544 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 3, 190S 



swarm I (iivicied them, letting the queenless part rear its 

 own queen. I also found a couple of bee-trees in the woods. 

 These I cut down and transferred, so now I have 8 colonies, 

 some strong and some weak. They all have laying queens 

 now (July 10). and if we "have seasonable weather from 

 now on I am in hopes will all be in good shape for win- 

 tering. 



.There is quite a lot of big timber here yet. and a good 

 many bee-trees are cut every fall. I have often seen col- 

 onies starving to death where the tree had been rohbed. I 

 always felt sorry for the bees and wished I could do some- 

 thing to keep them from perishing. 



1. If I should have some weak colonies this fall, say 

 covering 4 or 5 Langstroth frames, could I unite with one 

 of these "naked" colonies? 



2. Would it be an advantage to me, or otherwise? 



3. How much more stores would it take to winter the 

 united colonies than the weak colony by itself? 



Missouri. 

 Answers. — 1. Yes, you could thus have a strong colony 

 instead of a weak one, but you must take more pains as to 

 uniting in fall than during a flow, and of course you must 

 look out to have stores enough. 



2. It would be an advantage to have a strong colony 

 rather than a weak one. 



3. I don't know just how much, but at a guess I would 

 say that if you unite two weak colonies of equal strength, 

 the united colony would not need more than 50 per cent 

 more than either of the colonies separately. If that be a 

 correct guess, you will see that it would be a saving of one- 

 fourth of the stores. More important than that, it would, 

 in many cases, be a saving of one or both of the colonies. 



Sweet Mixture for Winter Stores 



Would a mixture of sugar, "sugarall" and corn-starch 

 do to feed bees for winter stores? Of course most of the 

 starch will settle to the bottom so the syrup could be poured 

 off. I can get any amount of this mixture for nothing as 

 I handle the syrup after it is mixed, and at noon and night 

 the tanks are emptied, and it is thrown away. It is very 

 sweet. We will all agree that the sugar is all right, but 

 what about the starch and "sugarall"? Maine. 



Answer.— I don't know. It would seem a little doubt- 

 ful that anything of so little value as to be thrown away 

 would be good feed for bees in winter. You could easily 

 experiment on one or more colonies. Even if not safe for 

 ■winter food, it might be good to feed for brood-rearing in 

 spring. " 



Greatest Honey State 



What State has made the greatest success with bees 

 and honey during the last 10 years, and what is the best 

 location in the State? I want to go into the bee-business 

 quite heavily. Kansas, 



Answer. — Put in short, your question asks for the best 

 location in the United States. I don't know just what that 

 IS, but there are a number of excellent locations. Take 

 the names of the leading producers of large crops of honev 

 and each one of them is likely to have a good location! 

 But that doesn't interest you particularly, for such loca- 

 tions are fully occupied already. Answering more directly 

 your question, Texas contends with California for the 

 highest place in honey-production, but I don't know what 

 available locality in either is best. 



Motherwort-A Good Honey Plant 



In my back yard grows this weed. It is a very hardy 

 one, as I have tried to exterminate it and failed. It comes 

 early and grows to be -3 feet high. I never happened to 

 notice till this spring how especially fond the bees are of 

 it. Now I am interested and want to grow it in waste 

 places. Very early in spring it begins to bloom, probably 

 when 8 or 9 inches high. As the stems grow it continues 

 to bloom, while the first bloom matures into seed. You 

 will notice this on the enclosed stalk. The bees prefer it 

 to catnip, white clover, basswood, or anything else. Whac 

 is it? And is the yiehl such as to pay growing it? "vVheri 



must one plant the seed and how? We would have had 

 an immense honey-flow here but for the rains. I should 

 have added that as these flowers mature into seeds the pod 

 is a burr. Illinois. 



An.swer. — It is motherwort. It is counted a good 

 honey-plant, and is good for waste places, but it would 

 hardly pay to occupy with it cultivated ground. I know 

 nothing about its cultivation-^never heard of its being 

 cultivated — but you would be pretty safe to sow at any 

 time when seed matures. 



Swarms Uniting; 



What is the reason my bees act as they do? Monday 

 morning, July 10, I noticed one colony of bees swarming, 

 and they settled on a small plum-tree. About the time I 

 was ready to put them in the hive another colony swarmed, 

 and settled on them. I was about to put them in w'hen 

 another swarm settled on them, making 3 swarms in one 

 from 3 different hives. I put them in a hive and they 

 seem to agree all right. If any one doubts it he can bring 

 2 hives and have the pleasure of separating them. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Unfortunately the behavior of your bees is 

 nothing very exceptional. If two or more swarms are out 

 at the same time, they are very likely to go together, and 

 some have reported five or more swarms in one huge mass. 

 The consolidation of your three swarms will do good work, 

 only by next spring the colony will be no larger than each 

 of the three would have been if they had been separated. 

 You could have divided them into two or three parts, dip- 

 ping up the bees with a tin dipper, and giving each a 

 queen. The finding the queens is not so very difficult, as 

 in case of such uniting the queens are likely to be found 

 balled. 



=^ 



(Eonrentton 

 Procccbings 



rJ 



Report of the Chicaeo-Northwestem Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Conventiou, held at Chicago, 111 , 

 Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1904 



(Contlaned from page 490. J 



FIRST DAY— Afternoon Session. 



Pres. York called for the report of the Foul Brood Com- 

 mittee which had been appointed two years ago. 



report of the committee on foul brood. 



Mr. Moore — The Foul Brood Coinmittee, of which I hnve 

 the honor to be chairman, really has nothing to report. We 

 reported in full to date at the last meeting, and from then 

 till now there was no work that could be done except in- 

 specting apiaries. I don't suppose that cornes under the scope 

 of this report. There is a heading in the program that does 

 refer to such matters as that. We might make our recom- 

 mendations ; we might tell you a lot of things : we might 

 say this fall the Legislature meets again and we have to get 

 the law over again, or fail to get it. Air. Kannenberg is with 

 me on this committee, and I believe there is a vacancy to 

 fill. As the committee having charge of this matter, we have 

 to urge upon each one of you individually to do what you 

 can to get a law through the Legislature this fall. If you 

 know some member of the Legislature, communicate with him 

 by all means. If you do not know any member take the pains 

 to find the names and addresses of the nearest member to 

 you and communicate with him. If every one of us would 

 do that it would have a material effect. When I was there 

 two years ago and appeared before committees of the 

 Legislature to get the laws we did get, they said, " For 

 goodness sake, stop writing us letters ; we will give you 

 anything if you will only quit writing to us." 



Advertising is what we want, and the piembers of the 

 Legislature must know we are alive. How are they going 

 to find it out unless by individuals writing and saying. Give 

 us the laws we need? But hundreds have to do that. We 



