File:American bee journal (1914) (17930206929).jpg

Title: American bee journal
Identifier: americanbeejourn541914hami (find matches)
Year: 1861 (1860s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bee culture; Bees
Publisher: (Hamilton, Ill. , etc. , Dadant & Sons)
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: UMass Amherst Libraries

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March, 1914. lAm^rican Hee Journal be raised on the finished article. Many beekeepers will think that the prices are too high, and on this account will reduce their orders for the season. I don't think this should be the case. Beekeepers should go right on expand- ing their business in the usual way, for supplies will never beany cheaper, and bees are increasing in value each year, and the demand for them is growing. But this rise in the price of supplies hits the comb-honey producer the heaviest blow, because so much of his supplies consist of sections, shipping- cases, etc., which go with the crop of honey; while the chunk-honey and ex- tracted-honey producer retains his supplies and the cost of suitable re- tainers for the marketing of such honey is the only added expense. Wants to Start Right Mr. Wiliif.r:—I am a beginner in beekeeping, and want to start right and produce comb honey for home use and for local market. Any sug- gestions will be greatly appreciated. Baldwin, Ga. Gresham Duckett. Answer.—I would produce chunk honey, using the regular shallow ex- tracting supers for storing room, and the regular 8-frame dovetailed one- story hives for brood-chambers, and would order not less than two supers for each colony. Three is better than one. Use full sheets of foundation in the frames in the supers, and 1-inch starters in the frames in the brood- chambers as long as you practice nat- ural swarming, but use full sheets when you resort to artificial swarming. It would be best to use queen-excluders between super and brood-chamber in order to keep the queens below so the new combs above will not be soiled by brood-rearing. You must have your honey as attractive as possible in order to sell it and obtain the best prices. You can sell the honey in frames and let the weight of the frames go in as honey. Or if your customers care to return them, you can allow them the same price per pound as you charged for the honey. Having plenty of su- pers, I would remove honey only as I sold it during the winter months. In the busy season watch the supers, and as soon as the bees get the super next to the brood-chamber about one- third full, raise it and place an empty one beneath. In this way you will sup- ply the bees with plenty of storing room, and many times you will get two supers filled as quickly as one. Start selling new honey as soon as any frames are well filled and capped over. The Brood-Nest Just at this time of the year the brood-nest of the colony is a very im- portant factor to the beekeeper, and should be examined as soon as the first warm day comes. See what the conditions are, and give the attention needed. When bees are allowed to dwindle in the fall, during winter they cluster up in the supers where there may be a little honey. Sometimes they cluster in empty combs left in supers, carry honey up from below, and, as a nat- ural consequence, start rearing brood in the super, totally ignoring the brood- chamber. Medium sized colonies will do this occasionally; the broodnest may be divided with part of the brood below and part above. In such cases the super containing the brood should be placed under the brood-chamber. The queen will then go above as soon as she gets very active; this super can be removed later. In cases where bees are run for ex- tracted honey solely, with full-depth frames in the supers, and where they have established their brood-nestabove, all the combs of brood thus occupied should be moved below or the bodies interchanged. Keep the queen below until she has the body of the hive filled with brood. She can be allowed to go above later if so desired. made. Lots of it was shipped over 500 miles, and it was packed in nice ship- ping-cases and carriers. It was retail- ing at less than I was offering mine at to jobbers. I held to my price and sold all I produced. Brother beekeeper, let us line up on this point of market. The Prevailing Prices of Honey Honey has not risen in price as it should along with other articles of ford. If such had been the case, bee- keeping would be on a much better financial basis today. No one is re- sponsible for this but the beekeeper. Now that the prices of bee-supplies have advanced so much, we should raise prices this coming season. I am in hopes the price will advance not less than 2 or 2)4 cents per pound. If there is some general understanding about prices among us, and especially those who are great producers, there will surely be a change in our favor. For with the lack of this understand- ing, we will not have uniform price. Let the slogan of better prices for our honey this season spread as far as pos- sible from beekeeper to beekeeper. As I traveled from city to city last season selling honey, I found nice comb honey that was sold and deliv- ered by the producer for less than 8 cents per section, and small shipments Losses to Beekeepers Through Floods It is with regret that we learned of so much loss to beekeepers in Texas from floods. Among those mentioned is Mr. Polk, of Belton, who not only lost his bees but his family as well. Mr. Scholl, of New Braunfels, lost heavily. Several of his apiaries, together with supplies, etc., were swept away by the water. I am sure all beekeepers join me in extending sympathv to all who have sustained losses. Editor Root,in com- menting, says : " When we read the telegraphic reports of the floods in Texas, we wondered how our bees on the Apalachicola river would fare, be- cause they are on platforms, but slightly above high water level. Fortunately, however, the floods did not visit that section." Fortunate it is for many of us that they did not, for there are many bees in this section similarly situated. The Texas flood should be an exam- ple for us. I have seen hundreds of colonies in the swamps of the Apala- chicola, supported by frail scaffolds, and barely above high water mark. Mr. R. W. Herlong, of Ft. White, Fla., some years ago located an apiary in a low district which was supposed to have been a pond at one time, al- though water had never been known to collect there to any extent. Some time after the bees were located a flood came, the pond was filled, and the bees were destroyed before they could be moved, although the hives, etc.. were intact when the water subsided. We can- not have our apiaries placed /oo safely
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Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. Altitude and the Alfalfa Honey Crop Is it possible that alfalfa in high alti- tudes does not yield nectar ? What is the cause of the poor yields of alfalfa ? —A Subscriber. There is no doubt that alfalfa yields less nectar at an altitude of 8000 feet than it does at 4000 to (5000 feet. The San Luis valley is an example of this. This valley lies at an altityde of 7000 to 8000 feet, I believe, and while alfalfa and sweet clover grow very well, the bee- keeping industry has never cut much of a figure there, although there are some bees kept. Another district comes to mind, and that is the upper Arkansas valley around Salida, Colo. Large fields of alfalfa are grown, but bees are not kept there by any one in a commercial way, as is true in the lower end of the valley, from Pueblo to the Kansas line. There is no evidence that I know of that would give ground for the belief that altitude has anything to do with it except as altitude affects the tempera- ture. The nights are often cold and frosty, and the days do not get so warm in the higher valleys and moun- tain parks as is the rule in the lower valleys. It may be set down almost as a rule that the West that depends upon alfalfa and sweet clover for surplus honey has its largest crops when the season is hottest with abundant water for irri- gation, and two to three good rains in July and August to put new life into the sweet clover growing beside the roads and in waste places inaccessible to irrigation water. I have had considerable experience

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