March, 191fi. 



American Hee Journal 



ing empty combs in spring with combs 

 of sealed honey. Whatever may be 

 the reason for it, the bees seem a little 

 chary of rearing a large amount of 

 brood when no great amount of honey 

 is present in the brood-chamber. But, 

 as that very practical beekeeper, G. M. 

 Doolittle, says, when there is an abun- 

 dance of honey in the brood-chamber, 

 the bees say, "There's millions at our 

 house," and they proceed to rear brood 

 on a lavish scale. 



Some will say, " Well, if we are to 

 feed, we may as well use sugar and 

 gain the difference in price between 

 sugar and honey. There are places 

 where certain honeys are gathered in 

 the fall that seem 'to be death to the 

 bees in winter, and in such places su- 

 gar makes better food for winter. But 

 such places are exceptional. Wherever 

 good honey is to be had, sugar should 

 find no place in the hive. Good au- 

 thorities tell us that there are elements 

 to be found in honey not to be found 

 in sugar-fed bees. So it may easily 

 be that the extra vigor of honey fed 

 bees may enable them to do enough 

 work at storing to more than make up 

 for all that might be gained by feeding 

 sugar. 



These things all considered, there- 

 fore, let it be your earnest determina- 

 tion, if you have never done so before, 

 to end the next season with a fair 

 stock of filled combs ready to meet all 

 emergencies. 



DEEP BOTTOM FOR FEEDING. 



At the close of the season last sum- 

 mer, as usual, we made the rounds of 

 the hives to see that each colony had 

 stores enough. We found the custo- 

 mary state of affairs, few colonies need- 

 ing to have any help, nearly all colo- 

 nies being supplied, and heavily sup- 

 plied. Herein is a thing rather marvel- 

 ous : the difference between conditions 

 at the close of the season and a few 

 weeks before. When the flow got to 

 its heaviest the frames were crowded 

 with brood, some of them so much so 

 that not five pounds of honey were in 

 the hive, if there was half that amount. 



Looking at it the novice might say, 

 " Why, this state of affairs won't do. 

 When the flow stops there cannot pos- 

 sibly be enough honey in the hive for 



winter, and the bees must be fed heav- 

 ily." Yet a little later the brood-nest 

 is found containing little brood and 

 much honey. How does it come ? If 

 the flow is the stimulus that keeps up 

 breeding, why doesn't the queen con- 

 tinue laying just the same until the 

 flow stops ? Evidently she diminishes 

 her laying, likely under the direction 

 of the workers, sufficiently early to 

 allow honey to be filled into the cells 

 vacated by the emerging brood. Wise 

 little creatures, the bees. 



At any rate we found colonies well 

 stored, as already said, and filled up any 

 that were exceptions to the rule. Yet 

 for some reason there is always a like- 

 lihood that when bees are taken into 

 cellar a few colonies will be found not 

 as heavy as desired. So when the two 

 men carried the bees into the cellar — it 

 was Dec. 4 — they were told to mark 

 any colony that seemed lighter than the 

 others. There were half a dozen that 

 they marked. It may be remarked in 

 passing that judging the weight of a 

 hive by its feel in carrying is not en- 

 , tirely reliable ; still it serves some 

 purpose. 



What, now, would you think the best 

 way to feed those marked colonies ? 

 We had the very best thing with which 

 to feed them, sealed combs of honey, 

 but to open a hive would unnecessarily 

 disturb the bees, and moreover the 

 hives were all piled up in the cellar. 



and it would be no small work to do 

 all the lifting to get each one down 

 from the pile. Well, this is what we 

 did do. We thrust a comb of sealed 

 honey into the entrance of each hive 

 under the bottom-bars. It was a very 

 easy thing to do, since the bottom- 

 board was two inches deep. 



It was surprising to see how rapidly 

 the bees took possession of those 

 heavy combs of honey, and in two 

 days the honey was cleaned out from 

 the lower as well as the upper side, 

 and the combs left dry. 



This is only one of the advantages of 

 a deep bottom-board, and a minor one, 

 since we do little feeding in the cellar, 

 but it is a nice thing to be able to do it 

 so easily the few times that we do want 

 thus to feed. In the winter it is no 

 s nail advantage to have an entrance 

 two inches deep, so that there is no 

 danger of its being clogged with dead 

 bees, and to have that deep space un- 

 der the bottom-bars so that the whole 

 thing can be easily cleaned out any 

 time, although it is not often that we 

 take advantage of this latter item. The 

 freer access of the air to all parts of 

 the bottom-bars is no doubt an advan- 

 tage. 



In summer the deep space is a big 

 aid to ventilation, and to that extent a j 

 preventive of swarming. A deep bot- 

 tom-board is a good thing. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



A Book for the Apple Grower The 



Lippincott series of Farm Manuals are 

 very attractive books. " Productive 

 Beekeeping," by Frank C. Pellett, is 

 one of this series, which is intended to 

 cover all branches of agricultural ac- 

 tivity. The books are uniformly bound 

 in attractive cloth covers, have colored 

 frontispiece, and are printed on enam- 

 eled paper that brings out the best 

 effect of the many half-tone engravings 



APIARY OF GEORGE M. THOMPSQ.N. Of GRAND JUNCTION, IOWA 



with which they are illustrated. 



We have just received a copy of 

 " Productive Orcharding," by Fred C. 

 Sears, of the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural College. Fruit growing and bee- 

 keeping are coming to be so closely 

 associated that we feel sure our read- 

 ers will be glad to know of this book 

 on the apple orchard. Of special in- 

 terest is the following in regard to 

 spraying while trees are in bloom : 



"Avoid Spraying When Trees are in 

 Bloom. — Another important point is 

 the desirability of avoiding spraying 

 while the trees are in bloom. Authori- 

 ties differ as to just how serious a mat- 

 ter it is, but there seems to be consid- 

 erable evidence to show that bees may 

 be killed by such a spray. It is also 

 probable that the pistils may be injured 

 if the spraying is done just when they 

 are in "full bloom." In any event there 

 seems to be nothing gained by spray- 

 ing when the trees are in full bloom, 

 over spraying just after the petals fall. 

 It is certainly worth while to avoid 

 any chance of injuring either the bees 

 or the blossoms." 



The price of this book is $1.50, and 

 it may be obtained from this office on 

 receipt of price. 



Our readers who raise poultry will 

 also be interested in " Productive Poul- 

 try Husbandry," another of the Lippin- 

 cott farm manuals by Harry R. Lewis, 

 of the New Jersey College of Agricul- 

 ture. It is uniformly bound with the 

 others of the series, contains 535 pages 



