December, 1912. 



American line Journal 



377 



chilled, or were this way because tlie feed- 

 ing had been neglected, since there was not 

 much nectar being gathered? The hives. 

 especially some, contained considerable 

 honey. California. 



Answers.— I. 1 don't know. (Rosin.— Eu. 



2. I must confess that this. too. is a little 

 too hard a nut for me to crack. It hardly 

 seems likely that the trouble came from the 

 brood being chilled. I would rather guess 

 it came from the heat before the hives were 

 raised. Possibly it might be the effect of 

 wax-worms. 



Wintering Bees Near a Bailer 



I have a cellar with a steani boiler in it. I 

 can put the hives at one side about 20 feet 

 away; can give plenty of fresh air. 



How shall I (ix the hives on top of the 

 frames under the covers; will burlap do or 

 do they need some chaff on top ? I could 

 put them near the boiler if it would be bet- 

 ter, I can't find any one who ever wintered 

 bees in a cellar where there was a heater. 



New York. 



Answer,— Very likely you will find that 

 you can winter bees all the better for a 

 heater in your cellar. At any rate I would 

 rather not be without a furnace in my cellar 

 after an experience of 10 years with one. If 

 you have lots and lots of fresh air the bees 

 will do well even if you cannot keep the 



temperature below S'l degrees. It matters 

 little, while the bees are in the cellar, 

 whether they are covered with burlap or 

 chaff, or have sealed board covers directly 

 over the top bars, or have no covers at all. 

 with the top entirely open. Only, if they are 

 c I OS etj on toil there must be plentyof opening 

 below. I have scaled covers, just as they 

 were on summer stands, with ;; inches of 

 space under the bottom-bars, and entrance 

 the full width of the hive. If your entrance 

 is small, then there must be ventilation 

 above. It doesn't matter whether that top 

 ventilation be made by allowing the air to 



Eass out through chaff or burlap, or merely 

 y shoving the cover forward so as to leave 

 !^-inch space at the back end. 



How to Keep Ants Out of Honey 



How can 1 keep ants out of honey after it 

 is taken off the hive? I took off some, and 

 a few days later, when looking it over, I 

 found it was covered with big, black ants. 



Arkansas. 



Answer.— Make a platform resting on 

 four feet, these feet standing in old cans in 

 which to keep water or oil. If you can trace 

 the ants to Iheirnests, punch a hole into the 

 nest with a crowbar, pour in carbon bi- 

 sulphide, and quickly cover over. But be 

 careful no fire is near or there will bean 

 explosion. 



Kansas State Fair Exhibit 



The Kansas State Fair held at Topeka last 

 month was a grand success in every way. 

 but especially so in the beekeeping depart- 

 ment. J, P. Lucas, the manager, had taken 

 a great deal of pains collecting different 

 kinds of honey, and this exhibit was quite a 

 drawing card for many people, even some 

 of the bee-keepers had no idea of the va- 

 riety of honey that the bees could gather 

 from different sources. 



Orange honey had been sent by P. C. Chad- 

 wick, of Redland, Calif.; cotton and tupelo 

 gum by J. J. Wilder, of Cordele. Ga.; bass- 

 wood by the A. I, Root Co.. hearts-ease and 

 sweet clover from .Nebraska; six kinds of 

 white sage from loiu crop, which had never 

 candied, from A Vogeler, of Oakland, Calif. ; 

 one kind from Kruitvale. Calif.; the lower 

 part of the jar was light and clear, and the 

 upper part was candied and almost as white 

 as snow. Fine gum-tree comb honey, a sam- 

 ple of iQoi crop, which was a lemon yellow 

 and very heavy, was exhibited. Then there 

 was manzanola. light orange honey from the 

 South, which was very firm: also sage comb 

 honey, white clover, alfalfa, smartweed. 

 Spanish-needle, and yellow clover from 

 Kansas. 



The department manager says that an 

 other year he wants to make a larger show- 

 ing of the different varieties, and would be 

 pleased if any one having any other kind 

 would send him a sample. 



Another attraction was the different 

 things put up in honey. Mr. Lucas had 

 peaches, apples, plums, pears, tomatoes and 

 corn put up in jars with honey. Some of 

 these had been put up three years, and they 

 were as fresh and as good as those that had 

 been put up this year. 



This goes to show what can be and is be- 

 ing done with honey. Let all the bee-keep- 

 ers help the good cause along. 



A Bee Keeper. 



live bee-exhibit. I had a full colony in a 

 wire-cage, and showed the people how 

 easily.bees can be handled, or. rather, how 

 they should be handled: movable combs, 

 queen-cells, queen, drones, etc, .were shown. 

 My exhibit was near the entrance of the 

 building, and peopleblockadedtheentrance 

 in their effort to see the bees and hear the 

 lecture. 



I got more orders for full colonies and 

 nuclei than I had in my apiary. Of course, 

 this is not a great bee-country, but it is a 

 country in which the bee is indispensable. 

 All you have to do is to show the fruit-grow- 

 ers that this is true, and they are willing to 

 start an apiary even though they do not rea- 

 lize any direct returns from the bees them- 

 selves. John Pashek. 



The Dalles. Greg. 



Cleomella Angustifolia. Plant 



I notice a honey-plant here that is entirely 

 new to me. and no one here could give me a 

 name for it. so I sentit to "Washington. D. C,. 

 for identification, and they call it C/tvmMi 



It seems to be a remarkable honey-plant. 

