104 



GlEAi^lNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



THE CHAPMAN HOJS EY-PLANT. 



We find the following paragraph in the Briti>(?i 

 Bee Journal for Jan. 6 : 



We may here mention, tliat Mr. Cowan informs 

 us that he has grown Echinops Sph«?rooephalus for 

 eight or nine years, and classes it high as a bee-plant. 



CAN FOUNDATION GIVE FOUI- BROOD 'i 



Don't yon thinli foul brood can be spread from 

 foundation made from diseased comb? 



Chas. H. Van Vechtin. 

 Victor, N. Y., Nov. 23, 1886. , 



[I do not believe it possible, friend V., for foul 

 brood to be communicated in the way you mention. 

 In making foundation we always melt "the wax, and 

 the temperature of melted wax is death to any fun- 

 goid or animal life.] 



HOW *3.7.5 INCIiEASED TO fl.5.00. 



I want to tell you about my bees. This summer, 

 the last of .Tune, I bought 1 lb. of bees and a queen, 

 and put them on 10 frames of old comb, and they 

 are a nice large swarm, now worth $15.00, and they 

 cost me only $3.75 for bees, queen, expressage, $1.00 

 worth of sugar, and my time. Pretty good, isn't it ? 



Jackson, Mich. Clarence W. Bond. 



THE BARNES SAWS. 



I write you in regard to the Barnes foot-power 

 saws. Do you think I could saw four-piece sections 

 with it? White poplar is what I intend to use. I 

 am a rather stout man. W. D. Soper. 



Jackson, Mich., Dec. «, 1886. 



[Yes, friend S., you can saw four-piece sections 

 with the Barnes foot-power saw; but I think that, 

 even if you ai-e a stout man, you would begin to 

 think of an engine before you had sawed many 

 thousand, especially if you try to produce them ait 

 the figure they are now advertised. If you think 

 best to try it, we should like to have a report from 

 you in regard to the matter.] 



FINE WIRE FOR SEPARATORS. 



Have you ever tried fine wire stretched on your 

 broad frames, about ^4, of an inch apart, for separa- 

 tors? I can't see why it would not answer, and be 

 no hindrance whatever to bees passing in any 

 direction through the openings in the sections. 



D. S. Benedict. 



Ludington, Mason Co., Mich., Dec. 20, 1886. 



[We have never tried flue wire, friend B., al- 

 though the matter has been suggested before in 

 our back volumps. The difficulty of putting them 

 on and keeping each one of them stretched tight 

 is what deterred me from testing it. Besides, after 

 we got them on, unless the wide frames were han- 

 dled very carefully they would be very easily in- 

 jured. If any of our readers have ever tried it, we 

 should be glad of a report.] 



A honey-cupboard— HOW TO MAKE. 



Will you please infoi'm me how to inclose a honey- 

 cupboard ? I am making one to hold about 1000 lbs. 

 of comb honey. A show-case will form the toj) to 

 hold sections or prize boxes. Would you inclose the 

 lower part with wire screen, to keep air to the hon- 

 ey, or with lumber ? F. S. Thorington. 



Chillicothe, Mo., Dec. 2, 1886. 



[Friend T., I believe it is not usual to keep such a 

 quantity of honey in a cupboard; and before we 

 can tell whether it had better be inclosed In a wire 

 screen or lumber, we should like to know some- 

 thing about the room that contains it. If the room 

 is one where it does not freeze, and the air is com- 

 paratively dry the year round, wire cloth would 

 perhaps be best; but if there is danger of frost 

 enough to make a precipitate of moisture on the 

 surface of the honey, you had better shut it up as 

 tight as you can, with hoards.] 



^EP6^¥? Dl?C0ai^^6IN6. 



the honey season of 1886 ON THE LOWER 

 MISSISSIPPI. 



R. EDITOR: — The honey season of 1886 Is 

 past, and for this locality I have to record 

 an almost absolute failure. I began the 

 season with 125 colonies, very strong. 

 A cold spell in April struck the apiary, 

 and all of the strongest colonies were left with 

 chilled bi-ood. I lost over 20 colonies from this 

 cause. Those hives had from nine to thirteen combs 

 filled with brood, and did not have bees sufficient to 

 cover the combs during the cold spell, and the brood 

 died from cold; hence I had not one fair-sized swarm 

 during the entire season. The cold, late, and wet 

 spring hung on so late that I got only two barrels of 

 white-clover honey, of a very dark color, with my 

 125 hives, compared with the ll'/i barrels of fine 

 white-clover honey from my 67 hives the previous 

 year. The bad weather hung on all season. The 

 weather was so cool and damp that honey secretion 

 was almost entirely suspended. My bees nearly 

 starved during August, and only the strongest were 

 enabled to raise brood enough to carry themselves 

 over winter. Those deficient in brood late in the 

 fall are dying off very fast, owing principallj' to the 

 warm winter weather we have had so far. The bees 

 will tly out and get chilled and are lost, thus deplet- 

 ing the hive of the bees so necessary in spring. 

 Where this dwindling is going to stop, I can't say 

 yet. 1 have carried in, so far, 15 empty hives. Al- 

 most all have plenty of honey, and none are in need, 

 but the bees would be so few that they could not 

 hold out, and died, in some hives, with honey all 

 around them. 



I put by, for winter, 85 colonies, left from the 135. 

 I began the season with 70, and have that many now, 

 some of which are verj' good, and many very weak. 

 The warm winters are a great drawback to bee- 

 keeping here, if it would get cold enough to com- 

 pel the bees to stay in the hives till spring, one 

 would have full hives of bees to begin business 

 with; but the warm days allow the bees to fly out 

 and get lost, and to wear themselves out with exer- 

 cise in the hives; and, as a result, only the strongest 

 hives, with an abundance of late-hatched bees, will 

 be strong in the spring. How many more colonies 

 will die out before March, is a question I can't an- 

 swer. They don't want feeding, as they have plenty 

 of honey, but many of them do want bees. 



My yield last season was .35 lbs. of extracted honey 

 per hive. This, with a loss of .55 colonies, and New 

 York and Milwaukee for my markets, and a net 

 price for my honey of a little over 4 cts. per pound, 

 does not conduce to make me liable to lose my mind 

 in my enthusiasm over bee-keeping in Louisiana— 

 at present, at least. When I read of Dr. O. M. Blan- 

 ton's little report of 70 Bbs. per colony and 60 barrels, 

 I felt he ought to be ashamed to complain. What 

 would he do with only 35 lbs. per colony? I have 

 tried to look somewhere for the traditional ever- 

 present silver lining, but I haven't seen it yet. It 

 may yet come from behind the plainly visible, low- 

 ering, dark-gray storm-cloud gathering in the west; 

 and when that passes by I may look again upon 

 pleasant sunshiny weather with my bees. In the 

 meantime, I'll wait and see. 

 Hahnville, La. 3— C. M. HiGGiNS, 125—70. 



