December, 1915. 



American IB^e Journal 



423 



out layinir, and then went to laying all right, 

 although in some cases laying only a few 

 egk'S and being superseded. 



Melheglin 



Please give me directions for making me- 

 tlieglin or honey mead. Arkansas. 



Answer.— Krom 154 to 2 pounds of honey 

 to a gallon of water, with some grape juice 

 or apple juice in small quantity to starl fer- 

 mentation, with the temperature at 70 de- 

 grees or more It must be kept well covered 

 and yet the gases must be allowed to es- 

 cape. If air is allowed freely to it. it will 

 soon turn to vinegar and make excellent . 

 vinegar.— Editor. 



Wintering Oul-of-Doors 



I am preparing to winter the bees out-of- 

 doors. The question arises, will the bees be 

 smothered in case the snow drifts over the 

 hive entrances ? One neighbor beekeeper 

 tells me he thinks not. Another says tnat 

 the entrances should be kept free from 

 snow or the bees will be smothered. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer.— Bees have wintered well in 

 some cases when buried in snow, and very 

 poorly in other cases. Sometimes when 

 buried deep a space melts about the hive, 

 leaving the bees with good air anti in good 

 condition, yet sometimes brood-rearing 

 starts and the bees come out in bad shape. 

 Where buried lightly, snow may fill the en- 

 trance in a sort of slush and freeze solid, 

 resulting disastrously if the entrance be not 

 opened. So you see your informants may all 

 be right. 



Reports And ^ Experiences 



October Swarm 



I have several times read of September 

 swarms. I found a swarm hanging in a tree 

 Oct. 18. I put it in a hive with frames of 

 comb, one frame full of honey and a super 

 partially filled. The bees are doing fine, 

 although I have failed so far to find any eggs. 

 They have a queen, but I don't know 

 whether she is fertile. J. H. Warren. 



Elliott. Iowa. Oct. 24. 



Ton of Comb-Honey from 56 Colonies 



The season has been the worst in a long 

 time in this locality, but I think my bees 

 have done fairly well considering the sea- 

 son. I have about a ton of comb-honey from 

 56 colonies, spring count. I also had a little 

 foulbrood (European), but I think I have 

 cleaned it up. partly by the dequeening 

 method and requeening with Italian queens. 

 The worst cases 1 shook and then requeened 

 them. 



I have mostly Italians and hybrids, and 

 have also introduced a few Caucasians and 

 Carniolans to try them. Joseph Cook. 



Watertown, N. Y.. Oct. g. 



late as Oct. 20. Bees were flying freely after 

 all bloom was long gone, and 1 have never 

 had colonies come through so uniformly 

 strong and prosperous. 



My belief agrees with your " impression 

 that the main reason why ' aster honey is 

 bad food for winter.' is that it is harvested 

 so late that much of it remains unsealed 

 "and unripened. 



I regard that feature of the fall flow as a 

 handicap, and as making a fall flow less de- 

 sirable. 



This fall was so wet, dark and cold during 

 aster bloom that the bees got practically 

 none of it, as it was gone when the weather 

 cleared. The result is rather scanty stores. 



New .Jersey. Doctor Smoker. 



Aster Honey 



I'he fall of igi3 was rainy and chilly about 

 the close of the aster bloom, so that the late 

 gathered honey from all sources was not 

 well ripened. I had to provide a tank with 

 heat under it to ripen the honey which I had 

 to sell. 



In the spring two of a dozen colonies were 

 dead I was not able to determine posi- 

 tively what was the real cause, but there 

 was that coincidence — unripened aster 

 stores and two lost. 



The fall of 1914 was very dry for weeks, 

 and warm. I found brood in every hive as 



Two 8-Frame Stories for 'Wintering 



The enclosed pf. olograph is a view of my 

 apiary, and was taken just after the supers 

 were removed and the extra hive-body was 

 added for winter. For the past few winters 

 I have practiced giving some extra combs 

 which I place in an extra hive-body and 

 place this body on the bottom-board with 

 the brood-nest on top. My method has been 

 so satisfactory and so easy of manipulation 

 that possibly some other amateur beekeep- 

 ers may be benefitted by my experience. 



