December, 1908. 



American Hen Journal 



as it comes from the combs in which 

 it has been stored by the bees, has 

 been found, not only to be harmless, 

 but wholesome for children to eat. 

 They may eat it day after day and 

 year after year, provided, of course, it 

 is taken in reasonable quantities, and at 

 proper times, without the slightest in- 

 jurious effects. 



It is a well known fact that candies 

 and other sweets which are made of 

 ordinary sugar of commerce, if taken 

 habitually will in time prove very m- 

 jurious to digestion. This is due to the 

 fact that ordinary sugar must be con- 

 verted in the digestive tract to "grape 

 sugar" before it can be assimilated. It 

 has been stated by some excellent au- 

 thorities that the continued draught on 

 the secretive forces of the system in 

 converting large quantities of sugar is a 

 fruitful cause of Bright's disease and 

 other kidney trouble. 



No such danger is attendant upon 

 the eating of honey, as it is partially 

 digested in the honey-sac of the bee, 

 and enters the digestive system of the 

 human body in proper form for imme- 

 diate assimilation. A more general ac- 

 quaintance with this simple truth would 

 prove a boon to many parents who are 

 troubled with the candy problem. And 

 what is very much to the point in this 

 connection is the fact that the price of 

 honey is not more, and in some cases 

 not as much, as that of the cheapest 

 pure candy.— National Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation. 



The Business Man's Bee-Hive 

 —Milkweed 



bV e. s. miles. 



There are two articles in the Sep- 

 tember issue of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal that I would like to comment upon. 

 First, the article on page 268, entitled, 

 "Bee-Hives for the Business-Man." I do 

 not doubt that there are many cases simi- 

 lar to the one cited, but there are many 

 cases where a little different management 

 would make a great deal of difference in 

 the results. The season, too, must have 

 been very peculiar to have given so much 

 swarming from the 8-frame hives, and 

 only 19 sections per colony, spring count. 

 It is evident that the 8-frame-hive man 

 was not so well informed on manage- 

 ment as the large-hive man. It is just as 

 easy to control swarming as to put on 

 extracting combs, know when and how 

 to market it, yet a great many never 

 learn it, and I suppose never will until 

 an Alexander arises who can knock out 

 a few more of the preconceived notions 

 of our "orthodox" teachers. 



Now, my object in writing this is not 

 to tell Mr" Dadant anything, but to tell 

 what can be done with an. 8-frame hive 

 for extracting, and for the benefit of the 

 hundreds who already have the 8-frame 

 and can not change. 



With us here in Western Iowa, the 8- 

 frame hive is as large as the average 

 queen will use, up to the flow from 

 clover, and as we are fixed for cellar- 

 wintering, we prefer that size, and as an 

 occasional queen needs more room in 

 spring, it is an easy matter to equalize, 

 as we think there are few yards where 



some colonics will not need a little help. 

 Then we breed our queens from those 

 not inclined to swarm, as Mr. Dadant 

 advises, and by tiering up plenty of 

 ready-built combs, with proper shade 

 and ventilation, we do not have 3 per- 

 cent of swarms. 



Neither do our colonies swarm at su- 

 perseding, except very rarely. During 

 the past season we had about 190 colo- 

 nies, and perhaps 160 (we keep an ac- 

 curate record, but do not take time to 

 go over it just now) were queens reared 

 from one certain colony or were natu- 

 ral, superseding queens from the mother 

 of this colony, and we had but 6 swarms 

 from the whole number. We had 29 

 colonies in an out-yard run entirely 

 for extracted, with shallow supers, and 

 no swarms. The season here was poor, 

 but had a long-continued light flow, so 

 that it was not practicable to give a 

 colony room in proportion to their 

 strength, especially in sections, and al- 

 ways considered favorable for swarm- 

 ing. Our swarming has not been heav- 

 ier from this strain since we began 

 breeding it about 10 years ago. 



There is more in the management and 

 the kind of bees than there is in the 

 size of the brood-chamber. 



We wish to say that we have no bees 

 or queens for sale. 



"Milkweed and Honey-Plant." 



Under this title, on page 278, Dr. Miller 

 says, "Nothing very definite is known 

 on this point, and it is doubtful if any 

 milkweed honey has ever been report- 

 ed." I do not question this statement, 

 but wish to say that 4 years ago, milk- 

 weed was very abundant where I was 

 then located, and some colonies worked 

 almost e.xclusively on it. The honey 

 was very nearly water-white, with a 

 very pronounced flavor similar to the 

 smell of the blossoms, but on standing 

 a few weeks seemed to lose part of the 

 flavor and became very fine honey. 



