G T. E A N I N G S T N BEE U Tj T TT K T! 



April, 1921 



Reports coming to tliis oflice iiidic-iiti' tliiit 

 ill many eases the bees began rearing con- 

 siderable brood in tlie cellars this year, 

 some time before l)eing put outside. Tliis 

 was probal)ly brouglit about in some cases 

 by the lack of a proper cleansing flight be- 

 fore being put into the cellars last Novem- 

 ber, as mentioned on page 10 of our Janu- 

 ary issue, and in other cases by the cellars 

 being too warm during the winter. In many 

 eases, no doubt, both of these disturbing 

 factors have been at work, thus hastening 

 the beginning of brood-rearing. 



Just what effect this early brood-rearing 

 will have upon the condition of the colonies 

 later will depend largely upon the weather 

 from now on. If no severe cold weather 

 occurs later and if the bees rear brood only 

 moderately in the North during April, no 

 serious damage may be done except the using 

 ii]> of an excessive amount of stores. 



6f= 



=>a ^os: 



IN PARTS of tlie nortlieastern United 

 States where temperature conditions are fa- 

 vorable for the clo- 



Liming the Soil 



and Its Effect 



on Beekeeping. 



\'eis, the soil is so 

 deficient in lime 

 that the clovers do 

 not do well. In 

 some regions when the soil could no longer 

 supjjort a growth of clover, farms have been 

 abandoned because of the poverty of the 

 soil. Within recent years many of these 

 abandoned farms have been built up, and 

 good crops are now being raised largely 

 thru the use of lime and the growing of clo- 

 \('r. 



Extension men from the agricultural col- 

 leges are now preaching the doctrine of 

 liming tlie soil. County agents and farm bu- 

 reaus are not only telling farmers that it 

 pays to lime the soil, but demonstrations are 

 being made on farms here and there to show 

 the great value of lime. As a result of all 

 this, great areas in eastern Ohio and parts 

 of New York and Pennsylvania, outside of 

 the buckwheat region, which were formerly 

 ]ioor territory for beekeeping, are now be- 

 coming good beekeeping territory on account 

 of the return of the clovers. The practice of 

 liming the soil spreads from farm to farm, 

 as neighboring farmers become convinced 

 that it pays, until large areas of good clover 

 territory spread from these centers where 

 liming was begun several years ago. In 

 most of these regions alsike clover has al- 

 ready been introduced and when once it gets 

 into a locality it stays, if conditions are at 

 all suitable, springing up in meadows, along 

 I'oadsides and in fence corners. 



Beekeepers in these regions will do well 

 to find out where the most lime is being used 

 by the farmers, as a guide in locating out- 

 apiaries, for where farmers are using a ton 

 or more of ground limestone to the acre, 

 beekeeping should flourish, if other condi- 

 tions are at all. favorable. 



In this connection many beekeepers have 

 noticed how much better the clovers grow 

 along roadsides when the road is paved with 

 cruslicd limestone, as a result of the worn 

 away particles of the stone being distrib- 

 uted over the soil adjacent to the road. 



In those regions where the soil is deficient 

 in lime, beekeepers can improve their loca- 

 tions by seeing to it that the farmers of their 

 vicinity are supplied with the best informa- 

 tion available on the subject of liming the 

 soil. Literature on this subject can be ob- 

 tained from the various state experiment 

 stations and agricultural colleges as well as 

 from the United States Dei>artment of Agri- 

 culture at Washington. 



ON PAGE 208 of this issue E. R. Root esti- 

 mates the amount of honey used by a colony 

 of bees for its 

 /!^ Honey Used by a 

 L \ Colony During 

 l!' * . '"^ the Year. 



own maintenance 



at 200 to 250 

 pounds ■ per year 

 in the southern 

 States. This is the amount the bees must 

 have before any surplus can be secured. 

 While this amount may seem excessive to 

 some, it is not so high as similar estimates 

 made by others. The data which are avail- 

 able on this subject are meager, but they 

 all indicate that surprisingly large quanti- 

 ties of honey are used by the bees during 

 the active season. 



Beekeepers have no means of knowing ex- 

 actly how much it costs in honey for the 

 bees to rear a given amount of brood, and 

 we can only guess as to the amount of honey 

 used bj' adult bees when they are active as 

 during a honey flow. Some work done by 

 R. L. Taylor in the Michigan Experimental 

 Apiary in 1896 yielded figures indicating 

 that four pounds of honey are used to pro- 

 duce a frame of brood, Langstroth size. 

 These figures were obtained by carefully 

 conducted experiments. Mell Pritchard re- 

 ports that, in his queen-rearing operations, 

 he feeds his cell-building colonies, after the 

 honey flow, one quart of sugar syrup made 

 of two parts of water to one part of sugar, 

 which is about the equivalent, in sugar con- 

 tent, of a pound of honey. This causes the 

 bees to rear brood at the rate of five frames 

 of brood every 20 days, these five frames 

 being removed from the brood-chamber 

 every 20 days and placed above a queen- 

 excluder. Five combs every 20 days is at 

 the rate of one comb every four days, to 

 ])roduce which he feeds the equivalent of 

 four pounds of honey. If no nectar is com- 

 ing in from the fields, these colonies use a 

 small n mount of their reserve stores in addi- 

 tion to the quart of thin syrui) per day. 

 These figures agree closely with Taylor 's fig- 

 ures of four pounds of honey to produce a 

 frame of brood. 



In 1901 Adrian Getaz collected all of the 

 data which had been published up to that 



