July, 1916. 



American Bee Joarnalj 



Then I said to myself: " My Mary weeps 



For the dead today; 

 Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps 



The fret and pain of his age away.' 



But her dog whined low; on the doorway 

 sill. 



With his cane to his chin. 

 The old man sat. and the chore-girl still 



Sung to the bees stealing out and in. 



And the song she was singing ever since 



in my ear soundson: 

 " Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence. 



Mistress Mary is dead and gone." 



—John Greenleaf Whittier 



A Summer Meeting of Beekeepers — 



In accordance with the action of the 

 beekeepers at the summer meeting held 

 at Hamilton, Illinois last year, the com- 

 mittee appointed has arranged for an- 

 other meeting to be held at Dubuque, 

 Iowa, on Aug. 1 and 2. It is to be 

 hoped that a permanent organization 

 of the beekeepers of the upper Miss- 

 issippi valley may be effected, and that 

 these valuable meetings may be con- 

 tinued. The Commercial Club of Du- 

 buque has promised royal entertain- 

 ment for all who attend. The meetings 



will be held in beautiful Union Park, 

 one of the beauty spots along the 

 Mississippi. If the weather is inclem- 

 ent the meetings will be held in the 

 park pavilion. 



These meetings are of vital impor- 

 tance to the beekeepers as they help to 

 attract public attention to the tise of 

 honey, in addition to the value of infor- 

 mation gained by the personal contact 

 of honey producers. Dubuque is a city 

 of several thousand population and a 

 honey market that has hardly been 

 touched. If more city meetings were 

 held so as to bring the use of honey 

 before the general public at home it 

 would not be long before tie demand 

 for honey would be doubled and 

 trebled. 



Every beekeeper who can possibly 

 make arrangements to attend this meet- 

 ing will gain much of value besides 

 having a royal good time. Come, bring 

 your wives and families and help make 

 this one of the best meetings ever held. 

 N. E. France, 

 A. L. KiLDOW, 

 C. E. Bartholomew, 



CoTnmi'ttee. 



Bee-F^eping ^ For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson. Mareneo. 111. 



Feeding 



We have only been keeping bees for 

 six years, so don't know much about it 

 yet. but we have increased the number 

 of our colonies from 34 to 237, and 

 have also added a second boy to the 

 family. We " weighed our bees in " last 

 fall as heavy as usual, but lost some by 

 breeding and starvation in the cellar, 

 and have had to feed extensively for 

 the first time this season. 



I intend to try some of Dr. Miller's 

 queens this year, if we don't have to 

 spend every spare penny for sugar. We 

 have tried to getsoiled sugar, but abso- 

 lutely without success. Have you any 

 sure place where you can get it ? About 

 the only bit of information I can give 

 is to those sister beekeepers who use 

 an Alexander or Ideal bee-veil, and 

 that is when the cloth parts of eit ler 

 become soiled it can be put in the tub 

 and washed. Use a brush to scrub the 

 top, and after drying the skirt it can be 

 ironed, but not the crown of the Alex- 

 ander. 



I enjoy reading Dr. Miller's con- 

 fessed mistakes and troubles in "Fifty 

 Years Among the Bees" as much as 

 the useful hints and bee lore. 



Florence A. Robinson. 



Pellston, Mich. 



More than ever, with the price of 

 sugar going skyward, it is important to 

 learn the lesson that we should make 

 our plans in advance to have on hand 

 each spring extra combs of sealed 

 honey, say two such combs for each 

 colony. Not only do we need such 

 combs as a safeguard against starving. 

 When the white-honey harvest opens, 

 before any honey is stored in the 



supers, the bees will fill all vacancies 

 in the brood-chamber. If, now, we 

 have saved up sealed combs from the 

 preceding year — and they may just as 

 well be of dark fall honey — we can put 

 them in the brood-chamber, and the 

 white honey will at once go into the 

 super. The result is that we swap just 

 so much dark honey for light. 



You are not likely to find soiled 

 sugar in ordinary groceries where 

 sugar is not handled on a large scale. 

