1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



545 



Sep. 3, warm; cool; cloudy; weig-ht 103 'ij 

 lbs , gain 1*2. 



Sep. 4, rain all day; weight 1U3 lbs., 

 loss '2. 



Sep. 5, rain; cold; weight 102 ,'2 lbs., 

 loss ' 2 . 



Sep. 6, rain; cold; weight 102 lbs. 



Sep. 7. weight 103'2 lbs., gain 1. 



Sep. 8, weight 104 lbs., gain 'i. 



Sep. y, weight 103 lbs., loss 1. 



Sep. 23, no weights were taken here; 

 weight 101 '2. 



Sep. 24, heavy frosts; swarms all off; 

 weight 101 '4. 



They were on the scales 109 days, out of 

 which they made a gain in weight over the 

 previous day of 63 days. Days in which 

 ihey lost weight, 22. Days in which they 

 held their own, 19. Dajs not weighed for 

 several reasons, 5. On May 25, June 6 and 

 24, and Aug. 7, there were added 10, 10. 9, 

 25 = 54 lbs. in weight of supers and sections, 

 to weights, and July 14 and 30, Aug. 24, 

 Sept. 2+, there were taken away 86, 59, 53, 

 39=237 lbs., a difference in favor of gain of 

 183 lbs. The loss column figures 16 '2 lbs., 

 and the gain column is 211-^4 — a difference 

 of 195 '4 lbs., a difference of 12 '4 lbs., which 

 may have crept in through the exchange of 

 hive-bodies and empty sections at the time 

 of swarming, July 14. 



There are other points in these weights 

 and weather conditions worthy of pointing 

 out, but my article is already quite long for 

 a "sapling" like me, so I will leave it for 

 the reader to study out. 



My first attempt at kodakery was made 

 on the trip to and from the Denver conven- 

 tion. I have spoiled lots of films since, and 

 don't know it all yet; but herewith I send 

 you a few '"snaps," mostly of my bee-yard 

 and bees. 



I will begin at Nos. 1 and 2 by saying the 

 swarm of bees is the same one in both 

 cases. It weighs exactly 12'i2 lbs., and 

 was the product of one queen. The hive 

 from which they issued was a ten frame 

 one, with four supers on. It seemed full of 

 bees, yet often the swarm went out. The 

 little five-year-old girl in Fig. 1 is Luella, 

 my youngest of three girls, which is all the 

 family we have. The boy (five years) in 

 Fig. 2 is Reymon Meyers, a neighbor's 

 boy. I did not intend to appear in the pic- 

 ture; but the weight of the bees was too 

 much for either to hold. 



Figs. 3 and 4 show our middle girl, Annet- 

 ta, of 11 years. The view where she is sit- 

 ting on the hive was taken with the view of 

 getting a picture of the queen, which was 

 in plain view at the time of pressing the 

 button; but the print does not show her, so 

 far as I can see with a low- power magni- 

 fier. The colony back of her on the scales 

 is the one from which the record of weights 

 was taken in 1903, and was a daughter of 

 the queen I got of you (in 1901, I think it 

 was) . 



Fig 5 is my brother, Sam Hall, one of 

 three brothers, who claims to have spoiled 

 a good deal of hardtack forty years ago; 



and if he had been as good at shooting the 

 enemy as he was for stowing away edibles 

 (honey especially), the war would not have 

 lasted nearly as long as it did. 



I am very busy, and have written this 

 hastily. I hope to be over to meet you all 

 at St. Louis this fall, but I am afraid I 

 shall have to " dig up" the wherewith from 

 some other source than the bee yard. How- 

 ever, I may be surprised again, as I was 

 last year. 



The winter's loss was very heavy, and 

 only weaklings left— 95 out of 111 colonies. 



Hull, Iowa, May 9. 



[In order to understand this matter bet- 

 ter, the reader will observe that the weath- 

 er-record is for the forenoon and afternoon, 

 the periods being separated by a semicolon. 

 Thus, the record for May 23 means that it 

 was showery at intervals, both forenoon 

 and afternoon that day, with sunshine be- 

 tween. Then follows the weight of the colo- 

 ny and hive, with daily gain and loss, as 

 the case may be. It was found to be im- 

 practicable to put this record in columns, but 

 we believe it will be perfectly intelligible 

 with this explanation. 



This is a very interesting table, and I 

 could only wish that friend Hall had only 

 amplified a little more on the weather con- 

 ditions and how they affect the amount of 

 honey gathered per day. In a general way 

 I glean this: That from warm to hot weath- 

 er is favorable for nectar secretion providing 

 the soil is moist. But the conditions of soil 

 are not mentioned in the table; but I know 

 it has a bearing. We may have the tem- 

 perature ideal; but unless the ground is 

 right, there will be no nectar. I observe, 

 further, that cool or cold weather checks or 

 stops nectar secretion. I was surprised, 

 though, to see that the records f jr the hon- 

 ey crop are no different after swarming. In 

 some parts of the country, at least, swarm- 

 ing takes place when the flow is light, or 

 stops altogether when the flow is heavy. 



After a heavy rain we have been in the 

 habit of assuming that there will be no 

 nectar secretion for a few hours; but the 

 scale weights here given do not bear out this 

 assumption. 



Another interesting feature is that the 

 season is very prolonged in friend Hall's 

 locality. In and about Medina, most of the 

 honey would come in in two weeks as a 

 rule; and this is the condition that prevails 

 in most of the Northern States where clover 

 is the main dependence. 



Mr. and Mrs. Hall were in the bee keep- 

 ers' car that went to Denver when the Na- 

 tional convention was held there two years 

 ago. I well remember they had a kodak to 

 pick up scenes through the country. I am 

 sorry for the man who does not enjoy a ko- 

 dak, for he will miss a great de il of plea- 

 sure in after li'^e that he might hive had 

 by looking over the scenes of the years gone 

 by; for they bring back many a pleasant 

 memory. We have kodak pictures scattered 

 all over the walls of our roDms upslaiis, cs- 



