Dec. 13, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



793 



under the eye of the operator, she will, when corralled 

 with this piece of wire, quickly attempt to climb out 

 of the enclosure, especially so when the frame is 

 slightly jarred or the breath is gently blown upon her. 

 In doing- the latter, it is well to remember that unless 

 the bees have been properly subdued, they are apt to 

 show a very decided resentment. Now, when the 

 queen is crossing the wire, and before she can catch 

 hold of the comb again with her front feet, lift her off 

 the comb. A fertile queen takes wing very reluct- 

 lantly, and there is little danger of losing her, for the 

 left hand is to be placed over her at once, while the 

 cage is held in the right, allowing the queen to run 

 up out of the closed fist of the left hand into the well- 

 lighted cage above. All this can be done very quickly, 

 with no danger, practically, of hurting the queen. 



ho! the aster flower! 



I want to speak of the wild aster — the "little 

 daisies," — which bloom here beginning about Sept. 20, 

 and continue thruout the greater part of October. At 

 no time during the season of bee-work do I find my 

 enthusiasm running so high as when these flowers are 

 in full bloom. When the atmospheric conditions are most 

 favorable for nectar secretion, the little blossoms seem 

 fairly to drip with the crystal juices. The aroma is exceed- 

 ingly pronounced, and it can easily be detected by one when 

 several hundred yards from the apiary, upon a still evening 

 after a good day's work by the bees. 



When first gathered the honey is so thin that it will run 

 out of the combs, if great care is not used in handling them. 

 As to color, it ranks well %vith white clover, and owing to its 

 most peculiar flavor, and the intimate acquaintance I have 

 formed with it, I am very fond of aster honey. However, it 

 has a habit of granulating very quickly, even excelling in 

 this the celebrated alfalfa honey. I believe it is a rule that 

 whenever bees are enabled to gather a load of nectar 

 quickly, and likewise enabled to dispose of it by having the 

 hive provided with an abundance of storage-room — ready- 

 drawn combs — the honey has an increast tendency to 

 granulate. 



The Italian bees, as all know who have tested their 

 merits as honey-gatherers, are largely inclined, during a 

 good honey-flow, to devote themselves more to the storing 

 of honey than to the rearing of brood. Now this trait of 

 the Italian bee is not altogether an advantage here, for I 

 have known large colonies of these bees rendered practically 

 worthless at the closing of the season of the aster bloom by 

 their indisposition to remain at home to act in the capacity 

 of a nurse when honey in abundance awaits them in the 

 fields. The early honey harvest having closed ere the latter 

 days of July, the greater part of the colony is represented in 

 field-workers, well advanced in life, just as they enter upon 

 the period when is to be made the wildest rush for honey 

 during the entire season. The brood-combs are quickly 

 filled with honey from top to bottom, and the space occu- 

 pied by brood growing smaller all the while, till it becomes 

 practically nothing. The queen may approve of this, or it 

 may be that she does not, tho the giving of extracting-combs 

 does not divert, to any appreciable extent, their purpose to 

 store in the combs below. 



With hybrid bees the case is somewhat different ; and 

 with the pure black bees I find it is largely so. They will 

 nearly always be found, at the close of the season, in better 

 condition as regards bees to withstand the climate, but less 

 fitted in stores. 



The aster plants, when once introduced along the road- 

 side and in the waste places, quickly overrun the meadow- 

 lands, therefore the farmers regard it as a hateful weed, 

 and are always on the alert to prevent its getting a start. 

 But with all their vigilance the aster somehow seems to 

 flourish, and it is no uncommon thing for a good bloom to 

 appear before the arrival of cool weather, upon the same 

 land from which a crop of hay has been harvested. 



A field of asters in full bloom is pretty to look upon, at 

 least when considered wholly in the light of a honey-plant. 

 The snowy whiteness is approacht unto, not equaled, by 

 the old-time buckwheat ; for the aster excels both in beauty 

 and in nectar secretion. Coming at a time of the year when 

 all other plants, from whose flowery fountains the bees 

 gather honey, have long since dried up, its importance to 

 the bee-keeping industry becomes second to no flower that 

 blossoms in the Ohio valley. Scioto Co., Ohio, Nov. 2. 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth worb- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



Queen-Rearing Apiary of D. J. Blocker. 



A Queen-Rearing Apiary in Nortliern Illinois. 



BY D. J. BLOCKER. 



MY queen-rearing apiarj' is located in a village of about 

 700 inhabitants. There are houses all around me. To 

 the left of the apiary is a dense growth of raspberries, 

 and behind the raspberries the Warfield strawberry. At 

 the bottom of the picture is shown a dense growth of vege- 

 tables. Back of the apiary about 40 feet is a street, and to- 

 the right (but not seen) about 60 feet is another street. I 

 am in the corner of a block. To the right of the picture, 

 near the center, is part of a circle — this is a walk running 

 between the apiary and my house. This walk is used all 

 the time, and is only about IS feet from the first bee-hives. 



The girl in the picture is my oldest daughter, Ruth^ 

 She is standing very close to the hives. 



I am in the early garden-plant business, and some small 

 fruit, too. The two streets that bound our lots on two sides 

 are the finest in town. 



We keep the apiary mowed with a lawn-mower, as well 

 as the streets. All together it makes a nice scene in sum- 

 mer time, and with all the visitors and customers my bees 

 have given no trouble to any one. They do not even molest 

 the family, that are all the time about. 



My yard is now put on improved plans for rearing im- 

 proved queens. Inferior bees will not be allowed in this- 

 yard. It has some very fine queens, and bees that are not 

 behind in the production of honey. The past three years 

 have been very poor, and yet my honey colonies averaged 

 from 75 to about 100 pounds of honey. (These honey-bees^ 

 produce the drones for mating purposes.) Visitors to my 

 yard are captivated by the industrious, gentle bees. 



In order to get a front view of the apiary we had to takfr 

 a bird's-eye view of the yard. The hives are not all seen. 



Stephenson Co., 111. 



Cementing the Floor of a Bee-Cellar. 



BY K. WII.COX. 



ON page 711 Mr. Whitmer asks opinions about cementing- 

 the floor of his bee-cellar. His cellar is a good one. X 

 have a cellar under my house very nearly like his. I 

 used it three or four years, then cemented it well, and have- 

 used it about 20 years since. 



All things considered, I would advise cementing the 

 cellar-bottom, if it is under the house he lives in. Soft sand • 

 makes a poor floor. The first tvco winters after cementing 

 mine, I thought the bees did not winter quite so well as 

 before cementing it, but I cemented the side-walls as well 

 as the bottom, which is not necessary. 



If well cemented, the dead bees can be swept up and 

 carried out as often as desired. After carrying the bees 

 out in the spring, the floor can be scrubbed and kept as 

 clean as any floor. If dead bees are trampt down in carry- 

 ing out, it may need whitewashing. It can be cleaned. 



A ground floor is good enough for an outside cellar, 

 where a portion of the dead bees can be trampt down and 

 left without further ceremonies. 



For scraping propolis from sections I like a light cellar 

 with a ground floor, where the propolis can be trampt in the- 

 dirt. I think bees need very little ventilation in cellars,. 



