Colonies Too Weak to Accomplish 
Results in an Orchard 
In the early spring, at the time toe 
fruit trees are in full blooan, colonies 
that contain only two or three frames 
of bees and brood will be of little or no 
value in an orchard, no matter if com¬ 
patible varieties are placed near each 
other. Fruit growers should insist on 
strong colonies, hives that contain ten 
combs well covered with bees. Better 
results will be secured from two story 
colonies containing 20 combs of bees 
with brood in eight or ten of the combs. 
On this point, see Bulletin No. 190, by 
Dr. E. F. Phillips, published by Cornell 
University, Ithaca, New York, entitled 
“Honey Bees for the Orchard”. Strong 
two story colonies are several times 
more effective than the ordinary one 
story colony. 
Where it is not possible to buy or 
rent bees on combs in one or two story 
hives, the fruit grower will have to re¬ 
sort to package bees. He will require 
nothing less than a five pound pack¬ 
age, and generally it is better to have • 
about two of them to the acre. See 
Nos. 4 and 5 further on. 
No. 3.—Spraying at the Wrong Time 
In former years complaint was 
made that the fruit growers sprayed 
their trees while in bloom and the prac¬ 
tice is all too common now in spite of 
the fact that experiment stations ev¬ 
erywhere have shown that better re¬ 
sults can be secured by spraying be¬ 
fore and after bloom. To apply the poi¬ 
son while the trees are in flower is a 
damage to the fruit grower and to the 
beekeeper alike—to toe grower because 
some of toe delicate parts of toe blos- 
r a i 
