GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



ALMA APIARY. 



Belonging to George Gould, Rocky Ford, Colorado. 



BY J. T. CALVERT. 



The illustration on this page shows a tasty 

 and well-arranged apiary in the great melon 

 and alfalfa region of Southeastern Colorado. 

 It is located some two miles to the northwest of 

 Rocky Ford ; and when I visited it two years 

 ago it was surrounded with very large tracts of 

 alfalfa, with the delicate blue flowers in full 

 bloom. The mowing-machines were hard at 

 work cutting the heavy growth of alfalfa for 

 hay, and cutting off the foraging ground for 

 the bees. Owing to the presence of a trouble- 

 some weed they were cutting the hay a little 

 earlier than usual, so as to prevent the weed 

 going to seed or getting too large. They usu- 

 ally cut four crops of hay, and each crop 

 yields honey before it is cut. The large ob- 

 ject at the left of the house in the picture is 

 a stack of alfalfa hay. Nearly every farmer 



7-to-foot, on T tins, in the regular shallow 

 dovetailed super, which is generally made % 

 inch deeper to provide for undue shrinkage in 

 this very dry climate. Two tin separators are 

 used in each super, and full starters of extra- 

 thin foundation in the sections. 



Most of the honey produced in this section 

 is the finest white alfalfa. Sometimes the 

 bees gather from white sunflower a strong- 

 flavored amber honey, but prefer the alfalfa 

 when that is in bloom. Mr. Gould, the owner 

 of this apiary, formerly kept bees in Kansas ; 

 but owing to successive years of drouth, and 

 unfavorable conditions, he was forced to 

 leave. He seems to be prospering well in his 

 new location. He is a careful bee-keeper who 

 appreciates nice implements and good work- 

 manship. His apiary and honey-house are 

 models of neatness, and he certainly dues his 

 part well in attaining the success he merits. 



Mr. H. F. Hagen started Mr. Gould in this 

 location, and may still have an interest in the 

 apiary. He has also started manv another in 



1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



•471 



always come out weak in the spring, as they 

 go into winter weak. 



Answer.— Before answering the above I 

 would sav that, as a rule, I do not think it 

 pays to try to keep or build up after-swarms, 

 for the reason that, with an after-swarm, goes 

 all prospect for any surplus honey from the 

 parent colony from which it came. To hive 

 each first or prime swarm that comes, general- 

 ly allows of very nearly doubling the number 

 of colonies in an apiary each year; and unless 

 winter losses are great this would build up an 

 apiary as fast as the experience of a novice 

 would warrant, did he expect to become the 

 most successful apiarist. Then, again, the 

 amount of surplus honey obtained from the 

 parent colony from which no after-swarms are 

 allowed to issue would, as a rule, sell for more 

 than enough to buy good full colonies to take 

 the place of the after-swarm, and thus all fuss- 

 ing with after-swarms be saved. Of all the 

 annoyances and nuisances in the apiary, with 

 me after-swarms are the worst. Many the 



the questioner and the readers of Gleanings 

 how I used to do this when I was more anx- 

 ious for bees than I was for honty. 



The very first requisite toward a successful 

 start for an after-swarm is a frame of brood to 

 be placed in the hive at the time of hiving 

 them As the queen with after-swarms is seldom 

 fertilized till the day after the swarm issues, 

 and often not till several days afterward, it is 

 all the way from two days to a week before 

 she commences to lay, so that it is nearly a 

 month from the time of hiving before any 

 young bees hatch or emerge f'om the cells, by 

 which time the bees going with the swarm are 

 (the 1 rgerpart) dead, dying of old age, which 

 makes and keeps the colony weak as to num- 

 bers, from the beginning till entering winter 

 quarters. By giving a frame of brood this 

 weakness part is very materially heir e 1 ; for 

 as fast as the bees die of old age, brood is 

 hatching from this frame to take their places; 

 and thus the queen, when she gets to laying, 

 has suitable bees to mature the eggs which she 



has a few bees, so they are more inclined to 

 leave the bloom as long as they can for the 

 bees than if they were not personally in- 

 terested. The luxuriant crops of fruit, clover 

 melons, etc., depend almost entirely upon 

 irrigation, hence the conditions are more 

 regular and constant. Beyond the irrigation- 

 ditches the country is almost a barren wilder- 

 ness, used mainly for grazing when used at 

 all. This region has a reputation all over the 

 country as the place where Rocky Ford canta- 

 loupes come from. Hundreds of carloads of 

 melons and cantaloupes are grown and ship- 

 ped each year. 



The apiary has very greatly expanded in 

 size since I saw it two years ago. The hives 

 used are the eight-frame Dovetailed and dove- 

 tailed chaff. The sections used are iyiXiyiX 



APIARY OF GEO. GOULD, I >CKY FORD, COLORADO 



successful bee-keeping about Rocky Ford 

 When I was there there were over 2000 colo- 

 nies of bees within a radius of four or five 

 miles of his home in Rocky Ford 



BUILDING UP AFTER-SWARMS. 



(?««/«>» -Please tell me in Gleanings 

 how I shall go to work to build up after-swarms 

 of bees so that they will make strong colonies 

 to go into winter quarters. My after-swarms 



bee-keeper in the past, who would give ten 

 times as much to know how to be entirely rid 

 of after-swarms as he would to know how to 

 build them up to good colonies for winter, and 

 Doolittle could have been cojnted among the 

 many. . 



But it is well to know both how to prevent 

 after-swarms and how to build them up when 

 allowed. I hav^ written several articles on 

 how to prevent after-swarms, but I do not re- 

 member ever writing one on how I would 

 treat such swarms in order that they might be- 

 come good colonies for winter. I can con- 

 ceive how one might wish to save after-swarms 

 after such a loss in bees as has been experi- 

 enced the past winter, so that the combs from 

 which the bees died might be saved and again 

 occupied with bees, and so I am going to tell 



lays so that, by the end of six weeks from 

 the time the after-swarm was hived, we have a 

 eood populous colony instead of a weakling. 

 Then if in addition to the frame of brood we 

 can give the swarm the remainder of the hive 

 filled with empty combs, or, better still, combs 

 having some honey in them, we shall have a 

 colony in the after-swarm at the beginning of 

 winter, more valuable than are those from 

 prime swarms, inasmuch as the queen will 

 surely be at her very best the next year, while 

 the queens in prime swarms often begin to 

 weaken and fail before the honey-harvest of 

 the next year. In absence of combs more 

 lhan the one containing brood I would cer- 

 tainly use foundation, even had I to pay -o 

 cents a pound for it, did I intend to winter 

 these af ler-swarms. I am aware that such aft- 



