250 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



285 



queens while so confined. To provide against 

 absolute starvation, be sure that the cages con- 

 tain a soft bee candy. In your case tiie little 

 black ants got at the queens and killed them. If 

 you are troubled with that pest we would advise 

 you to set the hives up on short legs, and put the 

 legs in sauce-dishes of water or oil. — Ed.] 



A HEAVY PENALTY. 



In Judge Pierson's court at McPherson, Kan., 

 the other day, M. W. Kibyand R. Lackey, from 

 Nebraska, were fined $25 each and sent to jail for 

 fifteen days for selling a manufactured imitation 

 honey for a pure honey, which had only three 

 pounds of pure honey to fifty pounds of the fin- 

 ished product, being composed of glucose, citric 

 acid, soap bark ground, coal-tar honey flavor, and 

 colored to look like honey. The inspector says 

 it is one of the best imitations he ever saw. The 

 stuff which the two men were selling cost them 

 about 4 cents a pound to make, and they were 

 charging 15 cents a pound, or two pounds for a 

 quarter for the stuff. — American Grocer. 



[This, of course, does not refer to comb honey 

 but to a decoction in liquid form. The words 

 " manufactured imitation honey " are misleading 

 in that they give the impression that comb honey 

 is meant. It is such loose ways of writing that 

 give rise to the comb-honey lies. — Ed.] 



CAN ONE KEEP HIS BEES IN THE CELLAR TOO 

 LONG.? FEEDING BEES IN THE SPRING; DIS- 

 POSING OF CROOKED COMBS. 



Will you kindly answer the following ques- 

 tions by return mail.' Am I right in keeping my 

 bees in a cellar while I can hold the temperature 

 down to at least 48, and bees very quiet.' If I 

 can hold these conditions, would it not be well 

 to keep them in until the 15th? 



Would you feed bees in spring that have suf- 

 ficient stores, simply to stimulate the rearing of 

 brood early - 



I have several colonies that have crooked, tan- 

 gled brood-combs, that it is impossible to take 

 up for examination. Would you transfer to 

 hives arranged with full-sized frame of comb 

 foundation.' If so, what time would you select.' 



Manawa, Wis., April 4. E. E. Cohen. 



[We would advise you to keep your bees in 

 the cellar as long as they are quiet and seem to 

 be doing well, and so long as there is a liability 

 of bad boisterous weather coming on the outside. 

 In your locality we would not advise you to keep 

 the bees in later, probably, than about the 20th 

 of April, certainly not later than May 1st. Should 

 the bees become uneasy, and disposed to fly out 

 on the cellar bottom, or should you have difficul- 

 ty in maintaining the temperature to the proper 

 point, we would recommend taking the bees out 

 along in .March; but if possible, give them winter 

 cases or some sort of protection over the hives. 



As a general thing, we do not advise feeding 

 bees in the spring that have sufficient stores. 

 Stimulative feeding has a tendency to force the 

 bees out in unfavorable weather, and most of our 

 best bee-keepers now advise against spring feed- 

 ing, but giving the bees copious supplies of s'ores 

 in the fall — enough so that they wil haveno lack 



until the honey harvest is on. Of course, cir- 

 cumstances alter cases. 



The crooked or otherwise imperfect combs, 

 especially those that contain an excess of drone 

 comb, should be melted up. If one works right, 

 he will be able to secure enough wax by the ope- 

 ration to pay for the foundation that he puts in 

 his frames. It is very wasteful to have drone 

 combs and crooked combs in the yard. It pays, 

 and pays well, to have all combs as nearly perfect 

 as possible, and all worker. — Ed.] 



SHOULD SHAKING BE PRACTICED TO CURE SULK- 

 ING.' 



Just now we hear much about shaking bees to 

 cure laziness. Now, come to think of it, who 

 among experienced, thoughtful bee-keepers is 

 there that believes there is such a thing as a lazy 

 honey-bee.' Whenever a colony of bees is found 

 apparently sulking, there is something the matter 

 with that hive which the person in charge should 

 discover and remedy before making the charge 

 of laziness, or making the cruel statement regard- 

 ing a queen that has filled the hive so full of bees 

 that they hang out for comfort, that " it would 

 not have been a very bad accident if we had drop- 

 ped that queen and stepped on her." Could that 

 colony of bees have been transferred to the new 

 condition, without the slightest shaking, they 

 would have exhibited just as much vigor as though 

 shaken however severely. It seems they went to 

 work with such energy that, with the hot day, 

 they quite overdid the matter. Perhaps they 

 were shaken " jist a leetle tu much." It's a won- 

 der that the hot day and the breaking-down of 

 the comb were not charged to their account. 



Oh, my! How much the poor bees and queens 

 have to suffer because of the ignorance or the 

 lack of careful obser\ation of the bee-keeper! 

 How often an incident is taken for a cause — as 

 though the noise behind the projectile fired from 

 a gun is ihe cause instead of an incident! 



Evanston, 111. Wm. M. Whitney. 



[While doubting the efficacy of shaking, our 

 correspondent (and he is a good bee-keeper) does 

 not say what he would do to cure sulking or lazi- 

 ness. Perhaps he infers that every one already 

 knows; but there will be some, like the man from 

 Missouri, that will " want to be shown." — Ed.] 



DO BEES FLY FROM CHOICE FROM TWO TO FOUR 



MILES FROM HOME.' FURMSHING ALSIKE TO 



FARMERS. 



It is not often the Root Co. make a serious 

 mistake in their business; but I think they are 

 making one in the way they supply the farmers 

 in their vicinity with alsike seed. You supply it 

 free within a quarter of a mile of your apiary, 

 and half price further away. Now, as bees "fly 

 from choice from two to four miles " (see Doo- 

 little, page 194, April 1, would it not be better 

 to supply alsike seed free to be sown from two 

 to four miles from your apiary.' This would 

 give you a belt around your apiary two miles 

 wide by twelve miles long; and as farmers use a 

 three-year rotation, one-third of this, or 5000 

 acres, would be in clover; and as the seed would 

 be free, most of it would be in alsike. Within 

 this two-by-four-mile belt, and between the two- 



