1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



381 



sunrise. The bees come afterwards 

 and gather what would otherwise be 

 lost ; for grapes that have been 

 l)ickcd by birds will not keep. 



"4. Even if bees could puncture 

 grapes and did so, an ordinance for- 

 l)idding the keeping of them within 

 city limits would be of no avail, for 

 bees can fly for a mile or more, and 

 usually fly half a mile i-n search of 

 food. 



"5. An ordinance forbidding the 

 keeping of bees within city limits 

 would be null and void. This has been 

 settled by the Supreme Court. 



"C. P. DADANT, 

 "Editor American Bee Journal." 



In reply to this letter, Mr. Voor- 

 hees very courteously explained that 

 this proposed ordinance which had 

 been discussed was suggested more 

 in joke than in earnest, and that no 

 ordinance would be passed. 



Beekeepers of the country, take 

 notice. Do not allow yourselves to 

 be worried by newspaper articles. 



Shipping Pound Packages 

 South for Winter 



By F. M. Baldwin. 



THE advisability of the Northern 

 beekeeper killing oS his bees 

 and selling the stores they 

 would consume in the winter and 

 stocking up with combless packages 

 from the south the next spring, has 

 been suggested. If that was worth 

 thinking about then why not con- 

 sider sending them to the south in 

 the fall to be wintered and let them 

 come back in May, or as early as 

 the shipper might find wise? They 

 can go both ways in combless pack- 

 ages, according to my thought. The 

 cost of sending them back and forth 

 by express would be less than the 

 honey that it would take to winter 

 them. Especially should that be true 

 this season. 



I would be glad to help on with 

 such an experiment, if I might. I 

 return to Sanford, Fla., from my 

 visit here in Virginia about Septem- 

 ber 15. October 1 we expect a fall 

 flow from goldenrod and wild sun- 

 flower. It is probably too late for 

 the experiment this year. But I 

 would be glad to furnish the hives 

 and pay the express on about a dozen 

 packages as an e.xperiment, provided 

 they could reach me early enough to 

 get the benefit of the fall flow. They 

 would need to build up on that and 

 store enough to carry them until wil- 

 low and maple came in January. I 

 would guarantee them to be returned 

 in good condition in the spring. I 

 meant to say above that I would pay 

 express one way. If the owner only 

 paid it one way and furnished the 

 cages he would winter his bees quite 

 cheaply. The trouble would be no 

 more than packing them for winter 

 in the north, I judge. The bees that 



were left in the hives in the north 

 after the packages were taken away 

 could be killed or bunched up with 

 the others to increase the fall surplus 

 if enough were still coming in to 

 make it worth while. 



Roanoke, Va. 



[Mr. F. M. Baldwin raises the ques- 

 tion whether it might not be a pay- 

 ing proposition for the Northern bee- 

 keeper in the fall to ship his bees 

 South in queenless packages, to be 

 returned in the same way in the 

 spring. Perhaps not many who have 

 practically entire success wintering 

 in the North would think it worth 

 while to kill off bees in the fall and 

 buy combless packages in the spring. 

 Yet there are many who do not have 

 entire success in wintering, and some 

 who make a practically entire failure 

 at it. For those beekeepers who are 

 certain of heavy winter losses it 

 would seem the wise thing to kill the 

 bees and save the honey rather than 

 to wait until the stores are used up 

 and have the bees die. 



Granted, then, that killing in the 

 fall and purchasing from the South 

 in the spring be decided upon, the 

 question arises whether it will not 

 pay the northerner to ship his bees 

 in the fall and save paying anything 

 for his bees in the spring. 



Even if the trouble of packing 

 should be enough to offset the cost of 

 bees in spring, there is yet another 

 item of some account. It is that by 

 the plan proposed by Mr. Baldwin 

 the sum total of bees in the country 

 would be more than in the case of 

 fall killing, and it is true in general 

 that there are not enough bees in the 

 country for the best welfare of the 

 nation. The matter seems worth con- 

 sidering. — C. C. M.] 



