^48 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the greater part of this priority rever- 

 sion to old discoveries of the same 

 thing, for the purpose of breaking 

 down valid patents, is pure and sim- 

 ple perjury. I have known this per- 

 jury to exist outside of and unknown 

 to the defendant, caused by the 

 vanity of the witness ; not usually 

 made of whole cloth, but out of what 

 would make no case, in the mouth of 

 a less vain and honest witness. How- 

 ever, I never knew it to win. Have 

 none of the readers ever discovered 

 that much of the opposition to pat- 

 ents is the product o£ pure and un- 

 adulterated selfishness V Few patents 

 " monopolize." I do not now think 

 of a single one in our line that does. 

 A patent may make the patentee rich 

 by the monopoly of the manufacture 

 of all the articles of the kind, and 

 which also enables him to make them 

 at much less cost. 

 Dowagiac, p Mich. 



I'or the Amencaii Bee Journal. 



Old and Young Bees, etc 



L. L. TKIEM. 



On page 184, Mr. C. W. Dayton 

 says: "But how old bees may be 

 distinguished from young ones when 

 in winter quarters, is not as appar- 

 ent." It would, indeed, be very dif- 

 ficult to distinguish old from young 

 bees in case the bees were wintering 

 well— in that perfectly quiet state as 

 Mr. Heddon and many others have 

 described. But in this case it is dif- 

 ferent; as soon as the burlap cover is 

 removed from the frames, bees rush 

 up in countless numl)ers, and surely 

 •we cannot be mistaken. I always 

 distinguish old bees from young ones 

 by their light color and' downy or 

 fuzzy appearance. 



Both of those colonies referred to 

 in my article on page 123, were Ital- 

 ians. I knew that they were breed- 

 ing even before I removed them or 

 uncovered them, by the many young, 

 imperfect bees at the entrance of 

 each hive ; however, I saved both of 

 the queens, and one of the colonies is 

 now in average condition. 



Feeding bees is a subject of much 

 importance at this season. I have 

 tried out-door feeding, and I cannot 

 succeed nearly so well with that as 

 feeding inside of the hive. For two 

 years I have fed inside of the hive, 

 both early in the spring for stores, 

 and later tor the purpose of stimulat- 

 ing the bees. My feeders are simple. 

 I use the standard Langstroth frame 

 and two strips of wood, like wooden 

 separators, are nailed to both sides of 

 the top of a frame ^s of an inch lower 

 than the bottom of the top-bar, A 

 bottom-bar is inserted, all is nailed 

 with ^-inch wire-nails,, and a little 

 hot wax is run around the joints. 

 Bore a %-inch hole in the top-ljar for 

 a funnel to pour in the feed. The 

 space Ijelow the feed-tank will be 

 used for brood-rearing, and only the 

 3 or 4 inch space is lost. 



I use enameled cloth or burlap 

 covers under a tight honey-board, and 

 cut a slit in the cover, slip the honey- 

 board forward, insert the funnel, aiid 



no bars can bother. In this way I 

 am now feeding 2-5 colonies which 

 were light in stores, and I shall com- 

 mence about May 1 to feed all my bees 

 to stimulate brood-rearing. The ad- 

 vantages of this feeder are numerous. 

 There is only one other better wav of 

 feeding, of which I know, and that is 

 as Mr. G. M. Doolittle, Ur. O. O. 

 Poppleton and others feed bees, viz : 

 By using combs of honey or syrup ; 

 aiid with this I am not altogether 

 satisfied. 

 La Porte City©, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Increasing the Number of Colonies. 



.JNO. A. BUCHANAN. 



As I have had some experience in 

 increasing the number of colonies, 

 and have accomplished just what 

 some others may desire to do, I wish 

 to state the course pursued to aecom- 

 plisli tiie desired end. During the 

 fall of 1S80, the bees in this section 

 were short of stores, and some of the 

 wiseacres at that time were advocat- 

 ing the use of a food safe for winter 

 stores, composed of equal parts of 

 granulated- surar syrup and grape- 

 sugar syrup. This was a cheap, in- 

 nocent looking food for bees, but be- 

 fore I got rid of it, I was thoroughly 

 disgusted with it. 



