1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



73 



will also be seen that California isn't found at all among those 

 worthy of special mention. 



But here is another paragraph touching on the honey-yields 

 for 1889: 



In 1889 one State — Iowa— produced over 6,000,000 pounds. 

 Three States — New York. Illinois and Missouri — produced each 

 over 4,000,000 pounds. Three States — Texas, Wisconsin and Cali- 

 fornia — produced each 3,000,000. Seven produced each, over 3,000,- 

 000, and six over 1,000,000 pounds each. Every state produced 

 honey, the least being Montana, the next Wyoming, which pro- 

 duced 305 pounds. Idaho, which produced none in 1869 or 1879, 

 records 37,146 pounds for 1889. 



In the above, it shows that Iowa produced just twice as much 

 honey as California in 1889 ! We're afraid the apiarian statistics 

 of the past need revising. We hope the Government will take 

 hold of the matter in real earnest, and see to it that proper api- 

 arian reports are gathered in the same manner as those relating to 

 other productions of the farms of our country. We think a few 

 questions relating to bee-culture should be printed on all blanks 

 used by assessors who annually make their visits among those who 

 produce honey and many other crops. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. AIILr.ER, AIAJBtEKGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.] 



Does Feeding Bees Sugar Affect their Gathering 

 from Flowers 3 



wmmm^ 



There is an old German proverb which says : " Bienen die 

 mit Zucker gefuettert werden hoeren bald auf Honig in den 

 Bhimen zu siichen." Translated it reads : Bees that are fed 

 with sugar soon stop gathering honey from flowers. I would 

 like to know how much truth there is in it? J. S. 



Answer. — I don't believe there's anything in it. For some 

 reason bees prefer the nectar of flowers to any solution of 

 sugar, and if you feed them the latter when no flowers are to 

 be found, they may take it greedily, but as soon as they find a 

 chance to gather the genuine nectar, they will quickly neglect 

 the sugar. I could never observe that bees worked with any 

 less vigor on flowers after having been fed upon any substi- 

 tute. In the same way I have seen bees working very indus- 

 triously on some substitute for pollen, as ground corn and 

 oats, but as soon as natural pollen was to be had the meal was 

 deserted, and the bees worked with a will bringing in great 

 loads of pollen. 



Two-Story Eight-Frame Hives- 

 Bee-Zinc. 



-Objects to 



On page 810 mention is made of ten colonies of bees in 

 two-story 8-frame hives, and the following questions were 

 asked about them : 



1. When were the second stories given, or were they on 

 all the season ? 



2. How strong were the colonies in the spring ? 



3. How were they in the fall ? 

 4 . What was the crop ? 



5. Can you tell us how they compared with one-story col- 

 onies ? 



6. Were they run for comb or extracted honey ? 

 To these questions H. E. L. replies as follows : 



Answers. — 1. The second stories were put on in spring 

 to increase the laying-room of the queen, and they are there 

 yet as a two-story hive for winter. This Is the first season's 

 trial with the two-story hive (I mean two-stories for the queen 

 and her brood). 



2. On an average, weak and short of stores. 



3. Very strong and very heavy. 



4. 50 pounds per colony, not forgetting that the season 

 was very poor. A near neighbor did not average 25 pounds in 



his apiary, beside leaving all colonies with less than half as 

 much as my colonies have left to winter on. 



5. The above explains this question, as he confined all his 

 colonies (the queen rather) in the one lower story by means of 

 a queen-excluder above it, and a second-story for extracted 

 honey. The queen-excluder, to my notion, is to the queen 

 what the chain is to the dog, besides being a stumbling-block 

 for the poor loaded bees to stumble over, that is, squeeze 

 through the close-fitting openiug. Who can tell how much 

 honey is lost by the use of those expensive excluders'? 



6. All were run for extracted honey, three and four stor- 

 ies, the strongest one having at one time five stories. 



East St. Louis, III. H. E. L. 



Answer : — Like many another thing that is good, 1 sup- 

 pose b3e-ziuc may be abused as well as used. Comparing your 

 results with those of your neighbor, it looks very much as if it 

 has been a damage to him, that is, supposing there was no 

 material difference between your management and his except 

 the matter of queen-excluders. Used with judgment, howev- 

 er, bee-zinc is certainly a grand invention. Just how much 

 harm is done by forcing worker-bees to pass through the per- 

 forations I suppose it would be difficult to determine. 



One can judge perhaps something about it by having bee- 

 zinc at the entrance of a hive and watching the bees as they 

 pass through it. At first it seems something new to them, 

 and they don't pass in and out of the hive as readily as with- 

 out it, but after a day or so it seems to make very little differ- 

 ence. Only by a good deal of observation and comparsion 

 could one tell very much about its use in the case of extracted 

 honey. If you had used excluders over your second story it is 

 possible there might have been some good in it in the way of 

 keeping the queen out of the combs used in the extractor and 

 also keeping pollen out of them. Still, it is possible that there 

 may be some advantages in allowing the queen free range. 

 Will you kindly tell us. if you can, about how many combs of 

 brood were in the hive at the height of the season, and wheth- 

 er the brood was spread throughout the several stories or in 

 which stories it was ? Also tell us how many of them swarmed. 

 Thanks for the information already given. 



Does Artificial Pollen Ferment in the Cell ?- 

 it Paralysis ? 



Is 



1. Does common wheat flour or meal, used as a substitute 

 for pollen in early spring, undergo fermentation when the 

 bees fill up the cell, in which it has been stored, with new 

 honey ? 



2. When bees are busily working on the second crop of 

 red clover I notice that many of them are affected by what 

 seems to be "paralysis." Is the trouble due to the nectar- 

 secretions of the clover, or is the weather accountable, being 

 at that time extremely warm and dry ? W. W. M. 



Wheelersburg, Ohio. 



Answers. — 1. Probably no more than the natural pollen. 

 Pollen or any of its substitutes may undergo fermentation 

 under favorable circumstances, but not when properly taken 

 care of by the bees. I've seen what was supposed to be good 

 extracted honey froth and run over the jar that contained it, 

 on account of the floating pollen in the honey. 



2. I don't suppose the clover has anything to do with it. 

 If bee-paralysis is what you mean, that's a disease that opin- 

 ions are unsettled about at present, further than it is due to a 

 bacillus, and there's no certainity that the weather is in any 

 way accountable for it. 



M I ^ 



Swarming Out— A Stray Queen. 



1. I have a colony of bees which are cross and bad to 

 handle. They will pitch at you if you are not any where near 

 the hive yourself. They were the first from a swarm of very 

 quiet bees, and they have been very cross ever since they lived 

 in this hive. 



2. Last spring I had a colony in a 10-frame Langstroth 

 hive with plenty of honey and nice, clean combs, but they 

 swarmed out. I tried to stop them and make them cluster, 

 but it was impossible — they would not cluster at all. I threw 

 water into them, but no use. They flew for aboutone hour, 

 and then went northwest to a neighbor's apiary and settled 

 on a wash-tub half filled with water for watering bees. I of 

 course followed them and got them back home again, and then 

 into the same hive again. Then the queen began to lay all 

 right, but in about a week they swarmed out attain, leaving hive, 

 honey and brood. They went right over to the same neighbor 



