386 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 21, 1900. 



frames, the condensation of moisture on it would give them 

 water in winter as well as in summer. 



Answer. — The above is quite ingenious, to say the 

 least ; and if I really believed that bees needed water while 

 in winter quarters, I might be persuaded to try fenameled 

 cloth for that purpose, as it would be much easier supplying 

 water in that way, than by giving it to them in a sponge at 

 the entrance, as has been recommended many times during 

 the past, where bees were being wintered in the cellar. But 

 bees use water of any account only when breeding rapidlj', 

 and as winter breeding is poor economy in this latitude, 

 and something I do not wish to encourage, I do not care to 

 supplj' that which brings on what is a damage to me ; for I 

 believe winter breeding to be only a damage to any bee- 

 keeper residing at the North. 



I have tried enameled cloth several times over the clus- 

 ter of bees during winter, and, in every case where tried, 

 those colonies did not come out nearly as strong as did those 

 with absorbents over them, while many colonies, in propor- 

 tion to those so tried, died, or were so weak as to be nearly 

 worthless. A few have recommended enameled cloth over 

 the bees during winter, but with me the moisture arising 

 from the bees condenses in drops on the cloth, until they 

 become so large that they fail to hold to the cloth, when 

 they drop down on the bees, thus keeping the bees from 

 damp to wet, and in a condition not suitable to their win- 

 tering in the most perfect order. 



I doubt whether enameled cloth for bee-quilts would 

 ever have been thought of had it not been for its non-stick- 

 ing character. What I mean by this is, a sheet of enameled 

 cloth will not be glued down by the bees so but what it will 

 readily cleave from the top of the frames and hive with a 

 little lifting by one corner. This makes it desirable during 

 summer where a hive is to be opened often, as in the case 

 of queen-rearing, or an experimental hive. Aside from this 

 I think enameled cloth of no advantage, but rather a detri- 

 ment. 



RBARING QUEENS BEFORE SWARMING. 



Question. — I wish to rear some queens before the 

 swarming season of bees arrives. How can I secure royal 

 jelly for the purpose of putting in the cell-cups, aside from 

 queen-cells built in natural swarming ? 



Answer. — I have never found any trouble in securing 

 royal jelly at any time when there is young brood or bees 

 in the larval form in the combs in any hive. All there is 

 to be done is to make a colony queenless which has such 

 larval bees, and in from three to five days, after taking 

 away the queen, you will find cells enlarged and the occu- 

 pants swimming in royal jelly ; or at least to a sufficient 

 extent so that enough can be obtained to start from IS to 30 

 cups, for rearing that many queens. Take the larva out, 

 then with a little stick stir and mix the jelly all up, being 

 careful not to break thru the sides of the cell, when you will 

 have the whole of an even consistency, as that next to the 

 larva is quite thin, while that next to the bottom of the cell 

 is quite thick. 



Now put a quantity in each cell-cup of the amount of a 

 single "B " shot, or about what would amount to three or 

 four turnip or cabbage seeds as to quantity. After once 

 getting started, you will remember to take off one or two of 

 the cell-cups a half day before the bees would seal up the 

 larvK in them, and if you should not wish to use the royal 

 jelly they contain within a few days to two weeks, take out 

 the larva, stir the jelly up as you did the first, when you 

 will hold the mouth of the cell near a stove or lamp till the 

 wax at the end becomes soft, when you will wet the thumb 

 and forefinger and press the end down tight, thus sealing it 

 up as tight as if in a glass can. In this way the jelly can 

 be preserved for some little time, but after two or three 

 weeks it will begin to dry down and change so that it is not 

 acceptable to the bees. 



IS AN EARLY POLLEN SUBSTITUTE NECESSARY ? 



Question. — Is it necessary for bees to have pollen in 

 the hive in early spring, before they can secure it from the 

 fields, for them to rear brood ? 



