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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 30, 



they offer extra inducements to the bee-moth to lay her eggs 

 In the cracks and trash that is too large to drop through. 

 They also would make more work for the bees, for bees, when 

 they find an opening in the hive that they cannot pass 

 through, are almost sure to block it up with propolis, which 

 would thereby make the V useless. 



I say, give your bees a one-piece bottom-board ; keep them 

 strong in bees, and you will always have clean bottom-boards, 

 even into the very corners. 



A steamboat clerk told me the other day, that in 1894 he 

 brought down from the Ouachita river (central Louisana), for 

 a Mr. J. C. Mann, 50 barrels of honey and 10,000 pounds of 

 beeswax (wax selling here for 28 cents per pound), all taken 

 from bee-trees. '-Wild honey and wax," as he expressed it, 

 all taken that summer. New Orleans, La., June IS. 



CONDUCTED BY 



OR. C C. MILLER, AfAREKGO, LLL, 



IQuestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct. 1 



Bees Kot Storing Surplus Honey. 



Why don't my bees store surplus honey ? They are strong 

 colonies, and seem to be busy ; and, indeed, they seem to work 

 in the sections, but on examination I find nothing done. I 

 thought this was going to be an abundant honey year. One 

 of these colonies last year cast a heavy swarm, and stored 

 about 50 pounds of nice honey. J. E. 



Baldwin, Pa. * 



AS.SWEK. — I don't know. As the bees did well last year, 

 it can hardly be that you have a lazy strain of bees. Quite 

 possibly the fault is in the pasture. If the plants don't yield 

 nectar, no matter how busily the bees may work for the little 

 they can get, there will be no storing of surplus. And some- 

 times bloom is abundant, but nectar almost entirely absent. 



Tic-ious Bees that are Good Workers. 



Have you ever at this time of the year where bees were 

 working with all their might, had them so vicious that they 

 would sting any and every thing that came near them ? If 

 not, you can find 36 colonies in my apiary that would put to 

 shame so many hives full of hornets. My bee-yard is in a 

 quiet place, and surrounded by high board fences and grape- 

 vines, so that the bees cannot see any one going from the 

 house to the barn, yet as soon as any of us are on the back 

 porch the bees are after us, and unless one is careful to keep 

 his face covered, he is sure to get stung ; and when I am 

 working among them with a veil and smoker, they will sting 

 my veil and clothing, and will keep up until I leave the yard. 



They have been vicious all this season so far, yet they are 

 bringing in the honey as they never have done before. They 

 have filled the second super, and it looks as if they were good 

 for three or four more. 



With these same bees last season I could sit and read the 

 paper in the bee-yard under the shade-trees without veil or 

 smoker, and the bees paid no attention to it. What do you 

 suppose makes them so vicious ? They are pure-blooded 

 Italians ? 



In the Bee Journal of Nov. 14, 1895, page 734, there 

 seems to be a case mentioned like mine. Some one seems to 

 make sport of the one who said his bees were vicious while 

 they were gathering honey ; I think if he could visit my api- 

 ary in the middle of the day, he would change his mind about 

 vicious bees in times of plenty. If you can give any reason, 

 or any remedy, or if any of our "big guns" can help me out, 

 I would be pleased to have them do so. I have neighbors who 



live at least 300 to 400 feet from my bee-yard, whose chil- 

 dren were stung several times last month, and some older peo- 

 ple. I am afraid if they keep this up that it will get me into 

 trouble with my neighbors, but I hope not. L. S. 



Aurora, III. 



Answer. — If any one makes fun of the idea that bees may 

 be cross when gathering honey, he simply doesn't know what 

 he's talking about. I've had them very much as you describe. 

 Neither do I believe you know what you're talking about when 

 you say you have 36 colonies of such demons. You may have 

 an enviable reputation for truth and veracity among your 

 neighbors, but I think there are about 34 colonies of those 

 bees that you vilely slandered, and they could recover dam- 

 ages if they would sue you for slander in any court of justice. 

 I know that the air seems full of the vicious things, and they 

 are all over the apiary, but if you'll take the pains to examine 

 very closely, you'll find the trouble is all confined to one or 

 two colonies. Of course, 1 don't know for certain, but I'm 

 telling you what I think. 



Examine very carefully and closely, and see if you can't 

 trace the culprits to one particular hive. Just think a minute 

 of the number of bees in that hive, and if one out of a hun- 

 dred of them should start out after you and follow you up all 

 over the apiary and a good ways from it, it would seem as if 

 the whole apiary had gone mad. Having found the right hive, 

 find its queen and just decently mash her up fine, and then 

 give them a queen of better disposition. You will expect the 

 temper of the bees to change as soon as the old bees have died 

 off and the young ones have taken their place, but that hasn't 

 been my experience. Instead of waiting six weeks to find bet- 

 ter-natured bees, the change came in a few days after the 

 change of queens. I know it doesn't seem reasonable to be- 

 lieve so, and I don't know why it should be so, but I've had 

 such cases several times, and the change of temper always 

 seemed to come within a few days after the change of queens. 



Basswood Blossoms but Xo llouey Oatlicred. 



I send you a little box of basswood blossoms by mail. 

 What is the cause that the bees don't work on them, for I can 

 see nectar in them? P. J- K. 



Greenwood, Wis. 



Answer. — I don't know. So far as the appearance of the 

 blossoms is concerned, they appear just as good as any. And 

 yet for some reason that I have never seen explained, there 

 are times when a honey-plant may be profusely blooming and 

 yet yield no nectar. Clover is sometimes guilty in this way. 

 Perhaps it may be in the electrical conditions of the atmos- 

 phere, or something of the kind. Again, a plant may be yield- 

 ing and bees do not visit it because they have all they want to 

 do on some other plant that they prefer. Yet linden is a 

 great yielder and a great favorite, and it would be hard to be- 

 lieve that when it is yielding well the bees would prefer some- 

 thing else. Again, a plant may not be visited by the bees be- 

 cause there is but little of it, whereas the bees prefer that 

 which blooms by the acre. But in Wisconsin lindens generally 

 grow on a large scale. On the whole, you will probably be 

 obliged to be contented to live in ignorance upon this as well 

 as some other points connected with bee-keeping. 



iVon-Swarming and Loaling Bees. 



In the Bee Journal have been some articles about non- 

 swarming bees, or breeding out the swarming habit. I wish 

 my bees would swarm instead of loafing in great clusters on 

 the front of the hive, not going in even when it rains. They 

 are not doing much in the surplus department, and not many 

 drones are flying. I have had two swarms in five years. I 

 introduced a Carniolan queen in one colony, which I heard 

 were great on swarming, but they hang out worse than the 

 Italians do, but are doing a little belter in the sections. 

 * Now, I am not advertising non-swarming bees — I have no 