 Sometimes you can get it from the 

 railroads, when a bag of sugar has 

 been spilled in a freight car; but your 

 best chance is with one of the big 

 houses that handle sugar on a large 

 scale, such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., or 

 Montgomery Ward & Co., in Chicago 



Honey Plants— Shipping Bees 



1. Is foxglove poisonous to bees ? Is 

 the honey from these flowers injuri- 

 ous either to bees or man ? 



2. Are the huckleberry, salmonberry, 

 thimbleberry (all grow wild here) and 

 shallot good bee-plants ? 



3. What area of clover, white, sweet, 

 and alsike is required to give a surplus 

 from one or two colonies ? 



4. In how many days journey will 

 bees come through alive, and what are 

 the best conditions for the hive to 

 stand a journey of say 15 days ? 



6. Would the following idea be any 

 improvement on the present type of 

 hive fitting: Instead of having a wood 

 and metal rabbet and self spacing 

 frames, to have a steel or iron rod on 

 which the end top-bars of the frames 

 could rest, the rod having '4 -inch pins 

 on it, and correct distances to space 



the frames, the rods to have a lever 

 handle at one end, and by raising the 

 handle the pins would be moved over, 

 leaving all frames in the hive hanging 

 loose; this would combine the advan- 

 tage of metal spaced frames and loose 

 hanging as required, and to prevent 

 the frames from moving slightly when 

 turned over, the underside of the 

 frames could be notched where it rests 

 on bars; the bars would have a screw 

 thread at each end to connect to out- 

 side handle on one side and nut on the 

 other side. This would simplify hive 

 making, as rabbets would not be nec- 

 essary. Lilian G. Bland. 

 Quatsino, B. C. 



1. There is probably no reason to 

 believe that foxglove honey is poison- 

 ous either for bees or people. 



2. Thimbleberry or raspberry is one 

 of the very best honey plants. Likely 

 salmonberry is good also, as that is the 

 name by which the white-flowering 

 raspberry is known in some places. 

 Huckleberry may be fairly good, al- 

 though it is doubtful if any great sur- 

 plus from it has ever been reported. 



3. Nobody knows. Perhaps an acre; 

 possibly a fourth of that. 



4. Different factors make much dif- 

 ference in the number of days travel a 

 colony can endure. Hot weather is 

 more unfavorable than cool; and a 

 ride on a boat would be very different 

 from one with much jarring. Under 

 favorable circumstances a journey of a 

 month might be none too long ; while 

 conditions might be so unfavorable 

 that a week would prove too long. To 

 stand a journey of 15 days the frames 

 should contain plenty of stores, yet 

 they should not be so heavy as to risk 

 breaking down ; there should be abun- 

 dant ventilation ; water should be con- 

 tained in sponges or otherwi>e, unless 

 water can be sprinkled upon the bees 

 at proper intervals ; and the hive should 

 be so placed that any jarring may be 

 received endwise and not sidewise. 

 Unless the combs are pretty old they 

 should be strengthened by wiring. This 

 is in reply to your question as to the 

 condition of the hive; yet nowadays 

 the tendency is toward shipping bees 

 in packages without combs, so of 

 course without hives, and that may be 

 the better way. 



5. It is not very safe to judge just 

 how well a thing would work with bees 

 until it has bad an actual trial; but it 

 is rather doubtful if your plan would 

 prove very satisfactory. 



A Beginner 



Last summer was my first experience 

 with bees. A neighbor gave me three 

 swarms; they were as late as June 30, 

 July 1 and 3. They seemed to do well 

 at first, but as I only had two hives (the 

 third in a box •with slats across). I ex- 

 amined the two other hives, which had 

 appeared in good shape. I found the 

 combs almost empty in one hive, and 

 the other swarm starved. 



The weather during that time was not 

 fit to gather honey, and not knowing 

 the bees were robbing, I had had the 

 entrance wide open. I now began to 

 feed syrup above the brood to the colo- 

 nies left, and I soon found out they 

 were still robbing the bees. I saved 

 them by feeding every evening until I 



