410 



GLEANINGS T N BEE C U I. T U R E 



.lui.Y. 19-21. 



keep up brood-reariug as extensively as it 

 had been carried on earlier. There was, 

 therefore, a break in brood-rearing for two 

 or three weeks in May, which has resulted 

 in a lack of the usual number of emerging 

 bees in June. 



When the honey flow began from clover 

 about the first of June this lack of young 

 bees was quite noticeable, for when most 

 of the field bees were in the field during 

 the day, the hives appeared to be almost 

 deserted, the majority of the workers being 

 old enough to work in the fields. Another 

 peculiar thing brought about by this condi- 

 tion was noticeable in the supers, when the 

 field bees were in the hive in the evening or 

 during a shower. Instead of the supers 

 being occupied largely by young bees they 

 were apparently filled with old bees, which 

 usually stay in the lower part of the hive 

 when the supers are occupied by young 

 bees. 



Under these conditions there should be 

 but little if any swarming until young bees 

 begin to appear again in great numbers. 

 The usual June swarming season should 

 therefore make its appearance late in the 

 month and probably extend into July, altho 

 most colonies that were well supplied with 

 stores were unusually strong when clover 

 began to yield. Beekeepers of the northern 

 States are so accustomed to the swarming 

 season coming soon after the beginning of 

 the honey flow that it is quite a novelty to 

 see rousing colonies send most of their 

 workers into the fields and the supers, with 

 no thought of swarming. 



=«i^ca= 



EVEN the experienced beekeeper usually 

 overestimates the amount of honey on the 



hives toward 

 Leave More Honey the close of the 

 For the Bees. honey flow, and 



in producing ex- 

 tracted honey the tendency is to leave too 

 little for the bees. In many cases colonies 

 run short of stores in August after the crop 

 has been removed where there is no fall 

 flow. 



With the depressed honey market it would 

 be folly to extract honey which may not 

 find ready sale except at a low price, ex- 

 pecting to feed the bees sugar syrup for 

 their own use. It is far better to leave 

 enough honey in the combs now to supply an 

 abundance for the use of the bees until 

 next season. The beekeeper cannot afford 

 at this time to trade sugar stores for honey 

 with all the risk and trouble that would re- 

 sult from making such an exchange, to say 

 nothing of the advantages of honey stores 

 for brood-rearing in building up next 

 spring. The wise beekeeper will leave more 

 honey with the bees than he thinks they 

 can possibly need when he removes his 

 crop. 



Beekeepers in the far North can feed 

 their colonies a sufficient amount of sugar 



syrup for the time the bees are confined to 

 their hives to insure good stores for the 

 winter period, but this should be fed late 

 after brood-rearing ceases and should be 

 given in addition to the honey stores which 

 will be available for spring brood-rearing 

 after the bees have consumed the late-fed 

 sugar stores. By using but little, if any, 

 sugar for feeding the bees, and leaving hon- 

 ey instead, tlie total amount of honey thus 

 kept off of the market should be enormous 

 and should greatly help to relieve the pres- 

 ent depressed honey market. It is time for 

 beekeejjers to cease helping the sugar mar- 

 ket at the expense of the honey market. 



THE present high prices of equipment 

 and greatly increased operating expenses, 

 together with the 

 >fedv Production Costs 

 f ^ of Comb and 

 ILj-i^ Extracted Honey. 



lower prices of 

 honey, are caus- 

 ing beekeepers to 

 think seriously of 

 the cost of producing honey. M. G. Dadant, 

 in the American Bee Journal, sets forth 

 some interesting figures on production costs 

 of comb and extracted honey. From these 

 figures, which were compiled by Frank 

 Rauchfuss, Mr. Dadant concludes that it 

 would take a production of 100 pounds per 

 colony of extracted honey to net the pro- 

 ducer as much as a production of 48 pounds 

 of comb honey per colony, figuring supplies 

 at prices prevailing when the 1920 crop was 

 harvested. The figures were compiled on a 

 basis of 500 colonies in eight-frame hives 

 for comb honey and the same number of 

 colonies in ten-frame hives for extracted 

 lione^'. 



Mr. Dadant raises the interesting ques- 

 tion whether the 500 colonies operated for 

 comb honey would be able to produce 48 

 pounds while the 500 colonies operated for 

 extracted honey were producing 100 pounds. 

 The Junior Editor (G. S. Demuth) has op- 

 erated a series of apiaries for comb honey 

 in northern Indiana for many years. Dur- 

 ing at least the past 25 years some colonies 

 in these apiaries were operated for extract- 

 ed honey, and during the past few years 

 one of the apiaries was run for extracted 

 honey entirely. The yields of the two types 

 of honey in these apiaries under the same 

 conditions, with colonies of equal strength, 

 indicate that an average of about 75 pounds 

 of comb hone}' can be produced to 100 

 pounds of extracted honey. During some 

 seasons the ratio is even greater, while dur- 

 ing other seasons it is less. Other locations 

 would probably give 'different results; but, 

 according to the figures published by Mr. 

 Dadant, the production of comb honey un- 

 der present conditions should yield a much 

 greater profit than the production of ex- 

 tracted honey in locations similar to that 

 mentioned. As pointed out by Mr. Dadant, 

 much depends upon the locality and the sea- 

 son as well as upon the management. 



