TrH® mmtMRicMu mmm joismnmi^. 



709 



Vlic Liindeiiei and tlie Ueciii. 



Written for the AmerUvm Bee Journal 



BY DATID HALL. 



'TwaM u bright, pleasnnt morn In the month of July, 

 As the sun came up clear in the Eitst, 



And twelve hives of bees that were standing near by 

 Were awaiting a glorious feast ; 



For the basswood Just then was beginning to bloom. 



And each day with its long summer hours— 

 I knew that the bees would need plenty of room 



To store from those beautiful tlowera ; 



For we'd had a warm rain for some days before, 



And Nature meantime bad distilled 

 A nectar us sweet as llymettus' of yore. 



With which the cups of those blossoms were tilled. 



Soon the bees from those large double-hives sallied 

 forth, 



And took a bee-line for the wood ; 

 And they loaded themselves up for all they were 

 worth, 



As a good strain of bees always should. 



And the way they rolled in, tumbled in, 'twas a sight 



Tliat would luake an enthusiast stare 

 And hurrah for the linden, with all of his might, 



As be waved his hat high in the air. 



For more than two weeks worked those bees with a 

 will, 



As they worked without favor or fear ; 

 And a hundred pounds each was the size of their 

 bill. 



As the basswood closed up for the year. 



Then, hurrah for the linden tree ! Long may it 

 wave 



O'er l^is beautiful land of ours. 

 And give us henceforth, as it always gave. 



Its honey-producing tiowers. 

 Warsaw, N. Y. 



Comparison of Italian§ and 

 Blacks on Red Clover. 



Written for the American Bee Jorwmal 



Query 665.— Do Italian bees work on red 

 clover more than the black bees do ?— P. 



Yes.— M. M.ini.\'. 



Yes.— A. B. Mason. 



Yes. — J. M. Hambaugii. 



Yes. — Will M. Barnum. 



Yes. — Mks. L. H.iRRisoN. 



I think so. — R. L. Taylor. 



Yes, they will.— J. P. H. Brown. 



Yes, decidedly.— C. H. Dibbekn. 



It is so reported. — H. D. Cutting. 



Yes, undoubtedly. — Dadant & Son. 



Yes. My experience says, five to one. — 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Certainly ! There is no doubt about it, 

 in my own mind. — J. M. Shuck. 



We have but very little red clover in 

 Louisiana, but I never could detect that 

 bees ever gathered from it. — P. L. Viallon. 



Yes, more than the black bees ; but not 

 more than Syrian or Cyprian bees. — A. J. 

 Cook. 



Yes, I think that they do; but neither 

 works on it to any extent. — Eugene Secoh. 



It is so claimed, but I suspect that the 

 difference is not so ver3' great.— C. C. 



MiLLEU. 



Yes, sir, they do ; but they do not work 

 on red clover as much as certain crosses 

 between the two races. — James Heddon. 



All the evidence is in favor of such an 

 idea. As for myself, I have never tested 

 the matter; all that I know is, Italians un- 

 der the same conditions, give me far better 

 results than blacks. — J. E. Pond. 



I think that they do. Some years back I 

 had a fine Italian (jueen (from a noted 

 breeder in New York) whose colony stored 

 100 i)ounds of comb honey, all from a 80- 

 acre field of red clover, about }.V mile 

 away. A number of black colonies that I 

 had, failed to store any surplus. I believe, 

 however, that there are strains of brown 

 bees with a trace of Italian "blood," that 

 do good work on red clover. — G. L. Tinker. 



In my locality Italians work on red clover 

 more or less every season ; and in my ex- 

 perience of over forty years, I have never 

 seen a pure black bee at work on red clover 

 blossoms. Further, I have made inquiry of 

 a number of old men of observation, and I 

 have never met a man who has seen black 

 bees at work on red clover. I am aware, 

 however, that black bees do sometimes 

 work on red clover in the North, where it 

 grows much less luxurious than it does in 

 Kentucky. — G. W. Demaree. 



It is said that Italian bees have tongues 

 long enough to reach the nectar in red 

 clover. Thej' may get honey from it in a 

 dry time, when the clover heads are small. 

 Once we had a ten-acre field of red clover 

 away out at the back of the farm. Mr. 

 Chaddock told me that the bees were " just 

 roaring" on it. I did not go out to see, but 

 I went to the hives, and everything was 

 quiet. There were partly-filled sections on 

 the hives, but they did not get any fuller, 

 and I watched them day after day. I think 

 that the bees smell the honey in the red 

 clover, and try to get it — perhaps they do 

 get a little, but not enough to put in the 

 sections. The best plan is not to count on 

 honey from red clover, and then if the bees 

 do get any honey from it, consider it an 

 accident, and be thankful. — Mahala B. 

