112 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Follow the shaken-swarm plan for pre- 

 venting- increase. This takes only a little 

 time, and effectually prevents increase be- 

 yond a certain point, if you so desire. 



For an extractor we would recommend a 

 four-frame non-reversible. This would be 

 as large as you would ever need for ten 

 colonies, and would be a very inexpensive 

 simple outfit. 



Bees must have considerable water, but 



they use it in brood-rearing, no water ever 

 being mixed with honey. Bees seem to pre- 

 fer water that is briny or salty. If you 

 locate a half-barrel close to your bees, and 

 see that it is kept well supplied with water, 

 you will very seldom see them obtaining 

 water any place else. Use cork chips, or 

 wooden floats, so that the bees can take the 

 v-ater readily without danger of drowning. 

 —Ed.] 



BEES AND FRUIT IN ENGLAND 



B^ VFM. J. WOOLLEY^ JR. 



I am a fruit-grower on a small scale. I 

 rent five acres of land and " let off " half of 

 it, as I employ no help except in the summer 

 months, and I want only 2V2 acres. One 

 acre is planted with established plum trees 

 in full bearing. One acre I have had planted 

 12 months with young apple trees, and 

 cropping in between with strawberries, nar- 

 cissus, and other flowers, marrows, tomatoes, 

 cauliflowers, etc., and the other half-acre is 

 generally planted with potatoes, which do 

 well there. 



This last year (1913) the fruit crop in 

 England was recorded in the trade papers 

 as only one-fourth to one-half a crop on the 

 average; yet in my holding, all the trees 

 were loaded and some breaking down with 

 the load of plums, with the exception of the 

 Damsons, which bore only one-fourth of a 

 crop. The trade papers mention three causes 

 of the poor crop. 1. The fruit spurs on the 

 trees were not well ripened, through the 

 constant wet season of the year previous, 

 and so were not able to carry their proper 

 share of fruit. 



2. The cold and wet period of 1913 when 



the trees were in bloom so that the blossoms 

 did not set properly. 



3. The attacks of aphides,etc., which were 

 very numerous through the season. 



If those were the causes, whj^ were my 

 trees able to carry such a crop of plums? 

 I had the same wet weather to contend with. 

 My answer is, the thoroughness with which 

 the bees fertilized the blossoms. On the few 

 days they were able to work while the trees 

 were in bloom, the weather being so change- 

 able, the bees did not fly far away from 

 home, and, in consequence, the trees nearest 

 TO the hives carried a grand crop of fruit. 

 Only one mile from my apiary an extensive 

 fruitgrower with every convenience and ap- 

 pliance confessed to me that the season with 

 him was " rotten." He did not keep bees. 



Do you not agree that every fruit-grower 

 ought to keep bees ? I believe that the bees 

 would pay the grower in increase of fruit, 

 oven if he did not reap a good crop of 

 honey as well. I find by experience that they 

 pay me on an average $5.00 in honey be- 

 sides the good they do to the trees. 



Evesham, England. 



CONVERSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 



Continued fr 



swarm, and then preventing after-swarming 

 of the parent colony by placing it a foot or 

 two away from where it originally stood, 

 and in seven days, when the bees are flying 

 freely, carrying it to a new stand, thus 

 drawing most of the flying force in with the 

 swarm, work will be resumed and continued 

 in the supers without interruption, and the 

 surplus be nearly as great as though no 

 swarming had taken place. Contracting in 

 this way throws the whole working force 

 into the supers just at a critical time, and 

 secures a crop of white honey that would 

 otherwise have been frittered away by a 

 continued effort at swarming, or used in the 



om page 00. 



rearing of bees that would have come upon 

 the stage of action when about the only 

 thing that they could do would be to con- 

 sume much of the honey previously stored, 

 and hang on the outside of the hive during 

 the heat of late July and early August days. 

 All know that white honey brings a higher 

 ]n-ice than does the dark honey gathered in 

 the fall, while the latter, as a rule, is just as 

 good for winter stores. The contracting of 

 the brood-nest, when properly done, with 

 an eye toward securing the greatest amount 

 of the higher-priced honey, puts this white 

 lioney in the market and the cheaper grades 

 in the hive for winter. 



