December, 1912. 



367 



American l^e Journal 



tions in an effort to locate that virgin 

 queen, I became disgusted and decided 

 to let them take their chance and 

 double them with one of the weak 

 colonies brought home. The colony 

 that was queenless acted in the usual 

 manner, and all united peaceably, the 

 queen being noticed when I removed 

 the combs out of the top story later on. 

 As for the other colony with the vir- 

 gin queen, they simply butchered every 

 bee that was in the colony united with 

 it. Both colonies were treated at the 

 same time under exact conditions, but 

 what a difference ! 



The fact of the virgin queen being 

 present must explain the difference, 

 but I will own that I i-x/'ii/td the virgin 

 to disappear and the fertile queen to be 

 accepted in her place, and as for the 

 fate of the bees being introduced, I 

 was s/tri- they would be all right. So 

 much for expectation as compared with 

 realization, and while Ian not worry- 

 ing much about the fate of the bees, I 

 certainly would like to know why they 

 were all killed in such a ruthless man- 

 ner. 



^-•-^ 



A Good Flight Before Winter 



Monday, Nov. 11, the bees had a glori- 

 ous flight, the day being warm and calm, 

 with a slightly smoky horizon — typical 

 of the weather commonly designated 

 '■ Indian summer." No doubt many cel- 

 lar winterers will place the bees in win- 

 ter quarters just as soon as the weather 

 turns cool again, as it is always advis- 

 able to take them in as soon as possi- 

 ble after they have had a good flight — 

 any time after Nov. 10 in this latitude. 



Bees wintering on the summer 

 stands will also profit by the nice 

 flight, although many of us, no doubt, 

 would like to see them have another 

 flight later in the month, or even the 

 early part of December. Given a flight 

 at that latter date, personally, I would 

 just as soon see them shut in for 

 three months without a flight, as ex- 

 perience has proven that with good 

 stores a confinement of that length 

 does no harm. Indeed, they are often 

 without a flight four months and longer 

 in this latitude ; and, generally speak- 

 ing, wintering is not to be dreaded 

 even if those conditions prevail, pro- 

 vided the bees have an abundance of 

 good stores, and have a good cleansing 

 flight late in November. 



Late Feeding 



By the time these notes are in print, 

 work with the bees for a few months 

 will be a thing of the past. When the 

 first snow comes, it is advisable to 

 carefully look around the hives for the 

 tracks of the deer mice who like to be 

 domiciled for cold weather over the 

 top of the bees, snugly wrapped in the 

 nests made in the packing. If any are 

 in evidence, and you find the hives 

 they are in, instead of rousing up the 

 colony too much in a chase after the 

 mice, better quietly place a few traps 

 in the packing and dispose of them in 

 that way. 



If for any reason some of the colo- 

 nies have not been properly attended 

 to in the matter of stores, they can 

 still be looked after, although the work 

 should have been done much earlier. 

 For such late feeding as in December, 



candy properly made is the best if it 

 can be had, but syrup made real thick 

 can be fed on the pepper-box plan. A 

 10-pound tin honey-can, with the top 

 perforated, and when filled with warm, 

 thick syrup may be placed next to the 

 bees, care being taken to see that lots 

 of packing is placed around and over 

 the pail, so as to prevent the escape of 

 heat. In this way feed can be given to 

 bees at almost any season, but please 

 bear in mind I am not advocating such 

 late attention, as with syrup fed very 

 late, and the bees having no chance to 

 fly for a long time after the disturb- 

 ance, good wintering cannot be looked 

 for in the majority of cases. 



A Trip to Finland Would be Enjoyable 



That article from Paul Wickwitz, 

 page 341, was read with a sense of 

 pleasure on my part, as we shall always 

 remember the visit that friend Mick- 

 witz made with us shortly before he 

 left for his home in Finland. A trip 

 to visit him in his northern home is 

 one of the anticipated pleasures looked 

 forward to when some of my rich rela- 

 tions leave this mundane sphere, so 

 that it will be possible, from a financial 

 standpoint, to take a vacation of that 

 kind. 



