344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



pensive devices are needed. My queens are not 

 hindered in any way from going into the supers, 

 and it's a very rare thing for them to do so. — 

 [Yes, reports seem to show that this is so. — Ed.] 

 Rambler, p. 299, thinks bees don't sting hogs, 

 on account of the smell. When rattlesnakes 

 were plentiful here — I killed 11 my first summer 

 In Illinois — hogs killed them, and I never heard 

 of a hog being hurt by a rattler. It was said 

 the snake couldn't bite through the hog's hide. 

 Can a bee sting through it? Anyway, how 

 much better than a sting would it be to smell 

 like a hog? 



Honey for babies. " M. Forester Dieiz has 

 had his infant son, now aged seven months, 

 reared entirely with the bottle which contained 

 milk sweetened with honey. Has already con- 

 sumed 25 lbs., is strong and plump, has never 

 had a single pain, and sleeps soundly the whole 

 night. At first the child received half milk 

 and half honey liquefied with water; no\v he 

 has four parts milk and one part honey lique- 

 fied with water." — Bulletin d' Alsace-Lorraine. 



C^APMii,N HONEY- PLANT seed is offered free 

 in B.B.J. Don't fool with any big quantity, 

 friends. I suppose acres of it were planted in 

 the U. S., and I believe it's the only honey- 

 plant that the government ever furnished free 

 to bee-keepers; but if there's a single man who 

 now cares to occupy ground with it he is keep- 

 ing very still about it. [The Chapman honey- 

 plant was not a success in this country; but 

 the bees make a great show on a single plant. 

 —Ed.] 



Railroads in England have "agreed that 

 bees in hives sent in truck-loads to the moors 

 during the heather season, should be conveyed 

 at 6d. per truck per mile, station to station, 

 owner's risk, with a minimum charge of 7s. 6d." 

 —B. B. J., page 14. That means, if I under- 

 stand rightly, that a carload of bees will be 

 taken 40 miles for $5.00. How much would it 

 cost in this country? [Bees by freight go as 

 third class. The rate on a carload of bees to 

 Cleveland (about 40 miles) would be 10c, mak- 

 ing the total freight $20.00, or just four times 

 as much as in England; and this, notwith- 

 standing that railroad companies in the mother 

 country pay enormous taxes in support of the 

 government. — Ed. ] 



Is Jake Smith a plagiarist? or have the 

 people across the water been getting points 

 from him ? At any rate, ihat idea of measur- 

 ing bees' tongues is having very serious atten- 

 tion in France. Actual measurements with 

 Ingenious glossometers show a great variation 

 in the different colonies of the same apiary. 

 By careful selection persistently followed up, 

 why may not a permanent strain of red-clover 

 bees be established? [If our queen-breeders 

 would spend more time in developing a strain 

 of red-clover bees and less to yellow bands it 

 would be better for the honey-producer. We are 



getting a large number of complaints from bee- 

 keepers who have purchased the yellow stock. 

 The past winter has shown that the majority 

 of the colonies of this strain are practically 

 good for nothing so far as hardiness is concern- 

 ed. As I have before said, the tendency is to 

 sacrifice every thing for color. In a few rare 

 instances, other good qualities are present. 

 Yes, let's have long-tongued, long-lived, long- 

 houred workers. — Ed.] 



FEEDING BEES. 



DOES IT PAY? THE SUBJECT REVIEWED UN- 

 DER NEW sidelights; a PRACTICAL AR- 

 TICLE FROM A PRACTICAL MAN. 



By H. R. Boardnian. 



There are some kinds of feeding that pay 

 well, and other kinds not so well, and some 

 kinds not at all. I will try to show what kind 

 of feeding pays, and how it pays, and what 

 doesn't pay, and why. 



After the honey season is past, if there are 

 any light colonies in the yard that lack only 

 winter stores to make them good promising 

 colonies for another year, I am sure that the 

 expense of a few pounds of sugar, and the 

 trouble of feeding it, will be repaid with good 

 interest unless such colonies are to be united to 

 prevent increase. I don't think this will need 

 the support of any very long arguments. It is 

 often said, though, that there should be no light 

 colonies at the close of the season, with good 

 management. I wish I could manage so wise- 

 ly; but I can not. and I am assured by the re- 

 ports that others do not, so the need of feeding 

 is apparent in this case. These late-fed colo- 

 nies make the very best to winter, and for the 

 next season if the work of feeding has been 

 thorough. They should be fed enough to carry 

 them not only through the winter, but through 

 the early spring as well. The giving of liquid 

 feed is more profitable in the fall than in the 

 spring. The fall feeding gives young bees for 

 winter. Spring feeding, by exciting the bees to 

 activity, induces them to fly out, when they are 

 chilled by the cold spring winds, and many will 

 thus be lost at a time when there are no bees to 

 be spared. It may induce robbing also, and 

 much of their vitality will be spent in useless 

 activity in marauding. 



If colonies should be found light in early 

 spring, there is one kind of feeding that I would 

 always recommend. Place combs of sealed 

 stores next to the brood-nest; and it pays to be 

 provided with these for an emergency. Upon 

 the first cost of the brood-nest depends very 

 mucn the future value of the colony. The old 

 bees are in sufBcient force early to do the work 



