GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Febeuabt, 1920 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



It is safe to say not more than 25 pounds of 

 section honey. 



Our bees seem to have become acclimated 

 and fly and work under adverse conditions. 

 I have seen them at work wheit the ther- 

 mometer was close to 40 degrees. And they 

 frequently work out in the rain. In January 

 generally there are many days the bees can 

 and do fly. In February some pollen is 

 brought in from willow. In March an early 

 crop of dandelion furnishes enough to boost 

 breeding. In April the soft maples, and later 

 viiie, are fine honey-yielders. In May fruit 

 blossoms; in June white and alsike clover; 

 in July late berries blossom and general 

 flora; but after July 10 the honey flow is 

 negligible. No fall crop here is dependable 

 and colonies do not gain any in weight or 

 quantity — rather the reverse. 



Handling or methods employed differ here 

 as elsewhere. Some rarely fail in getting 

 some results; others rarely get much, if any. 

 In my own experience, I find success depends 

 on eliminating swarming. As you all know 

 how, I need offer nothing on this; but I have 

 good success by adding an extra brood- 

 chamber to each colony, thus securing a tre- 

 mendously strong colony. 



As new appliances are used, doubtless oth- 

 ers find different results, necessitating dif- 

 ferent methods. For instance, the seven 

 wires in the new honey-boards permit the 

 bees to pass thru so readily and with such 

 little interruption that often the entire 

 brood-chamber is used for brood only, and 

 nearly all the honey is placed above. With 

 the old-style zinc it was often otherwise, 

 and in some instances the lower chamber 

 would be honey-bound; but a few honey- 

 bound colonies are not bad property if stores 

 are short in others. Bees are wintered on 

 summer stands; no cellars here, no bee- 

 houses that I know of, and if the hives are 

 well sheltered from the winter rains, heavy 

 colonies come thru strong. Many schemes 

 have been, and are now tried, to eliminate 

 mouldy combs. What works sometimes, 

 fails other times. Frequently I find the 

 strongest colonies have more mouldy combs 

 than lighter ones. For years I have winter- 

 ed late nuclei on five frames, and these gen- 

 erally show no mould at all. The boys who 

 had the nerve to try out migratory tactics 

 this year won out big. Many are leaving 

 all their colonies in the mountains, as the 

 locations are dependable. I shall give one 

 instance only, that of a young couple, both 

 of whom work at a trade. They had one day 

 off a week and owned a few colonies. They 

 increased and bought up to 40, moved these 

 to the hills in July, and got a crop of over 

 a ton of fireweed honey. 



But another instance in 1918: When there 

 was nothing in sight here, one took 100 colo- 

 nies 30 miles to the hills where the whole 

 mountainside was pink with fireweed. How- 

 ever aphis appeared and paralyzed things, 



and the bees were brought back starving by 

 a sadder and wiser man. Still I have faith 

 to the utmost that in this part of the great 

 Northwest, we have a real God's Country, 

 a good bee-country, the finest water on earth, 

 no extremes, cyclones unknown, but months 

 of disagreeable, wet weather that harasses 

 Easterners. In eastern Oregon and Wash- 

 ington weather conditions are more like the 

 Middle West, with hot and cold spells and 

 less rain at all seasons. E. J. Ladd. 



Portland, Ore. 



A SWARM - P REVEN TION PLAN 



Provide Ample Room in the Brood-Nest for the 

 Queen to Lay 



From my experience I have come to the 

 conclusion that swarming is brought on more 

 often from this one cause than any other, 

 insuflicient room for the queen to lay in the 

 brood-nest. Now, I can imagine somebody 

 saying, "Oh! but that is nonsense, for I 

 have frequently opened a hive immediately 

 after a swarm had left, and found plenty of 

 empty cells in the brood-nest." That may 

 be so; but you must remember that the 

 queen lessens her output of eggs a few days 

 before the swarm leaves, so that her body 

 may be lightened to enable her to fly. I 

 emphasize in the brood-nest because in hives 

 composed of shallow cases, such as the Hed- 

 don, queens sometimes refuse to pass from 

 one case to another unless one spreads the 

 brood either up or down. This is why the 

 bottom case is often ignored by the bees. 



I believe it is a mistake to suppose that 

 there can be too great a force of workers. 

 The larger the number over and above those 

 necessary to attend the brood, the greater 

 the quantity of honey stored. To remove 

 hatching brood, therefore, is to decrease the 

 proportion of workers and to take away a 

 large number of cells which would have 

 been almost immediately available for the 

 queen to lay in. 



I suggest that all unsealed brood be re- 

 moved at regular intervals, giving it to a 

 few strong colonies kept especially for the 

 purpose, to be taken care of. In its place 

 give back frames of hatching brood pre- 

 viously taken when unsealed. The result 

 will be an enormous force of workers and an 

 abundance of room for the queen to lay. 

 Care must be taken that there be ample 

 super room, as such a force of bees will store 

 rapidly; and if super room is insuflicient 

 they will put honey in the brood-nest, and 

 so bring on the very condition we are en- 

 deavoring to prevent. If a honey flow is on, 

 it might be better to give foundation rather 

 than hatching brood in the brood-chamber. 

 In that case the hatching brood from the 

 nursery colonies would come in handy for 

 making nuclei, building up weak colonies, or 

 forming new ones. B. Blackbourn. 



Melbourne, Australia. 



