OcTdliKK, 19 12 'J 



G L P: A N I N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



iin!EADS~OF'"GMlNn^ FIELDS 



had not boon for getting hurt in April, 

 making it difficult to do much for about two 

 mouths. Every ounce of houey I have pro- 

 duced this year is water-white. 



Jamestown, S. D. F. C. Bennett. 



[Our readers will recall that friend Ben- 

 nett gave us a big report from a package of 

 bees sent him about a year ago. Now, I 

 used to tliink that both North Dakota and 

 South Dakota are rather poor localities for 

 bees. Although friend B. does not say his 

 big yields were from his Hubam clover or 

 perennial sweet clover, I am inclined to think 

 it is the source of the greater part of 

 the honey obtained at present in the Da- 

 kotas.— A. I. Eoot.] 



In Defense of I liave lately seen many ar- 

 the Honeybee, tides in various periodicals 

 and newspapers in regard to 

 people being stung by bees. I take excep- 

 tions to many of these stories for the rea- 

 son that the majority of people do not 

 know the difference between a bee, a hor- 

 net, a wasp or kindred insects. 



For example, a neighbor who had screened 

 his porch, called me in one afternoon, saying, 

 "We have several of your bees in here, 

 come in and catch them for me." 



I went in and I found one bald-faced hor- 

 net, two big yellow jackets, several small 

 liornets, a horsefly — the big kind — and a 

 number of bluebottle flies, also a few wasps, 

 but not a honeybee in the whole collection. 



T would much rather be stung by a bee 

 than a hornet, as it is not so severe for me. 

 Any one who knows the difference will be 

 cautions about interfering with hornet nests. 



I hope that beekeepers will give this sub- 

 ject some consideration and uphold our use- 

 ful friend, the honeybee. I make it a point 

 in conversation on this subject to empha- 

 size as well as show how many people err 

 in this matter. The honeybee is not to be 

 classed with those ill-tempered pirates, the 

 yellow jacket and his various relations. 



Holyoke, Mass. C. H. Taber. 



3n^ca= 



Half Bee-Space Above A bee-space is i/i 

 and Below Frames. i n c h, w h i c h is 



counted as 2-Bu in 

 .lapanese measurement. We, Japanese bee- 

 keepers, converted our hives to have half the 

 bee-space above and half below. Or, % 

 inch is made on the top and and %inch 

 at the bottom. It is true, there are many 

 who use the top spacing, and some wlio use 

 bottom spacing in Japan. But some of them 

 have already done this converting. 



Because, in top spacing, tliere occurs the 

 same disadvantages that Mr. Latham )>oint 



od out ill tlie Marcii issue of Gleanings, and 

 also, in bottom spacing, there is no bee- 

 space above, the frames of the lower story 

 will be propolizod to the under edges of 

 the super. This is inconvenient for us when 

 the super is taken off, for the ends of the 

 top-bars of the frames in the lower story 

 will be attached to the super. The half bee- 

 space above and the half below make the 

 full bee-space between the upper and lower 

 stories Avlien they are supered. 



Yasuo Hiratsuka. 

 Tara, Gifu-ken, Japan. 



30^C8= 



616 Sections from Bees are doing wonders 

 One Colony, here this year. I call it a 



Spring Count. double season. Yellow 



and white and Hubam 

 clovers by the thousands of acres, and so 

 cut back as to make a constant honey flow 

 now 90 days with no let-up. Many colonies 

 are nearing the 600-pound mark in surplus 

 comb honey, and 30 days yet to go. This 

 report is from spring count, all colonies hav- 

 ing swarmed here in May. Amateurs count 

 them two colonies while I count them as one. 

 In many cases the parent colony and the 

 swarm have finished 11 supers each of 28 



Six hundred and sixteen sections of comb honey 



from one colony, spring count. The parent colony 



and the swarm each finished 11 supers. 



sections weigliing 616 pounds; while a feu- 

 have done much better, having finished 15 

 supers and still storing well. The past sea- 

 son will go down on record as the best 

 I have known in my 43 years of beekeeping. 



Kecently I was out looking over some bee- 

 yards. If I had taken my kodak along, I 

 could have sent you a picture of an apiary 

 of 47 colonies tiered up like the tall one in 

 this plioto. l^r. E. A. Morgan. 



A'erniilion, S. D, 



