232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 23, 190S. 



nothing- with the entire summer and fall — a strong- colony 

 of hybrids, -which were as savage bees as I ever saw. 



What would you do with them in the spring ? Would 

 you introduce an Italian queen ? That is, if you could get 

 near them 7 or if you couldn't, what would you do ? L,ast 

 year was a fairly good one for dark honey or buckwheat. 

 Clover was checked by the dry season, but come to think of 

 it, there was too much rain. I took off about 300 pounds of 

 extracted honey and one super of comb honey. 



I can easily sell more than I can get. There are only 

 two other bee-keepers around here, and they are men. I 

 would like to get some other women interested in bees, but 

 they get frightened when I mention it, saying they are 

 afraid of getting stung. Well, I was, too, but have gotten 

 over it. Ethei, M. Burdette. 



Hunterdon Co., N. J., Feb. 6. 



Yes, it would be a good plan to give them a queen of 

 gentler stock, if not too difiBcult to do so. But you may find 

 that they superseded their queen last fall, and that the 

 workers of the new queen are more gentle. And you may 

 find, too, that without any change of queen there may be a 

 change of temper. I have distinctly in mind a colony that 

 was extremely cross, and the only thing that saved the head 

 of that queen was the fact that we were so very busy that 

 we let it slip along until too late to requeen that season. 

 The next spring they were a good, strong colony, and did 

 excellent work all season, and so far as we could see were 

 quite as gentle as any colony in the apiary. 



Report from a " Mother " Bee-Keeper— Severe 

 Winter. 



Dear Miss Wilson :— If the rest of the sisters had 

 been as slow as I have been in giving their reports you 

 would not have had very many. I have had so much to do, 

 and no one to do anything but me. 



The past season was not a very good one. From 8 col- 

 onies I secured only 75 full sections, 22 not full, and 13 that 

 I gave to one of the colonies to clean out. This colony did 

 not have enough to winter on, and I made candy and put on 

 the frames under the cushion. Week before last I looked to 

 see if they had eaten it all, but there was quite a little left. 



I have only 10 colonies ; some have boxes over them 

 with leaves packed between the boxes and the hives, and 

 some have padding around them and a board set up in front 

 of the entrance. 



Last week we had the worst weather of the winter, and 

 the most snow, and the wind blew so hard that the snow 

 drifted badly. Saturday afternoon I shoveled through the 

 drifts until I got to all of them, took away the boards and 

 brushed the snow from the entrance, returning the boards 

 after doing so. The snow had blown in between the boards 

 and the hive until it was packed full, and I was afraid that 

 they might smother. Now they can get air until another 

 storm comes, and I hope that will not be this winter. 



I had so much to do all summer that they did not get the 

 proper care. I had 50 chickens and over 60 pigeons, all 

 having to be fed and watered three times a day. 



It took me all of week before last to make my chicken 

 yard larger, digging holes, putting in posts, nailing on 

 boards at the bottom and putting on the wire. 



On page 72 the " Elder Sister " says that she is 70. I 

 was 76 in December. How is this for a sister that does the 

 work that I do? I look for the sisters' corner the first thing. 



Mrs. Sarah J. Griffith. 



Cumberland Co., N. J., Jan. 30. 



There is not usually much danger of harm from snow 

 at the entrance. In fact, some count it an advantage to 

 have it there so long as it is soft and porous, so the air can 

 slowly work through it. 



Perhaps at 76 one should be counted a " mother " rather 

 than a sister. When we all reach the same age may we be 

 as active. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon- 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a " hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at SI. 00. 



=\ 



Clftcrll^ougf^ts 



J 



The " Old Rehable " seen through New and Unreliable GlaBses. 

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



CELLAR-FEEDING OF SYBUP-FILLED COMBS. 



C. P. Dadant succeeds pretty well in knocking out the plan of 

 feeding syrup-Blled combs in the cellar. Granting that something 

 must be fed, candy has three decided advantages. First, one doesn't 

 have to tear the winter cluster apart to give it to them; second, they 

 will not get excited when they first And it; and third, the keeper can 

 easily see, without causing any disturbance, how the supply is hold- 

 ing out. All correct; but I'll be ofl-oxed enough to talk back to the 

 effect that/«i' other timen in the year the empty comb filled with syrup 

 (or honey) by means of the — well, call it the " in-tractor " — and put 

 right where it will do the most good— this going-to-be improvement is 

 one of the good things which the future has in store for our craft. 

 Page S6. 



A "NEBVr " EBBOB. 



In my corner, on page 88, read optic nerve instead of " optic 

 never." 



A BBAVE sister AND OTHEBS. 



Sister Wheeler's locality and climate (north end of Lake Cham- 

 plain) are certainly very trying to run an apiary in. Surplus very 

 late, and almost no pleasant weather from then till the opening of 

 spring. That she and others nevertheless " make the riffles " is quite 

 to their credit. Page 87. 



HEAVT LOSS, BUT STILL CHEERFUL. 



An excellent example of "count your mercies," we have on page 

 92. Losing all but 7 out of 148 (and the survivors with only a pint of 

 bees each) would make some of us grumble — some of us cry, possibly. 

 But here comes Mr. Hammersmark as our exemplar, crowing and con- 

 gratulating himself that now he is going to have exclusively such a 

 hardy and profitable strain of bees. 



"CLOSE SPACING FOR WOBEEB-COMBS." 



The British Bee Journal would not have had such a high and ex- 

 cellent reputation as it has did it always give such silly answers as 

 that quoted on page 99. Possibly it is meant that the frames are also 

 to be filled full of worker foundation. That would redeem it. Mere 

 slips of comb, less than a half an inch in thickness because the crevices 

 they were to fill didn't allow room for anything thicker, are often built 

 with cells of drone size. And spacing frames IV inches, or any other 

 distance, is no assurance that the combs, when finished, will be accord- 

 ing to guide, it they have starters only. If the bees want a drone- 

 comb they will build it, and crowd the next comb over to that extent — 

 sometimes omit the next altogether, or in part, and fill the space by 

 bulging from both sides. 



EVEBT BEE-KEEPEB HIS OWN HIVE-MAKER. 



Ah, dear Boss, don't you forget to remember that this whole 

 nation (except the culprits) is tender and excited on the subject of 

 trusts. If you even seem to favor their side but a little there will in- 

 stanter be lots of bees around your bonnet, if not in it. It you were 

 a guest in the Russian royal family you would not argue very much 

 in favor of the bomb-throwers — and you are in a somewhat similar fix 

 now. The cabinet-maker has already " dressed you down " for saying 

 that hives must be made with more accurate measurements than cabi- 

 net-makers and carpenters use — and here comes your friend and men- 

 tor to dress you some more for the logic in your first paragraph. If a 

 man makes his own hives with profit it most decidedly (loetm't follow 

 that he can make for others with stili more profit. He makes his own 

 hives with his own hands; but if he wishes to enlarge in that line the 

 vexatious question of hired help comes in and knocks everything end- 

 wise. Page 100.— [It is hardly necessary for us to say that we have 

 no use for trusts or combines that have for their object the raising of 

 prices unduly, and then keeping them elevated. V/e believe in the 

 motto, "Live and let live!" — Editob.] 



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 /r^,? 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. _j 



