114 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



With the bees at their present strength, or stronger 

 when logwood opens next month, it is reasonable to 

 expect a bumper crop and a big increase in bees to 

 make good the losses of the past season. 



The cool balmy air, soft yet bright sunshine, to- 

 gether with the healthy hum of the bees over myriads 

 of wild flowers, all go to make one feel that it is good 

 to be alive in this land of perpetual summer. 



Arthur W. Rogers. 



Belvedere, Jamaica, Nov. 26. 



Number of Colonies Needed per Acre in a Fruit 

 Orcliard 



My brother and myself have about 200 acres of 

 orchards of various fruits, and are interested in 

 having plenty of bees to pollenize the fruit properlv. 

 There is an apiary about three-fourths of a mile east 

 of me, and another about the same distance west, 

 and a party in Toledo wishes to establish another on 

 my place. I do not care to take on another business 

 myself, but want as many bees in the vicinity as 

 will thi-ive properly. Can you give me any data that 

 will help me to decide how many that is? 



Waterville, O., Dec. 22. W. W. Farnsworth. 

 [ So far as we know there is no exact scientific 

 data to determine the number of bees necessary for 

 a given acreage of fruit trees ; but we may say this, 

 that more bees are needed in some seasons than 

 others. For example, there may be a number of days 

 while the trees are in bloom when it is cold, chilly, 

 or rainy, so much so that bees can not fly. If there 

 is only one or two flying days during the entire 

 blooming time, obviously it will take more bees to 

 pollinate the trees in a given acreage than if the 

 weather is favorable for a week or ten days. On 

 this account, therefore, it is desirable to have as 

 many bees as you can get on the place or near it. 



There is a forty-acre apple orchard about nine 

 miles and a half north of Medina that was leased 

 last year by Van Rensselaer & Southam. The former 

 is an old experienced fruit-man, and he began prun- 

 ing the trees, as the orchard had been neglected. He 

 got in touch with us very shortly, and desired us to 

 put as many bees in and near the orchard as we 

 could spare. Wliile there were quite a number of 

 small apiaries in the locality, he wanted a yard of 

 bees riglit in the orchard. We put in some fifty 

 colonies of bees, and at the time he said he would 

 be glad to have more if w^e could spare them, but as 

 we had similar calls from other fruit-growers we 

 were unable to supply them with any more bees. At 

 the close of the season they harvested 16,000 bushels 

 of apples from the 40 acres, and Mr. Van Rensselaer 

 told the writer that he would not have secured as 

 large a crop as this had the bees not been placed 

 right in the orchard. He is a great believer in hav- 

 ing plenty of bees close to the trees. See his article 

 in this issue, p. 94. 



To answer your question a little more specifically, 

 we should guess that about one colony would be 

 required to take care of an acre of fruit trees, but 

 two or three colonies would do much better work if 

 the weather is at all bad during the time the trees 

 are in bloom. 



We are convinced that the fruit-growers have not 

 half appreciated the importance of having plenty of 

 bees on the place. We are sending you a copy of 

 our journal. Gleanings in Bee Culture, for Aug. 

 15, and refer you to page 561 for the testimony of 

 the Repp Bros, regarding the value of bees in an 

 orchard. You will find further particulars in an 

 article about these men in the Country Gentleman 

 for May 24. While you are doubtless familiar with 

 their fruit-growing operations, we suggest that you 

 write to them, and ask how many bees they consider 

 i* necessary to have per acre. 



There is another fact that might be somewhat in- 

 terestiii,.; n you, and that is this: Last summer we 

 visited the Logs of the Cape Cod Cranberry Company, 



of Boston, Mass. The president of this company was 

 very desirous that we should come and visit his place, 

 which we did. He had discovered that, when they 

 were growing cranberries in a very small way, 

 the bees in the woods were sufficient to take care of 

 the work of pollinating the plants, but when they 

 began to increase their acreages of cranberries, then 

 something was wrong, and they were not able to get 

 the berries. He finally discovered that, by putting 

 bees around the bogs, he was able to get the usual 

 crop. He showed one bog of some ten or fifteen 

 acres that had only about four or five colonies of 

 bees. It was very evident, he said, that the fruit 

 was much more abundant near the bees, and the 

 yield began to taper off the further the plants were 

 from the hives of bees, showing that the bees went to 

 the nearest blossoms first. In other words there were 

 not nearly enough bees to take care of the entire 

 bog. We should judge from what we saw there that 

 it would take anywhere from ten to fifteen colonies, 

 or about a colony to the acre of cranberries. 



For your two hundred acres there, it would seem 

 as if you ought not to have less than 200 colonies, 

 and we might suggest that it would be better to have 

 these scattered over the orchard. You will be sur- 

 prised in the inwease in the amount of fruit if you 

 will increase the number of bees. We have seen so 

 many examples of remarkable results from such 

 work that we wish to suggest that you get as many 

 bees on the place as possible. — Ed.] 



Bee Space on Both Sides of Ventilated Escape- 

 board 



On page 887, Dec. 15, is a photo of Hodgson's 

 escape-board. I made two Labor Day to try out. 

 They are all right. I want no others, but I made 

 them of copper wire, put the escapes with opening 

 toward the outside, and had a bee-space on top of 

 the wire as well as under it. I made the bottom 

 piece 1 Vz inches wide, % thick ; the top piece 1 x i/^ 

 inches, and put the wire between. This makes a 

 much stronger and better job — no brace combs. The 

 Lees go out much quicker than in the wooden ones. 



Lestershire, N. Y., Dec. 29. John H. Rising. 



[We believe Mr. Hodgson also uses a bee-space on 

 both sides of the wire cloth. Those which we have 

 made in an experimental way were so constructed — 

 viz., wth a %-inch cleat above and below the wire. 

 — Ed.] 



Winter Disturbance 



We have been thinking of storing our bees in a 

 shed where an auto is kept. Do you think the fumjs 

 from a running car would be injurious to the bees ? 

 The car will be running from time to time. 



Norris, Mont., Dec. 1. Hadzor Bros. 



[We do not believe that the going and coming of 

 the automobile will interfere with the wintering of 

 the bees. They will soon get used to it, so that, if it 

 should arouse them the first time slightly, they will 

 pay no attention to it later. We presume the shed 

 is opened up in such a way that the bees would be 

 protected from the prevailing winds. — Ed.] 



An Explanation 



There is one item in the article by H. H. Root in 

 the Dec. 1st issue that I do not want to leave as it 

 is, and that is the statement of our honey crop for 

 1913. It was my intention that in connection with 

 that report should go my statement that I knew of 

 seasons when I never wet the extractor at all, or 

 during the season did not wet it with white honey. 

 I have blamed others, and justly, for giving one- 

 sided reports, and I do not want to be an example in 

 this direction myself. 



Brantford, Ont. R. F. Holtermann. 



