104 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 9, 1905. 



gestion. I take the American Bee Journal, and have the 

 " A B C of Bee-Culture " and the Langstroth book ; the lit- 

 tle " Amateur Bee-Keeper ", and the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment's book by Mr. Benton. I am very much interested, 

 especially as I am the pioneer in this neighborhood. But I 

 don't feel justified in enlarging until I can manage better. 

 Of the five years when I have had from 2 to 12 hives, I 

 have never had an altogether successful year. The year I 

 spoke of as having so much from one colony, I had only 250 

 pounds from the 4 other colonies. 



I notice in some of the pictures that the hives are set 

 two together, and then a space, usually very small. What 

 is the reason for that arrangement ? How often should one 

 look through the hives in the working season, after the 

 swarming-time 7 I have a good deal of annoyance with 

 propolis, where the bees work slowly. Is that usually the 

 case 7 



My hives are the dovetailed 8-frame, 6 inches off the 

 ground. I have never known of any suggestion of moths 

 or foul brood here. 



With queens of the age of mine, would you destroy 

 them this spring, or use them the coming season — the two 

 originals of July, 1903, I mean 7 



Clark Co., Kan. (Miss) Hei,EN Pbrry. 



Sometimes bees seem busy — indeed, are busy — when 

 they are not getting a bit of surplus. There are times 

 when, for some hidden reason, little or no nectar is to be 

 had, although flowers are plentiful. There may be enough 

 nectar to keep the bees a-field, but it is all used up for 

 brood-rearing. 



There was nothing very unusual about that strong col- 

 ony swarming in July. They were strong in brood and 

 bees, and with just a little more nectar coming in than was 

 needed for daily use, bees are as likely to swarm as when it 

 comes in a flood. That very strong colony could be storing 

 at least a little when the weaker ones were living from hand 

 to mouth. 



It looks a little discouraging that you have not had 

 what you consider an altogether successful year, but there's 

 that crop of 200 pounds from one colony which many would 

 envy you. The other 4 colonies giving a total of 250 pounds 

 could not be called so very unsuccessful. From the whole 5 

 colonies you had an average of 90 pounds. Do you call that 

 very bad ? 



As you gain experience you will no doubt be able to 

 avoid weak colonies, and to bring up all so as to come 

 nearer an average of what your exceptionally strong colo- 

 nies do now. 



Setting hives in pairs, as you speak of, saves room. 

 Suppose you place your hives singly, 6 feet apart from cen- 

 ter to center ; you can just as well put a pair where each 

 single hive stands, for the bees will not make the mistake 

 of going into the wrong hive of a pair. Then it's some- 

 times convenient, when opening a hive, to have the other 

 hive to set things on. 



After the swarming is over there is usually no need to 

 go through a colony at all except to see that it has a laying 

 queen. 



Yes, bees bring in more propolis when honey comes in 

 slowly, especially late in the season. 



If those two 1903 queens are doing good work, better let 

 them alone. 



Honey as a Health-Food.— This is a 16-page honey- 

 pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. 

 The first part of it contains a short article on " Honey as 

 Food ", written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep 

 honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to 

 " Honey-Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey ". 

 It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The 

 more the people are educated on the value and uses of honey 

 the more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample copy for a two-cent stamp ; 50 

 copies for 70 cts.; 100 for $1.25 : 250 for $2.25 ; 500 for $4.00 ; 

 or 1000 for $7.50. Your business card printed free at the 

 bottom of the front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. 

 Send all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal. 



Some Facts About Honey and Bees.— This is the 

 subject of an article written by Mr. J. E. Johnson, and pub- 

 lished on pages 581-82 of the American Bee Journal for 

 Aug. 25, 1904. We have republished it in 4-page leaflet 

 form for general distribution, and furnish it, postpaid, at 

 35 cents per 100 copies. Send all orders to the oflBce of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



=\ 



2TIr. f}asi^s 

 dftertl^ougt^ts 



J 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



BABY NUCLEI AND QUEEN-BREEDERS. 



