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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



cleared off. Oh me ! O.i my ! Queen 

 and bees were dead, starved to death. 

 They had eaten all their honey, but 

 the syrup they had not touched. Why, 

 Oh why? Didn't they know enough 

 to crawl into the mouth of that feed- 

 er, where was food a plenty ready for 

 them? Next time I try that trick I 

 will look at them every day, if it rains 

 pitchforks, tines down, and I will 

 smell up that syrup with peppermint 

 or anise, or something, so that they 

 will know it is there. 



My bees did not swarm, owing, I 

 think, to removing frames for new 

 queens. They did i.o great things, 

 but like the old fellow's maple sugar, 

 they made "enough to sell and some 

 to keep," and they went into the cel- 

 lar looking good. 



JEAN WHITE. 



Feeding Box Hives — Transferring 



I have two colonies of bees in hives 

 which have just starters in the sec- 

 tions and the combs are built crook- 

 ed. What means would you advise 

 me to use in feeding for winter? I 

 expect to transfer them as soon as 

 advisable to hives which have the full 

 sheet of foundation. When would be 

 the best time for this? 



Mrs. W. R. 



The first question is whether your 

 bees will need feeding for winter. 

 Even though they may have gathered 

 little or nothing from white clover 

 or other early sources — which is the 

 case in many places — it is possible 

 that the fall flow may be enough to 

 supply sufficient winter stores, if, in- 

 deed, it gives no surplus. 



It is possible, however, that you are 

 in a location where there is generally 

 no fall flow to speak of, and in that 

 case it may be well for you to feed 

 without waiting. Nothing is better 



than good honey to feed, but prob- 

 ably you haven't that. If you feed 

 during the first part of September 

 you can feed a syrup of equal parts 

 ot granulated sugar and water. No 

 need to cook it; just stir it into the 

 water till it is dissolved; only it will 

 dissolve more quickly in hot water. 

 If you wait till about the time bees 

 stop flying, the syrup must be made 

 strong, 5 pints or pounds of sugar to 

 2 pints or pounds of water, and to 

 dissolve so thick a syrup it will be 

 well for you to have the water hot or 

 boiling on the stove and stir the 

 sugar into it slowly, being sure not to 

 scorch it, for burnt syrup is death to 

 bees in winter. There is danger that 

 so heavy a syrup may granulate, and 

 to prevent this you may add an even 

 teaspoonful of tartaric acid to each 

 20 pounds of sugar. Dissolve the acid 

 in a little cold water and stir it into 

 the syrup just before or after taking 

 it off the stove. 



Any good bee-feeder may be used, 

 but if you don"t happen to have any, 

 you can use the crock-and-plate 

 method. A one-gallon crock is a good 

 size, 'although any size will answer. 

 Put the syrup in the crock, lay over it 

 a piece of heavy woolen cloth, or else 

 5 or 6 thicknesses of cheese-cloth, 

 and over this lay a common plate up- 

 side down; then with one hand under 

 the crock and the other over the 

 plate quickly turn the whole thing 

 upside down. Set your feeder on 

 top of the top-bars, set over it an 

 empty hive-body, and cover up bee- 

 tight. If you feed early there is no 

 need to dissolve the sugar. Just put 

 dry sugar into the crock and then 

 pour in the water. 



It may be well to wait till the col- 

 ony swarms next year before trans- 

 ferring. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



The Boys' Working Reserve. — 



There has been organized under the 

 Department of Labor, a boys' work- 

 ing reserve, the object being to urge 

 boys under military age in the larger 

 cities and smaller towns to come 

 to the aid of the farmer and replace 

 as far as possible the men called to 

 training. There are nearly three mil- 

 lion such boys, and if their entire 

 help can be thrown in after school is 

 out in the spring and until school re- 

 opens in the fall, they will help enor- 

 mously. 



Apiary work is admirably suited to 

 just such boys. The bulk of the work 

 comes at a time when the school boy 

 is available. Every beekeeper should 

 endeavor, if he needs help during the 

 coming season, to help make a suc- 

 cess of the Boys' Working Reserve. 



