September, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal 



known in this part of the State, cold, 

 windy and frosty. The first crop of 

 alfalfa was nearly all ruined. Bees ran 

 short of stores and feeding had to be 

 kept up until the last of May, and I fed 

 some yards until late in June, but on 

 July 1 some nectar started, and at pres- 

 ent (July 22) there is a fair flow of 

 alfalfa and sweet clover, some white 

 and red clover. 



The cool spring and scattering clouds 

 had caught so many field bees out that 

 it gave the worst " spring dwindling" 

 I ever experienced in 30 years of bee- 

 work, and now many colonies are not 

 yet strong, to say nothing about 75 

 colonies that died. I only know of one 

 way that I could have saved them, and 

 that would have been to clip their 

 wings so they could not leave in search 

 of honey or pollen. 



Say, brothers, if you "evolute" a 

 good variety of wingless honey bees to 

 use to keep up the " spring count" on 

 colonies, so as to stop this everlastiiig 

 spring dwindling, let me know and I 

 will send you an advance order for 200 

 of the queens. 



If the balance of the season runs as 

 it has for the past two weeks, northern, 

 and extreme northern, California will 

 produce about 60 percent of a normal 

 crop. 



HANDY HIVE TOOL. 



Among the many hive tools I have 

 used is a pocket knife, butcher knife, 

 case knife, corn knife, hatchet, hand ax, 

 planer blade, broken seat spring, screw 

 driver, wood chisel, sheep shear blade, 

 putty knife, and several varieties of 

 home-made and standard factory-made 

 hive tools, but the best all-around hive 

 tool I have yet found is a brick mason's 

 trowel with about one-third of the 

 blade cut off, leaving it about five sided ; 

 that is, what is left is five sided, and 

 grind it sharp. It is just the thing to 

 open hives, pry off cleats, scrape wax 

 off from the tops of frames, scrape out 

 hives, wax and dirt ofT floor after ex- 

 tracting, cut caps out of cans, and if 

 you wish, turn your flap jacks with 

 when in camp at outyards, as well as to 

 pry out frames in the hives. They are 

 all steel, hold edge well, and have a 

 good round end handle that doesn't 

 hurt the hand. Try one. 



Montague, Calif. 



No. 20.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



{Photoeraphs bv the author.) 



FOR years past there has been an oc- 

 casional mention of spruce honey 

 or of bees working on spruce in 

 our beekeeping literature. As far as 

 the writer has been able to ascertain 

 this is true only of the Norway spruce. 

 Picea abies. Since the Norway spruce 

 is not a native to this country, it is sel- 

 dom found in considerable numbers 

 except in the vicinity of cities where it 

 is planted trcely for ornament. (Fig. 

 86-87.) 



It was at the Ontario Agricultural 

 College at Guelph that the writer first 

 saw the bees working on spruce to any 

 extent. It was about June 12, and the 

 bees were humming through these 



trees in large numbers. There are 

 hundreds of these trees about the col- 

 lege grounds, and considerable honey- 

 dew seemed to be coming to the col- 

 lege apiary from this source. Honey- 

 dew is seldom desirable, as it is usually 

 of poor quality and only serves to spoil 

 the quality of good honey. However, 

 this spruce honeydew seemed to be of 

 rather better quality than is generally 

 the case with honeydew,and, as it came 

 ahead of the clover flow, was probably 

 nearly all consumed for brood rearing. 



Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, the Dominion 

 apiarist of Ottawa, was present at the 

 college where he was giving lectures 

 at the summer school. He, together 

 with the writer, took much interest in 

 the spruce. For a time we were puz- 

 zled to know whether the bees were 

 getting an exudation of sap from the 

 tree, or were in fact getting honeydew. 

 They were working on what appeared 

 at first sight to be buds at the base of 

 the new growth, but which under the 

 microscope proved to be scale insects. 



Mr. Sladen took the matter up with 

 the entomological department of the 

 college and the insect was identified as 

 Physokerm.es ficea. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 

 Copyright: 1916. by Frank C. Pellett. 



Beekeeping as a Prison Industry 



BY 0. !I. L. WERNK.Ki:. 



BEEKEEPING as a prison industry 

 within my knowledge affords no 

 precedent beyond the experiments 

 now being undertaken by Warden Na- 

 than F. Simpson, of the Michigan State 

 Prison at Jackson, under the supervi- 

 sion of the Board of Control, of which 

 the -writer is chairman. 



Until 1911, Jackson Prison with 700 

 inmates, was conducted under the so- 

 called "contract system" in making 

 sundry products, including chairs, small 

 implernents and other things, with the 

 exception of about 100 men employed 

 in the manufacture of binder twine on 

 State account, authorized by the leg- 

 islature in 1907. 



In 1909 the legislature passed an act 

 prohibiting further contract industry 

 with the expiration of then existing 

 agreements and requiring the employ- 

 ment of all inmates on State account 

 thereafter. 



Under the old system the contrac- 

 tors paid the State so much per inmate 

 and obligated themselves to employ a 

 given number for a definite period. In 

 the nature of the case this plan re- 

 solved itself into a matter of exploiting 



FIG. 87.-A CLUMP OF NORWAY SPRUCE ON THE GROUNDS OF ONTARIO 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



