•270 



(ll.HAMX(iS IN BEK (11/11 KK 



Apk. 15 



tion ()( this heartsease, which was along an over- 

 llowed creek-bottom; but they dirl not seem to eet 

 much. Anotlier thing I noticed, tlie l)ees that were 

 near the heartsease-field l)red stronger in the fall, 

 and were much stronger in bees than those that 

 were furtlier awa.v. It seemed as though the latter 

 knew their forage was far awa.v and hard to get. and 

 they filled uj) tiie l)rood-cliamber heavier than the 

 others, and that, of course, cut down the surplus 

 soniewliat. 'l"he country they have to go over is not 

 very rough — just one large liill. tlien a straight 

 shoot of about a mile to tlie bottoms. 



Ihinlap, la. K. S. Miles. 



TAVO RKt'II'KS FOR l\SIN(; HONEY. 



l-"or honey cand.v take one cupful of butter, two of 

 granulated sugar, two of lioney. Select a deep pre- 

 serving-kettle and put in the butter, first rubbing it 

 well over the bottom of the kettle: then add the hon- 

 ey and s\igar. Let it boil fast for ten minute.s. A.s- 

 certain if it is done, in the following way: Have 

 ready a cup of cold water, and droj) a little into it 

 from the point of a knife. If it is sufficiently done 

 when you take it from the water it will be crisp. 

 Now prepare a large shallow tin or pan: rub over 

 Avitli butter to prevent its adhering; pour from the 

 kettle to get cold. To keep good it should be ex- 

 cluded froto the air. 



BROWN BREAD. 



Three cups of graham flour; Y^ cup of lioney; I'piiit 

 sour or sweet milk; y> cup raisins: 1 teaspoouful 

 each of soda and salt. Grease three 1-lb. baking- 

 i)owder cans and fill witli the mixture. 



Tempe, Ariz. W. W. Appleby. 



LWe have tried both of the above recipes and can 

 vouch for their excellence, the brown bread being 

 especially good. The candy is like the old-fashioned 

 ■■ butter-scotch," but better. 



Honey is not used as much as it should be in cook- 

 ing. It is not as cheap as some of the inferior "corn 

 .s.vrup, but it is not !n the glucose class. Honey is 

 ■siveet, and the so-called corn syrups are but slightly 

 so except for the addition of the 10 per cent of cane 

 flavor. The 90 per cent (glucose) is about half as 

 sweet as .sugar. 



Dr. Miller and otliers have given some very good 

 recipes using honey, but there ought to be many 

 more. Our columns are open. Let those who know 

 of g<K)d recipes using hone.v send them in to us. We 

 shall be glad to use them for the benefit of all. — Ed.] 



WHAT IS THE LIFE OF A WORKER? 



I have just read l)r. Miller's Straw and your com- 

 1 nt in regard to the length of the life of a worker- 

 bee, in whieli tfie doctor figures, and you agree with 

 him, that the average life under normal conditions 

 is 6 weeks or 42 days. How this piece of foolishness 

 ever got into bee literature is more than 1 can com- 

 prehend. Not onl.v is the average of the bee's life 

 n(jt 42 days, l)ut the very limit of bee life under nor- 

 mal conditions does not exceed 27 days. 



Some years ago 1 lost heavily in winter, so the 

 next spring 1 sent to Florida and bought 50 queens. 

 -Vs these were very yellow, and as 1 used liylirids to 

 form my nuclei, it was easy to see when the new 

 bees began to hatch out, and to see when the last of 

 the old bees were gone. Now for the results: As 

 these nuclei all contained freshl.v laid eggs it was 

 just 21 days when the last hybrid bees were hatched 

 out. In 27 days more, not one of the hybrid bees 

 was left in the 50 nuclei. Now, if every hybrid bee 

 was gone in 27 days after it hatched, how can you 

 make out the average life of the worker 42 day.s? I 

 think it is time this inexcusable blunder in bee lit- 

 erature was corrected. 



[ have lieen with the bees for fort.v .vears: and my 

 observation is that, when the bee begins work in 

 the field, its days are numbered, of cour.se. bees 

 thrown out of normal condition will live for several 

 months. You may figure from the time the egg is 

 laid; but even then the limit of bee life would be 48 

 days: but you can not do this fairly, any more than 

 you can figure the life of a chicken from the time 

 the egg was laid, or your own life from the time you 

 were conceived. 



Hop Hottom, Pa., March 8. (;. A. Wright. 