The pollen sticks to the bees' feet 

 so that I do not think any but very 

 vigorous bees do much good at work- 

 ing it. An occasional old bee will be 

 seen stuck fast to the bloom, but we 

 have never noticed that the colonies 

 that worked it would be weakened any 

 thereby. Many a time has the writer 

 lain beside the hive and watched the 

 bees while working on this milkweed, 

 and I have thought sometimes that bee- 

 nature, after all, is somewhat like hu- 

 man nature. When a field-bee comes 

 in all podded out with "the swag," she 

 is given the "glad hand," no matter how 

 much pollen is sticking to her feet ; 

 but no sooner is she parted from "the 

 goods" than "her room becomes more 

 valuable than her company," and she is 

 unceremoniously hustled out; dragged 

 out, if she doesn't go quickly enough. 

 but here she can teach the humans a 

 lesson. Instead of becoming discour- 

 aged by such inhuman (or human) treat- 

 ment, she immediately hies away to the 

 field for more of "the stuff," and thus 

 they continually keep it up all the hot, 

 livelong day. How they compromise the 

 matter at night "this deponent sayeth 

 not," but I have never noticed any 

 frazzled out, pollen-bedraggled workers 

 roosting over night "on the porch." 



I regard the milkweed as a valuable 



honey-plant where it is pleiitilul, and 

 a very reliable yielder, and think Italians 

 a little better on it as they are more 

 persistent than blacks. 

 Dunlap, Iowa. 



Bee-Diarrhea in Cellar-Win- 

 tering 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I recently had occasion to make a 

 short trip into central Iowa, and visited 

 some successful apiarists. One of them 

 told me that he had difficulty with cel- 

 lar-wintering, owing to diarrhea among 

 his bees during the latter part of the 

 w-inter. He had tried delaying the put- 

 ting of bees into the cellar until late 

 in December and found that this ag- 

 gravated the trouble. This delay was a 

 mistake, and I soon convinced him of it. 



There are two or three principal 

 causes of bee-diarrhea. Of course, long 

 and continuous confinement is the main 

 one. But in our temperate regions 

 where the bees need not be confined 

 over 4 months, there is not the dan- 

 ger w'hich exists in colder countries 

 where the cellar-wintering of bees lasts 

 from the early days of November until 

 April, and sometimes till May 1st. Yet 

 we hear more about diseased bees in 

 the cellar here than there. 



The reason why bees that are brought 

 late into the cellar suffer more than 

 those that are brought in early is, that 

 the former have often been confined to 

 their hives for several weeks before 

 they are brought in. When the weather 

 turns cold, the bees cluster together in 

 more compact mass and eat more honey 

 than in mild weather, for it is by the 

 consumption of honey that the}' main- 

 tain the warmth of the cluster. The 

 colder the weather, the greater the 

 consumption of rich food. That is true 

 of bees and beasts as well as of human 

 beings. That is why the strong meats, 

 like pork, suit us better in cold weather. 

 That is why the Greenlanders consume 

 fish-oil with relish. Since our bees eat 

 more, their intestines become more read- 

 ily loaded with excrements that must 

 be discharged under penalty of suffer- 

 ing. If we take the bees into the cellar 

 shortly after a flight, their bowels are 

 entirely free, and they go into the cel- 

 lar in the best possible condition. If 

 we delay, for the purpose of making 

 their confinement shorter, they begin 

 consuming honey more liberally at the 

 first cold, so that after 2 or 3 weeks 

 or more of delay, we put them into win- 

 ter quarters with less chance of suc- 

 cess, because of the excrements already 

 accumulated in their bowels. That is 

 why all authorities agree in advising 

 the housing of bees promptly after a 

 good flight, even if it is a little early, 

 rather than wait and be compelled to 

 take them in after they have been ex- 

 posed to cold. Of course, if they re- 

 main outside, they will again take ad- 

 vantage of a warm day to relieve them- 

 selves of their excrements, but this may 

 come too late in the season to make 

 cellar-wintering advisable. 



The sickness caused by an overload 

 of excrements may not be properly 

 termed diarrhea, for the excrements 



