August, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



591 



swarm, wc put on an iii)per story witli an 

 oxcliuler betweein. All sealed or hatching- 

 brood was placed above, and all unsealed 

 brood with the queen was placed below. 

 The object of this was to givc' more room 

 for the queen; and as the hatchinc; brood 

 emerged this would provide additional room 

 in tlie supei's for some ten days or two 

 weeks later. The plan has worked out well. 

 By extracting: time there will be little or 

 no brood in the supers. 



Not a few extracted-honey producers have 

 been practicing' this plan of putting all the 

 sealed brood in the supers and the queen 

 and unsealed brood below by means of an 

 excluder. It keeps down the swarming 

 tendency, automatically supplies room for 

 the storage of honey as the brood hatches 

 out and gives more room in the brood-nest. 



This summer our Mr. Pritchard in one or 

 two of his outyards has been practicing a 

 different plan. When colonies were boiling 

 over in strength so he had to put en upper 

 stories, he caged his queens and kept them 

 caged for a couple of weeks. In the mean 

 time, honey came in with a irsh, and the 

 bees stored both hive-bodies full of honey. 

 As they could not swarm out without the 

 queen, they could do nothing but store 

 honey. Of course he cut out the queen-cells. 



The plan has worked out well, says Mr. 

 Prdtchard. It has the V^dvantage that 

 sv/arming is held absolutely undei' control. 



There are some, however, wlio dislike the 

 bother of cell-killing and who believe that 

 a colony with a caged queen sulks or does 

 not work with the same energy as where 

 their queen has the range of the lower 

 story. They therefore prefer to work with 

 queen-excluders with hatching brood above. 

 But cells must sometimes be killed in the 

 upper story. 



DURING THIS YEAR, when the whole 

 wide world is asking for a speeding-up in 



the food produc- 



nUCKWITEAT 



A PROFfT- 



ABLE CROP 



tion of the Unit- 

 ed States, there 

 is no one crop 

 that can be put 

 in to help out more than buckwheat. It is; 

 a quick grower, maturing in from 50 to 60 

 days, and can very often be put in between 

 two other crops to good advantage, thus in- 

 creasing the amount of food per acre. It is 

 a wonderful exterminator of weeds ; and 

 when grown between other crops the land 

 on which it is grown will often be mellow 

 enough to put in either wheat or rye after- 

 ward, without the nse of even a drag. The 

 wheat or rye is simply drilled in on the 



buckwheat stubble. As to wliich should go 

 in will depend on the time the crop is har- 

 vested. In case of a very late croji it may 

 be advisable to jnit in rye in i)lace of 

 wheat. 



Almost any soil will do providing it is 

 well drained; but any soil is improved for 

 the growing of buckwheat by the use of 

 fertilizers. Enoi'mous yields have been se- 

 emed on clover plowed under — as high as 

 ■^0 bushels per acre. Moreover, buckwheat 

 ifsdf can be plowed under just after the 

 blooming period, to the great advantage of 

 the land for a following crop. Plowing 

 under is often practiced when there is dan- 

 ger of frost killing before the seed can 

 mature. 



While buckwheat can be grown in the 

 spring, there is always danger of hot weath- 

 er setting in later on, or an early frost 

 killing it. 



Buckwheat is put in from June 20 up to 

 Aug. 20. Where there are many bees in 

 (he locality and honey is desired as well as 

 grain it is advisable to put in one crop about 

 June 20, another July 1, another July 15, 

 Aug. 1, and Aug. 15. The crop put in in 

 June is liable to be blighted by too much hot 

 weather; but it is not usual to put in buck- 

 wheat much before July 1 nor later than 

 Aug. 1. Buckwheat may mature in 50 days, 

 but usually it takes from G5 to 70 days. 

 One must, tlierefore, take into account his 

 particular locality and the probabilities of 

 frost in September. 



Buckwheat honey sells readily in hicnli- 

 ties where the plant is grown extensively; 

 particularly in Albany and New York {'it_\ : 

 but it is of rather slow sale in mark Is 

 wh^re it is unknown. It usually commands 

 a good price — very close to clover. 



In practically all localities buckwheat 

 yields nectar a little while in the morning, 

 say from eight to twelve o'clock, and then 

 again toward evening. In the interim the 

 bees are apt to be pretty cross, as they al- 

 ways are when there is a stoppage of the 

 honey-flow, either on account of rain or of 

 a sudden drop in temperature. 



AMOUNT OF SEED PER ACRE. 



This is a mooted question. Some say two 

 l^ecks is enough; others say three peeks is 

 about right. Others go so far as to urge a 

 bushel per acre; and when the Japanese 

 variety is used, II/2 bushels is advised. 

 Usually three pecks is about right, especial- 

 ly if the silverhull or common black is used. 

 Japanese requires more seed per acre. Ex- 

 perience seems to show that silverhull and 

 the common black buckwheat yield more 

 honey per acre than the Japanese. The 

 older varieties branch out more and furnish 



