142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mabch, 1922 



ment and the states in 1921. The projects 

 under way during the year amounted to 

 31,228 miles, or more than enough to encircle 

 the earth. This represents only a part of 

 the road worK carried on in the United 

 States during the year. While tliese good 

 roads are not always built where the bee- 

 keeper needs to go in his out-apiary work, 

 in many cases they open up new territory 

 for outyards and greatly simplify their op- 

 eration. In fact, good roads, automobiles 

 and swarm-eontrol are three great factors 

 in the large increase in out-apiaries during 

 recent years. 



:30^«p: 



THE figures given by producers on our mar- 

 ket page, as to number of colonies, show a 

 substantial increase 

 More Colonies over tluit of a year 

 of Bees Than ago. In a few cases 

 Last Year. a decrease is shown, 



but these are offset 

 by the many cases where there is a gain. 

 Since these figures reflect, to a large extent, 

 conditions found among commercial honey 

 producers they indicate a spirit of deter- 

 mination in beekeepers as they adjust them- 

 selves to new conditions. While on first 

 thought an increase in the number of colo- 

 nies may suggest that the country may pro- 

 duce too much honey for advantageous mar- 

 keting, it is well to remember that there is 

 also a danger of producing too little to de- 

 velop properly the consumption of honey. 

 As a result of all the agencies that have 

 been at work during the past six or eight 

 months pushing the sale of honey, a great 

 multitude of new consumers have learned 

 that honey is good and that it leaves a taste 

 for more. When beekeeping finally comes 

 into its own, this country will produce many 

 times the amount of honey now being pro- 

 duced, and honey will be better known to 

 the American housewife than it is now. 



ON PAGE 165 of this issue C. E. Bartholo- 

 mew mentions the disaj)pearance of queens 

 as one of the diffi- 

 Disappearance culties of tropical 

 of Queens in beekeeping. Similar 

 the Tropics. reports have come 



from Porto Eico as 

 well as other tropical countries, even when 

 the colonies are requeened annually. Mr. 

 Bartholomew points out that it is the young 

 and most prolific queens that most com- 

 monly disappear. Tliis loss of queens, often 

 occurring when the bees are not rearing 

 brood, causes serious winter loss, frequent- 

 ly much greater than the winter losses in 

 tlie far north. Why so many young queens 

 should disappear is a baffling question that 

 should be answered if possible. 



Do laying queens sometimes risk their 

 lives by taking a flight in the sunsliiut> wlien 



they are not busy laying eggs? Mell Pritch- 

 ard, queen-breeder for The A. I. Eoot Com- 

 pany, says that they do. He says that it is 

 not uncommon for laying queens to take 

 flights in late summer or autumn when they 

 are not busy laying eggs. He has seen lay- 

 ing queens do this again and again, but al- 

 ways late in the season when they are lay- 

 ing but little if any. Perhaps this is more 

 common in the tropics where the queens are 

 idle for two months when the weather is 

 fine for flight. In the north, the queens can 

 not "take the air" during their idle months 

 of winter because of cold weather, and dur- 

 ing the summer they are too busy for play. 

 It might be well for tropical beekeepers to 

 pen the queens in their hives by means of 

 entrance-guards, while they are not busy 

 laying, to see if this would reduce the num- 

 ber that disappear. Perhaps clipping their 

 wings would answer, tho, no doubt, an en- 

 trance-guard would be safer. 



20^ca= 



THOSE who winter their bees in the cellar 

 can now tell with considerable accuracy how 

 their colonies will 

 Setting Bees Out winter, even tho 

 of the Cellar. they may be left 



in the cellar an- 

 other month or more. If they are quiet now 

 and show no signs of dysentery, they should 

 come thru in good condition. If they are 

 restless and spot the hives around the en- 

 trance they have already wasted themselves 

 badly and cannot come out in the best con- 

 dition, for their restlessness will increase 

 from this time on until they are set out and 

 have had a cleansing fliglit. About all that 

 can be done now for bees tliat are restless 

 is to try to keep them from flying out of 

 their hives by lowering the celhir tempera- 

 ture. 



Formerly great stress was placed upon the 

 time and the manner of setting the bees out 

 of the cellar in spring; but, since better 

 cellars are being built and cellar wintering 

 is better understood, there is less complaint 

 about the two great difficulties of cellar- 

 wintered bees in former years — drifting and 

 spring dwindling. Bees that have wintered 

 well in the cellar are not so much inclined 

 to drift during their first flight as bees that 

 have wintered poorly. Bees that have win- 

 tered well in the cellar should not be trou- 

 bled with spring dwindling. In fact, they 

 should be even better able to endure cold 

 spells during the spring after they are set 

 out than bees wintered outside. It was for- 

 merly thought that the bees wintered out- 

 side were hardened by the winter and that 

 this hardening enables them better to en- 

 dure cold spells in the spring, but apparent- 

 ly this is not true. Since cellar wintering 

 is better understood, beekeepers are setting 

 the bees out in the spring earlier than for- 

 merly thought advisable, and tliere is less 

 anxiety iibout clioosing exactly the right 



