THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



GG5 



received no surphis. Tlieotlier swarm 

 produced 50 pounds of nice lioney. 



Ttiis has been one of the best 

 honey-seasons since I began to lieep 

 bees. My bees wintered well last 

 winter, and they liave done well this 

 season. My neighlmrs say tliat their 

 bees have done nothing. I often tell 

 them to take the ]!ke Journal and 

 follow its instructions, and then they 

 will learn how to rear bees and how 

 to work them to the best advantage 

 after they have them reared. 



I winter my bees on the summer 

 stands, and I would advise all begin- 

 ners to prepaie their hives so that no 

 mice can enter them, pack them well, 

 and see tliat the bees have plenty of 

 honey. After having done this, let 

 them alone ; for as sure as the hive is 

 opened frequently, and the cold air is 

 allowed to strike the bees, just so 

 sure will they have no bees in the 

 spring. At least this has been my 

 experience. 



I have 55 colonies that are in good 

 condition for winter, and if tiiere is 

 such a thing as liaving colonies too 

 strong in bees to winter well, mine 

 are ot that class. 



Casey ,o« Ills., Oct. 12, 18^5. 



Davenport Democrat. 



Why the Honey Crop is Small. 



"Good prospect for honey this fallr"' 

 was the question addressed to Mr. .J. 

 J. Nagle, one of the most prominent 

 apiarists in experience and number 

 of colonies of bees in Scott county, 

 Iowa. 



" Very poor, I am sorry to say. 

 There will be the lightest yield of 

 lioney this locality has known in re- 

 cent years— I mean since bee-keeping 

 has been engaged in so extensively, 

 for you know that it is only 10 to \2 

 years that bees were kept elsewhere 

 than on farms, and as incident to 

 farming in this portion of the West, 

 and the reward ot tlie apiarist will be 

 light indeed this year— not honey 

 enough to compensate for the care 

 and trouble of maintaining colonies 

 extensively." 



"How do you account for this 

 strange failure. No fault of the bees, 

 was it y" 



" Xo, sir— O, no. The failure is in 

 a secret of nature, which has not been 

 divulged as yet. In some years 

 flowers secrete no honey ; they may 

 be abundant in every variety, and yet 

 the bees will explore them in vain for 

 sweets. They may perfume the air 

 about them, lade the air heavily witli 

 odors, and yield little or nothing for 

 the bee. This year there were many 

 flowers — spring flowers ; summer 

 flowers wpre abundant iu all varieties 

 of wild and cultivated flora, and many 

 of us believed it would be a good year 

 for honey ; but the bees found only 

 enough sweets for their own uses. 

 At the opening of the clover season 

 the bees gathered a good deal of 

 honey, but before long the clover 

 blossoms were found to be almost 

 destitute of sweets.'' 



"Do you know of any reason for 

 this phase of the honey failure ?" 



" There is another mystery. I liave 

 carefully considered the question you 

 ask ; it has arisen in my own mind 

 many a time. I have come to the 

 conclusion that the reason is in the 

 lack of electricity in the air, ordi- 

 narily. Electricity has much to do 

 with the storing of sweets in nature's 

 laboratory. Of course I do not mean 

 the electricity that Hashes iu the 

 clouds or takes the form of lightning- 

 bolts, but an invisible, all-pervading, 

 and generally quiet electric element 

 in the atmosphere, which has some- 

 thing to do with the storing of honey- 

 dew for the bees. I have noticed 

 many a time that just before a 

 thunder-storm gathers, the bees will 

 be very active in flight, and will 

 gather honey very fast. These obser- 

 vations take me to the conclusion 

 that 1 have reached concerning elec- 

 tricity in the production of sweets in 

 the flowers." 



" Well, but the honey-gathering 

 season ends for the bee from the tirst 

 to the middle of September, does it 

 not V And what will the bees do 

 themselves for their necessary stores 

 through the fall, winter and spring V" 



" It must be remembered that the 

 bees gather enough honey for them- 

 selves. That is the case this year. 

