900 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



boiled for a few minutes. A thinner syrup can be made, if the spring is cold and flights for 

 water are sought to be obviated. Only a few pounds say, from five to ten to a hive need 

 be fed, but a little thus fed in April and May, and the reward in increased strength and labor 

 of the bees will be out of all proportion to the outlay. At the same time a little unbolted 

 rye flour should be furnished as a substitute for pollen in a protected, sunny place for the 

 bees, before they begin to gather pollen from the early blossoms. 



The same practice of stimulating by light feeding is advised preparatory for winter. 

 &quot;Where the hive is already full of honey, some combs should be extracted, or, if one has no 

 apparatus for doing it, a few combs should be removed and a few empty ones put in their 

 places. The feed at this season should be made into thick syrup, and where granulation may 

 occur, a spoonful of vinegar will obviate it; or to be more exact, vinegar can be used in 

 proportion to one gill to eight or ten pounds of sugar. This feeding may also be in small 

 quantity, from three to five pounds in all, or it may be more; the bees never waste. A 

 feeding like this during ten days in October will give a nice full hive of young bees for 

 winter, and insure a vigorous colony in the spring. Never feed at any time, and at this. time 

 particularly, what you do not know to be absolutely pure. Glucose, or any proportion of it in 

 the food will be sure to cause the death of the bees from the poison it contains. 



Removing Honey from Hives. Before commencing to work around a hive, it is 

 best to be sure that the bees are filled with honey. At the first alarm of any kind, such as 

 smoking them with pipe, or bee smoker, tapping on the hive, etc., the bees will at once 

 fill themselves with honey, it seeming to be a natural instinct to prepare themselves for any 

 emergency. After feeding about five minutes they will generally be quiet, and are then very 

 easily managed, rarely ever stinging, unless injured, or unnecessarily disturbed. Where no 

 bellows is had for the purpose, a little smoke from a pipe will answer the purpose quite 

 well. Remove the honey quietly, paying no attention to the bees. If the comb sticks, loosen 

 or cut it with a knife. Honey knives made especially for this purpose are the best. &quot;When 

 boxes or frames are used, which are the best, simply remove the frame when the comb is 

 filled with honey and sealed over, and supply the place with empty ones. 



Honey-Bearing Plants. It must be remembered that the bee is not a producer, but 

 a gatherer of stores, and the vegetable world must furnish the material from which honey is 

 to be gathered by these little industrious workers. But bees cannot gather honey where there 

 is none to be had within easy range, nor can a colony keep itself in a proper condition to 

 take advantage of an abundance of autumn blooming plants, when there is not an accessible 

 supply of spring and summer blossoms to encourage brood rearing and to keep the colony 

 strong. No farmer or stock-breeder would think of attaining success in keeping and rearing 

 animals without providing them with food, and yet how few bee-keepers provide bee 

 pasturage for their bees, by sowing such plants as have honey-producing blossoms. Many 

 colonies of bees might be yearly saved from starvation, and tons of honey put upon the 

 market, if more attention were paid towards securing a continuous pasturage for bees to 

 work in, from early spring until late autumn. Some locations may be better adapted to 

 certain kinds of plants than others, but there will be found a sufficient variety suited to 

 different sections for this purpose. Where only a few colonies of bees are kept, there will 

 generally be a sufficient supply of flowers for the bees to work upon, without any extra care 

 in this respect, but where bee-keeping is followed as a special business, tlie supply of honey- 

 bearing plants must be considered in order to make it a success. Among the clovers the 

 Alsike, White, and Melilot or Sweet Clover are noted for their honey-producing qualities. 

 The latter has no particular agricultural value. The plants bloom in June and July. The 

 bass wood is also excellent for bee pasturage, while the apple, and other fruit trees, the 

 locust, the raspberry, and blackberry, are exceedingly valuable. 



The nectar of the common red clover is located beyond the reach of our honey bees, and 

 it is the prevalent opinion among apiarists that could we obtain an improved breed of bees 

 that had tongues sufficiently long to utilize the blossoms of this plant, our honey production 

 would be largely increased. The dandelion and strawberry are among the earliest blooming 

 plants, at a time when the honey forage is scarce, and consequently a trying one for bees. 

 During May and June the Sumac and White Sage are very abundant in some sections, especially 

 in California, while at the South, which is one of the very best regions for bee culture, owing 

 to its climate and wealth of flowers, the cotton plant furnishes an abundant source of honey 

 supply from June until the frost comes. In the autumn the Wild Aster, Golden Rod, and 

 Buckwheat are a prolific source of honey, but the products made from these blossoms have a 

 deep color, and a peculiar flavor which discounts them in the market, Surplus boxes are 



