d6 



GLgANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING AMONG the ROCKIES 



Wesley Foster, Boulder, Colorado 



WINTERING AND PROSPECTS. 



Nineteen fifteen ended up with 

 a precipitation above normal of 

 nearly four inches. The mountains 

 are well supplied with fallen snow, 

 and prospects are good for suffi- 

 cient moisture for the coming year. 

 Alfalfa is in excellent condition, and sweet 

 clover is unusually abundant and thrifty. 



The bees so far have wintered well, con- 

 sidering the amount of poorly ripened 

 honey in the hives. They gathered honey 

 clear into November; and as this honey 

 could not be thoroly ripened, it is likely to 

 cause trouble later on. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



The beekeepers who attend the National 

 convention in Chicago will be assured of a 

 rare treat. Problems of national impor- 

 tance will be handled. There will not be 

 the detailed business to be transacted this 

 year so common in years past. We should 

 have a feast of good things. Prof. Jager (it 

 is hoped) will show us how to clean sections. 

 Mr. R. A. Burnett will discuss the comb- 

 honey situation from the dealer's stand- 

 point. Editors Root, Dadant, and Town- 

 send Avill discuss subjects they are expert 

 in. We shall have the commercial aspects 

 of beekeeping well represented. 



There will be much valuable discussion, 

 and we will have a banquet. 



The Hotel Sherman, Chicago, is the place 

 where our convention will be held, and a 

 live convention is assured. 



Come, and contribute your bit to the 

 convention. 



IDAHO WINTERING EXPERIMENTS. 



Mr. Jos. J. Anderson's wintering experi- 

 ments as described by him (page 1016, Dec. 

 15 ) are very interesting and instructive. A 

 few things might be said in this connection 

 that will add more light to the subject. In 

 a footnote to Mr. Anderson's article Editor 

 Root mentions that Idaho weather is similar 

 to that of Ohio, but that the climate is 

 drier. I take it that Idaho has about the 

 same snowfall and cold weather, but a drier 

 climate than Ohio. If this is the ease, as 

 seems true, Idaho has a damper winter than 

 Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and 

 Arizona. From my obseryation, dampness 

 is far more fatal to bees than cold. This 

 applies whether the cold is external to the 

 hive or inside of it. 



One thing that would be interesting to 

 know is what the loss would have been had 

 Mr. Anderson wintered one hundred of his 



colonies on their summer stands with no 

 protection. Mr. Anderson says, " With 

 young and vigorous queens, a hive full of 

 young bees, and ample stores, the battle is 

 half won." Give me these conditions in 

 Colorado, and the wintering battle is nine- 

 ty-five per cent won. This subject is of 

 intense interest to me personally, as I am 

 wintering nine hundred colonies in Idaho 

 for their first winter. They are packed in 

 straw, except the fronts, and the straw is 

 covered over with tar paper to keep out the 

 snow and moisture. Eight hundred colonies 

 of mine are wintering in Colorado with no 

 protection whatever. Colorado and Idaho 

 are different. 



SPRAYING AND BEEKEEPING. 



The spraying of fruit-trees and the al- 

 leged destruction of bees is a complex sub- 

 ject. In no ease where investigations and 

 experiments have been carried on has the 

 work been sufficiently thoro to get at any 

 tangible results. In California, the pub- 

 lished results of experiments there perform- 

 ed are at once convincing to those who have 

 passed thru spraying troubles, that the 

 experiments did not duplicate the proper 

 conditions. The published facts regarding 

 the experiments in Australia (page 994, 

 Dec. 1, 1915) are so very meager that it is 

 surprising scientific investigators would at- 

 tach any importance to them. The number 

 of colonies is not stated, the acreage in 

 bloom within two miles of the apiary in 

 relation to the acreage sprayed is not given, 

 and doubtless was not even considered. The 

 information given is so very meager that 

 such conclusions are valueless. Those of 

 us who have lived in commercial-fruit dis- 

 tricts and seen thousands of colonies de- 

 stroyed in the thousands of acres of or- 

 chards, cover crops growing under every 

 acre of trees (almost), realize the impor- 

 tance of this subject. We have seen thou- 

 sands of colonies saved bv being moved two 

 and a half to three miles from the orchards. 

 Honey crops have been saved by moving. It 

 is so well established among hundreds of 

 our Colorado beekeepers that bees cannot 

 exist in commercial-fruit districts that a 

 man who does not move his bees when 

 spraying begins is placed in the same class 

 with the man who allows foul brood to de- 

 stroy his colonies when he knows how to 

 cure the disease. And another thing, our 

 experiment-station men are not trying to 

 prove a self-evident condition false by a 

 few half-planned, poorly conducted experi- 

 ments. 