The winter following the feeding of 

 this " pizen," was hard enough on 

 bees having the most wholesome food 

 obtainable, but this above-mentioned 

 food, with such a .winter, was too 

 much for the bees, and by the follow- 

 ing April, out of 80 choice colonies, I 

 had just 15 that were only strong 

 enough to cover from 1 to 4 Langs- 

 troth frames. These weak colonies 

 were placed on the south side of a 

 high, tight board-fence, and were pro- 

 tected, stimulated, and cared for in 

 the most approved manner. As soon 

 as brood began to hatch rapidly, all 

 were equalized. AVhen the brood de- 

 partment became crowded, and the 

 weather became warm, an upper story 

 containing 10 moreLangstroth frames 

 was given each colony, which was at 

 once used for the extension of the 

 brood. Soon these combs were filled 

 with brood, and both stories packed 

 with bees. One colony was confined 

 to a single story, and induced to pre- 

 pare for swarming by daily feeding, 

 and was permitted to cast a swarm. 

 When the young bees were within two 

 days of maturing, a strong nucleus 

 was formed for each queen-cell that I 

 found in the hive, which numbered 

 26, and just about the time these 

 queens were ready to emerge from 

 the cells, each nucleus was supplied 

 with a queen-cell. In ten days 2.5 of 

 these young queens were laying, one 

 having been lost on her mating 

 fiight. 



I now took frame after frame of 

 brood from the upjjer stories of the 

 old colonies, thus building the nuclei 

 into full colonies as rapidly as possi- 

 ble, and at the same time giving the 

 old colonies empty combs to fill with 

 brood for future draughts in forming 

 other nuclei, which were in turn built 



into full colonies as their young 

 queens began to lay. In this way 

 those 15 weak colonies were increased 

 to 70 strong ones, besides producing 

 several hundred pounds of surplus 

 honey. 



One must so manage all through a» 

 to have young queens ready to hatch 

 within a day or two of the formation 

 of the nuclei. In my case I had 

 plenty of combs, but comb founda- 

 tion might be used instead ; for with- 

 out either, with but an average local- 

 ity and season, I think it questionable 

 if such increase can be made. If 

 one's time is very profitably employed 

 for the most part, it may pay to buy 

 queens ; otherwise not. Unless the 

 bee-keeper hascombs which he wishes 

 to save by getting bees on them, it 

 will not pay to more than double the 

 number of colonies each year until 

 the area of his apicultural field is 

 fully stocked. 



Holiday's Cove, 5 W. Va. 



For the Amerlc:in Bee JoumaL 



Honey-Dew— Wintering Bees- 



E. B. SOUTHWICK, JM. D. 



Much has been written in the lasti 

 volume of the Bee Journal about 

 honey-dew, but as none, I believe, 

 have expressed my ideas of the matter, 

 I will now give tliem. 



Dew is moisture condensed from 

 the atmosphere by cold ; honey-dew is 

 moisture and honey condensed by 

 cold. There are insects that excrete 

 a substance that bees will eat, and 

 there are some leaves that when 

 wounded or cracked, a substance will 

 exude from them that bees will eat ; 

 but neither of these can be dew, for 

 they are not condensed from moisture 

 in the atmosphere. That there is an 

 article that will fully " till the bill," I 

 have no doubt ; biit wliere does it 

 come from V is the question. We 

 notice in large fields of fiowers, when 

 there are bees in the vicinity, that 

 the bees are busy until noon, and 

 sometimes later, but we seldom see 

 them there in the after-part of the 

 day. Whv '? Have they gathered all 

 there is, and do tiowers secrete honey 

 only in the night V I think that no 

 one will claim that such is the case. 

 Then, what has become of it V The 

 moisture on the leaves has evapor- 

 ated, and is it not safe to believe that 

 the honey has done tlie same V If so, 

 what becomes of it ? 



The old pagans claimed that their 

 god lived on honey, but I do not be- 

 lieve that our honey goes that way ; 

 we must look for it in some other 

 way ; and as the moisture that is 

 evaporated at the same time, is re- 

 turned to us at night in the form of 

 dew, is it unreasonable to think that 

 the evaporated honey in the cool of 

 the night, does condense and return 

 to us in the form of real honey-dew,? 

 I think not. This honey is as good as 

 the best, but the exudation of bugs, 

 the sap of trees or leaves, the juice or 

 rotten fruit, and the like, is better out 

 of the hives than in them, and is en- 

 tirely unworthy of the name of honey- 

 dew. 