Minnesota, Dec. 4 and 5. 

 Iowa, Dec. 4 and 5. 

 Wisconsin, Dec. 6 and 7. 

 Northeastern Kansas Dec. 7 and 8. 

 Ontario, Dec. 11, 12 and 13. 



Order Supplies Now. — A recent bul- 

 letin of the Bureau of Food Admin- 

 istration has the above for its title. 

 It says : "Prices are lower now than 

 they will be later in the season, and 

 bankers will usually be glad to ad- 

 vance money if asked to do so. Ev- 

 ery carload of farm supplies shipped 

 now will help to relieve freight con- 

 gestion next spring. We can help 

 ourselves and our country by buying 

 now." 



Bee Conventions. — The following is 

 a list of bee meetings to be held dur- 

 ing December: 



Chicago-Northwestern, Nov. 30 and 

 Dec. 1. 



How is the Apple Crop? — Some re- 

 ports coming in from beekeepers es- 

 timated the apple crop as far larger 

 than last season, such reporters ex- 

 pecting, therefore, that honey would 

 drop in price, owing to decreasing 

 demand. It is true that in the whole 

 of the West, the apple crop has been 



better than last year. This is off- 

 set, however, by the decrease in the 

 Eastern crop. New York, last year 

 produced about a third of the apple.i 

 of the whole country. She finds her- 

 self short this year over 3,000,000 bar- 

 rels of the 1915 crop, or 57 per cent 

 less. It is estimated that the total 

 crop of the country will hardly be in 

 e-xcess of 1916. Even were it greater, 

 there is hardly room to prophesy 

 that honey would drop as a conse- 

 quence. There is a big demand for 

 honey for foreign shipment, which 

 will more than offset any slackeninjr 

 of the home demand. 



Beekeeping in North Carolina. — 



Bruce Anderson, county agent at 

 Winston-Salem, N. C, is not asleep 

 on his job of getting his beekeepers 

 to become beekeepers and not keep- 

 ers of bee "gums." With this end in 

 view he has just sent out to members 

 of his "Bee Club" a circular letter 

 urging that all colonies be trans- 

 ferred during 1918 into movable- 

 frame hives. He proceeds then to 

 give the results obtained by a few of 

 his members who did transfer during 

 1917 and introduced Italian stock. 



Mr. Anderson also gives directions 

 for preparing bees for winter. Pack- 

 ing over the cluster is suggested. 



North Carolina had an excellent 

 crop in 1917, following a failure ^n 

 1916. 



New York State Meeting. — The 



regular annual meeting of the New 

 York State Association of Beekeep- 

 ers' Societies will be held at Syra- 

 cuse, N. Y., on December 4 and 5. 

 F. GREINER, Sec'y. 



At the Zoo. — At the park. "Where 

 are the monkeys?" 



"The monkeys? We have no mon- 

 keys." _^ 



"But," showing a paper, "it says 

 here that the Park Committee has es- 

 tablished a model 'apiary.' " — British 

 Bee Journal. 



Missouri Meeting. — The Missouri 

 beekeepers will meet at Columb'^i, in 

 the rooms of the Department of En- 

 tomology, during Farmers' Week, be- 

 ginning January 14 and ending Janu- 

 ary 18. The beekeepers days will be 

 Wednesday and Thursday, the 16th 

 and 17th. The editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal has promised a pa- 

 per on "Commercial Beekeeping." 

 For information write to Dr. L. 

 Haseman, Entomologist, Columbia, 

 Mo. 



Kootenay and British Columbia. — 



Mr. W. J. Sheppard, Secretary of the 

 Kootenay Beekeepers' Association, 

 publishes a 4-page report, showing 

 very favorable crops, and announces 

 that the Kootenay Association is 

 planning to amalgamate with the 

 Beekeepers' Association of British 

 Columbia. The members of both 

 these associations buy queens and 

 bees by the pound in the United 

 States. Mr. Sheppard's address is 

 Nelson, B. C. 



The New Jersey Fair. — The New 



Jersey Beekeepers' Association, with 

 some assistance from the New Jersey 



