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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 17, 1905 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



White Clover and Cool, Wet Weather 



In this locality, as in many others, white 

 clover is doing a wholesale business at grow- 

 ing and blooming. Plenty of nectar in the 

 bloom, too. But cool and wet weather has 

 not allowed the bees full chance at it. Yet 

 there may not be so much loss in that, for 

 cool, wet days may prolong the growth and 

 the blooming enough to make up all loss. 

 Good weather or bad, the bees have done a 

 lot of storing. Yet .July 20, while the fields 

 are still white, and apparently the bees are 

 hard at work, robber-bees are beginning to 

 trouble. There doesn't seem to be any plain 

 reason for it. Most likely, however, it is only 

 temporary. Other years there have been days 

 when the harvest seemed about to close, and 

 then the bees would take fresh hold again and 

 do good work. Their finished work would 

 show evidences of these breaks in the harvest. 

 A section would show that they had begun 

 rounding it off, sealing up without drawing 

 out to their fullest extent the outer cells, 

 some of the outermost cells still remaining 

 unsealed, then, as if by an afterthought, 

 these outermost cells would be drawn out to 

 their fullest extent, the afterthought show- 

 ing very plainly in the finished section. 



Honey in the Heart of London 



Over 50 pounds of comb honey of excellent 

 quality have recently been gathered in the 

 very heart of London. The bees belonged to 

 a woman apiarist. — Farmers' Review. 



So-Called Poisonous Honey 



Dear Miss Wilson:— I would like to ask 

 a question which bothers me. Can honey be 

 poisonous without poisoning the bees' The 

 reason I ask is this: While I was uncapping 

 some honey some was so green in the comb 

 that when taken out there was a slight tint 

 of green. New Jersey. 



Yes, there is such a thing as bees gathering 

 honey that does not injure them, and yet is 

 poisonous to the human family— at least the 

 honey sickens the people that eat it. Such 

 cases, however, are rare, and it is not likely 

 you will ever be troubled in that way. There 

 IS the well-known story of soldiers— was it 

 Aenophon's army? — being thrown out of 

 action by eating honey gathered perhaps from 

 mountain laurel. Some say honey from lau- 

 rel IS poisonous, while others who live where 

 laurel is abundant say they never have any 

 poisonous honey. Down South honey from 

 yellow jasmine has a bad name. 



Don't be alarmed at the slight tint of green 

 in honey Some very good honey has that ; 

 doesn't alsike or sweet clover honey « 



How Many Supers to the Hive ? 



What a difference in practice there is as to 

 the number of supers on a hive at the same 

 time. Now and then some one— generally a 

 beginner in the first year— talks as if only 1 

 super at a time were to be used. Indeed there 

 is— at least there has been— such a thing as a 

 closed-top section ; and with closed tops how 

 could more than one super at a time be used' 

 I wish some one who uses these closed-top 

 sections, or indeed uses only 1 super at a time, 

 whether the tops be closeu or open, would tell 

 us all about how it works. 



Then there are those— experienced bee- 

 keepers, too— who advocate having only 2 

 supers at a time. It must be that their supers 



hold more than usual, or that their colonies 

 are smaller than they are in this locality. 

 Some of our colonies would certainly be 

 crowded out of the hives if the attempt were 

 made to confine them to an 8-frame hive and 

 3 supers of 24 sections each. The bees simply 

 couldn't all get in. 



Some of the 3-super folks would probably 

 raise their hands in horror if this third week 

 in July they should see the supers piled up 

 on our hives. Possibly 2 or 3 colonies have 

 only 1 super each. That's because something 

 has gone wrong with the colony, and it isn't 

 counted as amounting to anything. A very 

 few have only 2, and these are counted little 

 more than failures. The season, however, is 



good, or these might not have even the 1 or 3. 

 Most colonies, however, have more than 3 

 supers each. Quite a number have 5, and a 

 few have 6 supers each. 



Of course it is possible some colonies have 

 more super-room than they need, but it does 

 less harm to give too much than too little 

 room. 



Very Small Honey Crop 



Our honey crop here so far is very small. 

 It was too wet while the clover bloomed, and 

 when the basswood opened we had 3 or 4 days 

 of hot weather, and then 3 days of cold winds, 

 so that bees could not fly, or could not fly 

 enough to do anything. They work on sweet 

 clover now, but there is not plenty of it. 

 Goldenrod will soon bloom so they still have 

 a show, although there has been no show for 

 honey all summer — except a few hours at a 

 time. I received a card from Faribault, Minn., 

 and it says that the honey crop so far is short 

 there. (Miss) Mart Theilmann. 



