644 



GLEANlNCtS IN BEE djLl'tJKfi 



public becomes interested in our busines">, 

 it is given facts, not flowery stories, or, what 

 is worse, utter xalscboods. People learn the 

 value of honey as a food, and be^in to real- 

 ize thoi it is a necessity, not a luxury. The 

 beginner, in the lean years of his childhood 

 as a beekeeper, certainly cannot supply the 

 demand which he has created. Either he 

 will come to thoce who have honey to sell, 

 and supply the demand himself, or he will 

 recommend some one of his beekeeping- 

 acquaintances as being able to furnish the 

 desired supply. In either ease the beekeep- 

 ers reap the result of the best kind of 

 publicity, that which acquaints the public 

 with the product and its method of produc- 

 tion. 



The second way in which the beginner is 

 an asset is that the novice is always and 

 eternally asking why. He wishes to know, 



and is iiot afraid to inquire. Some of the 

 most searching questions are asked by the 

 beginner. Indeed, not a few of them are 

 unanswerable; and even the veteran must 

 acknowledge " I don't know." But such an 

 ordeal as this is of inestimable value to us. 

 The only way to find out just how much we 

 do not know is to be brought face to face 

 with hard questions. This serves to bring 

 out a frank discussion of the point at issue, 

 and thus we get a variety of opinions. Even 

 in regard to the subjects in which we are 

 well informed, by telling others what we 

 know, we fix the principles more firmly in 

 our own minds, and in describing some sin- 

 gle operation we are led to see weak points, 

 and thus become able to strengthen them. 



Therefore, let us extend a helping hand 

 to beginners, for the beginner of to-day is 

 very likely to be the beekeeper of tomorrow. 



BEEKEEPING ON PUGET SOUND 



BY CLAUDE C. PIKE 



In the fall of 1912 when I came to Kent, 

 which lies in Green River Valley, half way 

 between Seattle and Taeoma, the people 

 here told me it was no bee country — too 

 wet, bees died, etc. Well, I have always 

 been a lover of bees, and honey tickles my 

 palate; so in the spring of 1913 I purchas- 

 ed three colonies of bees. One colony was 

 nice and strong in an up-to-date ten-frame 

 hive. The other two were in cheap hives, 

 and they were not very strong. In May I 

 transferred the stronger one of these two 

 into a new ten-frame hive. As the combs of 

 the weakest were mixed up, and I didn't 

 have time to drum it out, I gave the one just 

 transferred a good smoking, and placed the 

 weak colony on top of it to fight it out. 

 This left me two strong colonies in ten- 

 frame hives for the season, so I put double 

 supers of sections on them and went on an 

 outing. 



In the fall, August and September, No. 1 

 was full of nice white-clover honey, abou*^ 

 forty pounds of sections, all crowded in the 

 brood-chamber. No. 2 hadn't done ver>' 

 much, so I gave the bees some brood and 

 part of the honey in brood-chamber of No. 

 1, and fixed them up for the winter and 

 rainy season. One trouble here is the bees 

 don't go to sleep as they do in Nevada and 

 the Eastern States. They keep crawling 

 the gi'eater part of the winter, and therefore 

 it takes more honey to keej? them. 



Feb. 14, 1914, was a bright sunshiny day ; 

 so in the afternoon I decided to see how the 

 bees pulled through the winter. I was very 



much surprised to find both colonies nice 

 and strong, with two or three combs of 

 capped brood. This was Feb. 14, and there 

 was possibly enough honey to carry them 

 through; so you see, beekeeping on the 

 Sound isn't bad. 



We have many sunshiny days all through 

 the winter, especially in January and Feb- 

 ruary. One peculiar characteristic of bees 

 in western Washington is that they don't 

 mind cloudy weather when it isn't too cold. 

 Many times in the spring and summer when 

 it is raining they will fly. 



This is a natural white-clover country, so 

 that is the main source of honey. We also 

 have fruit-bloom, berry-blossoms, wild flow- 

 ers, and other clovers. 



We have been reading Gleanings and A. 

 I. Root's writings for some time, as you wiP. 

 see by the following : While a missionary to 

 the Indians, on the Frazer River, in Britisli 

 Columbia, Canada, my father, Robert G. 

 Pike, came across one of A. I. Root's early 

 bee books and papers in the year 1885. He 

 afterward helped rob beetrees and hivi» 

 swarms. While reading these early books 

 of the " Father of Beekeeping " in America 

 (A. I. Root) he said to himself that if he 

 ever got settled down he must have some 

 bees. He afterward moved to Wisconsin, 

 where I was born in 1890. He there became 

 an extensive beekeeper and reader of A. I. 

 Root's writings, besides preaching the gospel 

 of Christ. 



About 1901 we moved to Carson City, 

 Nevada, after a number of yeai'S of moving 



