744 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Decembeb, 1920 



HEADS OF GRAIN g ?Pl|Q irDIFFERENT FIELDS 



the California bees at the beginning of the 

 orange flow. Some only built up, just stor- 

 ing the brood-nest full. Some made 150 

 pounds surplus, but a larger per- cent made 

 less. 



Now for the extracting. Our fellow bee- 

 keepers were throwing honey out thin and 

 fast long before we were. Note I say 

 ' ' thin. ' ' We left ours on until well capped 

 and threw it out thick and slow. In fact, 

 so slow that we had to quit one afternoon, 

 as the combs were almost as heavy after 

 extracting as before. The next morning we 

 built a hot fire and warmed the combs, try- 

 ing again with better success. But breaking 

 resolution No. 2, next year we shall do as 

 they do in California. 



After the orange flow new apiaries began 

 to appear along the desert and canyons for 

 sage, wild alfalfa, buckwheat, and moun- 

 tain flowers, so we knew it was time to move 

 again. When new locations were found, we 

 placed our colonies without any stepping off 

 and squinting. We just cleared a little patch 

 of sagebrush off and set the hives down 

 without hive-stands. Eesolution No. 1 

 broken. 



And resolution No. 3 was very soon 

 broken when Mr. Bunger began to lift those 

 full hives to move them. We soon took out 

 from two to three frames of honey, making 

 the' load much lighter to handle. 



So we will say in conclusion that the Cali- 

 fornians are not careless always; but condi- 

 tions are different, making it necessary to 

 move in a hurry, extract in a hurry, and 

 move again. So by another year we will be 

 true Californians in almost every way. We 

 are enjoying every bit of this year, learn- 

 ing lots and getting our share of nature's 

 sweets and making an increase of 200 colo- 

 nies. Mrs. Roy Bunger. 



Ontario, Calif. 



:do ^ PC 



Educating The rapid spread of Ameri- 



the Barnacle can foul brood has become a 

 Beekeepers. menace to many beekeep- 



ers in various parts of New 

 York and has assumed threatening propor- 

 tions in many quarters. 



To meet this situation an appropriation of 

 $10,000 was secured from the State to fight 

 bee diseases. This fund is used to employ 

 inspectors during that season of the year 

 when inspection and treatment will do the 

 most good. With this appropriation avail- 

 able some 14 or 16 short-time inspectors, in 

 addition to our regular inspectors, have been 

 at work in various parts of the State. To 

 facilitate the work the State was divided 

 into as many districts as there were inspec- 

 tors, one or more counties for each district, 

 according to the amount of work to be done 

 in the various localities. 



It has been found that the reports of the 

 rapid spread of American foul brood, assum- 

 ing almost the aspects of an epidemic, are 

 true, and that there was, and will continue 

 to be for some time to come, a great need 

 for State aid in combating the disease. It 

 is felt that a great amount of good work at 

 inspection has been accomplished, especially 

 in instructions to a large class of beekeepers 

 who would never know how to treat their 

 bees for disease except for the instructions 

 to the beekeeper on the spot. It is recog- 

 nized that this class of bee owners are more 

 or less unworthy to receive free instruction; 

 yet, because they are a positive menace to 

 the beekeeping interests of the whole coun- 

 try when the deadly bee diseases are abroad 

 in the land, and because the educational fa- 

 cilities of colleges, conventions, and bee 

 periodicals will never reach them, it is pol- 

 icy to carry the education to their doors and 

 force it on them if possible. If it were pos- 

 sible to educate this large class of barnacle 

 beekeepers not to keep bees, the greatest 

 possible service to the occupation of bee- 

 keeping would be rendered. 



Kenmore, N. Y. O. L. Hershiser. 



Bees Do Quite recently I had occasion 



Steal Eggs. to remove a hive of bees 

 from oiie side of my residence 

 to a warmer side, as no sun came on that 

 side of the house in the winter. In order not 

 to lose any of the flying bees I placed a hive 

 with five drawn-out combs which had been 

 stored for several months on the old stand. 

 As I foresaw, in a few days I had three 

 frames full of bees. Being a very busy man 

 I had no time to unite these bees to the old 

 "stock for several days. To my great sur- 

 prise some 14 days after when I opened up 

 the hive, I was thunderstruck to find a 

 queen-cell in the center of the second frame 

 with an egg in it. I had a good look over 

 all the frames to find out whether a fertile 

 worker had got busy, but no trace of an- 

 other egg could be found. Being curious I 

 decided to let the bees go ahead, and see if 

 they would rear a fertile queen from that 

 cell. In due course it was capped and caged, 

 and quite a good-sized queen emerged and 

 was mated and is proving one of my best 

 layers. 



I think this a clear proof that bees do 

 steal eggs, for there was no possible chance 

 of that solitary egg's having been put in the 

 hive in an old frame. Have you or any of 

 your readers had a similar occurrence? 



Johannesburg, S. Africa. W. G. Davis. 



[For many years there has seemed little 

 doubt that eggs are sometimes, tho very 

 rarely, moved from one story to another and 

 apparently from one hive to another. We 

 have had a number of such reports from re- 



