398 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl- 



June 20, 1901. 



BEE-KEEPERS' SUPPLIES A::^ 



THE FINEST IN THE WORLD. 



Oup New 1901 Fifty-Two Page Catalog Ready. 



Send for a copy. It is free. 



G. B. LEWIS COMPANY, Watertown, Wis., U.S.A. 



; Co 



, 1') S. Alabam 

 tid very low fr 

 itera territorie 



. St., 



1 



BEST 



t 



1 Basswood wi Alfalfa Honey f 



A in ()0-pound tin cans, f.o.b. Chicago — two cans in a box — at these prices : 9 L 



3 cents a pound for one box of two cans ; two boxes (4 cans) or more at one L 



1 time. S'i cents a pound. F 



^ 'Wt' Viavp onlv a limited Quantity of the Basswood honev. Samole of ' 



We have only a limited quantity of the Basswood honey. Sample of 

 either kind, postpaid, 10 cents. Address, 



GEORGE W. YORK & CO.. 144 & 146 Erie St., Chicag-o, III. 



\ 



26 cents Cash 

 for Beeswax. 





This is a good time 

 to send in your Bees- 



paid for Beeswax. ¥' Si^JSCt 



low, upon its receipt, or 28 cents in trade. Impure wax not taken at any price. 

 Address as follows, very plainly, 



GEORGE W. YORK & CO., 144 & 146 Erie St., Chicago, 111. 



narshlieid M annfactur ing Compaoy. 



Our Specialty is making SECTIONS, and they are the best in the market. 

 Wisconsin BASSWOOD is the right kind for them. We have a full line of BEE- 

 SUPPLIES. Write for free illustrated catalog and price-list. 



8A26t Marshfield Manufacturing Co., Marshfield, Wis. 



>^ 



Red Glover Queens 



LONG-TONQUED BEEsTrE DEMANDED NOW. 



ONE Untested Italian Queen FREE as a Pre- 

 mium for sending us TWO new subscpibeFs 

 to the American Bee Journal for one year 

 (with $2); or, one Tested Queen free as a premium for sending 

 us FOUR new subscribers with $4.00). 



We have arranged with one of the oldest and best queen-breed- 

 ers (having many years' experience) to rear queens for us the coming 

 season. His bees average quite a good deal the longest tongues of 

 any yet measured. The Breeder he will use is direct from Italy, 

 having imported her himself. Her worker-bees are large, somewhat 

 leather-colored, very gentle, and scarcely requiring veil or smoke. 

 They stored red clover honey last season. 



All queens guaranteed to arrive in good condition, and all will be 

 clipped, unless otherwise ordered. 



CASH PRICES of these fine queens will be as follows : Untested, 

 $1.00 each ; Tested, $2.00 each. Send all orders to 



GEORGE W. YORK & CO. 



144 & 146 Erie St., CHICAGO, ILL. {1^} 



accustomed before they will eat it; g-enerally 

 they have to be starved into eating it. While 

 there are some differences of opinion about the 

 place the sweet clover should occupy, our judg- 

 ment in regard to it in the middle West is that 

 it is a weed, which only means, according to 

 the old definition, " a plant om of place." 



It is our opinion that the plant is not so 

 imioh " out of place "' as the man on whose 

 farm it grows ; for the man in this age who 

 has not learned the value of sweet clover as a. 

 fann crop would lietter not farm until he has 

 called on some intelligent bee-keeper who can 

 tell him the value of this wonderful legume. 

 Another man would seem also to be " out of 

 place," and that is the agricultural editor 

 who does not know any more about sweet 

 clover than this answer would indicate. — E. 

 T. Abbott, in Modern Farmer and Biisv Bee. 



Feeding in the Open Air. 



This is objected to because colonies that 

 need least get most, and because neighbors^ 

 bees can not be excluded. It has the advan- 

 tage that it seems a little more like a natural 

 harvest than feeding in the hive. M. A. Gil! 

 says in the Rocky Motintain Bee Journal; 



I hardly dare advise beginners to feed in 

 the open air, but practice that plan myself. 

 I feed in troughs filled with alfalfa stems, or 

 open vessels with a piece of burlap thrown 

 over to prevent the bees from drowning. I 

 feed at 2 to 3 o'clock p.m., giving each colony 

 from one-half to a pound of honey or gyrup 

 made as thin as raw nectar. After feeding in 

 this manner for a couple of days, if I have 

 any brood-combs tilled with honey, I uncap 

 them and hang not more than three in an 

 empty hive, equally spaced apart, and let the 

 bees have it. If properly done, there will be 

 no trouble from robbing. 1 had as soon feed 

 100 colonies in the open air as 100 pigs, pro- 

 vided my neighbors do not have too many 

 bees. 



The Lowest Temperature for Comb- 

 Building. 



S. E. Miller reports in the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper that he had comb built in March when 

 the outside temperature varied from 18 to T'i 

 degrees, the average being about 45 degrees. 

 He asks what is the lowest temperature at 

 which comb-building can be carried on, and 

 answers from three different men are given. 

 J. W. Rouse frankly says he does not know, 

 but thinks it can hardly be below 50 degrees. 

 G. M. Doolittle says that bees can build comb 

 in zero weather. Dr. Miller goes still lower, 

 and practically says that no colony of bees 

 has ever lived through a temperature so low- 

 that it would not admit of comb-building. 

 Mr. Doolittle says the heat imide the cluster 

 necessary for comb-building and brood-rear- 

 ing is from 90 to 98 degrees, and Dr. Miller 

 explains how it is that the colder the weather 

 the warmer it is in tne center of the cluster. 

 His answer is as follows : 



If you mean at what temperature of the 

 brood-nest bees can build comb, it may be 

 replied that it is somewhere in the nineties, 

 ])robably. From your accompanying re- 

 marks, however, it seems that you mean the 

 temperature of the atmosphere surrounding 

 the hive. That's another thing, and the tera- 

 Iierature depends somewhat upon the strength 

 of the colony. 



If a single bee is exposed to a freezing tem- 

 perature, it will lie a dead bee in a short time. 

 Possibly it ought not to be called a dead bee, 

 for it can be revived if brought into a warm 

 place if it has not been left frozen too long. 

 If there be a cluster of bees, the bee in the 

 center of the cluster will not succumb to the 

 cold as soon as a single bee, but it will suc- 

 cumb. If there be 50,000 bees in the cluster, 

 with plenty of stores within easy reach, a 

 freezing temperature will not affect them un- 

 favorably at all. And a much smaller cluster 



