OCTOBKR, 1922 



O L E A N T iN G S IN 15 K K C V h T U li E 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



minded of the scripture, "To him thnt liatli 

 shall be given, and from him that hath "not, 

 shall be taken, even that wliicli he liath." 



But my two old eolonies saved the day. 

 Thej' were the robbers. With tlie extra 

 stores they came out this sprinjj with stronji' 

 forces. From one of these I took 75 pounds 

 of comb honey (and u bad year, too), and 

 then divided it four ways. Witli three 

 young queen« I now have four likely nu- 

 clei, which I have carried to the near-by 

 cotton fields to build up. Here they will 

 ha\e at least 90 days of bloom before frost. 

 Tiie other colony I divided early and raised 

 my own queens, so that I now have a total 

 of eight colonies and am both richer and 

 wiser. By the way, I also got the biggest 

 fruit crop I have ever had. 



Fort Worth, Tex. Ocie Speer. 



A YOUNG BEEKEEPER 



'A'hat Beekeeping Can Do for Boys. Value of 

 Bees as Pollinators 



George Pettee of Hartford is the young- 

 est member of the Connecticut Beekeepers' 

 Association. He started keeping bees at the 

 age of thirteen with one colony, and cele- 

 brated the Fourth of July with his first 

 swarm. As will be seen by the photograph 

 of him on that historic occasion, his meth- 

 ods at that time were primitive. That is to 

 say, letting bees swarm may now be called 

 [irimitive, though in his case a modern 

 queen trap was successfully used. Although 

 file season was late, this swarm gave him 

 some very superior comb honey before the 

 clover honey flow was over. 



There were about 20 young fruit trees in 

 the garden where George kept his bees, and 

 after the introduction of his colony the fruit 

 crop was more than doubled. George and 

 his younger brother Charles negotiated with 

 the family for the privilege of selling the 

 surplus fruit. It netted over $75 in one 

 season. This sum bought a Novice extrac- 

 tor and the equipment for four colonies. 



Their business has overgrown its city lo- 

 cation, and at their earnest request the fam- 

 ily has recently purchased an old abandoned 

 farm on the Connecticut River. The place 

 is well known as Rivercrest, and is over- 

 grown with sumac. They hope to restore its 

 old neglected orchards, and develop it in 

 fruit, bees and poultry, putting in tlieir va- 

 cations in hard woik through tlieir college 

 years. 



Since acquiring the Novice extractor 

 George has had no swarms. His colonies 

 are so large that they have to be wintered 

 with supers, and supers are added as fast as 

 the queen enters them. When the clover 

 flow begins the queen is confined to the first 



floor, and the honey frames are extracted 

 and returned to the supers as fast as they 

 are finished. By finished we mean wholly 

 capped. During our second season we ac- 

 quired a beautiful supersedure queen. She 

 built up our strongest colony, and no queen- 

 cells are ever found in her household. She 

 is a good ruler. Her workers are the first 

 out after a rain, and the last to submit to a 

 drizzle or cold wind. Needless to say, they 

 store more honey than our other colonies. 

 This fall, however, all four colonies go into 

 the winter with queens bred from this moth- 

 er. To get them we gave other colonies 

 frames from her hive, first removing their 

 queens, later selecting the biggest queen- 

 cells on these frames. 



We live in a part of Hartford which is 

 suburban in character, and find it a good 

 location for beekeeping. Our colonies aver- 

 age over 50 pounds in poor seasons. The 

 bees store an early surplus from ornamental 

 trees and shrubs, and later the lawns 

 abound in white clover. 



The youngest member of the Connecticut Beekeep- 

 ers' Association. 



At the end of the early honey flow this 

 3'ear we put out a sign reading "Fresh Hon- 

 ey, 45c a lb." We had to take it in in 

 tluee days, sold out, although the residence 

 street on which we live is not a much -used 

 thoroughfare. 



Interests of this character are very stimu- 

 lating for boys, and have a character-build- 

 ing influence which many of the established 

 courses in our educational system can never 

 attain. A boy can hardly find a better les- 

 son in civics than a beehive will give him. 

 He learns valuable lessons in natural laws. 

 He must practice self-control or fail. He 

 cannot evade responsibility in caring for 

 live creatures. He must be faithful to this 

 obligation or witness the suffering that will 



