September, 191 1. 



American Hee Journal 



surely be accepted. Or, you may exchange 

 some or all of its combs with adhering bees 

 for frames of brood and bees from another 

 colony or colonies, and the younger bees 

 thus introduced will accept a laying queen. 

 1. I don't know what the trouble was. If I 

 knew all about just what you did. and the 

 condition of the colony, I might tell some- 

 thing about it. But then, again, maybe I 

 might not, for introducing a queen in that 

 way is always more or less a matter of 

 chance, 



4. They are probably lost on the wedding- 

 trip. \lany virgins are lost in that way. In 

 some places the trouble seems to be worse 

 than in others. It is supposed that birds 

 catch the virgins, and sometimes they are 

 lost by returning to the wrong hive. There 

 is more danger of their being lost in the lat- 

 ter way if hives are close together, all look- 

 ing alike, and no landmarks, such as trees. 

 to help mark the hive. 



5. Your letter being written the middle of 

 August, it is nothing unusual for bees to let 

 up on brood-rearing about that time, and, of 

 course, it is the right thing that honey should 

 be filled in the ceils left vacant by the hatch- 

 ing brood and not occupied by the queen. 

 If. however, the bees have not started at all 

 in the supers, you can do something to help 

 that, provided enough honey is gathered. 

 You can put in the center of the super a 

 bait-section; that is, a section that was 

 partly filled last year and cleaned out by the 

 bees. If you have no such section you can 



cut a small piece of comb out of a brood- 

 comb and put that in one of the middle sec- 

 tions. If they are too slow about starting in 

 an extracting-super— a thing that doesn't 

 often happen — you can put into the super a 

 frame of brood for a day or more, until a 

 start is made in the adjoining frames. 



Certain Bees as Foul-Brood Fighters 



1. Are the Holy-Land. Cyprian. Carniolan. 

 and Caucasian bees as good for cleaningout 

 foul brood as the Italians ? If you do not 

 know, have you read or heard any one speak 

 in favor of the above bees as beinggood foul- 

 brood cleansers ? 



2. What success have you had with your 

 method of cleaning up foul brood — the new 

 way tried a year or two ago ? New York. 



Answers. — t. I don't know how the bees 

 you mention compare with Italians in the 

 matter of fighting foul brood, and do not re- 

 member to have seen or heard anything re- 

 garding the matter. Very likely there is not 

 much difference. I suspect that it is not so 

 much the particular race as it is the energy 

 of the individual colonies. While it may be 

 true that a certain race of bees is better 

 than another, I suspect that the most active 

 colony of the poorer race will do more at 

 cleaning up foul brood than the laziest col- 

 ony of the better race. 



2. You will find report of my latest experi- 

 ence in foul brood on page 261. 



Bees Did Fairly Well 



Generally bees have done fairly well 

 around here this year, so far as I have 

 been able to learn. 



The American Bee Journal seemed like 

 a friend to me whenever I have been 

 permitted to read it, since 1884. I highly 

 appreciate Dr. Miller's kindly talks, and 

 hope some day to own a copy of his 

 "Fifty Years Among the Bees ' 



Gaston, Oreg. R. L. W'ildman. 



Results of the Season of 191 1 



I had 48 colonies pf bees, spring count, 

 and increased to only 63 by natural 

 swarming. I have taken off 3.000 pounds 

 of white honey, and buckwheat will not 

 give me much, as there 'are only about 

 20 acres in this district. 



ROBT. RUTIIKRFORD. 



Strange. Ont., August 4. 



a piece, and No. .2 at 5 cents a piece. 

 I worked up and established a trade on 

 such honey among my neighbors and their 

 vicinity. By doing thus, 1 always have 

 orders waiting. 



Grade Xo. 3 I do not offer for sale at 

 all. If I have any colonies that are short 

 of stores in the fall, I feed the No. 3 

 back to them, and, if not. I keep them 

 over winter and feed them to the colony 

 that has the least stores in order to pro- 

 mote brood-rearing. By thus using grade 

 No. 3, I kill several birds with one stone — 

 by feeding in the fall for winter stores, 

 in the spring for brood-rearing, and also 

 in the spring as bait-sections. 



I don't see how any bee-keeper can use 

 unfinished sections to any better advan- 

 tage than the ways I have here given. 



T. A. Ckauill. 



St. David's Church, Va. 



Not a Favorable Season for Bees 

 I have 45 colonies of bees. I had no 

 swarms this year and few last year. I 

 got about 800 pounds of basswood honey 

 this year, but no clover honey. The 

 clover was all killed out last fall and 

 winter. We have had it very dry here — 

 the driest I have ever seen, and I am in 

 my 74th year. I lost no bees last year, 

 as they winter well. Some of them have 

 done very well on basswood this season. 

 I have 2 colonies that gathered 6 pounds 

 a day for 3 days in the best of the sea- 

 son. I am getting 16 cents a pound for 

 my honey at the stores. It retails at 20 

 cents. \Vm. Ci.e.\kv. 



