710 



T-'mm MME;MICMH ®®® J©^KffM£f. 



AiituiUH Xlioii;::lit!!i. 



Written for the Illustrated Home Journal 



BY IDALIA TREGELLA8. 



The dew-drops are slisteniDg on flower and leaf, 

 The blue-jay and robin are talking together ; 



The summer was lovely, but it seemed, ah, so brief. 

 And now we are watching the gay autumn weather 



The hickory is dressed all in yellow and brown. 

 And the ripe nuts are falling from every bough ; 



The rock-maple tree wears a golden crown, 

 The Frost kissed it last night— the Sun's kissing it 

 now. 



The leaves of the sassafras whisper and rustle. 

 As they sprinkle the green grass all over with red. 



The Elm scolds the Wind so, because he will bustle, 

 That the gray squirrel peeps out to hear what is 

 said. 



The golden-rod fringes the roadside with yellow, 

 The asters are crimson and pink in the wood. 



The " niggar-head " nods like a jolly old fellow— 

 The Wahoo and sumac are gleaming like blood. 



The woodland brook murmurs "good-by" to the 



flowers. 



As it glides over stones and around moss-grown 



trees ; 



Thebrown-thrush has left us for pleasanter bowers. 



And the chipmunk a lesson has learned from the 



bees. 

 Astoria, Ills. 



WINTERINa. 



How to Properly Pack Bee§ for 

 the Winter. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



The best substance for packing bees 

 is ground cork ; next is forest leaves, 

 and then comes oat-chafF. 



One or the other of these substances 

 should be placed over the clusters in a 

 manner and in sufficient quantity to 

 admit of a slow draft upward through 

 it. The draft should be slow — not 

 enough to waste the heat from the 

 bees. WUere there is not a draft up- 

 ward, the cold penetrates from above, 

 and meets the warmth from the bees ; 

 and at the point of meeting the con- 

 densation of moisture takes place. 

 Following this condensation of mois- 

 ture, comes the accumulation of 

 moisture. 



If the packing over the bees is 6 

 inches thick, and the condensation of 

 moisture takes place 3 inched above 

 the lower edge of the packing, the 

 packing at that point becomes wet, and 

 forms an impervious roof to the brood- 

 nest, and ends all upward ventilation 

 when the condensation and accumula- 

 tion of moisture will extend toward 

 the bees until it will be found adhering 

 to the inner wall of the brood-chamber 

 — in small particles at first, and large 

 drops later on, until the drops become 

 of sufficient size to trickle down upon 

 the combs, souring the honey in open 



cells, or invading the cluster of the 

 bees. 



I have watched many colonies win- 

 tering in hives that were provided 

 with impervious coverings to the 

 bvood-nesls, to prevent upward circu- 

 lation, where it required two- months 

 for the moisture to become visible to 

 the eye, and two months more to pi'o- 

 duce ordinarj'-sized drops of water, 

 which finally loosened their hold on 

 the ceiling, and dropped directly into 

 the cluster. This caused a disturbance; 

 the disturbance produced more 

 warmth, and the increase of warmth 

 bi'ought more condensation of moisture. 

 Such condensed moisture is largely a 

 question of time, whether the colonies 

 are situated in a cellar or out-of-doors. 

 Bees possess a marked instinct of 

 cleanliness. When this moisture drops 

 into the cluster of bees, in the neigh- 

 borhood where the earliest brood is 

 likely to be reared, it is taken up by 

 the bees with the expectancy of carry- 

 ing it from the hive. As such oppor- 

 tunities seldom occur during our 

 Northern winters, the water is retained 

 in the stomach of the bees, and in time 

 causes indigestion and consequent 

 overloaded intestines. This is the 

 nature of nine-tenths of the cases of 

 bee-diarrhea. 



I have experimented along this line 

 in a somewhat artificial manner — by 

 allowing a colony, having a comb of 

 brood to protect, to remain in an un- 

 covered hive during two days of rainy 

 weather, when the colony showed un- 

 mistakable symptoms of diarrhea. At 

 the same time other colonies were 

 given strange combs containing no 

 brood, and the bees remained healthy. 

 If the disease was not caused by the 

 bees taking up and holding the water 

 that ran on the brood, then what did 

 cause the disease ? 



There is no general rule to be given 

 as to the pi'oper amount of absorbent 

 or packing to use. This must be de- 

 termined by the kee-keeper who must 

 learn from his own experience to 

 properly apply the idea. 



Some apply this method of ventila- 

 tion to prevent the condensation of 

 moisture within the brood-chamber, by 

 raising the edge of the honey-board so 

 as to leave a narrow crack at one side. 

 All the plans tend toward the slow or 

 slight upward draft that carries the 

 moisture onward, and finally out of 

 the hive, and exceptional colonies here 

 and there that winter without such 

 draft may be said to have escaped by 

 mere chance. Eight inches of forest 

 leaves slightly pressed is usually about 

 right. Four inches in depth of chaff, 

 liglitly thrown in, is right ; but if it be 

 pressed down, it may prevent the cir- 

 culation through it. 

 Clinton, Wis. 



CRITICISMS 



On 



Various Apiarian Questions 

 of the Day. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. W. DEMAHEE. 



Very many things are published in 

 our bee-periodicals which ought not to 

 pass without honest and fair criticism. 

 But few of us, however, fancy a task 

 of that kind, because too many writers 

 do not take kindly to even the fairest 

 and most friendly criticisms. But it 

 should be borne in mind that the bee- 

 keeping ranks are continually being 

 filled up by beginners, as the business 

 increases and the older ones retire or 

 pass away. These beginners are en- 

 titled to protection. I hope that these 

 remarks will exempt me from being 

 charged with being a mere chronic 

 "fault finder." Blost persons who 

 criticize the words and deeds of their 

 fellows, are generally regarded in that 

 light ; but is it necessarily so ? Are we 

 willing to admit that honest criticism 

 is out of place — a thing not possible 

 among men ? 



THE TEASEL. 



On page 660, we find a good illus- 

 tration of the teasel, but the "facts" 

 there given are not altogether the 

 whole truth. In my locality, the wild 

 teasel is often so perfect in its growth 

 and maturity as to stick to the hands 

 like steel hooks. 



QUEENLESS BEES AND DRONE-COMB. 



Owing to several months of sickness 

 on my part, the answers to queries for 

 some weeks have not materialized, and 

 for this reason I wish to say that the 

 substance- of Query No. 732 shows on 

 its face that the querist is a novice in 

 the science of bees, and ought not to 

 be severely chided. It is so often told 

 that queenless bees will build store or 

 drone-comb, that the error he falls 

 into is not surprising, seeing that so 

 many practical honey-producers who 

 answer his query have uot tried the 

 experiment, and have to guess at an 

 answer. 



Queenless bees, when left to their 

 own instincts, ncarhj always build 

 store or drone-comb ; but when sup- 

 plied with good worker foundation 

 they draw it out just like bees do that 

 have a good laying queen. I have 

 often had the opportunity to see this 

 done when practicing my "queenless 

 system" of obtaining surplus honey. 



COLORS OK BEES. 



On page 662, we have a lesson on 

 this subject. It is not a thing new to 

 me — I have gone over these grounds 

 quite a number of times in the past 15 

 years. "Very yellow bees" is gea- 



