1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



409 



PERSONAL MENTION. 



Mr. C. H. Dibbern, of Milan, 111., in a letter dated June 

 17, said : "Bees are now booming on basswood, and are 

 gathering honey freely." 



Chas. Dadant & Son, of Hamilton, 111., in a letter dated 

 June 15, say: "We have been looking for a clover honey 

 crop, and may get it yet. We have a fine prospect for grapes." 



Editor E. E. Root, in Gleanings for June 1, has this 

 appreciated sentence : " The department of ' Personal Men- 

 tion,' in the American Bee Journal, is an interesting feature 

 of that periodical." 



Mrs. E. G. Bradford, of Hagley, Del., wrote on June 

 17: " I find the American Bee Journal a great help, and I 

 am much interested in it. I have fine Italian bees, which give 

 me a great deal of pleasure ; and also a great deal of honey." 



Mr. E. T. Careington, of Pettus, Bee Co., Tex., reported 

 on June 10, that he had averaged 100 pounds of honey per 

 colony so far this year. He says he never saw such a good 

 place for honey as where he lives. Mr. C. is running a small 

 advertisement in our columns. Better look it up. 



Mr. L. Stlvester, of Aurora, 111., called on us last week. 

 He reported that bees were working on sweet clover bloom, 

 which was nearly one month earlier than usual. Last year 

 from that source he secured^ some 1,600 pounds of comb 

 honey. Mr. S. is a contractor and builder, but finds time to 

 take good care of his bees. 



Mr. Geo. W. Bkodbeck, of Los Angeles, Calif., reports 

 very discouragingjy about the prospects for a honey crop this 

 year in that State. He says it was a fortunate thing for him- 

 self that he left his bees last year with an abundance of 

 stores, for otherwise he would have been forced to feed to 

 preserve them. This makes it very unfortunate for the new 

 Bee-Keepers' Exchange, but its members purpose holding to- 

 gether and wait for better times. Surely, all will be interested 

 in the success of the Exchange, and will regret it if anything 

 interferes. 



Mr. James B. Drury, of New Orleans, La., writing on 

 June 13, kindly said : " I do not know how I would get 

 along without the 'Old Reliable.' I take several papers, and 

 I am always most anxious when Saturday comes to get it as 

 soon as possible. I have all the copies, and have a pile of the 

 last year's before me. It_is,a wonder how you can afford to 

 send such a vast mass of reading-matter for the trivial sum of 

 one dollar. Why, Mr. Editor, in some things, if not]all, it is 

 even better than a copy of ' Langstroth Revised,' or ' Bees 

 and Honey,' as they are becoming old, while the American 

 Bee Journal is always up to date." 



Db. Miller, writing on June 17, said this about his bee- 

 work these days : 



" We've had a busy time of it with the bees. Been getting 

 up at 4 o'clock — this morning 4:15 — and working till dark. 

 One evening we didn't get home to supper till 8:30. One 

 trouble has been so much bad weather when we couldn't work. 

 Oh, for some hot weather." 



Seems to us the Doctor is getting out pretty early for a 

 man over 65 years of age. Sixteen hours a day is rather long, 

 though we have often put it in, both on the farm and since 

 being in the city. But then, we are only about half his age. 

 Better take things easier. Doctor, or you won't live to be 100 

 — the length of life your many friends hope you will attain 

 unto, at least. 





CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MILLER. AlARMNGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Ur. Miller direct. 1 



What Ail$ the Bees ? 



On April 24 the bees were all in fairly good condition, and 

 from that time on to June first they fell off gradually ; in order 

 to build them up I united them all, two and two together, but 

 that did not do any apparent good, for at the present time the 

 strongest colony has not a pint of bees. What can be the 

 cause ■? There were very few bees dead around the hives, 

 showing that they must have died in the fields. I saw lots of 

 them come out of the hive, and would try four or five times to 

 fly before they would make it, each trial making only about 

 two or three feet, and then drop to the ground. I also ob- 

 served dead brood in them all, with the brood-nest at the pres- 

 ent time not more than 4 square inches on each side of one 

 frame, with some of the cells having as high as four and five 

 eggs in them. They have lots of honey in the hives. Is it 

 foul brood or bee-paralysis, or were they poisoned from spray- 

 ing the fruit-bloom ? J. S. 



Denver, Colo. 



Answer. — I'm sorry to say I don't know what the trouble 

 is, but it looks a good deal like a case of some kind of poison- 

 ing. If any one has any light to shed upon the case, let him 



rise. 



^ I — ^ 



Getting Bees Into Supers — Controlling Robbing. 



Early in the spring I divided one black and one Italian 

 colony (all I had), thus making four. The blacks reared a 

 queen of their own, the other also, but the latter disappeared 

 on her mating trip. So I got a choice yellow queen from a 

 breeder at San Mateo. We had a long, dry spell, and the bees 

 will not go into the super, although the palmetto is in full 

 bloom, and the lower department is crowded with honey. 

 Also, the yellow ones have developed to be arrant robbers of 

 the two old mother colonies. Now, how shall I break them of 

 that, and how shall 1 make them go above? T. D. 



Pabor Lake, Fla. 



Answers. — If the super is placed directly over the brood- 

 nest, so there is direct and ready entrance, the bees will 

 usually go to work in the super when they have plenty of 

 honey to store there. But sometimes they are slow about it, 

 and something may be done to make them commence work in 

 the super sooner than they otherwise would. If working for 

 extracted honey, put a frame of brood in the super until they 

 commence storing there, although that can be necessary only 

 when there is nothing but foundation in the super. If work- 

 ing for comb honey, put in the super a section containing 

 comb at least partly drawn out. If the comb is fully drawn 

 out, all the better. Such a bait section will be commenced on 

 very promptly, and if the yield is very light, you may have 

 the bait section filled and sealed and not another section 

 touched. But if there is honey enough, the bees will extend 

 their attentions to the other sections. If you have no bait 

 sections, cut a piece of brood out of a brood-frame— drone- 

 brood is as good as any — put it in a section, and put in the 

 super, and if there's any honey to store you will find the bees 

 carrying it into the super. 



Controlling the robbers is not so easy a matter. You can't 

 do anything with the robbers themselves unless you brimstone 

 them or kill them in some other way, so your whole attention 

 must be directed to the bees that arc being robbed. And it's 

 very much harder to break up robbing when once started 



