March. 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lime it warmed up the least, out the bees 

 would come for work. I never saw any 

 other bees work when the weallier was so 

 cold and wet, and thB queens kept right on 

 laying, cold or no cold. On June 19 one 

 of them cast as large a swarm of bees as I 

 ever saw. 



Clover as well as everything else was 

 late. It did not begin to bloom till about 

 June 20 ; but I never saw its equal. In July 

 the weather was perfect. 



The fall before, I put twenty-five colo- 

 nies in winter quarters. The following 

 spring I had twelve strong colonies — nine 

 weak ones and four that were dead. By 

 July there were just fifteen of them, and 

 only half of these were strong enough to be 

 working in supers. Now, it seems to me 

 that if I had killed the twenty-five colonies 

 in the fall, and extracted the honey out of 

 eight of the frames of each hive, and saved 

 two frames of honey to give to the bees to 

 be i^urchased from the South, I would have 

 been money ahead. Bees sent from the 

 South are all young and hardy, while the 

 ones we winter thru are old and die off 

 rather fast in the spring. 



Aitkin, Minn. Wm. Craig. 



A VERY SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE. 



I had heard considerable discussion on 

 this subject — some favorable and some 

 otherwise, so I decided to try the experiment 

 for myself. For me it has been a successful 

 venture, and my experience has led me to 

 believe that no professional beekeeper wlio 

 may have good hives and equipment on hand 

 can afford to allow them to stand idle dar- 

 ing the season. Of course I realize that all 

 who order bees in combless packages from 

 the South may not have as good success as 1 

 did, also that I might not have as good luck 

 another time. 



Here are some of the things that con- 

 tribute to the success or failure of a venture 

 of this kind. First, time of arrival ; second, 

 buying from a reliable man. It is also 

 necessary to have a good stock of bees with 

 good queens. 



In view of the complaints I have heard I 

 believe one should be careful about giving a 

 large order to an entirely new man unless he 

 can furnish satisfactorj' reference guaran- 

 teeing pure stock and safe arrival. Early 

 last spring I wrote to a man in the South 

 who was advertising Italian bees in combless 

 packages. This led to my ordering 25 one- 

 pound packages with untested queens in- 

 cluded, the price being $2.50 per package. 

 These were to be delivered between the 1st 

 and 10th of May, safe arrival guaranteed. 



177 



May 10 arrived, but no bees. I was anxious 

 for them to arrive, as we all know that time 

 at this season of the year is precious to the 

 beekeeper. About that time I received a 

 letter from the dealer advising that he would 

 ship them in a few days. As it turned cut 

 it was well that they did not arrive at the 

 time stated, as it was a very late spring and 

 we had a snowstorm on the 10th of May. 



Well, the bees arrived on the 20th] and 

 the weather was warm and fruit-trees were 

 just coming into bloom. They were ship- 

 ped in wire-cloth cages with feed and water, 

 and they arrived in good shape with but few 

 dead bees. The cages containing the queens 

 were fastened to the top of the packages 

 so the bees could cluster around the cages. 

 Twenty of these I placed in hives on frames 

 of empty combs, a few of them containing a 

 little honey. Some were hives in which bees 

 had died in the winter. As the weather was 

 warm the bees went right to work on fruit- 

 bloom, and I did not find it necessary to give 

 any feed. As an experiment I placed the 

 other five in hives containing full sheets of 

 foundation, supplying no feed. 



In a day or two I found all the queens 

 laying but two, which were missing. I 

 wrote to the dealer, and he immediately sent 

 me two queens to replace those that were 

 lost. This was a great satisfaction to me, as 

 we all like to have a dealer do as he agrees. 



The nuclei built up fast, and on June 25 

 I gave comb-honey supers to the 20 placed 

 on empty combs. The clover flow came 

 about the same time. The bees went to 

 work in the supers, and about July 5 I 

 found it necessary to add another super on 

 all but two of the 20 placed on empty combs. 

 The other two swarmed — one July 4, and the 

 other the 6th. As I had clipped the queens 

 I caged them and placed the cages contain- 

 ing them in new hives containing full sheets 

 of foundation. After removing the old 

 hives I placed the caged queens on the same 

 stands, and tlie bees ran in and took pos- 

 session of their new homes and seemed to be 

 well pleased with the change, and went right 

 to work. Fifteen colonies finished two 

 supers each, and three of them finished three 

 supers each. The other five that were 

 placed on full sheets of foundation made 

 very little surplus honey, but built up well 

 and took in plenty of honey for winter 

 stores. The two that swarmed also l)uilt 

 up well for winter. 



From my investment I have 27 colonies 

 in good condition for winter, and enough 

 surplus honey to pay the first cost of the 2o 

 packages of bees. Figuring the 27 colonies 

 at $5.00 each gives me $135 for my work, 

 besides the experience, which is worth some- 



Continued on page 223. 