By accident, a small vessel of honey 

 was left open in the honey-house after 

 we had finished extracting the clover 

 honey. Although at the time of ex- 

 tracting this honey was very thick, I 

 was amazed, on finding this small pail 

 behind the extractor a few weeks later, 

 to see that the honey was thin and the 

 flavor entirely spoiled. I know a num- 

 ber who left large tanks of honey ex- 

 posed for some time, and while they 

 say it did not spoi/, certainly there was 

 no imf'roi'emenl, for the air was so 

 charged with humidity during all the 

 late summer that moisture was every- 

 where, no matter how dry the local 

 surroundings. 



Some may say this was an excep- 

 tional season, as no doubt it was, yet 

 any plan that is sure to work disaster 

 in ixccftional seasons, and very apt to 

 do the same in ordinary seasons in the 

 hands of most bee-keepers, should not 

 be advocated for un\ kind of season. 



Ripening Honey Artificially 



Talk about ripening honey "arti- 

 ficially." Surely, the past season should 

 forever stop all public advocacy of such 

 a method on this continent. I certainly 

 would like to see the man and the 

 method that could have improved 

 honey by leaving it exposed to the open 

 air during the months of July, August 

 and September that have just passed. 



Those "Harmless Bees" 



In regard to those " harmless " bees 

 so much discussed in the last Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, I notice that the edi- 

 tor of the Bee-Keepers' Gazette, pub- 

 lished in Ireland, pokes a bit of good- 

 natured fun at Mr. Burroughs' claims 

 in connection with his alleged discov- 

 ery. Editorially, he says among other 

 good things, " By the way, no one, so 

 far, has claimed to have heard bees 

 laugh. We all have heard them cry, 

 and many of us know what their rage 

 is like. Can it be that they, poor 

 things, are deprived of the pleasure of 

 healthy laughter with so many provo- 

 cations to merriment as mankind af- 

 fords them ? We hope not." 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted b.v J. J. Wilder. Cordele. Ga. 



Spring Management of Bees — A Word 

 for Queen-Excluders 



"Friend Wilder: — Agreeable to my 

 promise that I would write my meth- 

 ods of operating with bees as soon as 

 I could get them off to their fall loca- 

 tion, I will now make the attempt. 



"Our surplus honey flow comes from 

 what is called here white tupelo. It 

 usually begins to bloom about the mid- 

 dle of April, sometimes a little earlier, 

 and on very rare occasions later. We 

 only have it about three weeks, often 

 not so long, so you see how important 

 it is that we get our bees in the very 

 "pink" of condition. Of course, we 

 have some honey from other sources, 

 but if the tupelo were taken out I don't 

 believe any of us would attempt to 

 keep bees in this immediate section. 



" \ number of years ago we used to 

 have quite a lot of very nice honey, 

 though very dark, from what is called 

 snow-vine, but of late we have failed to 

 harvest a sufficient amount of this 



grade of honey for the bees to winter 

 on. 



"Well, to begin with my plan, in Jan- 

 uary as a starting point, we assume 

 that all the bees have been returned to 

 their winter or spring location here at 

 Wewahitchka, and we are now prepar- 

 ing to get them ready for the harvest. 

 Usually during the beginning of this 

 month we have maple, ironwood, and 

 other plants or trees blooming, from 

 which source bees, weather permitting, 

 get quite a little honey and lots of pol- 

 len, and they begin rearing brood to a 

 considerable extent. 



"As they are wintered in two stories 

 I examine the lower story about the 

 middle of January, or as early as pos- 

 sible thereafter, taking record as to the 

 strength, amount of brood and stores 

 of each. Owing to cool weather we 

 are very likely to excite robbing, and I 

 endeavor to be careful, going very 

 slowly, using little smoke, and picking 

 up all pieces of comb, especially if 

 with honey. I haven't had a case of 

 robbing in my apiaries in 10 years, and 



