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Gleanings in bee culture 



Febkuary, 1922 



FOR MORE tliaii 50 years Ameiican bee- 

 keepors liavc born striving for better combs, 

 e s p e c ially those 

 The Problem of used in the brood- 

 Better Combs. idianiber, Tlie in- 

 vention of comb 

 foundation thus far stands out as the great- 

 est single step in this direction; but, as bee- 

 keepers know, the use of comb foundation 

 does not always result in perfect combs. 

 Poor combs in the brood-chamber are even 

 now causing annually tremendous losses to 

 those beekeepers who are not fully alert to 

 the importance of good combs, for they 

 stand in the way of the most rapid and 

 complete building-up of the colonies in the 

 spring and also promote swarming. In or- 

 der to insure best result's in honey produc- 

 tion it is now necessary to sort over tlie 

 brood-combs, from time to time, to cull out 

 those which are not best suited for brood- 

 rearing. 



The aluminum honeycomb which is being- 

 tried out by beekeepers all over this coun- 

 try, as well as in some foreign countries, 

 has therefore created great interest among 

 beekeepers everywhere. In England, the 

 Semi-Comb, which is also made of aluminum, 

 is creating great interest among British bee- 

 keepers. The experimenting with wood-base 

 foundation, described by H. H. Root in this 

 issue, is another attempt to solve this prob- 

 lem, and while not as revolutionary in char- 

 acter as metal combs, the success attained 

 thus far will, no doubt, create great interest, 

 for beekeepers are becoming more and more 

 alert concerning the securing of better 

 combs. With all the effort now being made 

 and with thousands of. beekeepers studying 

 the same problem, surely something will be 

 worked out that will give us better and 

 more durable combs. Just what the final so- 

 lution will be, no one can now tell. 



In the meantime beekeepers should not 

 [)lunge heavily into an equipment of either 

 of these new things until quite sure that 

 they will answer every purpose. Beekeepers 

 are too often prone to experiment with new 

 equipment on too extensive a scale, letting 

 their enthusiasm for something new run 

 away with their better judgment. It will be 

 infinitely better to try these on a small 

 scale at first. Perhaps neither of these new 

 developments will answer the beekeeper's 

 purpose fully. We can well afford to go 

 slow with them while they are still in the 

 expei'imeiital stage of development. 



IN an article in this issue, E. E. Atwater 



points out certain conditions under which 



it may be profitable 



Destroying Old 



Bees in Fall to 



Save Stores. 



eliminate the old 



Ix'cs from strong 



colonies in the fall, 



wintering only the 



younger ones, tlie pui])ose being to save 



stores and prevent building up too early in 



the spring. In most localities there is usually 

 no complaint about colonies being too strong 

 in the fall. Where there is a considerable pe- 

 riod of time after the close of the main hon- 

 ey flow before the beginning of winter, or 

 where the late honey flow is meager, the 

 colonies naturally go down to normal winter 

 strength. In fact, the trouble is perhaps 

 more often the other way, for thousands 

 upon thousands of colonies go into the win- 

 ter every year to*o weak for safe wintering. 



Practical honey producers will, no doubt, 

 be more inclined to criticise Mr. Atwater 's 

 suggestions, in regard to destroying the old 

 bees, on the ground of economy than from 

 sentiment. Instead of rearing a lot of bees 

 that are too old for winter when winter 

 begins and then destroying them, would it 

 not be better to prevent the rearing of these 

 bees? This could be accomplished by killing 

 the old queen, then after an interval of 

 queenlessness, requeening the colonies at 

 such a time that most of the old bees will 

 disappear before winter. The winter col- 

 ony will then be made up of young bees 

 reared from the young queen. 



No doubt, however, as Mr. Atwater im- 

 plies, these old bees in the fall help the col- 

 ony to winter better, thus resulting in a 

 stronger colony in the spring; but, as Mr. 

 Atwater points out, it is not desirable in 

 his locality to have the colonies very strong 

 in early spring on account of the relative 

 lateness of his main honey flow. In such 

 cases why not so manage that the colonies 

 shall come thru the winter as strong as pos- 

 sible, then divide them in the spring before 

 they have had a chance to reach full 

 strength but in time for each division to 

 build up to maximum strength by the time 

 the main honey flow begins"? Thus two colo- 

 nies will be made, each of which, if ample 

 stores are provided, should be in better con- 

 dition for the honey flow than the original 

 colony would have been if left undivided. If 

 increase is not wanted, the colonies can be 

 united back to the original number some 

 time in August, thus saving in fall brood- 

 rearing, since the united colonies would then 

 rear only about as much brood as each would 

 have reared if not united. 



THE United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture has just issued three new Farmers' Bul- 

 letins, outlining 

 Four New Bulletins t h e beekeeping 

 for Beekeepers. management re- 



quired for best 

 results in three important honey-producing 

 regions as follows: Farmers' Bulletin 1215, 

 "Beekeeping in the Clover Region"; Far- 

 mers' Bulletin 1216, "Beekeeping in the 

 Buckwheat Region"; and Farmers' Bulletin 

 1222, "Beekeeping in the Tulip-tree Re- 

 gion. ' ' Each of these bulletins shows by an 

 outline map of the United States the terri- 

 tory included within the region indicated. 



