140 



Tmm MMBmic^MH mmm jo^KifMi^. 



Bees and Fruit.— Under this bead- 

 ing, a correspondent in the National Stock- 

 nuin and Fanner, published at Pittsburgh, 

 Pa., in its issue for Feb. 6, writes thus, 

 showing the utility of keeping valuable 

 facts before the people 



miES % Replies, 



many Dead Bees Found After 

 Being Shipped. 



The Honev Almanac, published by Thos. 

 G. Newman, editor of the American- Bee 

 JouKNAi, among its many useful items 

 and recipes, contains the following val- 

 uable fact, which is not well understood 

 generally by fruit-growers : 



It is very often the fact that fruit-grow- 

 ers complain of bees injuring their fruit, 

 when the fact of the matter is, the honey- 

 bees are the fruit-gi-owers' best friends. 

 The above-named publication puts it tbus ; 

 "Bees do not puncture fruit, as some as- 

 sert When fruit is over-ripe, or the skin 

 of the gi-ape bursted, the bees will some- 

 times appropriate the juice, greatly to then- 

 detriment when no honey can be gathered. 

 Such juices soon sour in the hives, becom- 

 ing unfit for food of bees tor winter, and 

 disease and death is the result. Many bee- 

 keepers also raise fruit, and their testimony 

 universally agrees with the statement here 

 made. On the other hand,bees are the best 

 friends of the growers of small fruits. 1 hey 

 fructify the flowers and cause the fruit to 

 mature. Were it not for the bees and 

 other insects which fertilize flowers, the 

 trees and vines would cease to bear truit, 

 and become worthless. In a certain town 

 in New England, so strong was the beliet 

 that bees injured fruit, that an ordinance 

 was passed obliging the bee-keepers to re- 

 move their bees to another locality. After 

 a year or two the fruit-growers decided to 

 have the bees brought back, because so 

 little fruit matured upon the trees. 



According to history, in the early days ot 

 Australia, we believe, clover seed imported 

 into that country seemed weU adapted to 

 the soil and climate, and grew well, but it 

 would produce no seed. It was suggested 

 by some one that it lacked the necessary 

 faculties for fertUization, as there were no 

 bees in the country. As a test of the mat- 

 ter, bees were imported for the purpose, 

 and the result was, that the clover bore 

 seed. 



Vritten for the American Bee Journal 



Qnery 690.— Last spring- 1 shipped several 

 colonics to, lifferci.t ,.artics, andttey ivported 

 aKOO.1 iiiunv dead U-cs aiTu.iit;- tbc-m. I t;uKccl 

 the f rallies ftisl at tlie l.ult..iii and tup, closed 

 the entrances, and covered the top with new 

 wire-cloth. What was the mutter ?— B. K. 



A Sweet Sycamore Tree.— In a 

 Chicago daily newspaper for Feb. 8, 1890, 

 the following account of a bee-tree was 

 published, from Galesburg,Ills. The amount 

 of honey which the tree contained [1,100 

 pounds], is a pretty good yield for one col- 

 ony of bees. The item reads thus : 



James Collins, a farmer of this county, 

 while going through the timber on his 

 farm recently, saw bees flymg around an 

 immense sycamore. His son and he cut 

 the tree down, it proving a mere shell. As 

 it struck the gi-ound, it split open, revealing 

 a section of honey 30 feet long. Mi-. CoUms 

 secured 1,100 pounds of honey. He says 

 that the bees would have filled a big barrel, 

 but he had no means of hiving them. 



Flax and Hemp. 



Does flax or hemp yield any honey when 

 in bloom i W. T. Parrisotos. 



Owosso, Mich., Feb. 16, 1890. 



Hemp yields honey liberally ; flax is not 

 much visited by bees until late in the fall, 

 when better honey-producing plants are 

 scarce. The nectar is bitter and pungent. 



Clubs of 5 for $4.00, to any addresses 

 Ten for $7.50, if all are sent at one time. 



I think that you used ordinary care. 

 There ought to be, however, room enough 

 above the frames for a very free circula- 

 tion of bees.— EUGEXE Secok. 



Perhaps the bees were too much crowded. 

 The wire-cloth on top should be 2 inches 

 above the tops of the frames, and the en- 

 trance also be covered with wii-e-cloth.- A. 

 B. Mason. 



If you did not put wire over the en- 

 trance, I would conclude that they died in 

 trying to force an egress; otherwise, I do 

 not know.— J. M. Hamhaugh. 



I should (jucss that so much wire-cloth 

 exposed the bees too much, and that the 

 jarring and shaking about, kept the bees 

 from clustering, and many died from cold. 



— C. H. DUSBEKN. 



Did you have a space of about 4 inches 

 between the top of frames and wire-clothj 

 You should have at least thatdistance; and 

 it you could give them 2 inches at the bot- 

 tom, all the better.— H. D. Cutting. 



The trouble might have been, first, bung- 

 ling packing: second, not enough bottfnn. 

 ventilation ; third, too much honey ; fourth, 

 too little honey; fifth, too many bees; and 

 sixth, too much brood.— J. P. H. Brown. 



In shipping bees, they requu-e top room. 

