January. 1913. 



American "Bee Journal 



But I'd rather not close the entrance that 

 way at all. 



I have carried bees on a stretcher, as you 

 do. and sometimes it works well; but it the 

 bees are easily stirred up the extra jarring 

 they get when set on the stretcher, even if 

 the stretcher be cushioned, and the longer 

 time it takes, makes trouble. That setting 

 down for a time near cellar-door will not do 

 unless bees are shut in securely. 



You have tried wet rags after the bees are 

 riled. Try it before. Have the cloths drip- 

 ping wet. close the entrance before the hive 

 is touched, and take it away when the bees 

 have had time to guiet a little in the cellar. 

 I'hat. of course, means you must have two 

 or more such cloths. It is possible that my 

 larger entrances make a difference. Witli 

 your ";iX4 inch opening very few bees will be 

 affected by the water; with my 2x12 inch 

 opening 16 times as many will meet the chilly 

 cloth to be repulsed by it. 



I don't know for sure about it. but I've a 

 sneaking notion that if I should accept your 

 challenge to take all I could " carry 2 rods 

 without bees escaping with the entrance 

 open." you would have to buy bees to make 

 a fresh start. And I don't know why you 

 can't do as well as I can. 



Is there Sale for Propolis? 



Is there any sale for propolis, and. if so. 

 tell me^where I can sell it ? I have heard it is 

 worth Quite a bit. bul never could find out 

 where to sell it. or how much it is worth. 



Kansas. 



Answer.— I very much doubt if there is 

 any market for propolis, but if any one 

 knows of such a market let him say so. 

 If you have propolis that has been saved 

 from scraping frames, sections, etc.. you 

 may find it a paying job to melt the beeswax 

 out of it. 



Feeding in a Cellar— Drone-Laying Queen 



1. I have one colony I transferred in Au- 

 gust after they had thrown off their second 

 swarm. It was late in September before I 

 saw any evidence of a queen. About this 

 time I saw the queen, seemingly a very large 

 black one. 



Shortly after this drones began to hatch 

 out in large numbers, and there are a great 

 many in the hive now. though the last day 

 or two many were killed off. Saturday, the 

 14th. I found a queen in frontof the entrance 

 dead. 



Can you tell me whaiyour long experience 

 would lead you to think was the cause for 

 these things? I fed this colony quite freely 

 in September and October. 



2. I have two light colonies that need feed- 

 ing. Can I put them in a cellar and place 

 feed in a feeder, the feeder being in a screen 

 wire box one foot square, and fastened over 

 the entrance in such a manner that the bees 

 cannot get away from the hive ? Will they 



feed and then return to the cluster ? These 

 colonies are no better than nuclei, but have 

 splendid young queens, and I have no other 

 bees to double with them, and wish very 

 much to save them. 



3. Will bees start brood in the cellar if 

 stimulated with feed while there? 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. It looks very much as if the 

 queen had failed to mate and was a drone 

 layer. Her death was no loss (assuming 

 she was the dead queen), as a drone-laying 

 queen is at least a little worse than no 

 queen. The bees are now so old they are of 

 no value, and the best thing is to brimstone 

 them so as to stop their consuming stores. 



2. "The probability is that the bees will 

 hardly reach the feed so far away, and if 

 they should they might not get back. They 

 may reach feed close under the bottom- 

 bars, but are more likely to reach food 

 placed over. Wet cube sugar, or lump sugar, 

 but not enough to dissolve it, and lay it on 

 the top-bars. 



3 Possibly, if the feeding be continued a 

 longtime; but probably not. 



Winter Feeding in Arkansas 



In this climate, bees fly nearly every day 

 in the year. However, there is nothing for 

 them to get. Now I find that my bees are 

 light in stores. I winter on out-door stands 

 and I would like to feed them. Would you 

 feed sugar or honey? I have some broken 

 comb honey, and also some nicely sealed 

 extracting frames with slightly bitter honey 

 —our fall honey is all bitter— have never fed 

 any of it. Will you kindly advise what is 

 best in my case ? Abkansas. 



Answer.— Very likely that bitter honey in 

 sealed combs is just the thing. While the 

 bitterness hurts it for market. I have never 

 heard that it is bad for bees. 



Feeding Liquid Feed in Winter 



Is it too late to feed liquid feed in pepper- 

 box feeders now ? If so. why? Illinois. 



A'NsvvER — Yes and no. It's better to feed 

 now than to let the bees starve; but its not 

 considered a fair deal to put off feeding till 

 bees are in winter quarters It is generally 

 diflScult to get them to take the feed in win- 

 ter, and the disturbance is not good for 

 them. 



Ontario County, N. Y., Meeting 



The annual meeting of the Ontario 

 Co., N. Y., Bee-Keepers' Society will be 

 held in the Court House at Canadaigua 

 on Jan. 7, 1913. A program is being 

 prepared. F. Grei.\er, Sctr. 



Likes the Journal 



I enjoy the Bee Journal more than any 

 other paper I take. C.M.Page. 



East Corinth. Vt. 



Prospects Good for White Clover Next 

 Season 



We had a good season, and bees have gone 

 into winter quarters in fine shape. Best of 

 prospects for a good white clover crop next 

 season. Jno. S. Coe. 



Boyce. Va. 



Poor Season 'just Passed 



We had a very poor honey season here, 

 little surplus, and that is very dark honey- 

 dew. Colonies are in very good condition 

 for winter (heavy). V, G. Ashbaugh. 



