1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



199 



Bee-keeping Among The 

 Rockies 



ry ^VE.s^,EY Foster, Boulder, Colo. 



More snow has fallen on the mountain 

 ranges of Colorado than for ten years past — 

 over fifty inches since the last of February, 

 and in the valleys about half as much. As 

 there is time yet for considerably more, a 

 good supply of water for irrigation is already 

 assured. 



Our colonies that gathered rosin-weed and 

 other fall honey of poor quality are showing 

 the results now by dying off (and mainly 

 from dysentery) . A few of the hives that 

 were fed sugar syrup too late for the bees to 

 reduce it have suffered wherever this syrup 

 has soured. 



-*- 



HEAVY LOSS IN SOME PLACES. 



Where there was a fall flow, or where feed- 

 ing was done early enough, the bees have 

 wintered in fair shape. Northern Colorado 

 had only a slight fall flow, and very little 

 breeding was done to furnish the hives with 

 young bees. Where this was true the loss 

 has been very heavy — in some cases from 

 one-third to two-thirds of the colonies. 



CORRUGATED PAPER IN SHIPPING-CASES. 



There is one serious objection to corrugat- 

 ed paper. That is, that if thick alfalfa hon- 

 ey gets between the sections and the corru- 

 gated paper it sticks tighter than glue, and 

 the paper is badly torn in getting the sec- 

 tions out. Thin honey will be absorbed; 

 but thick alfalfa honey will work under the 

 sections and stick to the paper so tightly 

 that it is hard to scrape it off. This, how- 

 ever, would not persuade me to go back to 

 the drip-sticks. 



ADVERTISING HONEY. 



Advertising honey through the popular 

 magazines will accomplish something, but 

 there is a kind of work some are doing now 

 — that is, preparing short articles on bees and 

 honey, and furnishing these occasionally to 

 local papers — which is read more closely 

 than any other kind. Any little ' ' write up ' ' 

 of a home or local industry is read with in- 

 terest. Let us cultivate the acquaintance 

 of our local editors in this way. It might 

 be a good idea to have some of our most en- 

 tertaining writers prepare paragraphs along 

 this line to be adapted to local conditions. 

 Little items which were put in without the 

 bee-keepers' solicitation have brought or- 

 ders to them immediately. The following 

 serves as a suggestion: 



"Several of our local honey-growers, Mr. 

 Collins, Foster, and Buhl, are shipping a 

 car of fine white comb honey to the East. 

 The crop this year was above the average in 

 quality and quantity. Finer, more delicate 



combs of the delicious sweet have never been 

 raised anywhere." 



Why not give the news of the bees and 

 honey season to the papers? A suggestion 

 of this kind will at once create new demands 

 for honey. 



■4?- 



BEE INSPECTION IN WINTER. 



The question of inspection for foul brood 

 in winter has been brought up in Colorado. 

 One man's bees were inspected while he was 

 absent ; and several hives being declared 

 foul were ordered by the inspector to be 

 taken up. The owner resented the winter 

 inspection, which had been made without 

 his knowledge; but the work did not disturb 

 the clusters, as it was carried on primarily 

 to find any colonies that would be a menace 

 in the spring. This inspection to find colo- 

 nies that are dead from foul brood or infect- 

 ed will lessen the work in May, .Tune, and 

 July. No intelligent inspector will go into 

 an apiary and open the brood-nests on cold 

 winter days; but finding dead and badly af- 

 fected colonies before there is any chance 

 for robbing in the spring is a feature that 

 will go a long way toward preventing the 

 ravages of the disease later. 



TIME IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



A short paragraph in Our Dumb Animals 

 speaks of the short life of most insects, and 

 suggests that for such the element of time 

 is very different from our standard. Some 

 insects live but a few days: do they suffer 

 as much in a minute, when tortured, as we 

 do in a week? The author mentioned above 

 assumes that they probably live the mo- 

 ments more slowly than we. If this is so, 

 a bee maimed during hive manipulations, 

 and struggling for an hour, would be under- 

 going torture as severe as if a human being 

 were suffering for weeks and months. A 

 day with a bee is as full of import as a year 

 with us. This brings up the question of 

 feeling among insects and other lower or- 

 ganisms. We probably shall never be able 

 to measure this adequately in comparison 

 with ourselves; but we can easily see that 

 all animate life has a conception of ease and 

 comfort somewhat similar to our own. 



More Honey Recipes. 



We noted some time ago in Gi^eanings that you 

 ask for honey recipes. Here is one we are using 

 right along: and while it Is nothing elaborate it is 

 certainly wholesome for making oatmeal cookies: 



Granulated sugar, 1% cups: honey, Vz cup: 2 eggs 

 and a cup of melted butter. You can put some 

 lard with it if you wish. Mix the sugar, honey, and 

 butter: then add eggs, and beat lightly. Dissolve 

 % teaspoonful of baking-soda in 4 tablespoonfuls of 

 hot water: one teaspoonful of cinnamon and % tea- 

 spoonful of cloves; one cup of finely cut raisins: 

 roll in a little flour: add three cups of flour: 3 

 cups of rolled oats: mix all together and roll out on 

 a board to medium thickness: cut In small cakes, 

 and bake in a moderate oven. Keep In an air- 

 tight box. We never need the box, as they don't 

 last long around here. 



Parma, Idaho. Wendte Brothers. 



