March, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 I.' 



liolds true for ;ill hive inatcrials contamin- 

 ated with Anierieaii foul brood. Tliis ])liasc 

 of tho business can wait until the more 

 pressing work of extracting is over. Cap- 

 pings or Avax from the capping melter may 

 be refined with all other wax at the season's 

 close. 



Auto Truck. 

 Eegarding tlie truck, it should need a 

 certain amount of overhauling during the 

 winter according to the amount of use to 

 which it has been put. If used extensively 

 it should be turned in for a new car every 

 other year. It cannot be overemphasized 

 that the auto truck must be in excellent me- 

 chanical condition for the season's work. A 

 breakdown during the busiest part may 

 prove very disastrous, and the upkeep and 

 care of the car must be ever so closely at- 

 tended to. Strict attention to this allows 

 us more time for manipulation in the yards. 

 Another factor is that the truck should be 

 fast, and we know of no other truck that 



partial or total dearth of incoming nectar, 

 if the yard be in excess of 100 colonics; (8) 

 tlie greater case and rapidity with which a 

 yard may be worked when there is very 

 little inclination to rob; (4) as a disease- 

 control measure; and (5) a truck load, tak- 

 ing all things into consideration, handles 

 a yard of this size to the best advantage. 



When possible the colonies arc arranged 

 in double rows, leaving a driveway between 

 each pair of rows. This plan reduces the 

 carrying of supers to and from the truck to 

 a minimum. The hives themselves must sit 

 level, but may slant slightly towards the 

 front. If they do not sit true, combs drawn 

 from foundation will conform more to New- 

 ton's law^ than to the form of the Hoffman 

 frame. The result would be not only an 

 imperfect comb but a loss of time in colony 

 manipulation. 



Colony Manipulation. 



We all have a fairly good idea of what 

 constitutes working weather with the bees. 



Typical sage country of California. 



can do our work better than the Eeo. A 

 speed of 35 miles per hour with a full load 

 on a paved highway is a great saving of 

 time. Smokers, veils, hive-tools and fuel 

 should be so arranged upon the truck that 

 they are held securely, well protected and 

 very accessible. Care must be exercised to 

 protect a hot smoker .from fire danger. 



Before the season opens there should be 

 enough fuel on hand to last thruout the busy 

 season. We use burlap put into proper 

 lengths to fit the smokers. This fuel is 

 stored where it may be drawn upon each 

 morning before the truck starts on its daily 

 run. 



Yards and Their Arrangement. 



We do not like to keep more than 75 or 

 100 colonies in a yard. There are several 

 reasons: (1) During spring manipulations 

 two men can get thru a yard in good shape 

 on a fairly good bee day; (2) the demoral- 

 izing effect that it begins to have upon the 

 yard when visited the second day during a 



If we had but a few colonies there would be 

 nothing to hinder us from working them al- 

 ways in ideal weather and everything would 

 proceed beautifully. But, alas,' when colo- 

 nies run up into the four figures, often we 

 must do a certain amount of work which is 

 performed with great reluctance. It is an 

 unpardonable sin, if traceable to faulty 

 management, to arrive at a yard, we will 

 say, at nine o'clock in the morning when 

 bee weather actually commenced at eight 

 'clock. Again, it is little short of a crime 

 to arrive at a yard with too few supers of 

 foundation, tops, or excluders, or whatever 

 other equipment might be needed. It would 

 be all the more unpardonable to commence 

 work with an asthmatic smoker, leaky veils 

 or no hive-tool. The spring work is always 

 planned in such a way that we spend the 

 warm, sunshiny hours of the day with the 

 bees, and we are at times in tw^o or more 

 yards during a single day. It is our en- 

 deavor to bring about conditions among the 



