O^battmgfi in Tin (Hvitnxt 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 



H. IT. Root, Assistant Editor E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the PostoflSco, Medina. Ohio, as Second-class Matter 



VOL. XXXVIII 



NOVEMBER 15. 1910 



NO. 22 



Editorial 



We should like to see the question of set- 

 tling-tank vs. strainers in the extracting- 

 yard discussed. Or is a combination of the 

 two methods better? 



Now is a good time to move your bees 

 from one portion of an apiary to another. 

 8ee editorial in our issue for Oct. 15, p. 645, 

 and elsewhere in this issue. 



SYRUP TO FEED BEES. 



At this time of the year, do not give any 

 syrup thinner than two and one-half parts 

 of sugar to one of water, boiling hot; and it 

 should be well stirred. If the weather is a 

 little cool, feed this while hot. 



SIZE OF ENTRANCES FOR OUTDOOR WIN- 

 TERING. 



Mr. Ira D. Bartlett, of East Jordan, 

 Mich., who makes a practice of wintering 

 outdoors in large packing-boxes, recom- 

 mends, in the Revieto, an entrance YiX-^yi. 

 This dovetails very nicely with our experi- 

 ence here in Medina, with this difference: 

 We recommend in the case of extra-strong 

 colonies a little wider entrance, and for five 

 or six frame colonies a slightly narrower 

 one. 



ARE BEES MORE HOSTILE TO BLACK THAN 

 TO WHITE CLOTHING? 



On p. 71(i of this issue our New England 

 correspondent somewhat doubts the oft-re- 

 l)eated statement that bees are much more 

 inclined to be cross to persons in dark cloth- 

 ing rather than light. He believes that 

 bees become "educated" to the clothing a 

 person wears. Wonder if he is right. We 

 should like to see this question discussed. 

 In this connection it will be remembered 

 that one of our corresi)ondents related how 

 two dogs came into a bee-yard when the 

 bees w^ere not in the best of humor — one of 

 them a black dog and the other a white one. 

 The bees furiously attacked the black dog 

 but paid hardly any attention to the white 

 one. Was this a case of "education" or 

 what? ______^ 



ASTER HONEY ALL RIGHT FOR WINTER 

 STORES. 



In certain seasons some of the bee-keep- 

 ers of Northern Michigan have found that 



severe winter losses followed when aster 

 honey was the chief winter supply of stores. 

 The honey may differ in different localities, 

 but there may also be some other condition 

 that has something to do with the matter. 

 Perhaps aster honey is not suitable for a 

 winter that is long and severe, with prac- 

 tically no days for flight. We have just 

 heard from Mr. C. Raney, Petersburg, 

 Tenn., who had written us some time pre- 

 vious that his combs were full of aster hon- 

 ey, and he now says that colonies in his lo- 

 cality winter well on aster honey, for it does 

 not crystallize until it is a year old. The 

 winters in Tennessee are undoubtedly much 

 more open, and give more chances for 

 cleansing flights. 



MORE IN REGARD TO MOVING COLONIES 

 SHORT DISTANCES IN THE SAME YARD. 



We have had such good success in mov- 

 ing colonies a few rods without having the 

 bees return to the old location that we think 

 the advice sometimes given to move colo- 

 nies a couple of miles, temporarily, and then 

 later bring them back to the new location 

 in the old yard, is now entirely unnecessary. 

 In the moving that we did, as mentioned p. 

 645, Oct. 15, about a dozen colonies were 

 taken away from the north side of a tree 

 and carried to the south part of the apiary. 

 The hives had been arranged in the form of 

 a circle around the tree, and all were remov- 

 ed except those on the east and south side 

 of the tree. As mentioned in the editorial 

 above referred to, we smoked the bees thor- 

 oughly and pounded the hives vigorously 

 in moving, in order to make sure that the 

 bees filled up before flying. 



After about two weeks, when we again 

 had occasion to go to this yard we found 

 that the hive on the east side next to the 

 place where the other hives had formerly 

 stood, contained rather more bees than it 

 did originally, showing that a few had gone 

 back to the old location; and, not being 

 able to find the hive, they had gone into 

 the one nearest. This only goes to show 

 that, when hives are moved in this way, no 

 one hive should be left very near the old lo- 

 cation unless rt contains a weak colony that 

 should be strengthened. But practically all 

 the few bees that return are old bees any 

 way, and it is a question whether the colo- 

 nies that lost them will suffer much, or 

 the colony that gained them be much ahead 

 in the long run. Of course we are referring 

 now to moving that is done in the fall of 

 the year. 



