Edinburgh & East of Scotland College of Agriculture. 



BEEKEEPING. 



RAPID INCREASE OF COLONIES FOR RESTOCKING 



PURPOSES. 



The Isle of Wight disease, the absence ,of so many bee-keepers on war 

 service, and the recurrence of poor honey seasons, have combined to reduce 

 the stocks of bees in Scotland to such an extent that the honey harvest 

 will be small for several years to come, and all but an insignificant portion 

 of the honey available will remain ungathered owing to the scarcity of bees. 

 This alone will be a great loss, and when we add to it the reduction in both 

 .quantity and quality of our fruit crop for want of bees to perform the work 

 i:of pollinating, the need for a rapid increase of stocks will be realised. 



In these circumstances all bee-keepers should do their utmost to 

 render aid in helping to restock the country by increasing their colonies as 

 fast as possible. 



With the war over there is less need for intensive honey production to 

 meet the scarcity of sugar, and the honey gathered by the few stocks still 

 in existence can, for the present, be profitably used to produce more bees. 

 This would not result in financial loss to bee-keepers. Indeed, they would 

 probably gain by it, as the present great demand for bees has 'resulted in 

 high prices being offered for stocks, swarms, or nuclei, and there is no 

 prospect of the supply being equal to the demand for a year or two at least. 

 While prices remain at or near the present level, bee-breeding will be 

 more remunerative than honey production. Even in a poor honey season, 

 bee-breeding can be maintained by judicious sugar feeding. 

 / Schemes are being devised for the restocking of parts of the country 

 with Dutch, Italian, or American bees. While it is recognised that com- 

 plete restocking may be done more quickly by this method, the wisdom of 

 .it in the long-run is open to doubt for several reasons which obviously 

 cannot be fully discussed in this brief article. 



I None of the foreign races mentioned are immune from Isle of Wight 

 disease. 



It has been stated by some that Dutch bees possess a certain degree of 

 immunity, but such statements are not supported by any scientific proof, 

 and it is well known that in Scotland many cases of failure with Dutch bees 

 have occurred. 



