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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 20. 



the leading scientific bee-keepers has decided., that the hives 

 aad frames now catalogued as standard by all supply dealers 

 are the nearest approach to perfection that has yet been 

 attained. 



Don't buy hives that take other than a standard frame, 

 for they are sure to be a vexation to you in the end. 



Don't conduct new and costly experiments in your apiary 

 until you have had several years of experience in the more 

 common methods of bee-keeping. By that time you will have 

 learned enough to let the other fellow do the experimenting. 

 Experimenting is costly business, as I happen to know by 

 experience. I followed this will-o'-the-wisp two or three years 

 and made some grand inventions and many new and important 

 discoveries, but just as I was about to turn them over to the 

 bee-keeping public and become its everlasting benefactor, I 

 invariably found that some other seeker had been there 10 or 

 15 years before, and that the thing I had spent so much time 

 and money on had long since been discarded for having no 

 other merit than incumbrance. And so it will be with any 

 that go beyond their light. 



Don't fail to get one or two good standard works on bees, 

 and study them carefully. Besides, subscribe to one or more 

 bee journals, or as many as you can afford. I know the 

 beginner is apt to think he cannot afford any, but the truth is, 

 if he has but one or two colonies of bees, lie cannot afford to 

 do without them. I take six, and my name is not Vanderbilt 

 either, but I get so much practical good out of them I cannot 

 afford to do with less. — Ed. Jolley, in American Bee-Keeper. 



Shade for Hives. 



Sunflowers make a neat, effectual and desirable shade for 

 hives. The seed must be planted early and the ground rich 

 in order to have the plants large enough to furnish shade dur- 

 ing the hot days of June and July. Plant five or six seeds in 

 a row four feet long and a foot south of each hive. As the 

 plants grow they can be thinned out if necessary. A sunflower 

 apiary is decidedly picturesque. — Review. 



Slaking a Feed-Syrup for Bees. 



At the Home of the Honey-Bees they now incline toward 

 a feed-syrup made by putting cold water into the extractor 

 and pouring in sugar while the reel is run. Continue running 

 the thing 10 or 15 minutes. Proportions half and half; or 

 two of water to three of sugar for late feeding. No clubs — 

 but if we follow all of Ernest's feeding plans will not Lincoln's 

 story of the college graduate who came home and plowed, and 

 followed too strictly his father's direction to " drive directly 

 toward the black heifer " — will not that just about describe 

 the crookedness of our furrow 1 — E. E. Hasty, in Review. 





CONOnCTED BY 



DR. J. P. II. BROWnsr, AUGUSTA, GA, 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping In the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department.— Eds. 1 



Most L.ikel}- a L.Byins-W^orker. 



Dr. Brown :— What is best to do in the following case ? I 

 looked through my hives yesterday (being a warm day) for 

 the first time since Nov. 25. I found all had plenty of stores, 

 and appeared to be strong and healthy, but in one colony I 

 found on the center comb a little patch of drone-brona in 

 worker-cells about three inches square. The brood was partly 

 sealed and partly unsealed. I could not find the queen, but I 

 I am not sure that they are queenless, for none of my other 

 queens are laying yet, and this colony had a very fine queen 

 all last year, and was the gentlest 5-banded colony I had. Do 

 you think it is possible that a laying-worker is the cause of 

 it? I shall^Iook at them again in a few days — the next warm 

 day — it has been very cold since. The only reason I think it 

 is drone-brood is because it stands out about 14-inch beyond 

 the comb when sealed, and is regular in every cell for about 3 

 inches square, and all in worker-cells on foundation. Where 



do the eggs come from ? None of the other queens are laying 

 yet. Fruit generally blooms here sometime during February, 

 and they should be starting now. P. C. D. R. 



Abilene, Tex., Jan. 11. 



Answer. — The colony you refer to has either a very small 

 unimpregnated queen, or a laying-worker — most likely the 

 latter. The brood is drone. As soon as you can, give them a 

 frame of unsealed brood to assist and encourage them. They 

 may start queen-cells, but the queens would be of no service 

 from the fact of you having no drones to fertilize them. Still, 

 by giving a frame of brood occasionally you can preserve the 

 colony until you get drones and then allow them to rear a 

 queen. Before this you had better not allow any queen-cells 

 to mature. 



Bee.Smokers — Bee-Quills. 



There is a great deal in being used to a thing, I know, 

 and sometimes it is mighty hard for an old fogy to get used to 

 some of the new-fangled ideas that are set afloat now-a-days. 

 When I began bee-keeping, or rather, when I began " to put 

 on style " in bee-keeping, I did not want to spend much money 

 buying new fixtures. Of course, I had to buy a smoker — not 

 that I could not get along without it (we had been getting 

 along with a roll of rags a long time), but I wanted my neigh- 

 bors to see that I was progressive — I wanted to get ahead by 

 getting something new. I bought a Clark smoker — I got used 

 to it — learned to handle it, and liked it very much. I found 

 one objection to it — it would not last alicays. 



So, after about ten years, I concluded to buy another 

 smoker, and sent to my supply dealer for a Clark smoker, but 

 when I began to smoke with that smoker, I smoked myself 

 instead of the bees — it smoked the wrong way. I sold it to a 

 neighbor, and began to manufacture my own smokers (not for 

 sale) because all the catalogues I could get showed that smoker 

 all twisted out of shape. Not a word have I seen written 

 against the change, and sometimes I wonder if all the good 

 writers are really bee-keepers. Sometimes I think may be 

 the manufacturers are not interested as much in handling 

 bees as in the manufacture of supplies. How practical bee- 

 keepers can tolerate a so-called Clark smoker, with the bel- 

 lows opening next to the nozzle, I cannot understand. Every 

 time it is opened and shut it is a banter to the bees, which 

 they are sure to resent. Has any one ever suggested that the 

 change was an improvement ? 



QUILTS OVER THE FRAMES. 



On page 46 Mr. Thos. Thurlow asks: "What do people 

 use quilts on top of the frames for? What do they do with 

 them when they get covered with propolis," etc.? 



I use a quilt made of smooth cotton cloth, usually called 

 "sheeting," as a covering for the frames or sections, to con- 

 fine the bees in their proper place, because it is cheaper and 

 more easily handled than a board cover. 



When the quilts get pretty well covered with propolis and 

 wax, I give them a good ironing with an iron just warm 

 enough to melt the wax when moved slowly over them several 

 times, and then I have an ideal quilt — a quilt that will keep 

 the bees dry, should there happen to be a leak in the hive- 

 cover. I use the gable hive-cover. 



I kuow nothing of the ripping and cracking that run the 

 bees crazy, but I suggest that when the propolized cloth over 

 a full colony of bees is so very hard that it breaks with a 

 crash, the hive should not be opened unless the bees need feed- 

 ing, as they will surely be injured by exposure to the cold. 



Bessemer, Ala. C. C. Parsons. 



tW Bee-keeping offers additional funds to the poorly 

 paid ; out-door air to clerk and office-hand ; healthful exercise 

 to the person of sedentary habits ; opportunity for the poor to 

 reap what would otherwise go to waste ; and superior recrea- 

 tion to the student, teacher and professional man, especially 

 to him whose life-work is of that dull, hum-drum, routine 

 order that seems to rob life of all zest. — Prof. Cook. 



Xbe mcEvoy Foul Brood Xreatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on "Foul Brood; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



Every Present Sul»scril>er of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. 



