June, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



46d 



aged than for several j^ears past, partly be- 

 cause of the extremely low prices secured 

 last year and severe losses this past winter. 



WHAT IS THE TROUBLE WITH THE ROCKY 

 MOUNTAIN BEEMEN? 



Honey production is not as uniformly 

 profitable in this part of the United States 

 as it should be. This can be proven by 

 one very simple test. Here is the test: 

 What do bankers think of bees and bee- 

 keepers as risks? Most bankers do not 

 care, from past experiences, to loan general- 

 ly to honey-producers, for the reason that 

 these producers do not secure uniformly 

 good crops; marketing is too slow and diffi- 

 cult, and bees are so prone to die ; and then 

 an outfit is practically unsalable. Banks 

 are just as liberal in their loans to our 

 uniformly successful beemen as they are to 

 our uniformly successful farmers; but the 

 percentage of successful beemen is smaller 

 than the percentage of successful farmers. 



It is the duty of all interested in bee cul- 

 ture to establish beekeeping on a substantial, 

 profitable plane. To do that we must have 

 better-trained beekeepers. Our problem in 

 the West is a comjDlex one; but the rewards 

 are satisfactory for those who have solved 

 the questions of production, purchasing- 

 supplies, and marketing honey. None have 

 yet solved the question of wintering satis- 

 isfactorily, and the b3e-disease situation is 

 not yet controlled as it should be. 



Most of our successful beemen have lost 

 half or more of their bees at some time dur- 

 ing the past ten years. The loss runs from 

 ten to twenty per cent every year. Quite 

 a few of our most successful beemen expect 

 to lose heavily each winter, in this way hav- 

 ing empty hives for increase each year. If 

 all colonies were wintered, the extra care 

 necessav" to handle out-apiaries successfully 

 would be more than our beekeepers could 

 give with the size of their operations. The 

 truth is, our beemen do not want to work 

 hard (sixteen hours a day) for more than 

 three months each year. 



Our problem is to prove that one man can 

 manage five hundred to a thousand colonies 

 more profitably by wintering all of them and 

 then controlling and keeping down increase, 

 than to lose ten or twenty per cent and use 

 the empty hives for the increase. If it is 

 more profitable to do this, we want to know 

 it. The arguments in its favor are that 

 larger crops can be harvested per colony 

 from well-Avintered stocks, and that the fre- 

 quent severe " knock out " winters, such as 

 the Rocky Mountain region has just experi- 

 enced, would be largely avoided. 



The arguments against the plan are nu- 

 merous : 



1. It is too expensive to prepare and pack 

 colonies for winter — the situation with 

 many being stated that it is impossible — 

 they have not the money nor the credit. 



2. The work necessary is more than one 

 man can do, and help cannot be had. 



3. After a severe winter and heavy losses, 

 crops are generally good and large increase 

 is possible, often refilling all hives in one 

 season. 



4. Severe winter losses keep the best lo- 

 cations from becoming grossly overstocked. 



When summing up these arguments the 

 really wideawake beekeeper will come to the 

 conclusion that the most profitable course 

 will be to winter all of his colonies of nor- 

 mal strength in the best possible manner, 

 and the careful manipulation will turn into 

 honey what energy otherwise would go into 

 swarming. 



If every set of hives or comb is made to 

 pay a good dividend, it will not be difficult 

 to secure funds for some more equipment 

 necessary to secure best the stability of the 

 enterprise. We must cut out the extremely 

 large leaks in our business, and wintering 

 losses are among the heavy ones. 



BETTER PROTECTION FOR WINTER. 



Mr. George S. Demuth, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, recently spent a few days in 

 Colorado on his return from the Nortliwest. 

 Mr. Demuth had been investigating winter- 

 ing conditions, and had some very interest- 

 ing observations to relate. 



Wintering in Idaho has been carried on 

 much the same as in Colorado, largely be- 

 cause many of the Idaho beemen were 

 originally from Colorado. Winters in Ida- 

 ho are more severe than with us, and thoro 

 wintering preparations are more necessary. 

 Most of tlie losses in Idaho were caused by 

 honey-dew in the winter stores. 



Mr. Demuth expressed surprise at the 

 ease of wintering here, but believes Colo- 

 rado beekeepers should seriously test the 

 heavy packing of colonies with a contracted 

 entrance. Undoubtedly this will be tried 

 out this coming winter in various parts of 

 the state. Our heaviest losses are caused by 

 the solid granulation of the honey in the 

 hive. In these districts it will be necessary 

 to extract all honey, and winter bees on 

 sugar syrup before much success will be 

 accomplished, as packing heavily will not 

 accomplish very much toward preventing 

 granulation in the hive. 



Another interesting fact to Mr. Demuth 

 was the lateness of our honey-flow, allowing 

 of a long period of building up during 

 April, May, June, and part of July, our 

 main surplus coming in August and often 

 part of September. 