 Let the wire-cloth be at least 3 mches 

 from the frames. In shipping, I use a board 

 for the top, and raise it 2 inches from the 

 edges of the hive by cleats, and tack wire- 

 cloth all around.— P. L. Vi.allon. 



Bees do not live forever. In the spring, 

 as well as at other times, many old bees die 

 every day. When the bees have their | 

 liberty they go out of the hive to die, or 

 are carried out and away. A few worry 

 themselves to death, when confined.— M. 

 Mahim. 



A good many dead bees" is very in- 

 definite. I think that you will always find 

 quite a number ot dead bees in a hive after 

 shutting up a colony for some hours, and 

 one not accustomed to such things, might 

 think that something was wrong, when all 

 was right.— C. C. Miller. 



We cannot tell unless we know the par- 

 ticulars—temperature, strength of colonies, 

 amount of brood, amount of rough treat- 

 ment received, etc. A number of bees die 

 of fatigue in trying to force their way 

 through the wire-cloth.— Dadaxt & Sox. 



Oh gi-acious ! who can tell what the mat- 1 

 terwas? Perhaps lack of water; perhaps 

 over-heating by being placed in the sun- 

 shine. We could all tell if we knew all ot 

 the detail circumstances ; otherwise, no one 

 can tell with any certainty.— Jas. Heddox. 



You should have left at least an inch of 

 space below the bottom of the frame, and 2 

 inches between the tops and the wire-cloth ; 

 the first for dead bees to fall into, and the 

 second for the bees to cluster in, and for free 

 circulation of ail-.— G. M. Doolittle. 



You mention nothing about the tempera- 

 ture of the weather, or the distance that 

 you shipped the bees, or the crowded, or 

 otherwise, condition of the colonies. You 

 will have to be a little more definite, before 

 [ I wOl venture a guess.— Mrs. L. Harrison. 



No one can tell with the limited Oata 



I given. There are many reasons that might 



be given, but none might be correct. The 



' person who received the bees, ought to be 



able to give the reason, if any one could.— 



J. E. Pond. 



May they not have been placed in the 

 sunsliiue, or covered so that they were not 

 properly ventilated; 1 have known like 

 effect from both causes. In shipping, 1 al- 

 ways warn in bold script, against covering 

 the top, or exposure to the sunshine. — A. J. 

 Cook. 



Use the invertible hive; tack wire-cloth 

 on the bottom and top, and put the hive on 

 one end ; the bees will ship almost any dis- 

 tance without loss to amount to anything. 

 Heddon's half-cases would be good for this, 

 if he would consent to a bee-space at both 

 the top and bottom of the frames.— J. M. 

 Shuck. 



The " matter" was, instead of tacking the 

 wire-cloth immediately on top of the 

 frames, you should have fastened a 3 or 4 

 inch deep super, or shallow box, to the top 

 of the brood-chamber, and covered the top 

 of this shallow box with the wire-cloth. 

 This would have given the excited bees 

 plenty of room above the tops of the 

 frames, and prevented the bees from crowd- 

 ing against the wire-cloth, and thus exclud- 

 ing the air and smothering a part of the 

 bees.— G. W. Demakee. 



Your data are insufficient to enable one 

 to form a safe judgment. How long ■^vere 

 the bees confined? What was the weather 

 as to temperature? How strong were the 

 colonies* How many do you mean by a 

 "good many*" If the dead bees were 

 about a tea-cupful, they probably died from 

 natural causes; if a quarter more, they 

 were probably smothered or worried to 

 death by too high a temperature. It the 

 colonies were very strong, and the weather 

 warm, it would have been safer to have 

 provided for a circulation of air through 

 the hive.— R. L. Taylor. 



I should say, want of bottom ventilation. 

 It is a strange fact that a colony of con- 

 fined bees cannot properly ventilate a hive 

 from the top. Now open up a slide m the 

 bottom, covering with a piece of wire- 

 cloth and instantly the hot air will be 

 forced out of the bottom, in a strong cur- 

 rent, that feels almost hot enough to melt 

 1 dowL the combs, and the more the bees are 

 agitated, the hotter is the current. The 

 above fact was learned at the. Columbus 

 ' Centennial, where I had 2 colonies of bees. 

 Though often confined for days together, 

 they came home fully as strong as when 

 they left my apiary-thanks to Dr Mason 

 to give free bottom ventilation. They also 

 wintered well, though they came home late 

 in October.-G. L. Tinker. 



A Special Clnl» Kate. 



A Magazine of the choice literary charac- 

 ter which the Illustrated Home Jourxal 

 sustains, will add many pleasures to any 

 "family circle." Its beautiful illustrations 

 and interesting reading-matter will make it 

 heartily welcomed at every " fireside " m 



the land. 



We desire that every one of our readers 

 should secure its regular visits during the 

 year 1890, and in order to induce them to 

 do so, we will make this tempting offer: 



We will Club the Americax Bee Journal 

 and the Illustrated Home Journal, and 

 mail both periodicals during the whole year 

 1890 for Sil.OO, if the order is received at 

 this office by March 31, 1890-when this 

 1 offer will end, the regular rate being .Sl.7o. 



