1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1019 



say in ten days or two weeks, I would move 

 all three away the second time, putting an 

 empty hive on the second location, and so 

 the process would go on. The plan would 

 require considerable judgment to make it a 

 success, but I think it could be carried out. 



The new hives which stand where groups 

 had been must not be forgotten. With so 

 strong a force of bees they too will soon 

 think of swarming. If given only a queen- 

 cell each they may keep quiet for a month. 

 I should reckon, however, that, after two 

 weeks, when moving other hives, it would 

 be well to set down on each side again, mak- 

 ing a group in the place where we first 

 started, to be again moved on in its turn 

 when the proper time arrives. 



Whenever a hive is found to be queenless, 

 that would be the one to leave on the old 

 stand, supplying it with either a queen or a 

 cell. 



In carrying out this plan it would be abso- 

 lutely necessary to keep some record of the 

 dates when changes were made, so as to 

 know when to look for the next change be- 

 ing needed. I should say a pocket diary 

 would be best; also, on making a change, to 

 enter the numbers of the hives on a page 

 ten days or so ahead; then when that day 

 arrived the operator could look up the con- 

 dition of those hives mentioned. This would 

 be more satisfactory than searching on back 

 pages to find out when certain changes were 

 made. 



I should like to know what you think of 

 my plan. I would remind you that, years 

 ago, Mr. Danzenbaker, in his little book, 

 Facts about Bees, advised us to move away 

 strong hives and place swarms on their 

 stands, and so get the advantage of all the 

 flying bees from the old hive as well as the 

 bees of the swarm. We seem to have for- 

 gotten that our ways are not new, but that 

 they have been recommended over and over 

 again in slightly different ways. 



One objection that could be raised against 

 this system is that one could never tell 

 Avhich colonies produced the most honey. 

 That would make no difference to one who 

 •did not breed his own queens. 



Femhill, Napier, New Zealand, June 15. 



[As you have probably seen since we pub- 

 lished the details of the Sibbald plan, we 

 tested it in our outyard and did not find it 

 entirely satisfactory, owing to the fact that 

 the bees manifested a strong tendency to go 

 tack to their old hive, even after the posi- 

 tions had been reversed. Your plan would 

 obviate that trouble entirely; and I am of 

 the opinion that it would stop the swarm- 

 ing, destroy cells, and make a tremendous 

 working force of bees. The only objection 

 I can see is that it involves a large amount 

 of work, lifting and carrying heavy hives, 

 ■even in the midst of the honey-flow, not one 

 or two feet, but quite a distance away. I 

 should be glad to have suggestions and crit- 

 icisms from those who have tested the Sib- 

 bald plan this season, and especially from 

 those who may have tested something simi- 

 lar to this.— Ed.] 



SWEET CLOVER. 



More Proof that Stock will Eat it. 



BY A. C. ARMSTRONG. 



I wish to take exception to the statement, 

 page 904, that stock will not eat sweet clo- 

 ver except under compulsion. A neighbor 

 who has a small place, 13 acres, and who 

 works on the railroad, raked up a lot of it 

 that was cut (about the time it began to 

 bloom) along the tracks, for bedding for his 

 horse and cow. He put it in a stack, three 

 or four tons of it, and bedded both the horse 

 and cow; and, to his surprise, they ate it 

 greedily, and left good clover and timothy 

 hay in the manger for the sweet-clover bed- 

 ding. 



Along the roadside near my place there 

 was a lot of sweet clover growing, and the 

 highway overseer caused it to be cut, raked 

 up, and ordered it burned. I saw some 

 manure in it, and hired a team to haul it on 

 to my land. We had four good big loads of 

 it. I put it on a poor sandy knoll in the 

 pasture lot. There were 15 head of young 

 stock and my cow in the 35-acre field, and 

 they had good feed, but they left grass to 

 eat the roadside sweet clover, and they ate 

 it clean— stalks and leaves. 



I cut a little of it this summer with other 

 grass, and fed it to my horse, and he will 

 pick it out of the other grass; and I have 

 noticed the horse sort it out of alfalfa, as I 

 have fed my horse alfalfa all summer, cut 

 fresh daily, and there is some sweet clover 

 mixed in it. 



I have also tried to seed some of the 35- 

 acre pasture-field to sweet clover for my 

 bees, and sowed about two bushels of seed 

 two years ago. It came up nicely, but the 

 stock ate it all off so short it has not blos- 

 somed. 



Since Aug. 1 I have given up the pastur- 

 ing of stock. The clover is starting tip, so 

 I have some late sweet clover for my bees, 

 and they have found it. May be it's the lo- 

 cality. Kansas alkali soil produces a plant 

 so strong that it can't be eaten, while York 

 State does better. Different soil will pro- 

 duce onions of different strength, and why 

 not sweet clover? 



On our soil I would as soon have sweet- 

 clover hay, pound for pound, as alfalfa. I 

 have known of two instances where parties 

 have bought alfalfa seed that was badly 

 mixed with sweet clover, and they had no 

 difficulty about feeding the hay. When it is 

 cut early it makes first-class hay. 



Warner, N. Y. 



[When I read the first line or two of your 

 article I wondered how it could be that I al- 

 lowed a statement that stock would not eat 

 sweet clover to go in our columns unchal- 

 lenged. On referring to the page in ques- 

 tion I find the statement was made by Pro- 

 fessor Richards, botanist of the Kansas Ex- 

 periment Station; but it was in no sense in- 

 dorsed by Mr. Green, who merely exhibited 

 it as a sample of inexcusable ignorance on 

 the part of a man who ought to have known 



