56 



1 *T^^<^^^ -^C 



February, 191. 



American Baa Joarnal 



infill liie board. 1 he deep liivecaps are 

 packed Willi cliaff. Last fall over some of 

 the holes I had propolized cloths; R colonies 

 so hNed smothered. The bees had broken 

 cluster and were scattered over the hive- 

 very large colonies, too. with jilenty of 

 honey, The combs were iced and frozen. 

 .No more sealed covers for me. 



1 hear of very heavy losses here. One man 

 witli ;H colonies has only 6 alive now. For 

 one thint', the honey here is very bad. There 

 was lots of honeydew last year. and. of 

 course, theeffectsof that will come later on. 

 but It is snowins; now, and there is so much 

 snow around it's too cold fora good Hight, I 

 hate to write so discouragingly, but every 

 bit of white clover is killed here. Well, 

 white clover always comes back, and I look 

 for a good year 111 ivn. We must take the 

 bad with the good in this life, and be thank- 

 ful for it might be much worse. 



Marceline. Mo. Irving E. Long. 



Early Swarming in California 



What do you think of bees swarmingon 

 the 23d of January? .^i bee-keeper of San 

 Rafael. Calif., asks why the bees should 

 swarm with a few eegs.no larvje, or sealed 

 brood, and just a little store of honey The 

 writer had to " fess up." it was too much for 

 li I m . 



We have had some fine rains, and hope 

 ihe entire State has been having the same 

 kind of rainfall, as some of the bee-keepers 

 are beginnini: to fear a poor season, etc. 

 We had two spells of hail, and only for a 

 few moments, but no damage. We also had 

 two distinct crashes of lightning with the 

 lollowing of severe and deep thunder-a 

 very unusual proceeding in this section of 

 the country: to my knowledge this is the 

 4th electrical storm since September 1008 

 .N'ot many, is it? And the natives prefer 

 earthquakes to cyclones or thunder-storms 

 any time. 



The bees are bringine; in plenty of pollen 

 and as the almond trees will soon be in 

 bloom, the season for some early honey will 

 be at hand. With early feeding it would be 

 an easy matter to have some nice section 

 honey by the middle of March. 



The hyacinths, crocuses, tulips and lilies 

 are all put: in fact, we could have the calla 

 Illy to bloom all the year around, with a lit- 

 tle extra care and attention, 



„ , , „ ,., , J. C. Froih.igek. 



Berkeley. Calif.. Jan. 26. 



An Encouraging Canadian Report 



The past summer has been a rather poor 

 one in this part of Ontario. The weather 

 was too hot and dry for the honey-plants to 

 yield much honey. I had 10 colonies to start 

 with in the springof I'ju. They stored about 

 .soo pounds of surplus honey, about 100 sec- 

 tions of comb, and the rest of it extracted 

 besides 7 new colonies as an increase, i 

 had only 2 natural swarms. Two of my best 

 colonies stored 120 pounds of surplus honey. 

 I had all the honey sold before Christmas 

 1 sold over $20 worth of honey this year 

 around home. Before I started bee-keeping 

 I don t think there was one dollar's worth 

 consumed around here. I sold $i worth to a 

 lady who keeps a little country store about 

 a mile from our place. She had some honey 

 to sell before she got mine, but she couldn't 

 sell it. so that made it very difficult for me 

 to persuade lier to take mine, but at last I 

 told her if she couldn't sell it in a reason- 

 able length of time I would take it back, so 

 she took It and sold it in a short time. 



This year I put my honev in flint-glass jars 

 with metal screw tops. I used two sizes; 

 one liolds ^4 pound, and the other i',i pounds 

 When these are put up with a neat label 

 they look very tempting, and sell like hot- 

 cakes. 



I use some full-depth Langstroth hives 

 and some divisible ones, and I hardly know 

 which IS the better. My hives are all single- 

 w-allec . but Im going to make some chaff 

 ones this winter. I have 20 colonies packed 

 in winter uuarters. This is the way I pack 

 them : 



About the last of September I look through 

 the colonies and see that each one is strong 

 in bees, and has about 35 or 40 pounds of 

 good honey or syrup. Then about two weeks 

 later I go to one end of the row of hives and 

 take off tlie cover and quilt and lay sticks 

 10 inches long and ;i inch square, over the 

 tops of the frames: then lay 2 or 3 thick- 

 nesses of Ijurlap 16x20 inches over, and piu 

 on a full-denth super, and fill it nearly full 

 ot chatt. 1 then put on the cover and wrap 

 the hives, sides and tops, with tar-paper, 

 one ply thick, and fasten it with laths and 



.small nails. I leave the entrance ux^ inch. 

