632 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLHI>AU. 



Oct. 1, 1903. 



keen appetite of youth, especially when coupled with a scant 

 purse, may furnish a market for a limited supply. 



BBSS STORING IN GLASS JARS. 



There are several reasons why it will never pay to secure 

 our surplus in glass jars by the bees. The jars are too 

 costly ; the bees are not as ready to enter and store in them ; 

 and the stain on the glass as it is made a foot-path for bee- 

 travel, would make the jars uninviting. Cleaning would 

 be far too difficult and laborious, in the nature of the case, 

 to be practicable. For exhibition purpose at fair or exposi- 

 tion this may pay, for then we can afford the labor to make 

 it neat and attractive, but as a general proposition it will 

 never find favor, I am sure. 



EUCALYPTUS. 



Mr. H., of Corona, California, asks what eucalyptus I 

 would suggest for honey. I am glad to answer this, as this 

 beautiful tree should be planted far more extensively in our 

 State than it is. There are fine blocks of it scattered here 

 and there all about. There should be groves of it thickly 

 set all about us, and the streets should be lined everywhere 

 by these fine trees. Beauty, comfort and climatic influence 

 all loudly favor such tree-planting. The blossoms are 

 showy, persist for weeks, and can be had, by careful selec- 

 tion in every month of the year, and are all attractive to 

 bees. I would suggest Eucalyptus corynocalyx. This 

 grows rapidly, furnishes fine timber, and is known as the 

 sugar-gum. E. rostrata, or red-gum, is very useful for tim- 

 ber. E. Sideroxylon is very handsome, graceful, has ex- 

 quisite foliage, and may well be planted. This and E. fici- 

 folia have beautiful-colored blossoms. E. crebra, E. diver- 

 sicolor, E. polyanthemos, and E. Gunni, all are worthy a 

 trial. 



E. diversicolor, E. rudis, and E. Gunni stand much cold, 

 the first enduring a temperature down to 8 degrees F., the 

 others to 18 degrees F. E. citrodora is a fine honey-tree, 

 one of the very best, and has a pleasant fragrance, but it 

 will not stand much of a freeze, especially when young. 

 We have fine trees at Claremont, but they killed down at 

 first. They seem hardy now, for they stood a freeze down 

 to 23 degrees F. last winter. I hope many will plant these 

 trees. Eos Angeles Co., Calif., Aug. 14. 



[ Our Bec-Heepin§ Sisters | 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Interesting- Experiences of a Sister. 



You want the experience of some of the sister bee-keep- 

 ers. The last three days I have had considerable, but not 

 pleasant. One of the tenants on one of my farms was tak- 

 ing surplus cases from his hives, and wanted to take part of 

 mine off. Now I, for myself, like to take the honey from 

 the hives late in the fall ; it is cured better. And now I 

 want to ask some questions : 



1. We found the hive-body full of honey, and the queen 

 gone into the supers and had reared a young swarm. If a 

 queen-excluder was put on would it do to take part of the 

 honey from below, or would it be better to add supers to 

 make more room above 7 



2. I had two and three swarms in the air a day ; Bokhara 

 began to bloom, and then they filled the hive, but did not 

 swarm. I wrapped up two supers and took them to a small 

 town and called on a prominent attorney to sell honey. His 

 wife was at a summer resort, and his boys did not like honey, 

 but he concluded to take 4 pounds. We took the supers to 

 a store to weigh the honey ; when I saw the dark comb I 

 felt as if 40 cents was a big price ; but my next order was 

 for $10 worth ; he was a farmer ; it was for chunk honey. 

 So I shall reverse and sell from below. Will additional 

 supers prevent late swarms? 



3. Bees are very busy now on goldenrod. I had some 

 colonies in the supers last year, and they used up what honey 

 there was above, and they would not go down for supplies, 

 so the brood ought to be below ; they had plenty, but seem 

 to go up when in the cluster for winter, and when they got 

 to the cover could go no farther. Should a queen-excluder 



be put between the surplus and brood ? What will make 

 them build straight in the sections ? 



