38 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 18, 1900. 



look a little out for those fuels which can not be dried except 

 in part. Page 776. 



UKE A woman's last WOKD— BUT SENSIBLE. 



It may sound a little like a woman's last word, but all 

 the same it's a sensible word, where the editor saj's, " Don't 

 use barrels unless you know that you can use them without 

 leakin g. " Page 776. 



COLOR cards for grading honey. 



I hardly know where I stand as to the proposed color 

 cards to grade honey by (page 777). Mj- practice has all 

 along been to look thru hone.v to grade it ; yet I am aware 

 that strong objections can be made. Between a greasy- 

 looking section with the cappings touching the honey — said 

 honej- being white — and a section witli snow-white capping 

 and deep air-spaceover quite dark honey, I strongh' suspect 

 a majoritj' of customers would choose the latter, as more 

 ornamental and just as good to the taste. 



ASTER as a HONBY-PLANT. 



A botanist would be apt to smile audibly at Mr. 

 Schmidt's fear that folks may think there are two kinds of 

 aster, when really there is but one. The flora I use de- 

 scribes /or/v-o^ii' species, not counting those of the Gulf re- 

 gion and Pacific coast, either. The picture is verj' life-like, 

 and the species it shows is the leading one here, at Ohio's 

 north line, just as he finds it to be at the southern end of 

 the State. Something I have read in the past makes me 

 think it is still better in Tennessee — and a material addi- 

 tion to the honej'-resources there — as here it is not. Bees 

 are only occasionally seen on it here ; and the amount of 

 their gatherings from it never totals much, I think. And I 

 am just illiberal enough to suggest that, even down in 

 Hamilton County, that strong and peculiar smell he notices 

 at the hives comes from some entirely different plant. 

 Page 785. 



retarding foul brood with N.APHTHALENE. 



Comrade Dudley has a brilliant plan to r'etard foul 

 brood by vapor of naphthalene until the apiarist can cure it 

 at his leisure and convenience. Prof. Cook, as it seems on 

 page 786, thinks the vapor would have to be strong enough 

 to drive the bees out to do it. Apparently there is a bad 

 misprint in that article. As 33 to 1,000 is not "one in 3,000," 

 presumablj' the first figures should read 0.33. 



THOSE OUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



Mr. H. H. Hyde seems to hate 'em bad — those queen- 

 excluders — and so back into heathenish darkness he would 

 have us all go. Page 786. 



keeping mice out of STRAW MATS. 



Mice kept out of a stack of straw mats in summer b}' 

 plenty of ashes in each interval. Sir Mouse can't nibble in 

 such a stack without getting his fur full of ashes, which 

 would soon mean a sore skin — ergo he decamps directly. 

 Quite an invention ; altho the fuss of building the stack 

 must be considerable. C. P. Dadant, page 787. 



hiving SWARMS WITH NUCLEI. 



Dr. Miller " has the drop " on Mr. Doolittle as to four 

 carefully observed cases of hiving swarms with nuclei with- 

 out special precautions. All the same Mr. Doolittle's way 

 is far the safest for the boys to follow, and the precautions 

 are not burdensome. Page 788. 



boiling foul-broody honey. 



Dr. Mason's saying, on page 789, that to boil foul- 

 broody honey is sufficient, regardless of the time, marks 

 very decidedly one of the phases of opinion on an impor- 

 tant point. I think a majority of authorities incline to 

 favor the long boiling. Quite possibly this divergence 

 arises partly from the difi'erence between laboratory work 

 and out-in-the-yard work. Spores which a laboratory man 

 could coax back into life may be that far gone that they are 

 not dangerous in the yard. 



BEES AS STRAWBERRY POLLENIZERS. 



The pollenization of flowers bj' bees is all right. The 

 importance of the thing both to the bee-man and to the gen- 

 eral public is very great. We are doing just right to keep 

 up considerable racket about it, lest folks forget somehow. 

 Still, I must scold a little about that editorial quotation on 

 page 793, where W. H. Jenkins thinks he lost several hun- 

 dred dollars in strawberries for lack of bees — fruit mostly 

 buttons instead of luscious berries. Now if Mr. Jenkins 



sees bees habitually on the strawberry bloom where he 

 lives, I'll take back what I'm saying as far as he is con- 

 cerned ; but the probability is that he does not. It is quite 

 rare. Our bees are wonderful creatures, but they are not 

 equal to the task of doubling the strawberry crop by look- 

 ing on from a distance. My impression is, that the pollen 

 of the strawberry is not adhesive, but circulates with the 

 wind freely, and that the insects that help in strawberry 

 pollenization are mostly minute insects, which escape gen- 

 eral observation by being so small. Certainly magnificent 

 berries in great quantities are often produced — nay, usually 

 produced — without a bee touching the patch at all. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DTt. C. O. MILLER. Marengo, 111. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer thera here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor. 1 



StImMlative Feeding in ttie Spring. 



Nest spring I would like to try stimulative feeding on 

 two colonies of bees, and, when the,v are strong enough, di- 

 vide them and buy a queen for the queenless half. 



1. How early should I begin to feed ? 



2. How much feed should I give at a time ? 



3. What time of the day should I give the feed ? 



4. Should I use two stories for brood, or one ? 



I have " Langstroth on the Honey-Bee" to explain di- 

 viding. Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. Begin after bees are flying freely about 

 every day. If you begin when it is cold and chilly, the bees 

 will be induced to fl)' out when it is too cold for them, and 

 the number chilled and lost will not be made good by your 

 feeding. 



2. Give half a pint to a pint of thinned honey or sugar 

 syrup daily. 



3. In the evening. Less danger of robbing then, and 

 the bees will not be so much excited to fly if the weather is 

 a little cool ; but you may better not feed when weather is 

 too cool. 



4. Use one story till it is full ; then a second ; altho 

 there is no harm in having a second before it is needed. 



5. Keep studying your "Langstroth" carefully, and 

 you will not get very far astray. 



Italianizing Blacl( Colonies of Bees. 



I have 26 colonies of black bees in dovetail and Lang- 

 stroth hives ; also one colony of Italians whose queen I got 

 from Ohio last spring. I introduced her successfully, and 

 she soon had a very strong colony of pure Italians. Next 

 spring I wish to Italianize or hybridize my black colonies, 

 as I find they are unable to protect themselves against the 

 robbing Italians. I would like the best and simplest method 

 of doing so, for one of limited experience. Wis. 



Answer. — The first thing of importance is to study 

 well some of the fundamental principles that you will find 

 in your text-book, the mastery of which will be worth to 

 j'ou the cost of the book several times over ; and then you 

 can better tell just what plan will best suit you. 



As j'ou probably allow your bees to swarm, here is a 

 plan that will work well with one having little experience : 



See that your Italian colony, which we will call No. 1, 

 has plenty of stores in spring so it will breed up strong, 

 and give it brood from other colonies so as to get it to swarm 

 first. When it swarms, put the swarm on the stand of No. 

 1, and set No. 1 in place of another strong colon3', say No. 2, 

 setting No. 2 in a new place. No. 1 will thus get the flying 

 force of No. 2, and in two or three days will be nearly as 

 strong as it was before. In a week or 10 days a young queen 

 will emerge, and a swarm will issue from No. 1. Hive the 

 swarm on the present stand of No. 1. and put No. 1 in'place 



