712 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



upon the hives. We resolved to watch for 

 October flows thereafter, and not lose the 

 honey again through neglect. But no 

 legitimate work has been done again until 

 this fall. At the Forestville apiary, our 

 bees have been bringing in pollen freely on 

 all fine days. Up to Oct. 26 dandelions 

 were the source from which it came, many 

 meadows in this vicinity being yellow with 

 the blossoms. The consequence has been 

 that brood-rearing has been kept up un- 

 usually late, and the hives being heavy 

 with honey, we regard the colonies as being 

 in the best condition for safe wintering 

 that they have been in for years. 



We feared that the white clover was 

 mostly killed out by last summer's terrible 

 drouth, and that the outlook for next year 

 was anything but promising, but in this 

 again we are most pleasantly disappointed. 

 The high temperature and timely showers 

 have started the seemingly dead clover in 

 fine shape, and the pastures are greener 

 now than at any time in our recollection. 

 This promises well for the honey crop of 

 1895, and every bee-keeper should take es- 

 pecial care of each colony, so that we may 

 all rejoice together over a big honey crop 

 next season. The saying that all rules 

 have their exceptions has had a new illus- 

 tration with us this season— we extract un- 

 finished sections to get the empty combs 

 for next season's use. In the past we have 

 cured such sections the same as comb 

 honey before extracting, in order that the 

 extracted honey might have all the oily 

 richness of comb honey, but this tall we 

 found it nearly impossible to extract sec- 

 tions so cured. 



This dry summer had made an exception 

 to the common rule, the honey had become 

 almost like wax, and we were compelled to 

 melt a share of our combs, as it was impos- 

 sible to throw the honey out without tear- 

 ing them to pieces. This was a great loss, 

 as prepared combs are the great means of 

 increasing the white honey crop, and we 

 have proved that a section filled with 

 empty comb, if properly prepared and used, 

 is worth more than half the value of finished 

 sections. 



We also run an out-yard of 40 colonies 

 this year for extracting; the colonies were 

 tiered uj) to give plenty of storage room, 

 and no supers were taken off until after 

 Oct. ]. The yield was fair, but neither 

 would this honey extract, even after we 

 had steamed the combs until they were so 

 soft as to part from the top-bars. In order 

 to get enough honey to pay expenses and 

 keep things running until another year, we 

 had to melt the combs in a steam box, and 

 destroy a large quantity of our fine ex- 

 tracting-conibs. We have a quantity of 

 the filled supers that we shall put in a warm 

 room and keep for feeding next sjjring, but 

 using ir)-cent white honey for feeding, 

 when we could supply equally good sugar 

 syrup for 5 cents is very poor policy. The 

 lesson to be learned from all this work and 

 loss is to watch on dry, hot seasons and not 

 let the honey get so thick we cannot ex- 

 tract it. 



answered by 



Marengo, III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing- immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the ao or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" 80 

 interesting on another page. In the main, It 

 win contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Large Colony — Queen Mating. 



On the 25th of March oneof my neigh- 

 bors found a basswood tree 4 feet in 

 diameter, with a swarm of bees In, about 

 45 feet from the ground. They cut the 

 tree down, and it fell upon several other 

 small trees, mostly maple, and lodged 

 about 5 feet before striking the ground ; 

 then the bees came out by thousands 

 and took possession of the forest, until 

 the next morning at daylight, when two 

 men went with a cross-cut saw and 

 sawed off about 4K feet. They sawed 

 too close to the bees on top, and cut 

 away about 40 pounds of very nice white 

 clover honey. 



The cavity was 18 inches in diameter 

 at the base, and 14 inches in diameter 

 at the top. I saw the log hive, and think 

 there were at least 50 quarts of bees, 

 and 150 pounds of honey in the log 

 hive. They were black bees, and tinc- 

 tured with a little yellow. What were 

 they worth ? I offered the man $10 for 

 them. Gould I have afforded to give 

 more ? 



How could they have been divided ? 

 Could a person have driven out about 8 

 quarts of bees with smoke on comb foun- 

 dation, and make 5 or (j good colonies, 

 by buying good, fertile queens from the 

 South, without destroying the original 

 colony ? 



Why does the queen-bee come out in 

 the open air to meet a drone, when there 

 are drones in the same hive ? 



Caledonia, Wis. W. K. 



Answers. — A colony of 50 quarts of 

 bees with 150 pounds of honey, or 190 

 pounds before the 40 pounds were cut 

 away, is something rather unusual; $10 



