March, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



171 



losses, snoh as "\ve had thi'ee years ago, 

 when a wanii December was followed by 

 severe winter cold. When bees start brood- 

 rearing early in the winter, .subsequent 

 zero weather has a bad effect on bees win- 

 tered outdoors. This winter np to date, 

 Feb. 10, has given us zero spells of only 

 short duration followed by a general 

 warming-up. 



Bees are wintering well so far as we 

 can learn. Our own are in most excellent 

 condition. While they have been shut in 

 the hives since early in December, and did 

 not have a flight until Jan. 30, they seem 

 to be in fine condition. There was but 

 very little spotting of the hives after the 

 bees came out in the air, and no indica- 

 tions of dysentery. 



MR. R. F. HOLTERMANN, at the Ohio 

 state convention, put himself on record 

 as decidedly opposed 

 STIMULATING to stimulating brood- 

 BBO OB-REAR- rearing in the fall un- 

 ING IN THE less the colonies were 



FALL below par. He be- 



lieves a great deal of 

 damage is done by tampering with a normal 

 colony. Feeding always exhausts the vi- 

 tality of a colony, and the result is that 

 the regular inmates of the hive are worn 

 out and go into winter quarters in a weak- 

 ened condition, dying some time along in 

 the winter, leaving only a moderate force 

 of young bees which may not be able to 

 resist the cold. The prevailing idea, Mr. 

 Holtermann said, that an ordinary colony 

 cannot winter unless it has a large force 

 of young bees, is a mistake. If a colony 

 of normal strength bias a good queen, 

 with plenty of stores, let it alone. 



ALL BEEKEEPERS and fruit-gTowers of 

 Indiana should at once write to their sena- 

 tors and repre- 

 IM PORT ANT sentatives in the 

 TO INDIANA State Legisla- 



BEEKEEFERS ture, urging 

 them to support 

 a bill introduced by Senator James Porter 

 of Daviess County, which provides for the 

 reorganization of the Indiana Horticultural 

 Society and the change of its name to the 

 Indiana Horticultural and Apicultural So- 

 ciety, a public corporation of the state. In 

 addition to the beneficial reorganization that 

 the bill provides for, an appropriation of 

 $10,000 is asked to aid the society in the de- 

 velopment of horticulture and apiculture. 

 Indiana fruit-growers and beekeepers need 

 large appropriation for fhe advancement 

 and protection of their business. Wiscon- 

 sin aiJi^ropriates annually $8000 for the sup- 

 l>ort of her horticultural society while Indi- 

 ana appropriates only one-fourth as much. 

 Beekeeping is given no encouragement by 

 the State of Indiana except a meager appro- 

 jDriation for inspection work. Combining 

 the two organizations and securing a larger 

 appropriation with which to carry on the 

 work will do wonders toward increasing the 

 interest in these two very imiDortant indus- 

 tries of the state. Foul brood and San Jose 

 scale are rampant, and beekeepers and fruit- 

 growers should insist that they have better 

 Ijroteetion against these natural enemies. 



Indiana beekeeiDers, write today to your 

 state senators and representatives, earnest- 

 ly urging them to support this bill that 

 means so much for the betterment and fur- 

 therance of vour business. 



MANY OF OUR large outdoor winter- 

 packed colonies have glass tops over the 

 brood-nest with pack- 

 WINTER ing material over the 



EXAMINATION whole. The purpose 

 OF BEES of the glass is to en- 



able us to take obser- 

 vations by very gently pulling back the 

 packing at intervals during winter. If the 

 work is carefully done there will be no dis- 

 turbance. 



In this connection beginners should be 

 cautioned against jjulling open their col- 

 onies during mid-winter. If examination 

 can be effected without disturbing the brood- 

 nest, as when the glass toji is used, well and 

 good. 



ALFALFA YIELDS HONEY readily in 

 the irrigated districts of the far West when 



it rarely does so in the 

 ALFALFA East. The statement 



HONEY IN was made at the New 



THE EAST Jersey convention, that 



alfalfa in a dry season 

 on light land will yield honey when in a wet 

 season on heavy land it will fail to do so. 

 Gleanings would like to inquire whether 

 this condition has been noted by others in 

 the East or West. It is certainly true that 

 alfalfa yields some honey in certain parts 

 of New York and New Jersey ; but as a 

 honej^-yielder in the eastern states it is 

 generally regarded as a failure. 



