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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 30, 1903. 



\ Our Bee-HeeDin§ Sisters t 



Conducted bu EMMfl M. WILSON, Marengo, III. 

 A Wet Spring- and the Bees. 



Rain, rain, rain, how it has rained for three days, and 

 how things are growing ; the grass looks as if it might be 

 the last of May instead of the 15th of April. If the bees 

 survive the changeable weather it surely does look as if we 

 ought to have a big crop of honey this year. But you never 

 can tell ; it is not safe to count on a honey crop before you 

 get it. 



The ground was so full of water last fall, and we have 

 had so much rain this spring, that the bottom seems to have 

 fallen out of the roads — not for years have we known any- 

 thing like it, so that we have not taken our bees to the out- 

 apiaries yet, but expect to haul them soon. I am always 

 glad to get them located, then it seems as if business had 

 fairly begun. 



As I stood watching the bees the other day I was sur- 

 prised to note the number of different kinds of pollen they 

 were bringing in, and they were fairly tumbling over one 

 another in their eagerness to get out. 



In the spring we always close the entrances of our hives 

 by means of an entrance-block, so that only a very small 

 entrance is left — about an inch square. On very warm, 

 pleasant days, it would seem as if it were almost too small, 

 and the bees come tumbling out one over another, seem- 

 ingly resenting such an arrangement ; but when the ther- 

 mometer takes a sudden drop, and the snow begins to drive, 

 and the cold wind howls, then I am sure they appeciate it 

 (at least we do), as I feel pretty certain it prevents brood 

 from being chilled — something like putting an extra cover 

 on the bed, you know. 



Watering' the Bees— Sunflowers, Etc. 



Some three years ago I read about spring dwindling of 

 bees, that they go out to get water and many get chilled 

 and do not get back ; and that occurring every day was 

 partly the cause of spring dwindling. I read about it in 

 the American Bee Journal one evening, after I went to bed. 

 Before I went to sleep I had them all watered (in my mind), 

 and I soon put it in practice by having a little trough at the 

 entrance of each hive, so all they have to do is to come out 

 to the trough and get the water, and go back. The troughs 

 have a little piece nailed on each side of one end that goes 

 into the entrance ; it fits up close against the hive. I have 

 the entrance in the middle of the hive, so it is at one edge 

 of it. The troughs are 9 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 1'2 

 inches deep. I am going to make some more, but I will 

 make them deeper, so they will hold more water ; the ones 

 I have hold only a pint. I will make the strips wider. I 

 nail the strips on the side of the bottom part, making it the 

 same length as the bottom piece, then the two end-pieces 

 across the end of the bottom-piece and the ends of the 

 pieces that I have nailed on the side. They have to be 

 sawed true, so as to be water-tight, or they will leak all the 

 water. I cut the stalks of my erianthus grass and lay it on 

 top of the water so the bees will not get in and drown. Any- 

 thing that will float will answer to keep them out of the 

 water. Of course, this is for the sisters who are keeping 

 bees in a small way like I am. 



My bees had a flight Dec. 2, aud three in February, so I 

 think they will winter all right ; they seem strong when 

 flying. 



Either I or some one else made a mistake in my last 

 article about my age ; it should have been 75 instead of 79. 

 , Yes, I can use a plane and saw as well as a hammer. I 

 can saw on a straight mark as good as any man. I can do 

 fancy-work, and a good many other things that do not be- 

 long to the bee-business. I raised a good many sunflowers 

 last summer, and the bees would work on them until they 

 were as yellow as the flowers. I had 90 quarts of seed ; my 

 pigeons are very fond of them. 



The article in the American Bee Journal about the 

 spider-plant, and how to raise it, is worth half the price of 

 the journal. I did not know why I could not get it to come 

 up until I read that article. I have saved a lot for the bees, 



and want to plant a lot more this summer for them, and 

 have the seed to feed to the pigeons. 



I can agree with your mother. Miss Wilson, about tea 

 and coffee. I have not used either for over SO years, and I 

 seldom drink anything at meal-time, as I think it more 

 healthy to eat without drinking. I use a good deal of fruit- 

 juice put up as fruit. Mrs. Sarah J. Griffith. 



Cumberland Co., N. J., March 9. 



The Afterthought. * 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By e. B. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



GBTTING BXPERIENCE WITH INCREASE. 



Neither novel nor ever likely to get out of date — is Dr. 

 Gallup's advice to those desiring to start apiaries. Begin 

 with very few, and make your colonies. You don't know so 

 much about bees but that what you learn in the process will 

 more than pay you for the time you lose. So doing, the 

 purchase price of a lot of colonies is saved, and is a clear 

 gain to you. Page 182. 



GROWING BASSWOOD TREES. 



I can testify that basswood seedlings three inches high 

 — neglected and not in their natural soil— do not always 

 come to naught. But all the same, J. D. Gehring's advice 

 to get a load of dirt from where basswoods naturally grow 

 seems to be sound. But the dirt alone, possibly it may not 

 entirely prevent the slaughter wrought by the scorching 

 mid-summer sun of the first season — if that is the main 

 trouble. Who knows ? Page 183. 



DIVISION RATHER THAN SHAKEN SWARM. 



It's a division rather than a shaken swarm that Geo. 

 W. Stiuebring tells us about on page 183. Good thing in 

 its way — although with a colony at swarming strength, 

 looking over the combs and setting aside the comb the 

 queen is on, is not likely to float on as smoothly as the read- 

 ing of it does. 



INFORMATION REGARDING BEE-CULTURE. 



" Please send information regarding bee-culture," eh ? 

 Surely, there ia latitude enough. Natural for innocent out- 

 siders to suppose that we department folk must have some' 

 informatipn on hand. Why not trot a sample of it out ? 

 Supposing it had been a man, and that he had fired his re- 

 quest point-blank at the whole staff, perhaps he might have 

 got the maxims below : 



Bee-culture is not designed for women-folk. 



Bee culture is specially adapted to women — and chil- 

 dren, and invalids. 



Bee-culture is a plain bread-and-butter affair, and sen- 

 timentalism mustn't be allowed to get into it. 



Bee-culture is a science, a fascinating science, and if 

 incidentally some profit arises from it no right-minded bee- 

 culturist should be too much taken up with that. 



Bee-culture is a boundless mint of money — 'causeyou go 

 in and make your capital as you go along — and bees work 

 for nothing and board themselves. 



Nobody gets rich at bee-culture — and "off years " keep 

 coming in which you do not make anything — and bad win- 

 ters in which your capital disappears. 



Bee-culture has nothing in it at all — unless you start a 

 bee-paper and get rich at that. 



Bee-culture is so nice and neat. 



A leading objection to bee-culture is that it is so miser- 

 ably dirty. 



One of the most independent of all ways to live. 



Too sadly dependent on the cit)' commission man — 

 'cause one's product is not a staple, and there's no reliable 

 market for it. 



The main objection to bee-culture is that you might get 

 stung. 



The getting stung part is too trifling to be thought of. 



So nice to be considered a higher order of being than 

 plain fanners. 



So " nice " to have everybody say. " He don't work for 

 a living ; lie just fusses with bees." Page 184. 



(You see by the above that this is house-cleaning time, 

 and so the proper season to hang out musty samples of in- 



