1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



wax, or, if nice and clean, are used again the next season. In 

 using these sections. Miss C. puts a row at each of the sides of 

 the super, and one row in the middle, and fills out with new 

 sections, using separators between each row. She thinks it 

 pays to use them in this way. 



Miss Candler puts the supers on when the raspberries be- 

 gin to bloom— being about two weeks before clover begins to 

 bloom— and gives the bees plenty of time to get ready for 

 storing the honey, if there is any. But the] last few years 

 have been so dry, that the clover is nearly all gone, and her 

 harvest has been mostly from basswood and fall flowers. 



She winters her bees on the summer stands, in a box or 

 frame with a hole cut in, to come even with the entrance of 

 the hive. To the top edge is tacked a piece of canvas or mus- 

 lin. This is set over the hive and filled in with sawdust. It 

 is something like a sack, which is pinned shut over the top of 

 the hive with pins. Her bees winter better when prepared in 

 this way, than in any other way she has tried. 



Miss Candler attended some of the sessions of the late 

 Illinois convention, where we had the pleasure of meeting her. 

 We hope to hear occasionally from her by way of something 

 from her experience in the bee-yard. We wish all women bee- 

 keepers to feel free to "have their say " in the Bee Journal. 

 This is one of their " rights " we shall take pleasure in seeing 



that they get. 



*-»-^ 



The Next North American Meeting— where 

 will it be held ■? Again we want to suggest the experiment 

 of following the G. A. R. encampment this year. As the 

 Grand Army meets in St. Paul in September, and that city 

 will be pretty well crowded then, we think that Minneapolis 

 would be the proper place. All could get round-trip tickets 

 to St. Paul, and then a small street car fare would take 

 them to Minneapolis in a few minutes more. It seems to 

 us this plan is worth trying, as the railroad fare will be only 

 one cent a mile at that time. 



While we know that it was practically decided at the St. 

 Joseph convention that the North American in 1896 should 

 go to Lincoln, Nebr., still we also know those good Western 

 people are willing that the success of this year's meeting shall 

 not be prevented by holding the North American so strictly to 

 its pledges in a matter of this kind. Doubtless some other 

 year, and that very soon, the G. A. R. will meet in Lincoln or 

 Omaha, and then, if we find it a good thing to follow it 

 around, there will be such a big meeting of bee-keepers as will 

 simply astound our Nebraska friends, although accustomed to 

 big things. 



What does the Executive Committee say ? Will they let 

 the North American try the plan of assuring its members of 

 low rates, by meeting with the G. A. R.? We would like to 

 see it just once, any way, for we feel that ever afterward it 

 would be the settled thing, and then wherever the annual G. 

 A. R. meeting is announced, all bee-keepers would know that 

 the North American will be there, too. 



Asking: Questions to be answered in the depart- 

 ment of " Questions and Answers" is all right for any or all 

 who are subscribers to the Bee Journal. But we have no 

 space to waste on people who do not think enough of the Bee 

 Journal to pay for it and get it regularly. We invite our pay- 

 ing subscribers to send in their questions — to us or Dr. Miller 

 — but we do not feel under any obligations to answer questions 

 in the Bee Journal when asked by a bee-keeper who is trying 

 to " sponge " his information. We have just had such a case 

 — a fellow in Kentucky who ordered this journal for some 

 time, refused to pay for it, and then sent Dr. Miller a lot of 

 questions, with the request that they " be answered in the 

 American Bee Journal." Not much. Only honest people can 

 patronize our question and answer departments, if we know it. 





mm^^^M 



iMim 



How to Feed Bees Profitably. 



The rapid breeding in the early part of the season uses up 

 the stores in the hive and very frequently leaves the combs 

 empty at the beginning of the honey harvest, and they will be 

 filled with the choicest honey from the flowers before the sec- 

 tions will receive any attention from the bees ; and sometimes, 

 in a poor season, this takes about all of the honey that the 

 bees are able to gather and there will be nothing for the bee- 

 keeper to show but stings. 



This has seemed to me to be a grand opportunity for suc- 

 cessful and profitable feeding, and I have made it an opportu- 

 nity for exchanging sugar for honey by feeding the bees liber- 

 ally at this time, filling their store-combs with sugar syrup for 

 winter stores, and getting in exchange the choicest honey from 

 the flowers in the sections. By this plan there is a possibility 

 of some surplus if any honey is gathered from the field. 



Of course there is a premium on this exchange, just how 

 much depends on several things. 



A part of the feed given at this time will be converted into 

 young bees, which will become a part of the working-force to 

 gather the surplus honey, and a part will be sealed up in the 

 store-combs for winter stores. The part that becomes winter 

 stores is without doubt a safe investment. The part which is 

 consumed in rearing brood, rearing more bees to gather more 

 honey, is, I am sure, still better. 



Sugar and water in about equal parts thoroughly dissolved 

 is all that is needed. Don't try to fix up or doctor it in any 

 way, let the bees do that themselves. Don't imagine that you 

 can help the bees in their work of ripening the feed at any 

 time by making it thicker. 



You will only hinder instead of helping them. Don't feed 

 too fast ; aLiout '6 pounds of sugar per day is enough. 



The wide-awake farmer feeds and cares for his horses to 

 increase their working ability; his cows for the milk and but- 

 ter ; his sheep for the wool, and the poultry for the eggs. No 

 sensible-up-to-the-times-farmer would think of making his 

 business profitable without he did this, and yet there are very 

 many bee-keepers who seem to cling to the uncertain possibili- 

 ties of the bees working for nothing and boarding themselves ; 

 of getting a crop without any outlay. 



But suppose the season should be a failure, how are you 

 going to get your money back that you have paid out for 

 sugar? I have been asked. My bees will be ready for busi- 

 ness when the next season opens, instead of hovering on the 

 ragged edge of starvation for half the year and then have to 

 be fed to be worth anything.— H. R. Boakdman, in Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review. 



Windbreaks. 



In regard to windbreaks, I would not advise going to the 

 expense of setting out trees of any kind, because it takes so 

 many years for them to mature sufficiently to be of any ser- 

 vice. It is true, we have around our apiary a row of tall ever- 

 greens ; but they have been 17 years in growing, and it is 

 only for the last three or four years that they have been of 

 much service. They make a perfect windbreak— the very best 

 —but they are very expensive ; and by the time they would be 

 of service many an apiarist might be out of the business. As 

 a general rule we would advise the selection of a locality where 

 natural windbreaks may be found. The apiary can often be 

 located in the L that is sometimes formed by the barn and 

 wagonshed. If, however, there is only one place where the 

 apiary can be located, and that has no windbreak, I would 

 advise putting up a tight board fence, say six or eight feet 

 high, using cedar posts if you can get them. This will last a 

 good many years, and be ready for immediate use. 



No, windbreaks do no harm in shutting out summer- 

 breezes. If the tees have sufficient entrance they can create 

 ventilation enough to keep the hive cool, providing they have 

 a little assistance in the way of shade.— E. R. Root, in Glean- 

 ings. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 

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

 scribe for it. 