 It was in bloom for more than 10 weeks dur- 

 ing the dry season, and bees worked on it 

 freely every morning. The blossom is very 

 fragrant, sweet, yellow, and is at the tips of 

 the branches. It keeps crowding out a new 

 growth and blooming, forming small purse- 

 shaped seed pods as the blossoms drop. The 

 growth is much like sweet clover or yellow 

 mustard, but forming a larger spreading 

 top. Some plants grow 4 feet tall and 1 feet 

 across, and an inch through at the butt, and 

 very hard. It is an annual, and no stock 

 of any kind will eat it. There is but little 

 of it here, but it is spreading quite rapidly. 



M. S. Hl'BBELL. 



Helena, Okla., Oct. m. 



Bee-Keeping in Oregon 



Bee-keeping is a new industry in this 

 locality. Very few bees are kept, and they 

 are mostly of poor stock and poorly man- 

 aged. Many people do not know the value 

 of bees as fertilizers, of the thousands of 

 acres of fruit-trees which are in blossom 

 liere in the spring. We need more bees 

 here — many more. 



I made an exhibit at our County Fair of 

 all kinds of bee-supplies, honey, both comb 

 and extracted, etc. But the part of the ex- 

 hibit which was the most valuable and the 

 most interesting to the observer was the 



The Situation in Oregon 



I noticed in the October .•\merican Bee 

 Journal, page 3it, this question; "Who is 

 Inspector?" Kindly advise the Oregonian. 

 who asked the question, to get in touch with 

 Prof. D. F. Wilson. O. A. C Corvallis. Oreg. 

 The Professor is Secretary of the Oregon 

 State Bee-Keepers" Association. 



"The Association had a bill before the Leg- 

 islature in iQii. It was passed by both 

 houses, but vetoed by the Governor. We 

 are preparing a new bill, and it was sent to 

 me by the Secretary a few days ago for in- 

 spection, :'I am one of the Directors.) It is 

 very similar to the other one, but I am sure 



the Governor will not veto it this time; 

 therefore, we must now try to influence the 

 Senate and House. A good many of the 

 men are new there now. 



Herman Ahi.ers. 

 Nccanium. Oreg.. Nov. ft. 



New Method of Transferring 



Is this method new ? To transfer from 

 box-hives, nail a queen-excluder on the bot- 

 tom of an empty super, cut the brood out 

 and put it all edgewise in the super. Place 

 this on a hive containing one or two frames 

 of brood, the balance of the frames full 

 sheets of foundation or drawn combs, with 

 the bees and the queen. I transferred 50 or 

 more in this way the past summer, some- 

 times putting 2 colonies in one hive. It 

 worked all right. When the brood is all 

 hatched, melt up theold combs. The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal is surely fine. 



Liberty. Mo. J. F. Diemer, 



(This is certainly a sure way of transfer- 

 ring. The only trouble is to have enough 

 frames of brood in readiness, — Editor 1 



Description of a Bee-Shed 



I have built a bee-house in which to keep 

 my bees, built in the form of a shed. It is 22 

 feet long, 5 feet high at the back, and 7 at 

 the front, and faces the south. It is covered 

 With Atlas roofing, and has a 2-foot canopy 

 in front with shelf upon which I can place 

 light swarms in the spring, so as to easily 

 feed them The house will hold 42 colonies, 

 all told. The front is left open so that the 

 bees can take a flight every warm day. I 

 noticed thisyearthat all bees kept in houses 

 came through the winter alive and strong. 

 My hives are all packed with forest leaves 

 between and behind them, and forest leaves 

 in the caps. Jesse H. Roherts. 



Watseka. III. 



(We prefer the shed with only one slope 

 to the one with two slopes, as the former 

 gives more sun to the bees in winter.— Ed.] 



Another Late Swarm 



In recent issuesof the American Bee Jour- 

 nal Mr. Byer and Mr. Eastman have told us 

 about late swarms of bees. I had a large 

 swarm in the early part of September. The 

 swarm was hived in a hive filled partly with 

 empty drawn combs and with combs of 

 honey taken from extracting supers. The 

 swarm was too large for one hive-body, and 

 I gave it another filled the same as the first. 

 Lately I confined the colony to one hive- 

 body for wintering, and will give it all the 

 feed it needs. 



If I had Mr. Eastman's October swarm I 

 would not let it perish. Edwin Bevins. 



Leon. Iowa. Nov, 12. 



Hopes for Bumper Crop in 1913 



My report is very poor. Before my sick- 

 ness I had 05 colonies of bees in fine shape, 

 but last spring they dwindled down to 37. in 

 very weak condition, but they have built up 

 nicely this season. I have now 45 colonies 

 in fine shape for winter, all of good stock 

 and I have about 2000 pounds of surplus 

 honey. So you see they did well in a 

 poor season, and I hope for a bumper crop 

 in 1013. White and alsike clovers, also 

 sweet, look fine for a crop next season. 



Matteson. Ill, A. P. Wk iierts. 



An Ontario Report 



The season is backward, and I am not 

 through feeding yet. I will be at it a week 

 or 10 days longer. Of 72; colonies over 500 

 are in shape for wintering, in so far as the 

 stores are concerned; so with anything like 

 fair weather I will soon clean up the bunch. 

 My feeding bill is not as heavy as antici- 

 pated, as 6000 pounds will put all the bees 

 in good condition. Of course. I mean the 

 amount of sugar, not syrup. J. L. BvER 



Mt. Joy. Ont.. Oct. o. 



Looking for Big Things in 'Vermont 



Mr. 1, E, Crane, of Vermont, the promi- 

 nent bee-keeper and inspector, called to see 

 me a short time ago. He said he believed 

 that whoever had bees in good condition next 

 spring would get the largest crop of honey 