Wabasha Co., Minn., Aug. 3. 



Doctor 2TttIlcr 5 QixcstiouBox 



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Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 Dr. Miller does «o( answer Questions by mail. 



Plan for Wintering Bees 



1. I am making some boxes to put over the 

 hives to winter the bees, and want them 

 water-tight. Would it be all right to cover 

 the boxes with tar-paper, or would the tar 

 odor be offensive to the bees? 



3. Shall I close the entrance entirely during 

 winter, or only part? What size opening 

 should I leave? Illinois. 



Answers.— 1. The tar-paper on the outside 

 will not trouble the bees. 



3. By no means close the entrance entirely. 

 Leave an opening equivalent to 1 to 3 square 

 inches, according to the strength of the col- 

 ony. 



"Llnins" Bees In the Woods 



How can I line bees out in the woods? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Set your bait and watch the 

 direction the bees go when they leave it. Then 

 move your bait in that direction, and try 

 again. Keep on till you find that the bees 

 go back in the opposite direction, and then 

 you'll know you've passed the right place, 

 and you can bait back nearer to it, all the 

 while keeping a close watch on the trees to 

 see or hear the bees flying in or out. Another 

 way is to cross-line. After watching the 

 direction the bees take, instead of moving 

 directly in that line, move at right angles to 

 it and watch the line the bees make. Now 

 guess about where the point would be where 

 these two lines cross, and try accordingly. 



Meaning of ttueen Terms 



1. In queen-bee advertisements what is the 

 meaning of untested, warranted tested, tested, 

 select tested, and breeders? 



2. Have the untested queens sent as pre- 

 miums been mated! Wasuinqton. 



Answers. — 1. As used with regard to Ital- 

 ian queens, these terms have been in use as 

 follows : An " untested " queen is one reared 

 from an Italian mother, and has begun to lay, 

 but it has not yet been determined what her 

 progeny will be, so it is not known whether 

 she has mated with an Italian or a black 

 drone. 



A " tested " queen is one which has been 

 laying more than 3 weeks, and whose worker 

 progeny show the 3 yellow bands. 



A " warranted '' queen is one whose progeny 

 has not yet been seen, but is sent out with the 

 agreement that if such progeny does not show 

 the 3 yellow bands it will be replaced with 

 another queen purely mated. 



A " select tested " queen is one which in 

 some respects seems better than the average. 



A "breeder" is one supposed to be of such 

 good stock and good characteristics as to be 

 superior to others to breed from. 



It may be added that these things refer 

 largely to color, and a good many care less 

 for color than performance. 



3. When a queen is sent out by any one, it 

 is always understood that she has been mated, 

 unless it is specially stipulated that she is to 

 be a virgin. 



Miller Frame— Split Sections— Foun- 

 dation Splints— Spacing in Hives 



1. In the Miller frame, what objections 

 would there be, if any, to halving all bars as 

 well as the bottom-bar, placing foundation 

 over one-half, then nailing together! 



3. Could sections be made in the half form, 

 vertically, and a full sheet of foundation laid 

 between the halves, then fastened some way? 



3. Why do your splints not extend from 

 top-bar to bottom-bar? On page 88 of " Forty 

 Years Among the Bees," you say " 'i inch 

 shorter than the inside depth of frame." 



4. Such light sticks as your splints are 

 liable to twist or warp and make foundation 

 wavy. Do you often find them not exactly 

 straight just before using, and discard them? 

 I suppose after being boiled in wax they 

 would DO longer warp. 



5. It is complained that side-spacers, nails 

 or staples are objectionable for several rea- 

 sons, and that an indented rabbet is objection- 

 able because the frames will not slide on it. 

 Could the bottom spacing be accomplished by 

 driving headless (" finishing ") nails Into the 

 hii<e-enils so they would strike the bottom-bars 

 in the middle, }ti inch from the bottom? To 

 lift frames this small distance, several at once, 

 and slide them on metal rabbets at the top 

 would seem reasonably easy, a slight iDclina. 

 tion of the frame being all that would be 

 necessary. To secure top-spacing, why could 

 not an indented metal spacer be used? One 

 could be laid on each end of the frames, the 

 two thus keeping the frames regular in dis- 

 tance. A notched strip of heavy tin, similar 

 to the notched stick used for fastening frames 

 for shipment (page '-'23, " A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture''), would constitute the spacer. If the 



