1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



19 



looking after the bees, a gilt-edged 

 security, is it not? 



I might add, unless otherwise ar- 

 ranged, the swarms and increase 

 should be retained by the owner. 



From Australasian Beekeeper. 



Montana Sweet Clover and Cherries 



If you are coming to the Glacier 

 National Park next summer, be sure 

 to come in July, when those big 

 black, sweet cherries are ripe. This 

 is not a good picture, for it does not 

 show the trunk. We are 31 miles 

 from the Glacier National Park. 



With the yellow sweet clover they 

 are planting, this will soon be a fine 

 honey country and the honey is fine. 

 I use a large hive. I want lots of 

 room in the lower story. We never 

 take any honey from the lower story, 

 but I have many times taken off as 

 much as 200 pounds of honey. 

 J. D. KAUFMAN, Kalispell, Mont. 

 Cloverdale Stock Farm. 



An Unusual Season 



By G. C. Greiner 



THE past season has been, in 

 many respects, an unusual one. 

 Almost every season presents 

 some extremes in one direction or 

 another, but it does not often happen 

 that so many extremes follow one 

 another the same season ; it can be 

 justly termed "a season of extremes." 

 When spring opened many bee- 

 keepers found themselves destitute 

 of their bees. According to different 

 localities, severe climatic conditions, 

 the ravages of disease, etc., their 

 losses ran anywhere from 10 to 80 

 and 90 per cent. A few reported 

 hardly any winter losses, while oth- 

 ers had lost nearly or quite all they 

 had. The writer was one of the lat- 

 ter class, having been visited by 

 American foulbrood in its most 

 destructive form. To make up the 

 deficiency by buying from neighbor- 

 ing bee-owners was out of the ques- 

 tion. Only in exceptional cases could 

 bees be bought, and then only in lim- 

 ited number, as an accommodation. 

 All felt eager to keep what bees they 

 had and comply with Mr. Wilson's 



Ir. T. D. Kaufman, Kalispell. Montana, eat- 

 ing sweet cherries in the tree. He lives 

 less than 60 miles from the north line of 

 the United States. 



war-time recommendations to pro- 

 duce as much foodstuff as possible 

 for the boys "over there." Even the 

 combless package establishments 

 could not better the situation to any 

 great extent; they all reported being 

 overrun with orders, more than they 

 could fill for a long time to come. 



Then the season's honeyfiows pre- 

 sented some peculiar features. The 

 first sources of nectar, among which 

 the dandelion played an important 

 part, was exceptionally helpful to the 

 building up of our bees. I have never 

 known a season in which medium 

 and even weak swarms made such 

 rapid progress. Although the white 

 clover yielded abundantly, on ac- 

 count of unfavorable atmospheric 

 conditions, the first half of the flow 

 was entirely lost to the comb-honey 

 producing colonies; they did not en- 

 ter their sections until the best part 

 of the flow had passed. Fortunately, 

 the main part of our bees were run 

 for extracted honey, which enabled 

 them to store surplus at open spells, 

 when the comb-honey colonies could 

 not build comb or even draw out 

 foundation. 



In spite of the discouraging begin- 

 ning, the season turned out to be one 

 of the best in many years, the most 

 bountiful surplus crop was secured. 

 From the time the first honey from 

 early fruit trees was gathered, honey 

 never ceased to be coming in until 

 bees were confined to their hives by 

 cold weather in October. During all 

 my extracting early and late honey, 

 I could leave the doors of my honey- 

 house wide open and not a bee of- 

 fered to molest me. Favored by this 

 unusual honey-flow, I have taken ap- 

 proximately 280 pounds of surplus 

 honey per colony, spring count; of 

 this about one-third was comb honey. 



Then came another extreme in the 

 shape of unheard-of prices for our 

 product. For many years I have sold 

 the very finest of water-white clover 

 honey for 40 cents per quart and a 

 little later for 45 cents. Then came 

 the beginning of war prices, a year 

 ago last summer, with 65 cents per 

 quart. This caused some of our close 

 figuring customers to drop honey 

 from their daily diet and it seemed at 

 that time as though this higher price 

 would have a detrimental effect on 

 the sales of honey. But this was only 

 temporary; it could not reasonably 

 be expected that the price of honey 

 would remain on a level with pre- 

 war prices, when all other commodi- 

 ties had taken a steady upward 

 course, reaching, in many instances, 

 double and treble their former prices. 



But the war continued, and to sup- 

 ply the hundreds of thousands of our 

 boys at the front, as well as needy 

 foreign nations with food, a general 

 saving of all provisions was ordered 

 by the President. The sale of sugar 

 was especially restricted, so that the 

 people were compelled to fall back 

 on honey as a substitute for sweeten- 

 ing. This gave the price of honey 

 another advance in all markets ; the 

 last year's 65 cents was raised to $1.00 

 a quart, with smaller packages still 

 higher in proportion. Although bee- 

 keepers, as a class, are generally law- 

 abiding citizens and regretted these 



deplorable war-time conditions, yet, 

 unintentionally they were benefited 

 by the increase expenses imposed 

 upon others. In many instances they 

 more than made up their previous 

 winter losses by these high prices of 

 honey. 



The last extreme which I wish to 

 mention in this article is the prod- 

 uct in honey and increase of my 

 best yielder. Ordinarily my average 

 yield mentioned above would pass as 

 an extreme, but this colony has more 

 than doubled it. To make every- 

 thing as plain as possible, I can do 

 no better than give a condensed out- 

 line of the main features connected 

 with this case. 



When I purchased this colony, 

 early this spring, they were, in re- 

 gard to brood and bees hardly above 

 medium strength, but their brood 

 was, to all appearances, perfectly 

 healthy, which under the prevailing 

 circumstances, I prized higher than a 

 hive crowded with bees. It was 

 somewhat of a disappointment to me 

 that they had all indications of be- 

 ing genuine hybrids, which they 

 proved later by their stinging incli- 

 nation. 



As the season advanced and new 

 honey made its appearance they built 

 up at an astonishing rate, so that by 

 May 10 their hive was crowded with 

 brood and bees. According to my 

 practiced rules and regulations, I di- 

 vided them on that day by leaving 

 the queen with two combs of brood 

 and all adhering bees in the old stand 

 and moving the remainder, after in- 

 troducing a young southern-bred 

 queen to a new one some distance 

 away. 



' Making this division seemed to in- 

 spire the old queen with new energy 

 in building up her reduced home, and 

 by June 2 the hive was again full of 

 brood and bees. Being anxious to 

 make all the increase consistently, 

 not cutting off the honey crop en- 

 tirely, I divided them a second time 

 exactly as the first time, except that 



Ine stock of yellow sweet clover grown in 

 northern Montana. Note the woman be- 

 hind it. In America the prudent farmer 

 has and will leave to posterity, a fertile 

 farm.— J- D- Kaufman. 