 CHiIDDOCK. 



Yes, they certainly do; but neither Ital- 

 ian nor black bees work on it, generally, to 

 a very great extent, unless the bloom has 

 been hindered by cold weather, and the 

 stem of the flower is shortened thereby. — 

 The Editor. 



The Introduction of Queens in 

 Provisioned Cages. 



Written for Vie Ainerican Bee Journal 



Query 666.— When introducing a queen. Is 

 it thought as safe a plan to provide the queen- 

 cage with a paste of honey and sugar for 

 food, as to place it so that honey is within the 

 queen's reach ? (If any readers of this paper 

 have actually made experiments In that re- 

 spect, I should be glad to hear with what 

 results.)— France. 



I have not tried this experiment. — J. M. 

 Hambaugh. 



Both methods are just as safe, and I 

 speak from actual experience of several 

 years. — P. L. Viali.hn. 



Yes; but I have had no experience on 

 that line. — C. H. Dibhehn. 



I am not sure that one way is better than 

 the other.— -Eugene Secor. 



I do not know, but I would as soon risk 

 the honey.— C. C. Miller. 



tiotjiist as safe, but if she has accom- 

 panying bees, it will be all right. — A. B. 

 Mason. 



I have tried the paste with good results. 

 I prefer a bit of sponge saturated with 

 liquid honey. — M. Maiiin. 



I have never been able to notice any par- 

 ticular ditTorence in the result, though it is 

 my practice to use honey. — W. M. Barnum. 



I have many times tried both, and I see 

 no difference. The "paste" is preferred, 

 because it is less trouble.— J. M. Shuck. 



If the colony is otherwise (piecnless, and 

 have plenty of honey, they will not let the 

 queen die of want.— Dadant & Son. 



It is best to place the queen so that she 

 can reach the honey, and the bees have ac- 

 cess to the outside of the cage. — H. D. 

 Cutting. 



From experience, I cannot say; from 

 theory, I should expect the queen to suffer, 

 it the bees could not feed her. — A. J. Cook. 



In introducing, I prefer a cage with an 

 open side, placed over uncapped cells of 

 Iwney.—J. P. H. Brown. 



Yes, and it is just as safe to give her 

 neither, as in my experience a queenless 

 colony never fails to feed a laying queen. — 

 R. L. Taylor. 



I always so introduce when working on 

 the old plan, and have kept queens a week 

 in this way. See my answer to Query 664. 

 —J. E. Pond. 



Place the cage, so that honey is within 

 the queen's reach. I have had queens die 

 in the cage with food, but I think that they 

 never died when placed on a comb. — Mrs. 

 L. Harrison. 



Yes, I consider it just as safe to use that 

 plan as the honey, for in either case she 

 will get enough to eat until she will be ac- 

 cepted, if she is ever going to be received. 

 JA.MES Heddon. 



I have kept queens for weeks, as de- 

 scribed in my answer to Query 664, but all 

 my experience goes to prove that no queen 

 can be thus kept without some injury to 

 the vitality of the queen. In other words, 

 I do not consider a queen that has been 

 kept away from the bees for a month, as 

 good as she would have been, had she been 

 with the bees all the while. — G. M. Doolit- 



TLE. 



The former plan is fully as safe as the 

 latter. My experiments show that there is 

 no plan of caging the queen upon the combs 

 so safe as the plan of allowing the bees to 

 liberate the queen by eating out a plug of 

 the "Good" candy before getting to the 

 queen. — G. L. Tinker. 



If a queen is introduced in the Peet cage, 

 there is always "Good" candy enough to 

 last her until the bees liberate her. I have 

 introduced queens in all the ways, and have 

 not lost many in introducing. I think that 

 the " safest " way for a timid bee-keeper is 

 to get a pound of bees with the queen. — 

 — Maiiala B. Cn.iDDOCK. 



When introducing queens, I provision the 

 cage with soft candy. I would never cage 

 a queen on a comb where I cannot see the 

 actions of the bees toward her; that is 

 simply " going it blind." In all of myex- 

 jjerience I never knew of a queen to suffer 

 for food when supplied with a good article 

 of soft candy, made of powdered sugar and 

 honey ; or, what is better, a queen candy 

 made Vjy compressing candied honey. — G. 

 W. Demaree. 



Essays on Exlrac-ted Honey. 



We offer Cash PRIZES for the best essays 

 on "Extracted Honey," each essay not to 

 exceed a, 000 words in length, and must be 

 received at this office before Jan. 1, 1890. 

 The first prize is .?5.00 ; the second, $3.00 ; 

 and the third, -SS.OO. All essays received 

 on this offer will become the property of 

 the American Bee- Journal, and is open 

 for competition to its subscribers only. 