 I hnd this a very satisfactory way of winter- 

 ing bees. I remove the packing about the 

 first of May. 



I owe a good deal of my success to the 

 .•\mencan Bee Journal, and wish it every 

 success. K. R. Victor Tii'pktt. 



Quays. Ont., Jan. 11. 



Cool Weather in California 



We are having extremely cool weather 

 here this winter, the coldest for many years, 

 and no rain to amount to anything as yet. 



,. , „ ,., „ -M. H, Mkndi.eson. 



\ entura, Calif,. Dec. 30. 



Buckwheat Yield— Cyprian-Carniolan 



Bees 

 In the .American Bee Journal for Decem- 

 ber. iQii. on page 35«. there is a difference 

 mentioned as to nectar in buckwheat. Its 

 yield IS all day if the sun does not shine 



lake a hot. cloudy day and. the bees will 

 gather through the day. I lived on a farm 

 from i86.i to I8.J7. We had a field of g acres 

 so that the snow-water would fill every 

 spring in half of this field. So we would sow 

 It to buckwheat. About i(i7=-6 we had this 



ot all in buckwheat. When in bloom we 

 had 3 days of cloudy, hot weather, and the 

 bees worked from morning until dark. But 

 when the sun began to shine again you 

 could not see a bee after <j to II o'clock a.m. 

 I never saw bees filled so heavy with nectar 

 as in those 3 days. We could smell it 50 feet 

 from the hives. 



Late in September. 1000, I bought a Cyp- 

 nan queen, but it turnedout to beaCyprian- 

 Carniolan, I did not see any drones or 

 workers until May 20th, then there were 

 dfories by the thousand— two drones to one 

 worker, f he workers had 2 narrow bands 

 drones were dark gray on the upper side of 

 the abdomen, but a little yellow under. The 

 last day of June she came out with a prime 

 swarm; on the Sth and icth of liilv the sec- 

 ond and third swarms: on the 20th of Au- 

 gust, from hive ID with ist, 2d, and 3d swarms 

 and did not fill one section of honey for my- 

 self. In loio and igii the old queen led a 

 swarm, I hived them in hive No. 11 on dry 

 comb, but not one section of honey did I get, 

 .■\ll they are good for is drone-laying work- 

 ers and drones. Here is a list of drones 

 caught in cages in 6 days: 



Hive No. 15-117, 144. 225. 260. 315: total. io6i. 



Hive No. II— 308, 400, 500. 370,165.467; total. 

 2210. 



They arc great to rob: have been robbing 

 all summer— not a day but what thev can be 

 seen around other hives. IC. Tuckfr 



Bergen. N. Y. 



Stimulative Feeding 



In July. lull, at my last extracting I found 

 on a comb in a super a vt-rv fine capped 

 queen-cell. I then went to 2 very strong 

 colonies and took from each a frame con- 

 taining mostly larva' and sealed brood, and 

 put them above in the same colony about 10 

 a.m.. and left them there until 2 p.m.. so as 

 to get them covered with nurse-bees while 

 the fielders were busy. 



I then went to another vigorous colony 

 put a queen-excluder over the brood-cham- 

 ber, and after taking \ frames from its super 

 I put in the 2 frames of larva; and sealed 

 brood, also one frame with a queen-cell 

 thereby getting the heat of the colony 

 below. In a few days I had as fine a 

 queen as I ever saw. the attendants being 

 mostly young bees that knew no other 

 mother, and would stay with her. I put the 

 3 frames with 2 frames of honey and filled 

 the balance of the space in a hive-body and 

 set it on a new stand. In due time she look 

 to business in Roosevelt style! 



In September, the honey-How being over 

 she quit laying, and I then put under an 

 Alexander feeder: then true totheir natural 

 instinct they stored all around the brood- 

 nest to have it handy next winter. 

 _ Oni' night I lay awake stiidving a way to 



turn the trick. ' During the day I had put 

 some honey-washings in an old coffee-can. 