Avalon. Mo.. Nov. 13. 



very bright for a good honey season the 

 coming year. The bee-keepers are prepar- 

 ing for the next crop, getting hives, supers 

 and sections in readiness for the new year 

 and its possibilities. 



The demand for frames, and prices on the 

 other bee-supplies, would warrant that the 

 bee-men anticipate a good year, and we 

 wish them a " corking" good one. 



John C. Frohliger. 



Berkeley. Calif.. Nov. 20. 



California Report 



As we have been very much favored with 

 some very early rains, the prospects are 



Cement Nails — 'Wintering 



On page 342 of the American Bee Journal 

 for November. Wm. Muth-Rasmussen writes 

 in favor of bright or uncoated nails. I must 

 say I agree with him. In using nails from ^4 

 to 3 inches in length, there has not been a 

 time when I did not prefer the bright nails, 

 but could not get them; and then think of 

 the cement-coated fingers, worse than prop- 

 olis. Perhaps if there are more bee-keepers 

 of the same mind, some dealer will keep the 

 bright nails in stock. 



I would like to know why the bees left in 

 a hive from which a swarm has issued are 



called the parent colony. In nine weeks 

 there would be nothing in the old hive but 

 the daughter and grandchildren of the old 

 queen. Where do you get the parentage ? 



All bee books and papers advise a tem- 

 perature of 40 to 45 degrees. Fahr.. for cellar 

 wintering. My bee-cellar averages 33 de- 

 grees. Fahr. .through the winter. The bees 

 have wintered successfully in this cellar for 

 years. I use a single-walled Langstroth 

 hive, with plenty of ventilation top and bot- 

 tom. In iQoy, as an experiment, I wintered a 

 very weak colony in this cellar. Only a 

 quart of bees on nine frames covered by 

 two thicknesses of burlap and no top. They 

 came through all right. 



South Bane. 'Vt. George E. Morris. 



Another Bee-Song 



( To the lime of ' ' Cosvy Jones. ' ') 



At the Colorado bee-meeting of Dec. 

 12 and 1-3, 1912, a bee-song, by Eva D. 

 Henthorne, was sung by .S-year old 

 Mildred Rose Henthorne. It elicited 

 much applause. We give one of the 

 stanzas and the chorus : 



William climbed up the cotton-wood tree. 

 He hustled up the ladder that swarm to see. 

 The neighbors knew by the way the smoke 



rolled down. 

 That the man in the tree-top was William 



Brown. 

 He climbed up within two feet of the place. 

 Forty thousand bees stared him right in the 



face. , ., , , 



The limb gave way and he said. I have to 



drop. 

 And I'm going to hit the ground sir. with the 



bees on top. ' 



Chorus— 



William Brown, going to hit the ground, sir 

 William Brown, with the bees on top. 

 William Brown, going to hit the ground, sir. 

 And he's going to hit the ground, sir, with 

 the bees on top. 



Bur Marigold or Spanish-needles (Bidens) 



Regarding Spanish-needles, I enclose a 

 letter from Mr. W. D. Darby, of Marionville. 

 Mo., with whom I have been corresponding 

 regarding this plant. He sent me seed of 

 the tall variety, or Spanish-needle proper. 

 I raised about two dozen very fine stalks 4 

 feet tail. Manv of the branches and each 

 stalk carried over 100 buds, which, by the 

 way do not open out. Mr. Darby says they 

 are rich in nectar in his section, but I could 

 not find a trace of nectar in those I raised. 

 The plant I wanted is what he calls Spanish 

 aster, and I hope to get seed of this variety 

 from Mr. Darby in the spring, enough for a 



start. , , , .J 



There are thousands of acres in and 

 around Chicago, swampy, and apparently 

 suitable for this plant, and it was my ambi- 

 tion to give it a start, and replace this wild, 

 swamp grass with the finest honey-plant 

 the world has ever known. , , .. , 



The honey is of the " color of gold, has a 

 wonderful " honey taste. " and the more you 

 eat the more you want to eat, as it lacks that 

 "cloying taste" mentioned by our corn- 

 syrup friend, Marion Harland. It is very 

 thick, too thick to run. does not candy as 

 early as white clover, and weighs about n to 

 13H pounds to the gallon; 5 gallon cans run 

 close fobs pounds. I understand the honey 

 is in much demand commercially for its 

 highly saccharine contents. 



It blooms in Missouri about Aug. 15 to 25. 

 and lasts until killing frost, which is about 

 Sept. 20 to 23. making the flow from three to 

 four weeks in duration. When at its best it 

 yields a f/ooJ of nectar. I have had colonies 

 store as much as three gallons in seven days. 



Another feature of value is that it gives 

 honev after the season has closed with 

 alfalfa, white clover etc.. and does not in- 

 terfere with the regular season of other 

 plants. Exceedingly dry weather cuts down 

 the surplus yield, but it never fails to pro- 

 duce an abundance for winter stores. 



Chicago. III.. Dec. 5. W. O. H. Culley. 



Following is the letter from Mr. W. D. 

 Darby, of Marionville. Mo. : 



Dear Sir- — As to the Spanish-needle, you 

 sent a tip-top sample, for the blossoms of 

 this variety never open out. but are rich in 

 nectar, and the bees work on them in that 

 bud form. The other is a species of the 

 above, but of the aster type, and it is a nec- 

 tar-bearing plant, also. I enclose two buds 



