MARCH 15, 1915 



249 



Meadg of Grain from Dnffereet F: 

 — _ 



The Backlot Buzzer 



These city-bred bees soon learn to discriminate. 

 They know there is no nectar in the flowers on a 

 lady's hat, but the grocer says they'd work the com- 

 bination on his cash-register if there were any honey 

 in it. 



Feeding Honey Candied in the Combs 



I have a lot of honey sugaring in my broodcomb. 

 What can I do about it? I certainly hate to out 

 the comb out and throw it all away. Last fall we 

 had a heavy honey-flow in October from wliat we 

 call frostweed. It is this honey that is mainly turn- 

 ing to sugar. I have several hives with full combs 

 from dead colonies. I wanted to keep these for 

 feeding purposes in the spring. It is all turning to 

 sugar. 



Another thing, several colonies have all died, and 

 others are weak. What is the trouble? It is not 

 dysentery. They just gradually die out during 

 winter, and leave hives of honey. 



Winston-Salem, X. C. James Nifong. 



[The frostweed to which you refer is the common 

 fall afcter. Honey from this source is causing serious 

 trouble all over the Xorth and East, and is, no doubt, 

 the cause of your bees dying. They probably do not 

 show sigTis of dysentery with you because they get 

 frequent days when they can fly out, and yet not 

 warm enough to void themselves successfully and 

 get bark into the hive. This would cause the dwin- 

 dling to which you refer. 



If you wish simply to save the combs in which the 

 honey is candied, and do not care particularly for 

 the honey, wait until warm weather; uncap them, 

 and hang them in the middle of the brood-nest of 

 your colony. The bees will quickly clean them out. 

 They will, of course, at the same time consume a 

 large part of the honey, but will throw the harder 

 portions out. In case you wish to use them for 

 stimulative feeding' in the spring, uncap them and 



liMiiir tlicm ill tlip center of the brood-nest as in the 

 above-mentioned plan, and return to the hive every 

 two or three days and remove these combs and dip 

 them in warm water. This will help dissolve and 

 dilute the candied honey, and the bees will remove 

 it and use it. Before placing the combs in the hive 

 they should be marked so that you can readily re- 

 move them witliout disturbing the- others. — Ed.] 



More Hints on Binding 



On page 37 D. W. Howell gives a very good 

 .suggestion for binding a file of Gleanings with 

 naiLs. But he tells us to make the bottom edge even. 

 It will be better to make the top edge even, so that 

 it will gather less dust when it stands on the shelf. 

 The bottom edge does not need to be any evener than 

 it can be made by trimming the extra-long ones with 

 shears. It will be still better security against dust 

 if you have the top edge ciit smooth after the vol- 

 ume is fastened together ; and if at the same time 

 you can cut the front edge smooth, turning the leaves 

 to find a desired page will be much easier. To cut 

 a block of paper smooth, clamp it as tight as possible 

 in any sort of vise or clamp, and then cut close — 

 not a sixteenth of an inch away, but close — to the 

 line along which the vise holds it. Any thing that 

 will cut will do; but it is much better that the knife 

 be either sharp or driven by a strong power; and 

 even with strong power it is better to have it sharp. 

 Tliat is why the printer, especially if he knows there 

 are nails in the thing, would rather cut the edges 

 for you himself than trust you to handle his cut- 

 ting-machine. 



If you don't have stiflf sides, the outside pages 

 will soon get ragged with pushing into place on the 

 shelf. So put on pasteboard sides, holding them on 

 by a cloth back glued to them, or by a cloth that goes 

 over back and sides both. The nails can go through 

 the cloth, or the cloth can be glued on over the nails 

 and hide them; but if you put it over the nails I 

 advise you to see that the very best glue holds it to 

 the pieces of leather that Mr. Howell told you to 

 put under the nail-heads. 



Ballard Vale, Mass. Steven T. Byington. 



Cotton Cushions Effective Protection 



We have noticed H. G. Quirin's inquii-y on the 

 use of cushions for the protection of the bees, and 

 in reply would state we have been using these for the 

 past eight years, and find they work wonders in 

 protecting the bees both in winter and summer. We 

 use the telescope cover with one of these cushions 

 over the super cover the entire year, and have never 

 had a colony freeze in the winter nor a comb melt 

 down in the summer, although we have had weather 

 below zero. 



In this way our bees are protected from any sud- 

 den changes in the weather, and we find they build 

 up earlier in the spring and later in the fall when 

 they have this protection. 



Louisville, Ky. J. P. M^\rtine & Son. 



Finds Drones Out Early 



While I was in my beeyard on the 11th of Febru- 

 ary, a fine day, I found to my surprise a numV>er 

 of drones flying out of one of my hives. Evidently 

 it was their first flight. On the 13th I again found 

 drones coming out of that one hive, but none from 

 any of the rest of them. These are the only drones 

 I have seen in this locality. If I had a queen to be 

 mated within the next four or five days I am sure 

 I should have no difficulty. 



Mathews, Ala. " M. S. Woedan. 