 In the morning I found the can turned over 

 and slowly leaking, and then said to myself- 



I have to put the lid on tight and punch in 

 a few holes and insert it over the brood- 

 nest." I awaited results, which came in a 

 small stream out of the front of the hive 

 Defeat No. i. I kept on punching can lids 

 until I had one with so small holes that it 

 dropped only 30 times in a minute. With 

 this source of supply they had 110 sweets to 

 store, bin the queen took it for granted that 



another honey-flow was on and resumed 

 laying, there being an empty frame in the 

 super. One morning, wli.-n feeding, I found 



2 bits of comb started, I kept on feeding 

 sweetened water, and the bees continued to 

 work, and soon the whole frame was filled 

 with sealed brood. Together we played the 

 game through October and .November when 

 1 became tired, and then there was "nothing 

 doing. I Ins is one way to rear bees in 

 Sunny California. 



.'\s an experiment in November. I selected 



3 colonies as nearly alike as possible in 

 stores, number of bees, and othertvise-Nos 

 15.41 and 4j. At that time none of theni 

 were laying, but in 8 days the fed ones (i--, 

 and 43 had eggs in 3 frames. Here in early 

 March bees gather pollen from the willows, 

 and April ist I will commence stimulative 

 teeding of the 2 colonies, then compare their 

 condition with No. 41. .Many claim that 

 stimulated feeding is a waste of bee-energy 

 Here our honey-How usually begins about 

 .viay 25tfi. and lasts from 4 to 6 weeks, ac- 

 cording to the season, .^ibout April isth I 

 wish to feed so as to get the queen "on to 

 her job, and have the hive boilingover with 

 bees at the beginning of the honey-flow. If 

 no feeding is done, and the weather is cold 

 and wet. they will not build up much until 

 the honey-How is on. hrom the beginning 

 of the queen laying to the hatching of bees. 

 21 days, and if nurse-bees. 15 days longer. 

 How long have they to go a-field before the 

 honey-flow is over ? Then I have a hive full 

 ot Ijees to consume what little nectar the 

 old bees have stored. Is not this good logic > 



If my experience will be of anv interest I 

 will keep notes and report results at the 

 close of the next season. E. I'. St John 



Descanso. Calif., Dec. 20. 



Drones Mating with Young Queens 



.. I think TW'. Livingston, of Leslie. Ga.. is 

 at sea about drones mating with young 

 queens. Let me say what I have seen in mv 

 bee-yard. I do not write about so-called 

 Italian bees, as they are of two distinct 

 races. 1 have never seen any Italian queens 

 but their drone progeny always varied from 

 2 bands to a black drone. Where is the 

 queen-breeder that can breed queens that 

 will bring forth all 3-banded drones and 

 workers, not black drones ? It can not be 

 done. Do breeders take a black rooster to 

 rear a strain of white chickens ? .No- I 

 know it can not be done. 



Adel. or yellow Carniolan bees. I have 

 ored since 1502— the best bee I have had. I 

 will describe a pure breeding queen of the 

 Adel; She IS yellow, and the abdomens of 

 lier workers and drones are pure yellow- 

 without any black edges on the segments of 

 the abdomen. To prove she is pure we will 

 breed 12 young queens from her worker- 

 eggs. If those 12 young queens' drones are 

 as yellow as the mother queen, she is pure 

 1 hose 12 young queens have mated, and 

 mine have mated with pure drones, and 

 their drones and workers are marked as the 

 mother queen's drones and workers, pure 

 yellow to tip. without any black edges on 

 the segments of the abdomen. 



Three of those 12 queens were mismated. 

 one with a black drone. The workers vary 

 in color from a bright yellow to a black 

 worker, but her drones are yellow and pure 

 as the mother queen's. Suppose you allow 

 this queen to lead a prime swarm. Her 

 drones are pure wherever she goes. But 

 her young queens, drones and workers will 

 be yellow and black. The other 2 queens 

 have mated with mongrel drones. There 

 will be all colors or shades, but no blacks. 

 Don t allow any young queens to live of 

 those hybrid queens. This is where we get 

 our mixed stock. If you have a pure motlier- 

 iiueeii. as I have described: rear young 

 queens regardless of what drone they may 

 mate with. Their drones are pure, so every 

 colony you give a yellow queen to. your stock 

 IS yellow drones. When you give each col- 

 ony a yellow queen, and h:ive yellow drones 

 Hying, go over with pure stock, and cull 

 every queen that is not up to the standard. 

 New York State, H B .Man 



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