My idea, Mr. Pharr. was that queens reared in the baby nucleus 

 were never better, but usually a trifle poorer, than those reared in old 

 established ways. Grant that much, and that I was thinking not at 

 all of queen-breeders, but only of queen-users, and it is easy to see 

 how 1 came to say that our craft would be better off with the inven- 

 tion suppressed. I can see that it may increase somewhat the profits 

 of the Southern queen-breeder — and it looks like I was wrong in rul- 

 ing him outside the phrase " our craft ". Page S43. 



HONEY CANDY FOB WINTER TOOD. 



" Important if true " are the facts about bee-candy which E. L. 

 Bussey gives on page 843. Half sugar and half comh honey (so as to 

 get the wax) makes a pliable and tip-top winter candy ; while half 

 sugar and half extracted makes a hard article. 



sainfoin's UPS AND DOWNS. 



So sainfoin has stood three Wisconsin winters, and bees visit it 

 eagerly. Two improbables. Good. Sainfoin seems to be a football; 

 a few weeks ago it was badly down, and now it is up. Page 846. 



DEFINITION OF HONEY. 



Natural and proper to agitate for a precise definition of honey, but 

 the difficulties in the way are great. The most rigid definition prac- 

 ticable will let in some honeys that are entirely unfit to eat. The 

 moment we exclude anything the bees gather from natural sources 

 we are confronted with large quantities of a fairly edible substance 

 that is partly honey and partly not honey. Also a large fraction of 

 the crop in most apiaries — the bee-man himself doesn't know whether 

 it's honey or not. As to mean flavored stuff of bark-louse origin, or. 

 from half-decayed fruits, 'twere much better to call it honey and shut 

 it out of market than to call it something else and permit it to kill off 

 customers under its own proper name. Page 851. 



GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING OF HONEY. 



A person must be hard to please if not pleased with the offer of 

 government aid in advertising honey coming through Prof. Benton — 

 50,000 copies of a good-sized pamphlet for circulation entirely free. 

 Page 853. 



HONEY LEAFLETS FOB GENERAL REPRINTING. 



Mr. Woods made a good shot when he warned us about a danger 

 in getting up a leaflet or statement to be copied free by local editors. 

 Unless very wisely drawn and quite brief it will be cut down before 

 printing. And unless very close supervision is exercised the editor's 

 utter lack of bee-lore will play havoc right there. Mere pleasantries, 

 and pungencies and wonders will be retained ; and the most important 

 things of all will turn up missing. And when the editor feels obliged 

 to summarize a long paragraph with a sentence, queer mistakes will be 

 printed as official truth right from fountain-head. Page 854. 



ILLINOIS AND WISCONSIN SISTERS. 



So Illinois and Wisconsin more than balance 39 other States— 

 when it comes to furnishing lady members of the Association. Page 856. 



HITE-ENTRANCES IN OUTDOOR WINTERING. 



Allen Latham inclines to be the apostle of wide entrances for out- 

 door wintering— and predicts more losses for bees not so arranged. 

 Last winter my conceit was that the colonies with extra-wide en- 

 trances suffered quite a bit worse than the others. This time I con- 

 tracted all the very wide ones ; and some I let be that had grown very 

 small by sinking into rotten bottoms. Maybe now I shall dance for 

 it. Page 855. 



BUTTER AND HONEY AS A BBEAD-DIP. 



The Arab (or anybody else for that matter) might do worse than 

 have a warm mixture of butter and honey to dip his bread in. Page 869. 



, DEEP FRAMES FOB EXTRACTING. 



The editorial hits it squarely where it pokes hard at deep frames 

 used for extracting. Oft green honey at the bottom of the frame 

 when it is rather necessary to extract, and the honey above is ripe and 

 nil right. I use such frames, and like them, on the whole — and mean 

 to keep on using them— but a sorely weak spot was found. Page 869. 



SMOKE BEES LIKE A SENSIBLE I PERSON. 



As you indicate, Mr. Dadant, it serves him right; and his sin finds 

 him out — the fellow who is proud of his ability to open hives without 

 smoke. The bees do not indeed sting him very much; but they are 

 needlessly made angry, and sting the neighbors all around. And the 

 net result is joint efforts to get the bees moved, when it never would 

 have been thought of had he used smoke like a sensible man. Page 807. 