[Many years ago, when the busi- 

 ness of queen-rearing for sale was 

 just beginning, some people tried to 

 winter their nuclei and in some in- 

 stances succeeded quite well. There 

 was a great economy, if you kept 

 them in the cellar, over the wintering 

 of full colonies. One of the queen- 

 breeders advised every beekeeper to 

 reduce his colonies to nuclei for win- 

 ter, to save honey, and strengthen 

 them again in the spring. He must 

 have tried his own medicine that 

 winter, for he was never heard from 

 after that in the bee papers. 



i am very much afraid that the man 

 who will go to to the expense of 

 shipping his bees south every winter 

 to have them re-shipped to him in 

 tlie spring, for the sake of economy, 

 will soon conclude that it is mistaken 

 economy. But that would surely be 

 l^etter than killing one's bees in the 

 fall, to save honey and buying bees 

 by the pound the following spring, 

 expecting to make it as profitable as 

 the usual way. — C. P. D.] 



From a Tree," as it reminded me of 

 an experience 1 had a few summers 

 ago. 



I was sexton in a city whose ceme- 

 tery was a hill covered by natural 

 timber and infested with spotted 

 adders. One day I placed a small 

 paper bag containing a few ounces 

 of candy upon the plate under the 

 roof of our tool-house and left it 

 there for several weeks untouched. 



This was in the spring time and as 

 the season advanced and Decoration 

 Day approached, I was crowded with 

 work. One day, with my sleeves 

 rolled to the elbows, I rushed into the 

 tool-house after something. I do not 

 remember what, and placing my hand 

 against the wall near the plate where 

 I had put the candy, I was looking 

 Jjehind some planks which were piled 

 ne.xt to the wall upon the floor; when 

 I suddenly became aware that some- 

 thing was around my bare arm, and 

 instinctively jerking my hand away 

 from its resting place, the thing upon 

 my arm went down uoon the floor 

 with a thud. 



I was horrified to see a full-grown 

 spotted adder lying at my feet too 

 stunned to move. I was not long in 

 putting it out of business, but that 

 was my first knowledge that snakes 

 like sweets. The candy was gone, 

 though the bag was still there. 

 Hence, I would guess, in the case of 

 the South Dakota man, that the 

 snake coiled up in the hole where 

 bees were wont to dwell before the 

 coming of the intruder, was there for 

 honey, maybe for bees also, but cer- 

 tainly for honey. 



Antioch, 111. 



Snakes Like Sweets 



By E. L. Thompson. 



Dear Dr. Miller : 



Reading your answers to questions 

 in the August number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, I was greatly inter- 

 ested in No. 6 under "Taking Bees 



Honey- Yielding Flowers of 

 British Columbia 



By W. J. Sheppard. 



I AM endeavoring to make a list 

 of the flowers of British Colum- 

 bia, both indigenous and intro- 

 duced, that yield honey, with their 

 proper botanical designations, and 

 times of flowering. I find it some- 

 what difiicult to do this without be- 

 ing able to make a tour of the 

 Province, at the different seasons, for 

 the purpose. Subjoined is a list of 

 the native flora of the East and West 

 Kootenays, from which honey is 

 gathered by the bees, as far as at 

 present obtained, and the writer 

 would be glad to receive any infor- 

 mation from beekeepers, or others 

 interested, so as to add to it and 

 make it complete for the whole of 

 the Province. In course of time it 

 may be possible to tabulate the dif- 

 ferent species that appear to special- 

 ly flourish and are only to be found 

 in certain districts, as sometimes this 

 is very marked. It would then be 

 easier to distinguish the different 

 honeys produced in these districts, 

 and to classify or grade them, and 

 would al30 be a guide as to the best 

 locations for keeping bees. Take the 

 Snowberry, for instance, whose in- 

 significant looking little flowers the 

 bees are particularly partial to. In 

 this district of West Kootenay the 

 writer has seen but the one species 



