JUNE 15, 1910 



497 



ing the bees to waste their energy in unnec- 

 essary flights to discover where the unusual 

 supply of food is coming from; but the 

 Boardman feeder, on the other hand, when 

 it is regulated down so that the syrup goes 

 to them very gradually, does not cause this 

 excitement, and the bees go on breeding and 

 thus save themselves unnecessary wear and 

 tear in going to the fields. 



We don 't advise bujdng combs containing 

 stores. It is very doubtful about your being 

 able to obtain any that would be free from 

 disease, or, rather, there would be the danger, 

 if dis.ease of any kind starts among your 

 bees, you would have your labor almost for 

 naught. Your better way is to use frames 

 filled with foundation, wired of course, and 

 put one of these between two frames of 

 brood during the warm weather; but do not 

 give these frames too fast. You will have 

 to exercise considerable judgment in that 

 you do not spread the brood' too much, thus 

 causing some of the brood to chill. There 

 should be a fairly good force of bees to take 

 care of the brood as it hatches out. — Ed.] 



No Trouble from the Spray on the Cover 

 Crops. 



Wesley Foster, Feb. 1, page 96, in the 

 paragraph on spraying and beekeeping, takes 

 too gloomy a view as to the destruction of 

 bees on account of spraying fruit-trees. 



I have 22 colonies within a stone 's throw 

 of our 40-acre apple-orchard, which we spray 

 very thoroly three to four times a year, and 

 I assure you that we hardly miss a blossom. 

 We do not ask our hands how much they 

 spray a day, but we ask them how thoroly 

 they have done their work. 



The first spray is usually as soon as the 

 cluster of flowers sepratcs from the bud, 

 and the second spray when the petals of the 

 flowers begin to drop. My bees, in bloom- 

 ing time, naturally go in streams to this 

 orchard, and in three years of spraying I 

 have never found a dead bee in the orchard, 

 and have not seen more dead bees around 

 the entrance to the hives than what will die 

 of old age. 



We spray with lime, sulphur, and arsenate 

 of lead. All those orchardists that spray 

 before the bloom begins to drop will find out 

 to their sorrow that it will not do to spray 

 too early, because spraying, when wrongly 

 done, will wash the pollen from the bloom, 

 and such blossoms will not set to mature an 

 apple. They usually fall off when they are 

 about the size of a pea. 



As to the killing of bees from the cover 

 crop in this locality about the middle of 

 May, when we spray for the last time, there 

 is hardly any bloom on the ■ ground from 

 which bees could be injured, and one or two 

 rains will usually eliminate the danger of 

 bee-poisoning. It should be the aim of all 

 beekeepers to have such laws passed that 

 orchardists should spray when the cluster 

 first separates and after the bloom begins to 

 fall off; for by that time there are very few 



bees that will visit an orchard except in a 

 few instances where a few blossoms will 

 open exceptionally late on a tree, which, 

 however, is not much, and cannot injure bees 

 to any extent. 



Bees are absolutely essential in making a 

 fruit crop. We have the only orchard within 

 bee-flight that is sprayed. We have several 

 large orchards which are not sprayed, and 

 we made last year a good half-crop of 1852 

 barrels, while the other orchards have had 

 an entire failure of Ben Davis apples. Our 

 orchard is entirely Ben Davis, and this is 

 l>rincipally due to thoro spraying and my 

 bees, 



Strafford, Mo. T. L. Scharff. 



[If you use sulphur in each of your sprays 

 the bees will not be poisoned much, as sul- 

 phur is a repellant to insects, including bees. 

 The fact that there was ' ' hardly any bloom ' ' 

 on the cover crop would also protect you. — 

 Ed.] 



Swarming with Clipped Queen, Transferring, 

 etc. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — 1. If I give a queen two 

 hive-bodies for a brood-nest, shall I get as 

 much comb honey from that colony as with 

 one body, or shall I get more? 



2. If I clip queens can I let the colonies 

 swarm naturally, and then, about six o'clock 

 in the evening, take out queen and bees and 

 put them in another hive .on foundation? I 

 work all day, and get home at 6 o 'clock. 

 My wife is not strong enough to move a hive 

 after the bees have swarmed, so has to wait 

 till I get home. What, in your opinion, would 



\n t'Ui'lv suMiiii. l'lii>lonr;i|jlii-d by W. W. Gardner, 

 Winsted, Ct. 