Answer. — It is my opinion that if such a condition 

 were possible as not to have a single particle of pollen in 

 any of the combs in the hive, and where nothing of the 

 kind could be obtained by the bees from any source, no 

 brood could be reared and brought to perfection, but I doubt 

 the possibility of there being such a condition as absolutely 

 no pollen in any hive having honey enough in it in the fall 

 to carry it over till the pollen-producing flowers open in 

 early spring. All honey contains more or less floating 

 pollen ; combs in which pollen has been stored previously 



contain many particles of the same, according to some of 

 our most scientific bee-keepers ; and where nothing else is 

 available, bees will collect fine particles of wood and use in 

 place of farina from flowers, as I have frequently seen them 

 doing from a pile of fine sawdust which is taken from the 

 shop and thrown out nearly every spring. 



Elisha Gallup told us in the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal, years ago, how he hived a swarm of bees so 

 late one year that they built only three pieces of comb a 

 little larger than the hand, and, as an experiment, he fed 

 them honey all winter, and in early spring they commenced 

 brood-rearing before being taken from the cellar, finally 

 building up to a fine colony and storing considerable sur- 

 plus honey that season. I have had similar experiences, 

 but find that the less pollen there is in the hive the less 

 brood there will be reared, and where there is scarcely any 

 pollen, or what most folks would call none at all, there 

 would be but few cells of brood reared, and this brood be 

 scrimpt in food, and appear weak and sickly. 



Nothing incites brood-rearing like plenty of pollen in 

 the hive, with the necessary honey ; and with the advent of 

 new pollen, brood-rearing commences in earnest. I have 

 fed the bees meal and flour many times, thinking that it 

 would take the place of pollen from the flowers, but after a 

 careful watching I am satisfied that such is not the case, 

 with me. 



amount of smoke to use in handling bees. 



Question. — How much smoke should be used in open- 

 ing hives ? 



Answer. — Well, for a brief answer I would say, the 

 less the better. But that would not fully answer, so I will 

 say, from none up to enough to thoroly subdue the bees, 

 just in accord with the amount necessary for ordinary 

 handling, which means ca?r/«/ handling of the combs and 

 hives — not rushing at and thru them, as a baggage-smasher 

 handles trunks ; the latter being the way some people 

 manipulate bees. 



With the ordinary Italians most colonies can be opened 

 during the spring months without any smoke, but it is 

 always best to have smoke on hand so it can be used in case 

 of an accident with the most peaceable bees. Later on in 

 the season, except with the vicious colonies, two or three 

 pus's of smoke are sufficient to blow over the frames when 

 the hive is first opened. With very vicious colonies, blow 

 8 or 10 puffs in at the entrance, jarring the hive at the same 

 time by pounding on it with the fist, then wait three or four 

 minutes, and on opening it blow four or five puffs over th« 

 frames, and you are master of the situation. 



Borodino Co., N. Y. 



The Bee as a PoUenizer of the Blossoms. 



Sead at the Xorlheasiem Ohio and Wester?i Pennsyhania Cunvention, 

 BY ED JOLLBY. 



THE bee as a pollenizer of the blossoms is one of the 

 greatest of our natural benefactors. The nectar hid- 

 den in the well of the flower is but the bait that lures 

 the bee unwittingly to perform a vastly more important 

 function than gathering and storing honey for either itself 

 or man. 



As we look at the high state of perfection of our apple, 

 peach and pear, our berries and small fruits, our melons 

 and squashes, we are apt to regard them as fixtures, as hav- 

 ing always existed as they now exist, while, in fact, noth- 

 ing could be further from the truth. The present high 

 standard of our fruits represents the labor of the bee for 

 ages. 



No where is the natural law of evolving from a lower 

 to a higher degree of perfection more clearly demonstrated 

 than in the vegetable kingdom. Nearly all of our fruit- 

 bearing trees are double-sext (hermaphrodite), and are capa- 

 ble of being fertilized from their own bloom. But the effect 

 of close in-and-in breeding is just as markt, and just as 

 detrimental in the vegetable kingdom as in the animal ; 

 and to guard against this nature has placed a tiny drop of 

 nectar in each blossom to entice the bee to the blossom. 

 The amount of nectar in each blossom is so small that the 

 bee is obliged to visit blossom after blossom in order to 

 secure its load. In this way the pollen is carried from blos- 

 som to blossom, from tree to tree, and from one variety to 

 another. 



By way of illustration, if you have an orchard of a sin- 

 gle variety — Baldwin apples for instance — and the orchard 

 is so far from any other variety that the bees can not carry 



