70 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. 1, 1900. 



— to make the public and us believe that the busy bee is not 

 a busy bee. I should presume the observations he mentions 

 were taken when there was no honey-flow, and when (very 

 naturally) the field-bees were merely prospecting a little 

 once in awhile, and waiting for a change the rest of the 

 time. A normal hive in the busy season has no such num- 

 bers of unoccupied cells as would be required to let each 

 field-bee spend three-quarters of the time snoozing in one. 

 Page 808. 



POWER TO RESIST STINGS. 



The power of the toad, and of some species of birds, to 

 resist stings with little discomfort and no danger is simph' 

 one of the remarkable facts of Nature ; but beyond the fact 

 that it is a fact I fear we shall not be able to travel a great 

 ways. Page 821. 



PICTURE OF THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION — AND A BABY. 



That's a nice picture of the bee-folks in front of the 

 Franklin Institute, page 817. May I tell you that I enjoy 

 looking at the human nature of such pictures about as 

 much as I enjoy looking for my friends ? For instance, 

 that lady in the back row, the effort she is making that the 

 baby may have a fair show — didn't mind so much that she 

 herself is short and nearly hidden. Alas, the wicked 

 camera I Did somewhere near justice by nearly everyone 

 else, and reported the baby's face as a simple white spot. 



LOCALITY AND THE DURABILITY OF HIVES. 



We had resigned ourselves to the freaks of " locality " 

 in almost everything else, but to be told by Mr. Davenport, 

 page 821, that one mile difference of locality may make a 

 great difference in the durability of hives, that kind o' 

 " strikes us sudden like " — comes like a new wave of la 

 grippe when we thought the worst was over. And the 

 worst of it is he seems to be correct. Our hives stand 

 mostly within a few inches of the ground, and when one 

 thinks of it we couldn't expect them to last as well in a 

 damp hollow as on a dry, breezy knoll. The drifting dust 

 of a road close by is an element few of us would have 

 thought of ; yet quite possibly that counts a little. 



CONDDCTED 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 them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor. 1 



Supers on in Winter— Feeding, Etc. 



1. I have 65 colonies on the summer stands. I put the 

 supers on last fall, then covered them with quilts, then with 

 store-boxes turned down over them ; then I packt around 

 them with forest leaves. The hive-entrances are to the 

 south, and boarded up on the north. I wintered them that 

 way last winter, without the loss of a colony. Is it a good 

 idea to put the supers on in the fall ? 



2. What do you consider the best honey-plant ? 



3. Is there a feeder manufactured for feeding bees on 

 the summer stands ? 



4. What do you think about feeding bees in the spring ? 



5. Is there a difference in variety of buckwheat in pro- 

 ducing white or dark honey ? Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. I think a super on the hive with absorb- 

 ent packing is a good thing ; but it's worth twice as much 

 to you to know what the bees think as to know what I 

 think ; and when a certain mode of wintering was entirely 

 successful in so severe a winter as last, you may do well to 

 tie to it. 



2. There is no best honey-plant. What is best in one 

 place is not best in another. For this locality, white clover 

 is worth all the others put together ; yet in some places 

 alfalfa is worth a great deal more than white clover, while 

 alfalfa seems to be worthless here. It is quite likely that 

 in your part of .Indiana white clover in the best hone^'plaut, 



altho it may happen that linden may be worth more. Pos- 

 sibly some other plant. 



3. Yes, a number of them; among them are the Miller 

 feeder for feeding on top, and the Boardman feeder for 

 feeding at the entrance. 



4. Scarcely anything can be more important than to 

 feed in spring if the bees are short of stores. Not only 

 that, it is well to feed till they have enough to last for a 

 considerable time, say a little more than enough to last till 

 they can gather from outside sources. By some means, the 

 bees seem to calculate ahead, and if they have only a very 

 little honey they will not breed as freely as if abundance is 

 in sight. If there is plenty of honey in the hive, there is 

 still such a thing as stimulative feeding, but that sort of 

 feeding is a two-edged sword, and those with little experi- 

 ence will do well to let it alone. 



5. I think you may find a difference in the shade of dif- 

 ferent samples of buckwheat honey, but probably no differ- 

 ence made by the variety. The season and the soil have 

 more to do with it. 



Stores Bees Consume in Winter. 



Here in southern Oregon the winter has been very mild, 

 and no snow yet. My bees have a flight every few days, 

 and sometimes every day for a week. Do they eat more 

 honey when they can fly out than when it is so cold they 

 can't fly ? Oregon. 



Answer. — Yes, the consumption is considerably more 

 when bees fly daily than when it is just cold enough to keep 

 them in the hives. When the cold becomes very severe, 

 then the bees must stir and consume more to keep up the 

 heat, but the days of frequent flights are harder on the 

 stores than the severe cold. But some of those in severe 

 climates would be glad to swap places with you, even if it 

 does cost more stores. 



Banliing Earth Around Hives. 



My 84 colonies have just had their first flight in a 

 month ; loss of bees small, but dysentery commenced, 

 which will no doubt disappear, as we have had a few fine 

 days for bees to fly. Hives are badly spotted, and one hive- 

 entrance is a perfect sight of the effects of dysentery. I 

 have a neighbor one mile away who banks ground about 

 the back end and sides of the hives ; he has wintered very 

 successfully for several seasons, and reports his bees as at 

 present entirely free from any dysentery. Do you suppose 

 this bankitig of dirt about hives has rendered his colonies 

 free from it ? It is the only reason I can assign for it. The 

 temperature has been zero but a few mornings, and rang- 

 ing most of the time of mornings from 15 to 25 degrees. My 

 bees are in single-walled hives. Ohio. 



Answer. — Cold is one of the important factors in pro- 

 ducing diarrhea, so banking up to make the bees warmer 

 might make no small difference in the matter. 



Candied Honey—" Hot " Honey— Extracting. 



1. I wish to enquire about candied honey. I have been 

 in the business four seasons — the first two seasons I didn't 

 see a pound of candied honey. Altho some of the old honey 

 was kept over till new honey began to come, it was clear 

 and bright, but the third crop candied some the next winter 

 and spring, and the early honey of the present season com- 

 menced candying in the fall. A gentleman living four or 

 five miles away said he didn't know why his honey should 

 candy and mine not. 



Why was it ? Was it because at the first my extracting- 

 combs were all fresh and new — just produced from the comb 

 foundation ? 



2. Will a dipper that has candied honey on it, if put inio 

 clear honey, cause the clear honey to candy ? 



3. What is honey produced from, that is sometimes so 

 " hot," or causes such a smarting sensation in the throat, 

 that it can hardly be eaten ? It may otherwise be of excel- 

 lent quality. What is a remedy for it ? 



4. I have noticed that my early honey was not of as 

 good flavor as that produced in the latter part of the sea- 

 son ; some of it had the flavor of syrup made from light 

 brown sugar. A little was so objectionable that it was 

 hardly marketable. In. addition it gave ppnsiderable ef the 



