpacked 

 hive in the open again showed the 

 value of winter protection. 



Some valuable deductions can be 

 made from these results, some of 

 which are: When a colony has in- 

 sufficient stores, even though it may 

 apparently winter well, yet the queen 

 will so far slow down in her work 

 as to seriously weaken the colony far 

 below the strength that it would have 

 been had it been supplied with suf- 

 ficient stores. Mr. Crane's statement 

 that if bees are supplied with plenty 

 of honey "they can stand almost any 

 cold for a time." and also his conten- 

 tion that without stores winter pack- 

 ing will not save them, are both 

 strikingly borne out by the above fig- 

 ures. When considering the question of 

 wintering bees, too much emphasis 

 should not be placed on any one fea- 

 ture of wintering. We know that we 

 must have a large number of young 

 bees; that we must have plenty of 

 stores, and also that if we can give 

 our bees the added value of a wind- 

 break and winter protection, it will 

 well repay us. but no beekeeper 

 should rely on any one of these fac- 

 tors alone and expect to get the very 

 best results. Thev are all necessary. 



SWEET CLOVER 



The world has suddenly found that 

 sweet clover is a valuable forage 

 plant. Beekeepers have tried for a 

 generation to overcome the great 

 prejudice against it. Farmers fought 

 it as a weed and lawmakers legis- 

 lated against it until it seemed the 

 task of educating the public to its 

 true value was well nigh hopeless. 

 The past few years have seen a won- 

 derful change in sentiment and re- 

 cent months have developed such a 

 demand for seed as the most opti- 

 mistic had hardly dared hope for. 



Now that sweet clover has demon- 

 strated its value, both as a soil build- 

 er and a forage plant, large areas of 

 new honey-producing territory will 

 rapidly open up. Great interest is 

 manifested in better strains and we 

 may shortly look for a blooming 

 period from May until frost. The 

 announcement that Professor Hughes 

 had found an annual variety led to 

 such a demand for seed that it was 

 only possible to send it out in small 

 packages of a few ounces, when the 

 planters wanted bushels, yet thou- 

 sands were disappointed and failed 

 to get any seed. A letter from Pro- 

 fessor Hughes states as follows: 

 . "You will be interested in knowing 

 that we sent out something over 45,- 

 000 small samples of seed of the an- 

 nual sweet clover this spring, and 

 that we had hundreds and thousands 

 of requests for larger quantities at 

 almost any price which we might ask. 

 We, of course, had no seed for sale. 

 When we made announcement re- 

 garding this clover we stated that it 

 did not originate here. We stated 

 that it was our opinion that the orig- 

 inal mutant from which this clover 

 has apparently come, occurred some- 

 where on wild land in the south." 



Professor Hughes further advised 

 us that he was in touch with two men 

 in Alabama who had sent him sam- 

 ples which established the fact that 

 the plant was growing there in the 

 wild state. He has since made a visit 

 to that section to investigate the ex- 

 tent of growth, and seedsmen will 

 offer the seed in larger quantities as 

 fast as it can be obtained. 



With the general introduction of 

 the annual sweet clover it can be 

 seeded with small grain, leaving time 

 for the plant to mature after the 



;ii'iar\ ni 'r^Miitkiclii I&hii. of Japan. 



