GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Septembkk, 1921 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



ing bees and queens in the spring from the 

 South to put on to the combs and honey 

 carefully saved for the purpose. Mixed with 

 those ideas was another man 's scheme of 

 wintering a few whopping big colonies and 

 dividing them in the spring, giving each 

 part a young queen from the South. The 

 wheels began to turn. Bee culture had 

 some possibilities left in it after all. I was 

 soon as busy as a puppy with flees. 



About how many ' ' good ' ' colonies could 

 be combined and wintered successfully? 

 Why not all the bees of a yard put into a 

 specially packed room. Fine idea until I 

 recalled that Dr. Phillips claimed the neces- 

 sity of 57 varieties of heat, I mean of de- 

 grees of heat. Such a mass of bees would 

 I)robably start spontaneous combustion; so 

 I let my visions pass and got down to ra- 

 tional things. I finally settled on combin- 

 ing the bees of five colonies, basing it upon 

 the idea that Dr. Phillips put four colonies 

 with combs, etc., in one case, so that five 

 without combs or brood ought to be about 

 right. 



How much food would bees so bunched 

 need and in what form should it be? I 

 guessed to no purpose concerning the quan- 

 tity. As to form I considered liquid, either 

 honey or syrup, or soft or hard candy, or 

 candied honey in a division-board feeder. 

 Candy looked the most feasible, the cheap- 

 est anyway, and all right till brood-rearing 

 began, and then the bees would be back on 

 their combs with honey and pollen. As 

 hard candy was easier to make and just as 

 good as soft, so far as I could determine 

 from many trials of each, I decided on slabs 

 of hard candy, and on using a ten-pound 

 slab with glass over it and under the top 

 packing; then I could see how they were 

 fixed at any time and give more when 

 needed. 



The next query was a box for the bees, 

 and what was better than a regulation body. 

 Jumbo size? A sensible-sized case would 

 hold it; not that the genial doctor's is other 

 than good in its way, but it is too much in 

 the way physically and financially. 



The rest was easy — four colonies de- 

 queened and kept so till their brood had 

 emerged, and the queen of the fifth kept 

 caged, and the bees prevented from raising 

 another for the same period, when all were 

 combined, shaken into the empty body, 

 queen freed, candy put on top, all packed in 

 the winter case, and what more could be 

 asked? Well, a whole lot! I am an insati- 

 able fellow, as you will soon see. 



Bees under the described conditions will 

 build comb, and a free queen will lay in it 

 long before I desire any brood-rearing. If 

 you will recall it. Dr. Phillips often gets too 

 much brood or too many bees too early for 

 the honey flows, which condition, tho not 

 so bad as too late, vet is ton ct)stlv, and I 



want to keep bees better than that and get 

 the young bees at the psychological time. 



Right here some of the rest of you may be 

 able to help me. Can I cage the queen for 

 the whole winter in such a colony and how? 

 She must be able to move with the bees if 

 they chance to cluster, and she should have 

 access to food and not be dependent on the 

 bees. 



And again, tell me, can I safely cage sev- 

 eral queens in one colony, each queen, of 

 course, in her own cage, so as to have them 

 on hand for spring when I want to divide 

 the big colony? As I view it, the bees should 

 have access to the queens thru excluder 

 zinc; if so, then the queens will be depend- 

 ent on the bees for food, for the bees would 

 consume any food placed in the queen cages. 



Also, will it be wise to put one or more 

 sets of foundation in the wintering hive for 

 the bees to work on, and will they draw it 

 or gnaw it? It makes some difference 

 which. Or will it be best to let them build 

 comb in the free space of the winter body 

 and later cut it out for wax? 



Now, if some of you will just solve these 

 latter parts of the problem, I will be greatly 

 obliged, and — well, I'll make no rash prom- 

 ises. But I do feel the need of help just 

 now, tho I may work it out myself ere long. 



Providence, E. I. A. C. Miller 



VERONICA OR SPEEDWELL 



Is this Plant of Value as a Honey Plant where it 

 Grows in Abundance? 



I w(jnder if any note has ever been taken 

 of veronica as an important plant for bees. 

 Nectar has not been very abundant in this 

 region. All early blossoms were destroyed. 

 There was nothing the bees could gather 

 from March 27 to May 10. White clover did 

 not produce much nectar this spring. Sweet 

 clover was good but not very abundant. 

 Early in July I noticed my bees making a 

 straight bee line in a southeasterly direction 

 and this was kept up for days. I concluded 

 the bees were working on a field of alfalfa or 

 sweet clover. However, after several weeks, 

 I concluded to go in search of their pasture. 

 I found it about a mile distant — some four 

 or five acres of old pasture land, purple with 

 blooming veronica, or speedwell. This is a 

 long spike which begins to bloom near the 

 stem in a circle of flowers that gradually 

 work outward toward the tips. The spike 

 continues to grow in length also. Some 

 spikes are more than one foot in length- 

 They have been furnishing nectar for one 

 month. I would like to know if any one 

 has ever reported as to the value of this as 

 a nectar plant or as regarding the quality 

 of the honey. Hugh Miller. 



Kansas Citv, Mo. 