After removing the comb supers and 

 about the time the queens cease laying. I 

 give two or four frames of honey (I use Hoff- 

 man frames) to each colony. E. H. Upson. 



Ubee. Ind. 



My Bees Wintered Well the Past Two 

 Winters 



My bees wintered well in igia and 1014. so 

 they were in fine condition for the har- 

 vest when it came. I harvested 6000 pounds 

 of extracted honey from 120 colonies, which 

 was good enough for a poor season. I always 



leave plenty of honey in the hives to make 

 the bees feel rich in spring. 



Plenty of bees, plenty of honey and a 

 young queen, with a warm hive and a shel- 

 tered location make the bees get there for 

 the honey harvest Otto Banker. 



Sleepy Eye. Minn. 



Heat Treatment for Stings 



Kor treatingstings I have found my smoker 

 quite handy. Rub the sting off and apply 

 the smoker as close as possible without 

 burning. A match will have the same effect. 

 Remove the sting and hold the burning 

 match as close as possible. This heat treat- 

 ment I have found to be the best cure for 



^'iPi^^-u „ , . , H, E. Myers. 



North Yakima. Wash. 



Fertilized Queens Going Back to the 

 Right Hive 



With my 4 colony cases, I have been un- 

 able to have queens fertilized and go back 

 to the right hive until I tried pasting differ- 

 ent colored paper on the doorsill. so Miss 

 Virgin could remember the color of the car- 

 pet to cross before reaching home. 



The first amendment is. lay a stick at right 

 angle near the entrance, as a guide. It 

 worked well in my locality. Possibly this 

 may be the//«Mon modesof queen introduc- 

 tion. F, F.George. 



rraser, Idaho. 



High Pressure Beekeeping 



The DeSoto Argus tells that Wm. Bates, 

 of that village, has made quite a reputation 

 for himself as a bee culturist this season. 

 Restarted out last spring with but 7 colo- 

 nies of the busy little honey makers, and to- 

 day has an increase of 50 colonies. 



Mr. C. C. Bishop was in from Retreat on 

 Friday making a delivery of honey to George 

 Sweger. He kept strict account of the work 

 of lo colonies for to days, and the product of 

 extracted honey amounted to just $100, or 

 one dollar a day for each co\ony.— I iroi/iia 

 ;Wis.) Censor. 



Fair Season, But a Dry and Hot Summer 



We had a fair season notwithstanding our 

 exceedingly dry and hot summer. Bees are 

 still storing honey from aster. Goidenrod is 

 about over. Four-frame nuclei, of which we 

 will winter 400 stocked with young queens, 

 mostly of September rearing, will begin the 

 winter with four frames nearly solid with 

 stores of their own gathering. 



J. W. K. Shaw & Co. 



Loreauville La.. Nov. 5. 



Fine Fall Honey 



We produced 3000 sections and ro.ouo 

 pounds of extracted honey this season, and 

 bees are in fine shape for winter. Our fall 

 honey, mostly from heartsease, is as white 

 as clover. I can't understand it. It is very 

 mild in flavor. The finest fall honey 1 ever 

 produced. W. S. Pangburn. 



Center Junction. Iowa, Nov. 10. 



Lesser Beemoth or Brood-Worm 



In answer to a question asked by " Rhode 

 Island" about the lesser beemoth (I call it 

 the brood-moth). I guess it is the greatest 

 pest the southern queen-breeder has to 

 contend with. 



This worm will get so well established 

 that sometimes it will cause good average 

 colonies to swarm out. The fly is very 

 small, and is usually found in the bottom of 

 the nuclei. They are worse in south Texas 

 than anywhere 1 have ever kept bees. 



Buffalo. Tex . Nov. 4. C. B Bankston. 



APIARY OF MR. J. COOKE. WATERTOWN. N. Y. 



The Honey Market — A Lion and a Match 



Our friend. M. H. Mendleson. of Califor- 

 nia, has given on page 333, the exact condi- 

 tion of the honey market in Arizona. I agree 

 that organization with representation to see 

 that duty is again placed on foreign honey is 

 the only thing that can save us financially. 

 But what shall we do with honey already on 

 hand ? 



There are plenty of beekeepers who are 

 not salesmen, and they must either sell be- 

 low cost or drum up home trade. 



I have lately disposed of about !> tons of 



