December, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C IM. T TJ U K 



•^43 



01 HEAPS OF GRAIN"TPf™iiQp)IFFERENT FIELDS 



crawled upon the top of the top-bar, walked 

 deliberately to the back of the hive, and 

 jumped off into tlie grass and disappeared. I 

 looked carefully for her, but that was the 

 last of my poor old mother queen. 



My experience is that beekeeping is an 

 exact science, every known act producing an 

 exact result under identical conditions. 

 Therefore, all superseded queens commit sui- 

 cide from the mortification of ostracism. 



Tampa, J"!'' ITafford Jones. 



BrePrCjjig the Some 40 years ago B. F. Car- 

 Record at roll of Texas produced 750 

 750 Pounds. pounds of horseinint honey 

 from a single colony in one 

 season. If I am not mistaken, during all the 

 years that have intervened till now this rec- 

 ord has not been broken. Many have reached 

 the 500-pound mark; not a few have reached 

 600 pounds; and a 



I' '■ '' ^ large number have se- 



^^^^^^ cured a barrel of hon- 



^^^^H^ ey of 31 gallons per 



■^^^^^^% colonv. It remained for 



^0 ^ ' I W. J. Harvey of Up- 

 # '•*. alco, Utah, to smash 



the record and then 

 some. In 1918 from one 

 colony he produced 908 

 pounds of honey, sweet 

 clover and alfalfa. In 

 1919 he took from the 

 same colony 744 

 pounds; for the last 

 four years from all his 

 25 to 30 colonies he has taken six cans on 

 the average to the colony; or, taking it in 

 pounds, 360 pounds per colony. While there 

 are some who have beaten this as an average, • 

 there is no one, so far as I know, who has 

 reached the 900-pound mark from a single 

 colony. 



From a letter of Mr. Harvey we make the 

 following quotation: 



' ' Here is a condensed outline as to how 

 my best colony was handled: (Abbreviations 

 are: P — pollen, br — brood, fr — frame, em — 

 eniptv brood frame put in.) April 12, 7 fr 

 br 2 em; April 20, 51/2 fr br 3 em; May 7, 8 

 f r br 1 em ; May 17, Sy^ br 1 em ; June 3, 10 

 fr nearly full br; June 16, 9 fr full one ^A 

 P 14 br 'i em; July 7, 1 em; July 19, 1 em. 

 This is a 10-frame standard hive, and, of 

 course, where so many empty frames were 

 j)ut in some were raised to the super. This 

 is a 1918 queen and a direct descendant of 

 my first hive, which I have handled without 

 smoke or veil, one hour after sundown. This 

 good hive made four surplus frames of pol- 

 len. The extracting dates were as follows: 

 July 7, 164; Julv 19. 181; Aug. 2, 200; Aug. 

 23, 171; last. 28; total, 744." 



It might be interesting in this connection 

 to sav that Mr. Harvev believes in strong 



W. J. Harvey, a cham- 

 pion honey producer. 



colonies and winter ;iiotcetion. He attributes 

 no small part of h's success to the fact that 

 he has his colo-ies packed during the win- 

 ter: then vvnen harvest conies on he has a 

 fcrce ol bees of the right working age that 

 are strong enough to smash the record. 



If history repeats itself, some fellow will 

 bob up and say, ' ' I can go him one better. ' ' 

 If so, let him come on with the proof. I 

 talked with two or three of Mr. Harvey's 

 neighbors who verified his statements. 



Allow me to say that the district around 

 Upalco is extraordinarily good. It is well 

 stocked, however, with bees and beekeepers, 

 so there is no chance for another fellow to 

 get in unless he buys somebody out and pays 

 the price. And it will be some price. 



E. E. Eoot. 



Why Californ- California beekeepers have 

 ians Do as the name of being careless. 



They Do. There is a reason, perhaps. 



In other sections of the 

 United States one finds his location, and 

 places his apiary for the honey flow or per- 

 haps for a year. In either case he can take 

 time and care and place each hive just so 

 many feet apart, and so on, making a very 

 beautiful yard. Here is what we are learn- 

 ing by experience in the land of flowers and 

 sunshine. 



When we first lauded here we made three 

 resolutions. First, use hive-stands; second, 

 extract ripened honey; third, refrain from 

 using honey from brood-nest. Our friends 

 would look at the hive-stands and say, 

 "You'll not use them long." "We extract 

 frames Vi capped and take honey from the 

 hive-body or rather the brood-nest." But 

 we firmly believed we would stick to our 

 way, yet here is how we did it. 



Landing here in January and no locations 

 ill sight, we placed all of our colonies in one 

 yard. Then the fun began in finding loca- 

 tions for the orange flow. We would think 

 we had a fine place and would drive a little 

 farther on, and find out some other fellow 

 thought it a fine place, too, and w'as located 

 there. On and on we w-ould go. Some had 

 heard bees hurt the orange blossom. Others 

 were afraid Johnny or Mary might get 

 stung. But others were glad to have the 

 bees located near them. So with time and 

 patience we succeeded in finding room for 

 all. Some want honej- for rent, others cash. 

 First we took hive-stands, and Mr. Bunger 

 stepped off so many feet between rows and 

 squinted from one end of the row to the 

 other until things were just so. 



Our first yard was large and nicely ar- 

 ranged, being in a small canyon with large 

 orange groves to the cast and green hills to 

 the back. We could not boast of such a large 

 yield of orange honey as some others, since 

 our colonies were not in the condition of 



