102 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Fep.ru AEY, 1917 



N. W. James and family. 



extra good tiow from fall flowers — golden- 

 rod and asters. It will be interesting to 

 know how these got thru the winter. 



OBLIGED TO GET ITALIANS. 



Formerly he kept black bees and pre- 

 ferred them because they capped their 

 honey whiter; but European foul brood 

 forced him to keep Italians. He secured 

 some of the best Italian stock, and found 

 a great difference in the various strains of 

 Italian bees. Some queens gave workers 

 that were great honey-gatherers and very 

 gentle, but they built comb-cappings against 

 the honey so it partly showed thru. He 

 now iDrefers bees that have a little black 

 blood, the progeny of an Italian queen that 

 has mated with a drone from hybrid stock 

 or Italian and black mixture. These are 

 usually gentle, and easy to handle. Oc- 

 casionally there will be a cross colony, but 

 he requeens these. He usually uses swarm- 

 reared queen-cells from the best old colo- 

 nies that have cast a swarm, but does not 

 requeen good colonies, no matter how old 

 the queen, if they are doing well. He has 

 some queens that ai'e two and even three 

 years old. 



AVERAGE YIELD PER COLONY. 



He has averaged about 50 lbs. of comb 

 honey per colony, spring count, for the 

 past five years, and always sells his crop 

 thru a commission merchant. He does 



not risk shipping it by freight or expv rs, 

 but drives to Baltimore with it just as 

 soon as he can prepare it for market. 



TWO GOOD SEASOKS TO ONE POOR ONE. 



He counts on having two good seasons 

 to one poor one in his locality or by his 

 management. He believes in preparedness, 

 and that doing the right thing too late has 

 turned a good season into a bad one for 

 many a beekeeper. 



EIGHT-FRAME DOVETAILED HIVES PREFERRED. 



Mr. James has been buying factory-made 

 hives, eight-frame dovetailed, for the last 

 15 years, as it does not pay to make up 

 hives from the lumber. If he were to 

 start over again, however, and had no 

 capital, he would make over store boxes 

 again at the start. 



He had run one home and two out 

 apiaries for four years before coming on to 

 the new place. He now has one out-apiary 

 of 89 hives and 101 colonies in the home 

 apiary, but will take part of the latter 

 to a new outyard next spring. 



OVERCAME FOUL BROOD. 



European foul brood, which affected his 

 apiaries eight years ago, disappeared after 

 he requeened them in the fall with Italian 

 queens or rii>e queen-cells, after firt t leak- 

 ing colonies broodless for ten days or two 

 weeks. A few seasons later, 20 colonies 

 showed it again in the spring; aixl still 

 later one or two black colonies had it, but 

 it has not reappeared since. He do?s not 

 consider it a serious menace to the care- 

 ful beekeeper, and believes that it will not 

 injure even the honey crop if prompt mea- 

 sures are taken. 



HARVESTING THE CROP. 



He secures his comb honey in 4-^ x AVi- 

 X 1%-inch sections with two beeways. He 

 does not like either four-beeway or plain 

 sections nor the 4 x 5 x iy2-ineh style, as 

 combs are more likely to be injured in 

 cleaning and crating. His commission man 

 also advised him to stick to the kind he 

 had been using, as they suit his trade best. 



These are put on the hives in regular 

 S supers with slatted wood separators, and 

 three are used to a hive. Foundation 

 starters, cut 2x3 inches, are used in the 

 sections, instead of narrow strips. These, 

 hung long way down, give three sides to 

 work on, while a narrow starter gives only 

 one edge. These will be built out as fast 

 as full sheets. These supers of sections are 

 all ready for the season's crop several weeks 

 before the sur^ilus flow, and one set is on 

 the hives one week before it commences, 

 and ventilation blocks are put under the 



