1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



475 



SOME NEW YORK 

 STATE BEE KEEP- 

 ERS. 



AVhen to Practice Shook 

 Swarming ; Gatliering 

 Sweet-clover Seed. 



BY D. EVERETT LYON. 



Among the progress- 

 ive and successful bee- 

 keepers of New York is 

 Mr. Aaron Snyder, of 

 Kingston, a producer of 

 lai'ge crops of strictly- 

 fancy comb honey. Mr. 

 Snyder's success is not 

 altogether due to the lo- 

 cation, which is a good 

 one, but rather, also, to 

 the fact that he uses up- 

 to-date implements and 

 keeps abreast with mod- 

 ern methods. 



The Snyder apiaries, 

 aggregating about 400 

 colonies devoted exclu- 

 sively to comb honey, 

 are scattered in four yai'ds varying from three 

 to ten miles from home. Assisted by his son 

 Frank, Mr. Snyder looks over every hive once 

 a week during the honey-How. 



This, with him, is a necessity in order to 

 prevent too much swarming. As soon as he 

 finds a colony preparing to swarm he cuts 

 out all cells; the next week, when he visits 

 that colony, if preparations for swarming are 

 found, he cuts out all cells again. The next 

 week, if he finds queen-cells started he at 



1. — A LOAD O 

 THE SNYDEU 



FIG. 2. 



-TEMPORARY COMB-HONEY-STORAGE 

 MADE OF CONDENSED-MILK BOXES. 



F SWKETCLOVEK HAY NP:AK THE APIARY OF 

 BEE AND HONEY CO., KINGSTON, N. Y. 



once makes a shaken swarm, which settles the 

 swarming business with that colony for the 

 season. He thinks it bad practice to contin- 

 ue cutting cells more than twice; and if the 

 colony is extra strong, one cutting is pref- 

 erable. He advises against shaken swarms, 

 however, unless the colony is determined 

 to swarm, although he concedes that for 

 some and in certain localities it may be bet- 

 ter than his plan of cell-cutting. 



The bee-forage, while not over- abundant, 

 is of a continuous character when 

 it is started, so that the bees have 

 access to white and sweet clover, 

 basswood, goldenrod, buckwheat, 

 and some blue and white aster. 



The buckwheat does not form 

 such an important part of forage 

 as the sweet clover, not being 

 grown anywhere near as extensive- 

 ly as further up in the State; but 

 the sweet clover of both the white 

 and yellow varieties grows abun- 

 dantly, especially near a meadow 

 country about 1| miles from home. 

 Mr. Snyder had just arrived at 

 the home yard with a load of 

 sweet clover for seed, when I call- 

 ed upon him, which is seen in Fig. 

 1. A part of the load is still on 

 the wagon. 



From the above statement it 

 will be seen that, though there is 

 no basswood or clover rush of 

 honey, and that soon ending, still 

 the varying plants furnish a more 

 or less continuous How. It is not 

 surprising, therefore, that the api- 

 aries average about 75 lbs. of comb 

 surplus to the colony, the total out- 

 put of which was about 23,000 sec- 

 tions. In fact, most of it was har- 

 vested late in August when I called. 



CRATES 



