1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



13 



proper strength for most successful 

 wintering. 



Our experience with one-pound 

 packages is not so extensive, as it 

 was assumed that they are not quite 

 populous enough to build up in the 

 cold spring, such as we have here in 

 Minnesota. 



The one-pound packages were re- 

 ceived on the following dates : April 

 20, May 15 and June 15. The follow- 

 ing results were achieved in the way 

 of surplus extracted honey: 

 Date Received. Surplus Honey. 



April 20 I 25 pounds 



May 15 pounds 



June 15 pounds 



The packages received May 15, al- 

 though yielding no surplus, gathered 

 enough to winter on. Packages re- 

 ceived June 15, in addition to gather- 

 ing no surplus were supplied with 

 brood from other colonies after the 

 honey flow in order to build them up 

 properly. In other words, they were 

 not worth very much more than the 

 queens that came with them. Nu- 

 clei made up of two frames of brood 

 with adhering bees about June 10 

 and supplied with a virgin queen 

 reared in our own apiary, gave better 

 results than one-pound packages re- 

 ceived at about this date. 



The reader must not be misled and 

 be made to believe that every season 

 would give the same results. As 

 stated heretofore, these results were 

 obtained in 1917. The spring was ab- 

 normal in every way and the weather 

 cold up to July 1, so much so that 

 corn at this date was no farther ad- 

 vanced than it is June 15 in normal 

 years, and clover in almost like pro- 

 portion. So from the experience of 

 the past season it is safe to con- 

 clude that the two-pound package is 

 a better proposition than the one- 



pound. At least from a dollars and 

 cents standpoint this is true, and 

 when the northern beekeeper cannot 

 realize a fair margin of profit on the 

 venture, he is not apt to be a sup- 

 porter of the package business in the 

 future, which in turn means a lessen- 

 ing of orders received by the pack- 

 age men of the south. On the aver- 

 age, the two-pound package costs 

 one dollar more than the one-pound 

 package. However, this extra invest- 

 ment of one dollar means the produc- 

 tion of several dollars' worth more of 

 surplus honey. Furthermore, the two- 

 pound packages build up to good- 

 sized colonies more quickly than do 

 the one-pound. Unless the packages 

 build up to good-sized colonies they 

 are a poor investment at their best. 

 Our experience is that about 15 per 

 cent of the queens received with the 

 packages fail and are superseded 

 within the first month. This, of 

 course, lessens the profits from such 

 a colony to a marked degree. It is 

 highly probable that a certain per- 

 centage of queens are injured in 

 transit, even in combless packages. 



As stated before, slightly different 



results might be obtained in a normal 



season, but it is improbable that the 



results would vary radically. 



Conclusions 



The combless packages have come 

 to stay. It is highly important to re- 

 ceive them early, as near the middle 

 of April as possible at this latitude. 

 The financial returns per package 

 are in direct proportion to the earli- 

 ness of arrival. A two-pound package 

 with a good queen received the mid- 

 dle of April is about equal to one of 

 our cellar-wintered colonies, and in 

 some cases will actually yield more 

 surplus honey per colony. In our ex- 

 perience this is, however, only true 



when a very prolific queen is present, 

 as we aim to have good queens pres- 

 ent in every colony wintered over. 



Supplying combs saved from the 

 year before, containing pollen, is 

 worth quite as much as supplying 

 combs containing honey. The lat- 

 ter are. of course, essential, or their 

 equivalent in sugar syrup, but the for- 

 mer are very valuable in securing 

 rapid brood-rearing. As it takes 

 time to build up a package of bees 

 to a full colony, this feature should 

 not be overlooked, provided combs of 

 pollen are available for the purpose. 



Forreston, Minn. 



Shamrock Versus White 

 Clover 



YESTERDAY, while glancing 

 through the pages of an encjxlo- 

 pedia, "The New Practical Ref- 

 erence Library," I noticed among the 

 pictures of National Flowers the 

 "shamrock" as the emblem of Ireland. 

 This was represented, in the colored 

 plate, by white clover leaves and 

 blossoms. The question at once 

 arose in my mind : Is the shamrock 

 a real clover and a honey-producing 

 plant? 



Although I well knew the shape of 

 the shamrock leaf, I had never 

 thought of it as a possible honey- 

 plant. Some of our readers perhaps 

 do not know that the shamrock's 

 reputation and its adoption by the 

 Irish as a national flower are due to 

 the legend that St. Patrick, while 

 preaching to the heathen followers 

 of Druidic faith, 1500 years ago, used 

 the three leaflets on a single stem as 

 the exemplification of the Christian 

 Trinity. 



Three plants, besides the white 



DEMUTH'S WINTER CASE 

 (Gleanings in Bee Culture) 



/ ' It 

 THE OXALIS ACETOSELLA, COPIED FROM BONNIER'S "FLORE" 



