Dee Journal 



Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter i 

 Published YVeekly at $1.00 a Veap by iSeorge *V. VorU & Co., 334 I>earborii St. 



aBORQB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,. AUGUST 17, 1905 



Vol, XLV— No, 33 



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(fbitortal Hotcs £^ Comments 



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The Honey Crop of 1905 



Editor Root gives the following paragraphs 

 on the honey crop conditions, in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture for Aug. 1 : 



Although the reports have not come in as 

 freely as I could desire, yet, taking all sources 

 of information, including such reports as we 

 have received, 1 am not far from the truth 

 when I say the crop has been a light one, 

 taking the United States as a whole, and an 

 entire failure in many localities. The condi- 

 tions in California and Texas are not materi- 

 ally different from those already reported. In 

 the southeastern part of the United States, 

 particularly in North Carolina, the season has 

 been almost a failure. Apparently Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, possibly Minnesota, northern Illi- 

 nois, and Ontario, Canada, will have a fair 

 crop of honey. The prospects were dubious 

 two or three weeks ago, when there was a 

 change for the better. New York and Penn- 

 sylvania report all the way from a fair to a 

 poor season. New England seems to be in 

 the doubtful list yet. Colorado will be very 

 much behind its general average ; and this is 

 particularly so for the Western Slope, 



Those who are located in the clover 



belt, where there is still considerable white 

 clover in bloom, as well as pea-vine and com- 

 mon red, will do well to look to their bees 

 and see what they are doing. Do not give up 

 yet. You may get a fair crop of honey. The 

 recent rains, which appear to be general, 

 came just as it was beginning to get a little 

 dry. Queer season this. 



An old and experienced honey-dealer once 

 said, " There is always enough honey some- 

 where to supply the demand,'' If you can 

 get a fair price for your honey better not hold 

 it, but sell, as later on it may turn out to be 

 like last season — many held their honey, and 

 then a lot was dumped on the market all at 

 once, which caused the price to drop away 

 down. 



Mating and Swarming of Virgins 



Do bees sometimes swarm out with the only 

 queen they have, leaving the colony hope- 

 lessly queenless! Does the colony, or part of 

 it, generally, or sometimes, go out with the 

 virgin queen when she goes out to mate? Not 

 a few have answered both these questions in 

 the affirmative, Mr, Muth-Kassmussen is 

 quoted by Mr, Doolittle, in Gleanings, as say- 

 ing that when a queen is lost in any way, and 

 the bees rear a successor from her brood. 



*' when the virgin queen flies out to mate, 

 the bees will swarm out with her and will 

 settle on a tree or bush, like a normal swarm," 

 Mr, Doolittle never knew of any swarm going 

 with a virgin queen without a rival queen 

 being left in the hive, said rival being gen- 

 erally confined in a queen-cell, and says: 



" So far as my experience goes, a swarm 

 goes out with a virgin queen only when there 

 are rival queens left in the hive in the shape 

 of other virgin queens in queen-cells, and 

 when all but the last virgin have gone out 

 with swarms, or been disposed of by the bees 

 or by the queen that is at liberty in the hive; 

 then, a few days later, this remaining queen 

 goes out to meet the drone alone, with mine of 

 her hees ai-rontpanyiny 7ie)\ is fertilized, and 

 soon becomes mother ol the colony," 



Opinions on both sides are likely to be 

 forthcoming, and it will be interesting to note 

 the outcome. It will be a good thing if there 

 can be a positive decision, unless, indeed, it 

 happens that bees in California are not gov- 

 erned by the same laws in such cases as are 

 those in New York, 



Sainfoin as a Honey-Plant 



This plant, (limlirychis sativa, continues to 

 loom large in Canada. The question arises. 

 Why is so little said about it further south? 

 " A York County Bee-Keeper," in the Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal, makes a point in its favor 

 which gives it distinct value; it differs from 

 other clovers in that it appears to yield nectar 

 early in the morning, the bees working on it 

 fully an hour before they do on alsike and 

 white clover. Also, that the first bloom 

 comes between fruit-bloom and white clover, 

 and the second crop when there is a dearth 

 from other sources. 



John Fixter, apiarist of Central Experimen- 

 tal Farm, who has done much to bring this 

 plant into prominence, sends the following to 

 the Canadian Bee Journal : 



1 am so pleased with the results of our sain- 

 foin test that I feel it a duty to bring it again 

 to the notice of our friends. The small field 

 sown in the spring' of 190-t was sown on poor, 

 sandy soil, and therefore did not do ver.v well 

 the first season, It did not even bloom. Not 

 being discouraged, we allowed it to stand 

 over. Since sprini; it has made fairly good 

 growth, coming' nto bloom June 9 — white 



clover bloomed June 14, and very little out 

 at that date. Bees are working so well on 

 the sainfoin that a bee-keeper standing in 

 the center of the field would be looking where 

 the swarm was — every plant has a bee on it. 

 We can not do too much by way of bringing 

 this wonderful plant before the notice of our 

 friends. It is not only a honey-producer, 

 but makes such excellent fodder, and will 

 produce honey each time it blooms. 



Colonizing Bumble-Bees 



Speaking of the relentless war that has 

 been waged on most farms against bumble- 

 bees up to a few years ago, because of the 

 difficulty of harvesting hay with several 

 bumble-bees' nests in the field, a writer in the 

 Farmers' Review says : 



" Now, we are coming to see that we have 

 done a foolish thing in exterminating these 

 insects, upon which depends the entire crop 

 of red clover seed. Doubtless they can be 

 colonized, and their habitations fixed at a 

 distance from the fields that have to be cut 

 over," 



So far as reported, all attempts in the past 

 to colonize bumble-bees have been unsuccess- 

 ful, and it is doubtful that much can be done 

 in that direction in the future. Their habits 

 are quite unlike those of the hive-bee. A 

 single female or queen starts out in business 

 in the spring, all by herself. Some of her 

 progeny come to her aid, but a nest of bum- 

 ble-bees remains always a diminutive affair 

 compared with the thousands in a hive of our 

 honey-bees. There are no combs made of 

 wax, larva- and honey alike being contained 

 in cups formed in the pollen-mass, so movable 

 combs are not likely to be viewed by them 

 with favor. The same writer says : 



•' At this time of year they would be hard 

 to get, as the broods hatch out later, but it is 

 the second crop of clover that produces the 

 seed and not the first, and that is the crop 

 that is fertilized by the new broods of bees," 



That's a little like saying that the moon is 

 more useful than the sun, for the moon 

 shines at night when it is dark, and the sun 

 shines only in the daylight. To be sure, the 

 bumble-bee is needed to fertilize the blossoms 

 of the second crop of red clover, but many 

 farmers seem to think there is something in 

 the nature of the plant that makes it willing 

 or able to produce seed only on the second 

 crop. If bumble-bees were present in suffi- 

 cient number to fertilize the blossoms of the 

 first crop, why should it not produce seed as 

 well as the second? 