The help was threshing Bokhara seed to ship, so I 

 thought I would send some beeswax, too, and came very 

 nearly having a fire. I left the melting wax to get some 

 corn to cook, and it boiled over, and burning lard is not 

 equal to the blaze I had upon getting to the door. I seized 

 a pitchfork and lifted the blazing can from the fire. A sun 

 extractor would be far more safe. So you see what I don't 

 know would fill a big book ; but experience is a variety — 

 some pleasant, and some otherwise. 



After I got the honey and brood-combs out of those 

 supers I put them into a tub of water and scraped them 

 with a table-knife, sections and section-holders, and put on 

 a duck coat and leather mittens, a bee-veil, straw hat (with 

 a brim), took the smoker and went to put them back in the 

 hives, as the bees are building four combs of honey under 

 the alighting-board out-of-doors. I have tiered up three 

 supers to the hive; I put them all on but the last one with- 

 out a string ; it was a big colony of Italians, and they were 

 filling a super every two weeks ; they covered me, so I 

 started for the house, pulling off my bee-veil and leaving it 

 on a bush as I went. I got to a tub of water and put my head 

 right into it until I had drowned the bees, but my face, neck, 

 ears and hands are twice the size they ought to be. One eye 

 was closed one day. I bathed my face with cold water, and 

 kept a folded towel, wet with cold water, on my head until 

 the pain subsided ; but it was awful for a short time. But 

 I got the super on and the cover, too, later in the day. Now 

 I think a large hive, and surplus room put on in the spring, 

 and then leave the honey on until late in the fall, are better 

 than small hives and to have to keep putting on supers. 



MiNNIB Pebt. 



Wabaunsee Co., Kans., August, 1903. 



If you find that your customers prefer to have their 

 honey in combs with dark cappings, it will be all right to 

 leave the honey on till late. The honey itself will be a lit- 

 tle richer and riper. In general, however, the demand is 

 for honey with cappings snow-white, and to secure such 

 honey it should be taken off as soon as entirely sealed. 



It is an unusual thing for the bees to change their 

 brood-nest into the upper story, but in the case you mention, 

 it would be just as well to take the honey from the lower 

 story as surplus, providing, of course, that you desire the 

 honey in such form as bulk honey, and providing that the 

 comb was not too old. Otherwise the best thing would be 

 to put the queen below, and make her stay there by means 

 of an excluder. The honey might be extracted from the 

 brood-combs, at least enough to give the queen room to lay, 

 or, if you prefer, you might oblige the bees to carry the 

 honey above, aiding them by uncapping the honey in the 

 brood-combs. In any case see that there is plenty of sur- 

 plus room above. 



"Will additional supers prevent late swarms?" No 

 amount of super room will make them safe from swarming, 

 but it will help ; for being crowed is one of the things that 

 makes them want to swarm. 



" Ought one always to put a queen-excluder between 

 the surplus and brood ? " When working for section-honey 

 it is not needed ; but when working either for bulk honey 

 or extracted, use one. 



" What will make them build straight in the sections ? " 

 Use comb foundation in the sections, either as starters or 

 full sheets. 



An Ephesian Coin and Its Fable. 



Various were the ways by which the site of certain 

 cities were determined. For instance, the Palatine Hill be- 

 came the original site of the Mistress of the World, because 

 Romulus was so fortunate as to have seen a greater number 

 of vultures than Remus had beheld. Cadmus, obeying the 

 oracle, followed a cow, and on the plain where she stopped 

 built the city of Thebes. Ilus also followed a dappled 

 heifer, and on the " hill of Ate," where she layed down, he 

 found his city of Ilium. 



But it was once reserved to designate to man whereon 

 to build his comb foundation, as it were. A tradition pre- 

 served by Philostratus, relates that when the Athenians led 

 their colony to found the city of Ephesus, the Muses in the 

 form of bees flew before them, directing the course of the 

 fleet. 



Such is the fable explanatory of the figure of a bee ex- 

 ecuted on the ancient coins of Ephesus. Such is the story, 

 appropriate and beautiful, woven about the coin of that 



