50 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



pretty nearly 

 is a space be- 

 have wintered 



off, and that swarm with all the rest 

 came out in fine condition. Since that 

 time he winters all of his bees in the 

 cellar with simply a piece of burlap 

 for cover. 



Mr. Baxter — Upward ventilation — 

 that is the secret of success — some- 

 thing- to absorb the moisture and carry 

 it away. 



Mr. Stone — Top off out doors would 

 not do. 



Mr. Baxter — I would modify that. 



Mr. Kildow — I have no trouble with 

 mouldy combs in my cellar, but I use 

 a piece of burlap or carpet, so that 

 the ventilation is good, and there is 

 not too much of it, either. 



Mr. France — Do you set your next 

 hive on top of that as you tier them 

 up in the cellar? 



Mr. Kildow — Yes. 



Mr. France — That 

 makes a cover. 



Mr. Kildow — There 

 tween each one. 



Pres. Dadant — We 

 bees in the cellar without any bottom 

 or top, just oil cloth or burlap over 

 the frames and two blocks on the end 

 between that and the next hive, and wa 

 have had queenlessi colonies move up 

 in the winter to the -hive above. 



Question — Did you ever see bees 

 working on Spanish needle? 



Mr. Kildow — No, I never did. 



Mr. King — A few years ago I noticed 

 a low place where there were a few 

 Spanish needles, and the bees were 

 working- on that pretty rapidly. Out- 

 side of that I never saw them work- 

 ing anywhere else. 



Pres. Dadant — We have harvested 

 thousands of pounds of S^panish needle 

 honej-, and have seen them working- on 

 it often. 



Mr. E. I. Root wrote to me lately to 

 ask a question, and investigation 

 brought me to the conclusion that what 

 we call the Spanisih needle is not the 

 true Spanish needle. There are two 

 or three different kinds of plants that 

 have needles — some two — some three — 

 and some four. Late in the season I 

 went around to see them in bloom; I 

 knew W'here tliere were some that had 

 yielded honey. They grew up to eigh- 

 teen inches high. They are not the 

 true Spanish needle, but they are a 

 variety cf the bidens. The true bidens 

 cipinnata is the kind that blooms M^ith- 

 out any yellow corolla, that kind does 

 not give honey. If that is what is 



meant by the person asking the ques- 

 tion — the Spanish needle does not yield 

 honey. 



But the yellow blooming kind that we 

 call Spanish needle does yield honey, 

 We can smell its odor in the honey, and 

 have seen the bees on the plant. They 

 work on it in the forenoon. 



Mr. Kildow — ^I have wondered for a 

 good many years about this Spanish 

 needle honey. 



I have heard it talked about. Ours 

 has two prongs. Some of it only grows 

 one foot high, and some of it six feet 

 high. I never yet saw the bees work- 

 ing on that. 



In the South it looks like a different 

 variety; the leaves are more ragged 

 and of a lig-hter color. I do not know 

 what the 'blossom looks like — ^but up in 

 my section of the country I have yet 

 to see a bee working on it. We don't 

 get any of that kind of honey. It has 

 a bright yellow blossom, and the 

 needles stick to you. 



Mr. Stone — We exhibitors at the fair 

 know where that question originated. 

 We had it up at the State Fair. There 

 was a middle-aged man came up and 

 put that question to us. We were talk- 

 ing about Spanish needle honey being 

 the only honey we had in this neigh- 

 borhood this year. He said to us — • 

 "Is there such a thing?" We said — 

 "Of course there is." After all our 

 controversy he said that for twelve 

 years he had been working for one of 

 the colleges, with his baskets and nets, 

 trying to catch ibees and insects of all 

 kinds that worked on flowers^ — that he 

 had tried from early dawn to late at 

 night, and never yet had succeeded in 

 catching a bee on a Spanish needle. 



Then I asked Mr. Dadant if he had 

 ever seen the bees working on Spanish 

 needles, and Mr. Kildow and others 

 that were there, and there were only 

 one or two who said they had se^en that 

 — I never had. I have watched to see 

 whether the ibees ever worked on the 

 Spanish needles; have seen all kinds 

 of insect.^? on the Spanish needle, but 

 I have never found a honey bee on it. 



Mr. Becker — That college man must 

 have been like one they sent down in 

 our neighborhood to inspect nurseries. 

 I had an apple tree that was badly af- 

 fected with scale and he could not tell 

 me the kind of scale it was. 



Mr. Coppln — T have seen one bee on 



