388 



Gleanings in Bee Cultute 



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Wesley Foster, Boulder, Colo. 



ANOTHER COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. 



Another progressive Western State (Ida- 

 ho) is coming to the front by organizing a 

 cooperative honey-producers' association to 

 handle bee supplies and sell honey. The 

 association will be modeled after the Colo- 

 rado Honey-producers' Association. When 

 we have one or more successful producers' 

 associations in each State, a combination of 

 these will produce an effective national or- 

 ganization. Get busy there, "Down East- 

 ers." 



CROP PROSPECTS GOOD. 



Bees were swarming and building up fast 

 in the Arkansas Valley early in May. 

 Fruit-bloom was abundant throughout the 

 State, and the bees built up well on this. 

 All the wild flowers seem laden with nectar, 

 and this is a favorable omen for the heavier 

 yielders, alfalfa and sweet clover, during 

 June, .July, and August. The only limit to 

 the crop will be the heavy loss of bees in 

 parts of Colorado, especially in the north- 

 east, where from fifty to eighty per cent of 

 the bees perished during the past winter. 



The water of Boulder Creek is rushing 

 past the grass-covered bank on which I sit 

 as I write on these hot June days. The 

 snow is melting high up on the range, thir- 

 ty miles to the west, and down comes the 

 snow water to fill the irrigating-ditches in 

 the valley, to trickle about the roots of the 

 alfalfa, and then, absorbed into the tissues 

 of this luxuriously green legume, finally ful- 

 fil its mission in the purple blossoms as de- 

 licious nectar to be sipped by the bees. Al- 

 falfa bloomed the last of May this year, and 

 the bees are doing well, though the number 

 of colonies in Northern Colorado is much 

 less than last year. P]ight or ten cars of 

 bees were shipped to Idaho and Oregon 

 from Boulder Co. last spring. 



QUEENS AND THEIR WORK. 



The eggs of queens vary more in propor- 

 tion to their size than those of the different 

 breeds of hens. I have a Caucasian queen 

 that is laying eggs twice as large as the av- 

 erage egg of a queen. What i)er cent of a 

 queen's eggs are fertile, and what per cent 

 hatch is obtained among the best queens? 

 We should know more of the ability of our 

 queens if they confined their energy for just 

 one day to one side of an empty comb. I 

 have several queens that have laid over 

 3000 eggs on one side of a comb, and not 

 over 20 cells filled with honey or jwUen. 

 Were these cells filled with honey or pollen 

 before the queen could lay in tliem, or did 

 the eggs prove unfertile, and, after they were 

 removed, did honey and pollen occupy the 

 cells? 



I have a few queens that show great egg- 

 laying ability, but many of their eggs never 



hatch, and the hives do not fill up with bees 

 as do others whose queens have no more 

 combs with eggs in them. Something is 

 wrong when a hive will always have eggs, 

 but never any commensurate amount of 

 larvae and capped brood. 



SMOKE AT THE ENTRANCE. 



I do not practice blowing a little smoke 

 in at the entrance of the hive, and I do not 

 agree with the editor that it is all right. A 

 hive of bees bringing in five pounds of hon- 

 ey a day will lose nearly a pound of bees by 

 being disturbed with smoke at the entrance, 

 and will be all torn up inside the hive. 

 Suppose you go through fifty hives a day: 

 there is a loss of fifty pounds. It is possible 

 to puff a little smoke (a very liJ:tle) in at the 

 top when raising the cover, and go through 

 the manipulation without disturbing the 

 field-workers. 



I note also that Mr. Townsend does not 

 use a veil — that means more smoke. I say 

 more veil (and more gloves if necessary) 

 and less smoke in our bee oi)erations, es- 

 pecially during the honey-flow. I think 

 too much smoke is responsible for the loss 

 of many a good queen. With gentle bees 

 neither smoke nor veil need be used. De- 

 liberate movements when working over the 

 hive will be better practice than some of the 

 habits the professional bee-keeper falls into. 

 One of the difficult things to learn is to 

 speed up operations at all times except when 

 over the hive of bees with the cover off. 



NEW FOUL-BROOD LAW. 



Colorado bee-keepers have reason to be 

 grateful, for, although the governor suffers 

 still from pen i)aralysis, caused by vetoing 

 appropriations to State enterprises, the foul- 

 brood bill escaped his wrath and received 

 his approving signature. Whether some 

 boyish recollections of the charmed nectar 

 of the honey-bee caught legislators and gov- 

 ernor unaware, we shall never know; and, 

 in fact, we were so long in knowing the re- 

 sult at all that a very disabled and disheart- 

 ening rejiort crept into this department in 

 the June 1st issue, the hurried night letter 

 failing to reach the press in time. But 

 nothing matters, now that we have the law 

 with a chance for strong honest work in 

 bracing up Colorado's bee interests. Instead 

 of county inspectors we now have a State 

 ins])ector working under the supervision of 

 the State Entomologist, who will hire dep- 

 uties when necessary, and conduct investi- 

 gations in bee culture, honey-j^lants, etc., 

 besides taking hold of the problem of foul 

 brood and other bee diseases, liest of all, 

 $2500 has been appropriated to carry on the 

 work. The law is modeled after the Ohio 

 plan, but will not take effect until about 

 August 4. 



