The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-11-30
The Agricultural College Apiary.
REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1876.

From forthcoming report of State Board Of
Agriculture.
OF the ten colonies of bees placed
in the new cellar November Goth,
all but one, the experimental col,
ony, with none but old bees, came
through the winter in fine condi-
ton. That one lived till spring,
and then died. These colonies
were all removed from the cellar
once in January and once in March,
that they might have a purifying
flight. They were not removed to
the summer stands permanently
till the middle of April.
During the previous autumn the
bees were kept breeding even into
October, and consumed nearly all
the pollen. Several colonies had
none. These had no brood when
removed from the cellar, l attempt
ed to supply this lack by feeding
meal during the last of April, but
found that nearly as soon as the
weather would permit the bees to
fly they could get pollen, and thus
would not touch the meal.
| fed sparingly of syrup till the
fruit trees were in bloom, and by
that time had six or seven frames
of brood in each hive. also fed a
little between the fruit trees bloom
and that of white clover, with the
most satisfactory results.
During the season I have in
creased from nine to twenty col
onies, all large and in excellent
condition. l also procured two
Italian queens imported from Italy,
but lost one in introducing. The
other has done well, and from her
| have Italianizcd the whole apiary
though | am in doubt whether all
the queens were purely mated.
l did not permit the colonies to
swarm, but practiccd artificial
swarming, or dividing. l lost three
colonies, one coming out in the
spring, and leaving at once, with
out waiting to alight even; the 9TH
CT two going off this fall, before
suspected any such thing, choosing
Sunday of course rs the time for
their taking. Had previous
ly cropped the queens wings, all of
these would have been saved. /
have now no queens with uacropp.
cd wings.
l have extracted during the sea-
son 507 pounds from the brood
chamber. About a third of this
was from Eastwood, the other two
thirds from fall bloom, and none
was extracted except from worker
comb, which it was desired to keen
free from honey that it might be
used for brood.
During the season Ihavc worked
for comb-honey, both in boxes and
in small frames, and found that l
could secure much more in the
frames. l find, too, that the honey
in small frames is liked quite as
we'll by consumers
In the spring 1 surrounded the
'piary grounds with numerous
loney-producing shrubs and trees,
among which were bass-woods,
ocusts, crab-apple, shadbush, etc.
Most of these have done we'll, "A
ew have died. These have been
Kept mulchcd, and the ground
bout them well spadcd all the sea-
on. | have also set out more ever
Green's, some for wind-brcak.
'thcrs for shade for bees; and have
tarted some Concord grapevincs
nd Virginia crccpcr for shade.
some of the latter have been set
bout the house, that it may climb
pom it, and has already made fine
rOwth. | have also set out several
inds of bce-plants of more or less
cputc, the following of which have
one well, and all yielded bloom
kept the two first, which will not
loom till another season: yellow
'efoil clover,ycllow Bokhara clover
ignonctte, black mustard, Chinese I
ustard, boragc, common and sill y
cr-leaf buckwhcat, common and !
hincsc sunAowcr, and Rocky i
onntain bcc-plant. !,
The following is the summary {,
the account with the apiary for
&c year: =
APIARY.
, Improvement Of ground S26I7
experimental plats y IS
tools oJI5 4
making hives food ,tunnns onI u