Algona, Iowa. August 4. 



Expect Good Honey-Flow — Cheap 

 Hive-Tool 



The honey-flow seems to be on now in 

 this district, and when the flora overcomes 

 the effects of a recent hailstorm, I think 

 we may expect something fine in the way 

 of a honey crop. The demand is good, 

 and enquiries frequent. 



A neat and handy little hive-tool is 

 made from the end of a buggy-spring 

 about 8 or 10 inches long. The round end 

 may be used for prying off covers, supers, 

 etc. ; the other end being made square and 

 sharpened from the concave side to a 

 chisel edge, takes the place of the famed 

 glazier's knife. ,^ny machine-shop should 

 shape and polish the tool for 10 cents. 

 John S. Semme.ns. 



Wiley. Colo., August 6. 



Using Unfinished Sections 

 I will give my method of using un- 

 finished sections : Ak the end of the honey 

 season, I take the supers off the hives 

 and to the honey-room, where I remove 

 the sections. As I take the supers off, 

 all the unfinished ones I grade into three 

 different lots — Nos. i, 2 and 3. Grades i 

 and 2. I offer for sale — No. i at 8 cents 



derful. There was absolutely nothing un- 

 til June 14th. when the flow from lucerne 

 (alfalfa) started with a rush, and no let- 

 up since. Bee-keepers say it continues 

 until frost. Sweet clover is everywhere, 

 and alfalfa close to ditches, which goes 

 to seed. Only 4 members of the National 

 are in this State, with room for 1000. 

 Mr. Hutchinson's slogan for me ! 



B. F. Smith. Jr. 

 Cowley, Wyo.. July 29. 



[The plant in question is the Wild 

 Liquorice. (Glycyrrhiza lepidota), and is 

 considered a good honey-producer. If 

 Mr. Smith had chewed the root he would 

 have guessed the name. — C. L. Walton.] 



Wild Liquorice — Bee-Keeping in 

 Irrigated District 



I wfiuld like to know the name of the 

 nlant herewith (seed, blossom and root.) 

 It grows quite abundantly here, and some 

 years it is a ^'reat nectar-yielder. 



This is my first year's experience in an 

 irrigated district, and it is certainly won- 



Second Blooming of Honey-Plants 



I am increasing my 300 colonies of 

 bees to 500. There is a very fine fall 

 flow of honey here now. At one of my 

 yards the bees yesterday were dropping 

 heavy on the alighting-boards, and the 

 nectar they had in their sacks was as 

 white and clear as water. It has a nice 

 flavor, but I am unable at present to tell 

 just what it is. 



We have had a heavy rain-fall of late, 

 and raspberry and milkweed and also 

 plants blooming early in June are bloom- 

 ing again. It may be this second blooih- 

 ing is what the bees are gathering from, 

 but the flavor is not the same. 



Ira D. Bartlett. 



East Jordan. Mich.. August 19. 



A Discouraging Season 



Bee-keeping and honey-production have 

 been very discouraging in this section of 

 the country this year. We had no rains 

 from February to August 3d. In spite 

 of the fine prospect in early spring for 

 white clover and linden, there was hardly 

 a pound of honey in the hives August ist, 

 and brood-rearing was at a stand-still; 

 but since the middle of this month, the 

 bees have stored considerable honey, and 

 we may not need to feed them for win- 

 ter, besides getting some surplus. 



Max Zahner. 



Lenexa. Kan.. August 24. 



Bees Did Fairly Well 



Considering the dry season we have 

 had so far, bees have done fairly well, 

 some of my colonies having stored about 

 60 pounds of extracted honey each, and 

 others have filled 2 cases of comb honey. 

 Sweet clover and alfalfa — our great honey- 

 plants — had hardly ever failed to give a 

 good supply of nectar for the bees, and 

 more alfalfa is put out every year, so the 

 outlook here for bee-keepers looks bright. 

 Bees are swarming in August. 



Ashton, Neb., August 16, H. Hanson, 



Honey from Alfalfa in Missouri 



This is the first year I have ever no- 

 ticed bees working on alfalfa in Missouri. 

 I suppose the drouth put it in about the 

 same condition as where they irrigate. 

 This is the first bad drouth we have had 

 since farmers began sowing alfalfa here, 

 and it will be a g:ood thing for bee-keep- 

 ers, as more of it is being sown every year. 

 Alfalfa produced seed this year, showing 

 beyond a doubt that it produced honey. 



Since May 15th we have had very little 

 rain, but lots of wind ; pastures woiild 

 hum if there was anything to burn. White 

 and red clover, I think, are all killed. 



My home yard with ini colonies in 

 lo-frame hives was lighter July 20th than 

 they were before fruit-bloom. I took 

 frames of honey from the strongest and 

 gave to the weakest, and got ready to 

 feed. 



About July 25th the bees commenced 

 working on the heartsease in the Missouri 



