April, ini-f. 



American Hee Journal 



of black blood. Hybrids are likely to 

 have bad tempers, some of them sting- 

 ing viciously. The first cross may be 

 just as good workers as pure Italians, 

 but they do not have the same fixed 

 character, and succeeding generations 

 are likely to deteriorate. 



On the whole, no kind of bee has 

 given such universal satisfaction in 

 this country as pure 3-banded Italians, 

 and the likelihood is that you will find 

 nothing better for Japan. 



Please accept very hearty thanks for 

 the pictures. It will be a great pleas- 

 ure for the readers of this department 

 to look upon the face of a sister in far- 

 away Japan, and to look upon your 

 beautiful apiary, even though they may 

 not read the characters at the right. 

 Pity they cannot all see your beautifully 

 clear writing of the English language, 

 which very few of them can equal. 



Please do not let this be the last we 

 shall hear from you and your bees. 



Questions and Experiences 



I began keeping bees last spring with 

 one colony to start with. I now have 

 11. I secured 150 pounds from one 

 colony, and very near the same from 

 another; the rest were too late to 

 gather any surplus honey. We are 

 using the large hives, 20x2ti, but they 

 are very heavy for one person to 

 handle. 



1. Are they too large to work well ? 



2. Can a hive be painted on the inside, 

 or would it hurt the bees in any way? 



3. I have a swarm of bees in the 

 house which was taken from a tree 

 late last fall, and I am not sure if we 

 got the queen. Will they build worker 

 comb if they are queenless ? 



4. They are doing well. I feed them 

 every other day with warm honey. Is 

 that often enough ? I think the world 

 of my little dumb friends, and we get 

 along nicely. It is very seldom I get 

 stung. I give them all the fresh water 

 they can drink on hot days; when they 

 see the pail theyalmost coverme some- 

 times. 



Lnever saw an apiary in my life or 

 had any dealings whatever with bees 

 until last summer ; but I often wished 

 I had a few colonies. Finally I got 

 my wish, and I am not a bit sorry, as 

 we get along nicely together. 



Mrs. Wm. F., Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. The hive may be too 

 large, and it may be too small. You 

 give only the length and width, with- 

 out saying anything about the height. 

 It is not very likely that it is shallow 

 enough to b« too small. You had one 

 colony to start with last spring, and 

 now have 11. If you bought no others, 

 and the 11 came from that one colony, 

 with 1(50 pounds of surplus from one 

 colony, and nearly that from another, 

 perhaps 300 in all, you surely had im- 

 mense success, and that is pretty good 

 proof that the size of the hive is all 

 right. 



2. It is practically certain that paint- 

 ing inside would do no good, else 

 there would be some who would thus 

 paint. Very likely it would not make 

 a great deal of difference ; but some 

 think it would do harm. Indeed there 

 are some who think it is better for the 

 bees that no paint should be even on 

 the outside. 



3. A queenless colony will not build 

 worker comb, although a weak nucleus 

 may build such comb if it builds any. 

 But if you find a colony of anything 

 like ordinary strength building worker 

 comb, you may rest easy that it has a 

 queen. 



4. It would be better not to feed so 

 often as every other day. Indeed, in 

 cold weather, it is best not to feed at 

 all, but to have enough stores in the 

 hive so no feeding is needed till warm 

 weather conies. 



You are surely to be congratulated 

 on your success. A woman who knows 

 enough to manage bees so successfully 

 must know how to vote. 



Does Soil Influence Nectar Flavor and 

 Color ? 



"Mr. Chadwick argues that locality 

 and soil do not influence the color 

 or flavor of nectar. We are sure he is 

 wrong, for usually golden-rod honey is 

 a dark inferior honey scarcely fit for 

 bees to winter on, yet here with us it is 

 a beautiful golden and delicious. Our 

 customers demand it in preference to 

 our white clover honey, which is extra 

 nice. 



"The soil here is light and sandy. A 

 few miles from us where the soil is 

 hard clay, the golden-rod honey is very 

 dark and inferior in flavor. Same way 

 with potatoes; we have often sold 

 potatoes 10 cents per bushel above the 

 market price because of their being 

 grown on sandy soil. Apples are more 

 highly colored and better flavored than 

 those grown on clay. 



"Arden, Neb. Emma S. Mills." 



Swarming During the Record Crop 



Inquiry has been made as to what we 

 did about swarming while getting our 

 big crop last year. We followed the 



plans given in " Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees," not adhering strictly to any one 

 plan. The year was a bad one for 

 swarming. Some say that when a 

 heavy flow comes on the bees get so 

 interested in storing that they give up 

 swarming thoughts. That was not the 

 rule in 1013 — perhaps never — in this 

 locality. Never was there a better flow, 

 and never was swarming more trouble- 

 some than in 1013. Bees swarmed early 

 and late, and often. 



About once in 10 days examination 

 was made for queen-cells. So long as 

 only eggs or quite young larv;e were 

 found in the cells, they were destroyed 

 and nothing more was done about it, 

 but if, after 10 days, larv:e were found 

 sealed or nearly ready to seal, or if, as 

 too often happened last year, a swarm 

 issued, then the colony was treated. In 

 some cases we caged the queen for 10 

 days. In most cases we used the put- 

 up plan. Two or more frames of 

 brood, perhaps all the brood, with a 

 force of bees, were put in a hive with 

 the queen and set on top of the supers 

 — no communication between — and in 

 10 days these were put down again, 

 all cells in the lower story being re- 

 moved. In some cases the bees 

 swarmed again within a very few days 

 — a thing that does not often occur 

 other years, and then the queen was 

 caged for a few days longer. 



A few colonies were run for extract- 

 ing combs, and in some of them the 

 Deniaree plan was used ; when there 

 was danger of swarming all the brood, 

 except perhaps one frame, was put into 

 a second story, and the queen was left 

 in the lower story, this lower story 

 being filled with foundation or drawn 

 combs. A queen-excluder was between 

 the two stories. As the brood hatched 

 out in the upper story, the cells were 

 filled with honey. This is an excellent 

 plan when extracting combs are used, 

 but of course does not work with 

 sections. 



Conducted by J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



More About Beginners and Conditions in 

 the Beekeeping Industry 



Judging from letters I have received 

 relative to that item in the February 

 .American Bee Journal entitled, " Honey 

 Production as Ranked with Other 

 Business," personally it is a case of 

 " fools rushing in where angels fear to 

 tread." Men have written me from far 

 off Washington in the northwest, and 

 Texas in the southwest, to say noth- 

 ing of all other points of the compass 

 nearer home, and without exception 

 all are enthusiastically in favor of the 

 views I expressed. Bui a lot of these 

 writers warn me to look out or the 

 "fellows with an axe to grind will get 

 me," and being naturally slow to take 

 a hint, I hardly understand what they 

 mean. Large producers, including 

 presidents of State associations, have 



written me. While surprised at such a 

 a response, I am gratified to find that I 

 am not alone in taking what some 

 might call a reactionary step. I am 

 sorry that " Optimist " has not given 

 his address, for not knowing who he 

 is, I am at a loss to know how to take 

 him ; really, I feel that he is just joking 

 in some of the things he said. 



First of all, I want to say emphati- 

 cally that it is none of my business 

 how many enter the business of bee- 

 keeping ro/iiii/art/y — don't misunder- 

 stand me on that point. My conten- 

 tion is that beekeepers who depend 

 upon the business for a living, and the 

 associations they are affiliated with are 

 doing a foolish thing when they trj to 

 coax and encourage others to enter 

 into the business and increase compe- 

 tition, especially when production is 

 already in excess of demand. It is not 



