98 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



M 



arcr 



tal. I had never yet been in Wash- 

 ington, although I have visited nearly 

 every State. So one may know that 

 my day was well filled. In fact, 1 

 was tired out before the day ended. 



The ne.xt night, I again took a 

 sleeping-car (seven times in all dur- 

 ing my trip) and the next moirning I 

 was at Lynchburg, Va. 



DEMONSTRATION APIARIES IN 

 IOWA 



By E. W. Atkins 



During the seasion of 1920 the Ex- 

 tension Department of the Iowa State 

 College, in co-operation with the U. 

 S. Department of Agriculture, out- 

 lined a project entitled "Increased 

 Honey." The object of this project 

 was not to necesarily increase honey 

 production by making more beekeep- 

 ers, but rather to incease the crop 

 by making the apiaries which already 

 e.xisted more productive by better 

 methods of beekeeping. The project 

 called for a series of demonstration 

 meetings in a county to be conducted 

 in five visits throughout the year in 

 order to discuss the subject in hand 

 just previous to the time of its appli- 

 cation in the apiary. In carrying out 

 this work the underlying principles of 

 bee behavior were emphasized rather 

 than methods. This gave rise to the 

 feeling" that the work was largely 

 theory, which sounds very nice, but 

 fails to function in bringing in the 

 dollars and cents. Such being the 

 case, it was decided to apply the 

 work by the specialist managing a 

 number of colonies in different parts 

 of the State, hence demonstration 

 apiaries were established. 



Six were started last spring. Where 

 possible, five colonies in each apiary 

 were taken over by the specialist and 

 the remainder of the colonies were 

 maintained by the owners for the 

 purpose of comparing the results 

 with those obtained by the specialist. 

 These were called check colonies. The 

 first thing done where the bees were 

 not in modern hives was to purchase 

 two-story 10-frame Langstroth hives 

 and four shallow extracting supers 

 for each colony. These were fitted up 

 with full sheets of comb-foundation. 

 On the second visit to the apiaries, 

 which was made at the time the dan- 



delions were coming into bloom, the 

 queen was given plenty of room for 

 egg-laying. To do this where 10- 

 frame Langstroth hives are used it is 

 necessary to give an extra hive-body, 

 as the average queen is capable of 

 laying sufficient eggs to have at least 

 tlie equivalent of twelve Langstroth 

 frames of brood by the beginning of 

 the main honey flow. In some cases 

 the bees were in immovable frame 

 hives. In transferring them the prin- 

 ciple of giving plenty of room was 

 followed by placing a new 10-frame 

 hive-body on top. As s-oon as the 

 queen became established in the up- 

 per body the bees were drummed 

 from the lower body, with the e.x- 

 ception of enough to care for the 

 brood. The lower body, with its bot- 

 tom-board, was then placed just to 

 the rear of its stand and the entrance 

 was contracted. The upper hive- 

 body was then given a bottom-board 

 and placed on the old stand and the 

 queen given all the room she re- 

 quired. Twe.nty-one days after this 

 operation all the bees had emerged 

 from their cells in the old hives. Each 

 old, immovable frame hive was then 

 drummed again by placing an empty 

 bo.x on top which the bees could run 

 directly into. The bees from each 

 hive were shaken out of the box at 

 the entrance of the new hive, which 

 contained their old queen. The 

 combs were then cut out of the old 

 hives and rendered into wax. The 

 bees were only transferred in this 

 way when it was found that they 

 were free from American foulbrood. 

 In one apiary of ten colonies, both 

 American and European foulbrood 

 were present in every colony in the 

 spring. Four of the colonies were 

 very weak; these were united, leav- 

 ing six fairly strong colonies each in 

 one-story hives. This manipulation 

 was the first step in the treatment of 

 European foulbrood. At the begin- 

 ning of the white clover flow the col- 

 onies were shaken for American foul- 

 brood. If this disease had not been 

 present the shaking treatment would 

 have been omitted, as it was found 

 that since the colonies had been 

 strengthened, and with honey coming 

 in, the European disease became less 

 serious. Shaking necessarily weak- 

 ens the colonies, as they are withoDt 



Preparing demonstration culunicb loi winter. 



daily emerging bees for at least three 

 weeks. This is not a desirable condi- 

 tion for bees with European foul- 

 brood, but the operation is absolutely 

 necesary in the case of American. 



Towards the end of the clover 

 honey flow untested Italian queens 

 were introduced to the colonies, this 

 completing the treatment for Euro- 

 pean foulbrood. In this apiary all 

 the colonies were treated for the dis- 

 ease, although only five were used in 

 the demonstration grou'p. This was 

 necessary because none of the colo- 

 nies would have survived the season 

 had they not been treated, and those 

 that were treated would have again 

 been exposed to American foulbrood. 



Swarm Control 



Three colonies in one of the other 

 apiaries were treated for American 

 foulbrood at the beginning of the 

 clover honey flow. Also at that time 

 all the other colonies were manipu'- 

 lated to control swarming. To do this 

 the queen of each colony with one 

 frame of brood was placed in the cen- 

 ter of another hive-body containing 

 nine frames of full sheets of founda- 

 tion The remainder of the colony 

 was stood to one si 1 ; until the body 

 containing the queen was placed on 

 the bottom-board. A queen excluder 

 was then placed over this hive^body 

 and two shallow extracting supers 

 given. The remainder of the colony 

 was then placed above the supers. 

 Queen-cells were, of course, started 

 on the brood which was isolated from 

 the queen. However, these were not 

 destroyed, and in only one case from 

 twenty-two colonies treated in this 

 way did a swarm issue. This ocurred 

 in the western part of the State, in 

 an apiary where the twelve check 

 colonies all swarmed. The reason for 

 the colony swarming was that a 

 swarm from one of the check colonies 

 went into it and two days later came 

 out, taking with it most of the bees 

 from the demonstration colony. 



The clover flow was exceptionally 

 good in the western part of the State, 

 where three of the demonstration 

 apiaries were located. In the south- 

 eastern section the flow was only 

 moderate, as it terminated rather 

 suddenly. Absolutely no honey was 

 obtained in the fall, with the excep- 

 tion of in one of the sou'theastern api- 

 aries where most of the surplus was 

 obtained from Spanish needle, and 

 one of the western apiaries where a 

 considerable quantity of honeydew 

 honey was obtained. Before 'prepar- 

 ing any of the light honey produced 

 by the demonstpation colonies for 

 sale, five combs, or approiximately 25 

 pounds of honey were set aside for 

 each demonstration colony. This 

 quantity was in addition to that 

 which the bees had in the hive-body 

 occupied by the queen. The follow- 

 ing table gives the amount oi honey 

 which can actually be sold from each 

 apiary. The entire crop produced 

 above the hive-body occupied by the 

 queen in tlie check colonies is cred- 

 ited to their production: 



