396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUT. TURE 



July, 1920 



POINTERS BY A BIG PRODUCER 



How He Extracts and Handles His 

 Thousands of Colonies to Produce 

 Extracted Honey Most Evidently 



By Wesley Foster 



WE b e lieve 

 that g od 

 roads a n d 

 locations in 

 which there is a 

 ni a X i m u in o f 

 w r k i ng days 

 during the s e a- 

 son c ni p r i se 

 one of the se- 

 crets of successful commercial beekeeping. 

 We think that no section is what it should 

 be unless there is a maximum number of 

 good working days for the bees and bee- 

 keepers during the season, and the accessi- 

 bility of these locations to the beekeeper's 

 home is highly important. If a beekeeper, 

 when needed, cannot be at his yard on ac- 

 count of poor roads, it is a poor location 

 in spite of the good honey flow. No large 

 system of out-apiaries can be successfully 

 managed unless the means of transporta- 

 tion are ample and easy. Beekeepers are 

 like other people; they do not like to work 

 any harder than necessary, and they will 

 neglect their work unless the yards are 

 accessible and the weather favorable so 

 that the best work can be done. 

 Feeding the Bees. 



As we use a great many 8-frame hives 

 in our bee work we find that it is often 

 necessary to do considerable feeding in the 

 spring. In fact, it occurs quite often with 

 our 10-frame colonies, so that until such 

 time as we feel disposed to adopt the Jum- 

 bo hive we think we shall have to do con- 

 siderable feeding in the spring. 



As we are in locations where there are a 

 great many neighboring colonies, we think 

 it inadvisable to do any outdoor feeding. 

 We make our syrup half or more sugar, 



mixing it as hot 

 a s p !• acticable, 

 and then pour 

 the syrup into 

 the brood-or ex- 

 tracting - frames, 

 which standing 

 over night Will 

 drain sufficient- 

 ly so they can 

 be hauled on our truck to the yards and one 

 or two combs put in each hiye. We do this 

 work toward evening, since this method does 

 not induce robbing as it would if we took 

 the combs to the yard and put them in 

 the hives during the middle of the day. 

 Our Manner of Handling Queenless Colonies. 

 In running for extracted honey every 

 producer, I think, has the experience of 

 finding, each spring, quite a number of colo- 

 nies that are queenless. We know this is 

 our experience, and when attending to our 

 queenless colonies we think it does not pay 

 to try to requeen them; so they are simply 

 united with other colonies, and a sheet of 

 Ijaper is placed over the colony with which 

 the queenless colony is to be united, the 

 latter being set on top and a small hole 

 punched thru so the bees can work their 

 way thru in a few days. Our time in the 

 spring is too valuable to spend in trying to 

 introduce queens to these colonies. 



We rear only a small part of the queens 

 that we use, as we find it is more profit- 

 able to have all the queens ordered from the 

 Southern breeders; and by the way, we al- 

 ways order two or three times as many as 

 we need, thus coming nearer getting what 

 our requirements will be than if we should 

 order just what queens we thought we 

 would need. We have had the experience, 



.•\n oiitvard in one of Colorado's mountain vallnys. 



