1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



145 



where to locate any particular colony 

 or queen. 



I have a separate hook to keep a 

 record of scale hive, which is an aver- 

 age colony; thermometer, barometer, 

 and conditions of weather, etc. 



The moving of bees, of late years, 

 plays havoc with individual records, 

 as thieves cause me such great losses 

 that I have to move my bees away to 

 the coast, where I can catch them. 

 This is done after the sage flow is 

 over; so then I take advantage of the 

 bean flow, which commences about 

 July 1 to 10, following wet winters. 



As you are well aware, I am the 

 pioneer in moving bees to the lima 

 bean fields, as one favorable season 1 

 extracted 140 pounds of surplus |p;er 

 colony from the beans. This was an 

 exceptionally favorable location. 

 Many of the farmers are prejudiced 

 against bees; so this favorable loca- 

 tion was sold and I could not secure 

 it again. There are other locations 

 where I secured two good extractings, 

 about 100 pounds per colony. 



To return to records. If a person 

 permanently ' locates his colonies of 

 btes, a good system of records is a 

 saving of time and a great satisfaction 

 to the owner. Any particular colony 

 in an apiary that needs attention, 

 you don't have to hunt to find it. 

 Your record will direct you to the 

 number, and you will know the exact 

 attention needed. 



I have had as high as 900 colonies in 

 one apiary, and in such a large apiary 

 a record is a great convenience. 



My Piru location used to be able to 

 support (following a wet winter) 1,000 

 colonies, but many mountain fires 

 during a series of dry years have 

 kilkd out a great area of the sages, 

 so that it will not support ov r 500 to 

 700 colonies now, or following a wet 

 winter. , 



California. 



A VENTILATED HONEY HOUSE 



In the Sunny South, where there 

 are many warm days when it is 

 necessary to work among the bees, 

 we sometimes find honey houses par- 

 tially screened to give free access to 

 every breeze that blows. In our No- 

 vember, 1918, issue we pictured a 

 honey house in West Texas which 

 had an open strip clear around the 

 building which was covered with 

 wire cloth to keep out the bees, while 

 freely admitting the air. 



The picture shown herewith of a 

 honey house on the plantation of W. 

 VV. Worthington, of Wayside, Miss., 

 shows the ends covered with wire 

 cloth, while the rest of the building 

 is closed in the regulation way. These 

 ventilated buildings are used for e.x- 

 tracting, mostly. 



THE CORNELL SHORT COURSE 



By Gove Hambridge 

 A large group of the beekeepers 

 of New York State spent an instruc- 

 tive and enjoyable week at Cornell 

 University February 7 to 12, in at- 

 tendance at a short course for com- 

 mercial beekeepers held under the 

 auspices of the New York State Agri- 

 cultural College. The week was 



crowded with lectures from 8 a. m. un- 

 til bed time, and the writer of this 

 does not remember getting quite so 

 solid a block of information in any 

 other single week of liis life. 



There were two types of lectures — 

 those by experts in apiculture and 

 those by experts in other branches of 

 agriculture closely related to bee- 

 keeping, the latter being something of 

 a «ew departure in courses of this 

 sort. Dr. E. F. Phillips was the prin- 

 cipal speaker. Beginning with "The 

 F'all Period," he considered in succes- 

 sive talks "The Behavior of Bees in 

 Winter," ''Outside Wintering," "Cellar 

 Wintering," "Symptoms of the Brood 

 Diseases," "Spring Management," 

 "Variations in Locality," "The Treat- 

 ment of American and European 

 Foulbrood," and "Variations in the 

 Virulence of European Foulbrood." 

 His talks were crowded with valuable 

 fundamental data regarding the exact 

 qualities of nourishment by weight 

 that bees require at the various stages 

 of their development, calories of heat 

 in larval growth, and similar scientific 

 underpinnings for sound practice. 

 Most novel, perhaps, was his careful 

 analysis of all the chief honey regions 

 in the United States, with the effects 

 of soil, temperature, rainfall, and ele- 

 vation, on nectar secretion ; and the 

 results of his original investigations 

 into the regional variations in the viru- 

 lence of European foulbrood, in which 

 he showed the effects of soil condi- 

 tions as factors strongly affecting the 

 disease. 



G. S. Demuth was able to be present 

 on one day only, during which he 

 crowded in two rapid-fire talks on 

 "The Honey Flow and Control," which 

 kept pencils dancing across note 

 books. George H. Rea admirably sup- 

 plemented the discussions of Dr. Phil- 

 lips with lectures on certain practical 

 aspects of beekeeping: "Little Known 

 Honey Sources of the State," "Re- 

 queening," "Wintering in New York," 

 "Prevalence of Bee Diseases in New 

 York," "Preparation for the Clover 

 and Buckwheat F'lows." His intimate 

 knowledge of almost every corner of 

 the State enabled him to correlate the 



practices of widely scattered beekeep- 

 ers and present principles applicable 

 to various regions. 



Not the least interesting talks were 

 those by experts outside the apicul- 

 tural field. All of these talks centered 

 on beekeeping and were valuable to 

 the beekeeper, giving him accurate 

 and authoritative information which 

 he would not ordinarily obtain save 

 by painful research. Professor G. H. 

 Collingwood, for example, talked on 

 trees, as sources of nectar, as wind- 

 breaks, etc.; Professor Robert Mathe- 

 son on "Sources of Honeydew" (a 

 very complete exipose) ; Professor G. 

 W. Herrick on "The Value of Bees in 

 Pollenation"; Professor E. L. Worthen 

 on "Soils and Their Treatment," espe- 

 cially as affecting nectar secretion; 

 and Professor K. M. Weigand on "The 

 Mechanism of Pollenation and Nectar 

 in Plants." A. Gordon Dye, besides 

 presiding at some of the sessions, gave 

 a graphic account of the development 

 and construction of his winter packiiig 

 case, illustrating his talk with a com- 

 plete little model. 



Dr. J. G. Needham, as chairman, en- 

 deared himself to everyone by his in- 

 exhaustible humor and consummate 

 skill in introductions. He also gave a 

 talk on "The Society of Bees and 

 Men," and there were other very en- 

 joyable evening addresses by members 

 of the Cornell faculty, including Presi- 

 dent A. W. Smith, Dean A. R. Mann 

 of the College of Agriculture, and Pro- 

 fessor A. A. Allen, the ornithologist. 

 Professor G. W. Whitney, of Cornell, 

 decidedly aided the spirit of solidarity 

 by conducting group songs. 



Four features stand out in the miml 

 of the writer:, the wide range of sci- 

 entific data presented by Dr. Phillips; 

 the valuable side lights given by au- 

 thorities in related lines of activity; 

 the indefatigable efforts ' of George 

 H. Rea. resulting in a week that ran 

 as smoothly as clockwork, and the 

 cordiality of the University's spirit ot 

 co-operation toward the State bee- 

 keepers. To this must be added the 

 fine spirit of mutual helpfulness and 

 friendliness evidenced among those 

 who attended. 



The Worthington honey house is screened at both ends to provide a comfortable work room 



hot weather 



