672 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1917 



one or two exceptions alfalfa yields honey 

 only in irrigated states, while sweet clover 

 furnishes nectar anywhere on any soil. 



Sweet clover is a great honey-plant, and 

 is destined to be the most valuable one in 

 the United States if we except white and 

 alsike clover. It yields honey every year, 

 dry or wet, on any soil, sweet or acid, altho 

 it prefers good soil with lime in it. It has 

 in some states made land that was worth 

 only $10.00 per acre now worth $200 per 

 acre. It is so much in demand that its seed 

 is the highest-priced of any seed in the mar- 

 ket. 



On the other hand white and alsike clover 

 require favorable conditions or else they 

 will not give up their nectar, if, indeed, 

 they will grow at all. 



Beekeepers should take pains to herald 

 these facts everywhere in their locality. 



Perhaps it would not be out of the 

 way if they would carry pocketfuls of seed 

 and scatter it in localities where nothing 

 but useless weeds are grown. Nobody is 

 harmed, and, moreover, the farmer and th? 

 beekeeper will be greatly benefited. 



WE HAVE BEEN using this plan more 

 and more of late. In some respects it is 



more reliable 



DIAGNOSING 



BY THE 



FLIGHT OF 



BEES 



than a mere ex- 

 amination of the 

 combs. If the 

 colony shows 

 bees going out 

 and in rapidly, and coming just as rapidly, 

 it is as sure as fate that they will need room 

 soon; and without room they will swarm. 

 A colony that has started in to work well 

 should be kept busy by keeping ahead of it. 

 Entrance diagnosis saves time — hours of 

 it — when time is most precious. Away back 

 in the early 70's and 80's A. I. Root used 

 entrance diagnosis very largely, and the 

 writer as a mere boy then remembers dis- 

 tinctly how he used to catch us up after 

 we had been all over the yard in detail, 

 comb by comb; and after a survey of five 

 minutes in the beeyard he would show where 

 we had failed to do what ought to hpvc been 

 done earlier. We used to imagine he had 

 some X-ray eyes, and could look clear thru 

 a colony, for we did not see how under the 

 sun he could tell from the outside in thi^ee 

 seconds what that colony was doing, and 

 what it would be likely to do unless taken 

 care of. 



In the years that have passed since, by 

 the use of X-ray eyes on otlier hives we 

 have come to the conclusion that entrance 

 diagiiosis, so far as the need of room is 

 concerned, in respect to the future i,s more 



reliable than looking down into- the hive 

 itself, because it shows what the colony is 

 going to do, and that means swarming un- 

 less room is given. A colony may be ever 

 so full of stores; but unless its bees are 

 active at the entrance it is not likely to 

 need more room. 



ONE GREAT advantage of the eombless 

 package of bees is that it will not carry 



brood diseases. 



BROOD IN 



POUND 



PACKAGES 



On account of 

 that, the busi- 

 ness has grown 

 to enormous pro- 

 portions. But lately some have been ship- 

 ping pounds of bees with a frame of brood. 

 In regard to this, Provincial Apiarist Mor- 

 ley Pettit, Ontario, wiites: 



I wish to enter a protest against the shipping: of 

 bees in pound packages with a comb of brood in 

 each. One of our beekeepers purchased recently 



from 10 three-pound packages with 



a comb of brood in each. A few days after he had 

 received those lie found both American and European 

 foul brood in the colony, and in every case the dis- 

 ease showed in the comb which came with the 

 package. I would not care to have you mention 

 the name of the party along with my name ; but 

 there should be a strong protest against the shipping 

 of bees on so-called natural stores or with a comb 

 where they woaild have brood. Such a practice sim- 

 ply defeats the main purpose of the eombless pack- 

 age, and makes it a possible carrier of disease in- 

 stead of one which is practically safe against the 

 carrying of disease. Mobley Pettit, 



Guelph, Canada. Provincial Apiarist. 



We have for years shipped nuclei with 

 bees and brood. Our yards are under care- 

 ful surveillance and state inspection, and so 

 far we do not know of a ease where brood 

 disease has been carried that way. But if 

 one proposes to ship bees in pound lots let 

 him go to the limit and be safe. On the 

 other hand, no one should buy nuclei or full 

 colonies unless he knows the party of whom 

 he is buying is taking every precaution 

 against brood disease. Diseases are scat- 

 tered pretty well over the country now, and 

 it belioo\'es the buyer to be careful as well 

 as the shipper. 



DIB YOU EVER NOTICE that a frame 

 full of sealed or hatching brood is about 



two-thirds as heavy as 

 WEIGHT a frame of honey of 



OF SEALED the same thickness of 



BROOD comb from capping to 



capp i n g ? When' 

 " hefting " a colony to determine the amount 

 of stores, one is liable to be misled if there 

 is a large amount of sealed brood in the 

 bive. 