 Tliey have stored enough for their 

 own use, but have very little surplus 

 fur the producers. Why, I can show 

 you how it is. I have about 140 colo- 

 iiies of bees, and if it had been a good 

 honey season they would have yielded 

 me 10,000 pounds of honey. I had 

 10,000 pounds iu 1882, 3,000 pounds in 

 1883, and 3,000 pounds last year. JJut 

 this year I have only three hundred 

 pounds, so far. You see there is a 

 great failure in yield. Then, besides, 

 it is not generally known that Scott 

 county lost half" its bees— yes, more 

 than lialf— last winter, through the 

 long spell of extreme cold. But that 

 is not it ;_ there would have been 

 honey enough it the flowers had 

 yielded it. Why, there are 1,000 colo- 

 nies of bees in the county, and all the 

 apiarists are in the same boat. I have 

 talked with, or heard from probably 

 the largest bee-keepers in tliis- re- 

 gion, and all report the same failure 

 of the honey crop." 



" Well, I suppose we must import 

 our lioney this fall, then V" 



"But the failure is not confined to 

 this region. There is failure nearly 

 everywhere. The same complaint 

 comes from California. There is one 

 corner in Indiana, and a section of 

 Central Texas in which there is a good 

 yield of honey this year. But in Ken- 

 tucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, 

 and California— States which produce 

 the most honey — there is failure as a 

 rule." 



Out in Cleona Township lives Mr. 

 Henry AVeiuhardt, who keeps 30 to 40 

 colonies of bees. The reporter met 

 him and asked, " IIow are the times 

 in Cleona y" 



"Good— plenty of everything; and 

 we are coming out all right in corn, 

 too," was the reply. 



" Plenty of honey, too, I suppose V" 

 queried the reporter. 



" No, I forgot about honey — there's 

 a poor yield of honey." 



" What do you think is the cause 

 of it V" 



" Grasshoppers '.'" was the quick re- 

 ply. " 1 knew as early as ,Iune, I be- 

 lieve, that there wouldn't be much 

 honey this year, when I saw what im- 

 mense numbers of little grasshoppers 

 there were in my clover. Yes, it was 

 as early as that. When grasshoppers 

 are thick they spoil the honey pros- 

 pects." 



" Why, Mr. Weinhardt, bow do you 

 know that V" 



" That's what we always believed 

 in the old country, and it was always 

 so there. Don't you know, the grass- 

 hoppers have been increasing here 

 every year for three or four years, 

 and every year we have had less 

 honev ":' This year the country has 

 swarmed with grasshoppers, and the 

 bees couldn't gather honey. The 

 grasshoppers gathered the honey-dew; 

 or, if they didn't do that, they sucked 

 the juices from the stalks of blossoms 

 so that they were not deposited in the 

 flowers. It is a fact, I tell you, and 

 nothing to laugh at ! In South Ger- 

 many it was always the case. My 

 father kept bees, and he often said 

 that the bees wouldn't do much when 

 grasshoppers were thick. A bee won't 

 touch a flower that a grasshopper has 

 been on ; it can tell somehow as soon 

 as it gets near such a tlower. There's 

 an odor from the stuff the grass- 

 hopper leaves on everything it 

 touches that the bees don't like. 

 That's news to you? Well, it isn't 

 news to me. And, you mark it, if the 

 grasshoppers increase over the num- 

 bers of this year, in the same ratio 

 that they have increased the last few 

 years, there won't be enough honey 

 in the fall of 1886 for the bees them- 

 selves— let alone any surplus for ihj 

 humau family— in this locality. 



For the Amerlcin Beo Journal. 



Keeping Bees in a Family Room. 



A. T. ALDRICH. 



In propounding the question rela- 

 tive to keeping bees in a warm room 

 (see Query, No. 125), my main object 

 was to ascertain if it had been tested ; 

 and from the answers given 1 con- 

 clude that it has not been tested 

 very thoroughly. Allow me to give 

 my experience in the matter. 



On June 28,1883,1 hived a swarm 

 of bees in one of Worrall's observa- 

 tory hives, and placed it at the end of 

 my desk in the post-oftice, near a large 

 window on the west side of the room. 

 They did fairly well during the sum- 

 mer. I expected as soon as cold 

 weather came on, that the heat in tlie 

 room would cause them to fly out into 

 the cold air, and I would have to move 

 them to the cellar ; but to my surprise 

 they were more quiet than bees on 

 the summer stands, so I allowed them 

 to remain in that position all winter. 

 They came out bright and strong in 

 the spring, and were the first of 20 

 colonies to cast a swarm. They 

 stored more than an average quantity 

 of surplus honey in sections, and went 

 into winter quarters strong in honey 

 and bees. 