[A good deal depends on what you mean by " nor- 

 mal conditions " and "average life" when we fig- 

 ure on the number of days that bees will live. Then 

 we must also take into consideration the strain of 

 bees and the source of nectar. " Normal condi- 

 tions" we would consider to mean the entire .sea.son 



— beginning, say. the first of May, and ending along 

 in .September or October. .\ heavy honey-flow, es- 

 pecialLv from some sources of sui)i)ly, would mean 

 an abnormal condition. When we speak of the 

 "average life "of the bee we may refer to the life 

 during the honey-How, but generally mean length 

 of days through the entire sea.son. 



Vou are basing your observations on one sea- 

 son's experimenting. In drawing conclusions, one 

 experiment could hardly be considered as conclu- 

 sive. You say nothing about the kind of honey- 

 flow that was on at the time, nor do you Siiy whether 

 the nuclei in question contained the proper propor- 

 tions of nur.se bees and fielder.s. 



Years ago, when we were Italianizing our apiary, 

 we had an excellent oijportunit.v for ob.servation. 

 We found that, during the height of the honey- 

 How, the life of the average worker was from four to 

 six weeks — tliat is, the ordinary 6?f(eA- bee. When 

 we Italianized after the lioney-flow there were black 

 bees in the hive — large numbers of tliem — through- 

 out the entire late summer and fall. In some in- 

 stances the black fellows showed up all winter, but 

 these were exceedingly rare. We remember that 

 the results we secured were quite in line with re- 

 ported observations of some of the eminent investi- 

 gators of years ago. On the otlier hand, we have 

 had reports of where the workers lived only two or 

 three weeks. In that case the bees had to work on 

 sources of nectar suppl.v where it was ver.v difficult 

 to get the coveted portion of nectar. Some flowers 

 are of such construction that the bees liave to do a 

 grejit amount of crowding and straining to get 

 down to where tiie nectar is. In that case the wear 

 on the wings is excessive. The life of the bee de- 

 pends very largely on the wings. If the wings are 

 worn or frayed out, the whole bee will be out of 

 commission. We have almost a parallel ca.se in the 

 horse. He will be able to do good service so long as 

 his teeth hold out; but when they fail him, so he can 

 not masticate his food properly, he is soon good for 

 nothing. We shall be glad to hear from others on 

 the question. — Ed.] 



httting fresh bees on combs on which other 

 bees have died. 



A lot of my bees died this winter and I have a lot 

 of old combs filled with bad honey which is candled 

 or granulated. I have no extractor. Would you 

 tell me how to get it out of the comb? Can I feed 

 the lioney back to the bees when they are raising 

 young bee.s, as the honey iS soured and the comb is 

 moldy? 



Tidal, Pa. .John K. Wolfe. 



[There is no trouble about putting bees on to 

 combs from which other bees have died, providing 

 the stores have not soured. If they are sweet, even 

 though candied, the bees will use them providing 

 they can get access to water. If the honey is actual- 

 ly soured, there is not much you can do with It ex- 

 cept to .soak the combs in warm water, extract the 

 candied hone.v partially soured, then work it over 

 into honey vinegar. If the combs are undesirable 

 in other respects we would advise putting them 

 through a wax-extractor. The melted wax will be 

 on top of the .soured honey. When the wax cools, 

 the honey can be drawn off and thinned down with 

 water and made over into honey vinegar. — EXo.] 



C.\N THE production OF W.\X BE MADE PROFITA- 

 BLE? THE SIMPLEST AND E.\SIEST WAY 

 TO INTRODUCE. 



1. How would you manage a large colony during 

 a season to secure the largest production of wax 

 from it. instead of honey or Increase? 



2. AVhat do you consider the .safest way to Intro- 

 duce one dozen queens to hybrid colonies during 

 api)le bloom? 



("rawfordsville, Ind., March 12. W. H. Kerr. 



[1. Wax production can not be made profitable 

 in any except tropical countries. Certainly it could 

 not be made to pay in Indiana or any of our North- 

 ern States. Even in Cuba, with its long honey- 

 flows, Mr. C. K. Hochstein. a resident of the island, 

 and one who has tested the proposition, says that 

 honey at even one cent a pound Is more profitable 

 than wax at 30 cents. On the other hand, wax pro- 

 duction on some of the Hawaiian Islands is fairly 

 profitable; but the conditions there are much more 

 favorable than in (^uba or in any of our Southern 

 States. In Hawaii, combs are built from mere 

 starters. The honey Is extracted, and the oombs 



