May 28, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



[ Our Bee'HeepinS Sisters J 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Using Unfinished Sections. 



On page 312, Mr. Arthur C. Miller refers to the matter 

 of using unfinished sections, and thinks the secret of the 

 trouble is in putting- on sections that still contain honey. 

 Mr. Miller's views are sound on that point, but I think he is 

 in error in supposing- that either Mr. Doolittle or myself has 

 missed that point, and I think that Mr. Miller seems himself 

 to have missed the point in dispute between Mr. Doolittle 

 and myself. We are both agreed that the honey should be 

 cleaned out before the sections can be again used to store 

 in ; but I hold that it must be cleaned out before there has 

 been any granulation ; and Mr. Doolittle thinks it can be 

 cleaned out as well after. 



There is no disputing the fact that if bees are allowed 

 to rob out the liquid honey in the fall they will make a 

 clean job of it. The fact that I have seen so many cases in 

 which plenty of granules were left in the cells when granu- 

 lated honey was cleaned out, even when robbed, makes it 

 seem doubtful that the granules can be all gotten out be- 

 fore the bees again store in the sections. If Mr. Doolittle 

 succeeds in that respect, it does not follow that others will. 

 The plain question is this : Can we, in general, rely upon 

 getting the bees to clean out the last vestige of granulation 

 in sections? If Mr. Miller can tell us whether yes or no is 

 the right answer to this question, he will be helping. 



An Experience— White and Red Clover, Alfalfa 

 and Buckwheat. 



Myself and family are diligent readers of the American 

 Bee Journal. It has been of great help to us in beginning 

 the bee-business. I have often thought to write and tell 

 how I started in the business, and how I came out after two 

 years' experience. 



I first bought a good, healthy colony of bees for »5.00 ; 

 then I let a man bring his bees (a small colony) from 

 the city to our yard, for which he gave me one prime swarm 

 and 24 pounds of honey — just for the rent of the ground. 

 Then we (I mean my husband and I) bought five colonies at 

 $2.30 a colony, and got but two swarms last season. I also 

 divided one colony that threw out a swarm, and, when I 

 hived it it immediately went back to the old colony. 



Last winter was not a hard one on bees in our locality, 

 but we lost three colonies, two from mice destroying them. 

 One smothered by the snow, while my husband was sick. 

 But we have nine good colonies left. 



My, what an experience I had with our first swarm. It 

 settled very high in an old apple-tree, the limbs were very 

 far from the body of the tree, and my husband was in town. 

 What was I to do? I sent my " twin swarm-catcher" to 

 the neighbor's, and he came, but what did he do ? He said 

 he was afraid of bees. I then, with the efficient aid of my 

 16-year-old daughter, fixed our new hive, climbed the tree, 

 and with a saw, rope, and water, sawed the limb ofif and let 

 the bees down to my daughter, but they immediately went 

 to a higher limb. I was all tired out. Just then a perfect 

 stranger came to the house for dinner. I then asked hira if 

 he would help, me get the bees down. He said he was afraid 

 of bees. As I had no veil or bee-fixtures, I took one of my 

 lace curtains to tie over his head, and he got them to the 

 hive after I cut the limb off. We saved the swarm all right 

 with not a sting. 



The first of last September we had two swarms, and 

 saved both, but the next day a swarm came out and left. 



Bloom is heavy, and the bees are very busy this week. 

 Last week was cold and wet. Last year one colony was 

 prepared for comb honey, and I believe it stored SO pounds, 

 while some others had no surplus at all ; and one was even 

 entirely without honey, but we fed it till buckwheat came, 

 when it stored nearly enough to winter on. 



1. Why did bees not work on white clover last year ? 



2. The red clover was full of bees, but there was none 

 on white clover. 



3. We have a lot sowed to alfalfa, but there was no 

 honey in it last year ; we did not cut it. 



4. Will buckwheat yield nectar if sowed now, the first 

 of May ? Mrs. Mary E. Houser. 



Howard Co.,-Ind., April 29. 



Answers. — 1. Probably because there was no nectar in 

 it. An abundant bloom of white clover does not always 

 mean a large honey crop, for .sometimes it does not secrete 

 nectar. Just why, it is difficult to say, but due perhaps to 

 certain atmospheric conditions. A cold, wet season will 

 very seldom give much nectar. 



2. So your bees worked on red clover, did they ? You 

 must have some of the long-tongued strain of bees. I won- 

 der if red clover will secrete nectar when white clover will 

 not. 



3. There has never been any report of alfalfa yielding 

 any honey east of the Mississippi. In fact, there has been 

 no general success in getting it to grow luxuriantly in the 

 East. We are told by the experiment stations that alfalfa 

 will succeed in the East if the land be inoculated with some 

 of the soil from the regions where alfalfa is a success. Let 

 us hope that when it gets to growing in the East as it does 

 in the West — if it ever does — it will then be as good a honey- 

 plant as it is in Colorado. 



4. Buckwheat will probably not yield nectar as well if 

 sown the first of May as later, but it is not always a 

 dependable nectar-yielder, no matter when sown. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 



) 



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

 By E. E. Hastt, Sta. B Rural, Toledo. Ohio. 



IMPORTS OF HONEY AND BEESWAX. 



When Uncle Sam talks about imports he speaks by the 

 card, and we can trust his figures. He collected money on 

 so many gallons of honey. (Under a corrupt service import 

 figures are too small — importers striving to pay on less 

 goods than they get in with ; but I guess we can trust 

 our service at present.) And so beeswax importation 

 decreased quite a bit from 1901 to 1902. The official figures 

 speak of gallons, while we mostly think of honey in pounds 

 and tons. Translated into tons, just a thousand tons, came 

 in in 1901 and only 920 tons in 1902 — or say a hundred car- 

 loads declined to 92 carloads. Not only did the amount of 

 wax double, but the official price went up from 26 cents a 

 pound to 28. On the other hand, the official price of honey 

 went down from 4 cents a pound in 1901 to 3 cents a pound 

 in 1902. Page 243. 



HENRY ALLEY AND HIS PICTURE. 



What a nice picture of Henry Alley ! The smile seems 

 to say, " Lots of queens on hand, and lots of orders coming^ 

 in." No, I'll take that back for repairs. The smile seems 

 to say, "There are things in the universe even more pleas- 

 ant to think of than orders and queens." Page 243. 



FOUL BROOD BY MAIL. 



My estimate of N. E. France had grown considerably 

 by the time I got through the second paragraph of his paper 

 on foul brood. Only a few rare persons can talk on an old, 

 worn-out. and not very nice subject, and interest us at 

 once. If Mr. France knows a case where five queens from 

 a foul apiary infected all five of the colonies to which they 

 were introduced, it is about time some of us awoke from our 

 slumbers. Whether the disease traveled in cage, queen or 

 candy, it came by mail — and came as a return for the un- 

 suspecting apiarist's dollar. Page 244 and 261. 



THE PRESENCE OF DRONES IN A COLONY. 



gr^ But. Mr. Dadant, it is not quite always that we can 

 have the warming presence of drones answered by workers 

 just as well. The first night after swarming finds workers 

 reared in the drones place mostly all gone, while most of 

 the drones are where they are needed. I will freely grant 

 to you, however, that this is but a small item to the drone's 

 credit— and that the drone's practical value as a heat-pro- 

 ducer is liable to great exaggeration. There is, however, 

 another little unsettled point which may yet prove of some 

 importance. Will 50,000 bees in the flush of the season feel 



