302 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



November 



ter and the best we can possibly do 

 for them will not be too good, as 

 our next seasons success will largely 

 depend upon the cave our bees get 

 during the winter. To find ourselves 

 with poor, weak, sickly, colonies in 

 the spring assures us no honey crop. 

 Often of late years we fail to get 

 much honey even after we have 

 brought our bees thi'ough in good 

 shape, but we know we were not at 

 fault, so let us try again and hope as 

 we have been doing, for a big crop 

 next year. 



Steeleville, 111. 



^ ■ ■ ■ 1^ 



Notes and Comnients. 



BY H, E. HILL. 



No white honey in our local market 

 this year. 



an experience is incentive toward the 

 adoption of the " tall breeder " system. 



An average yield of about 45 

 pounds of honey was secured in this 

 locality — all from buckwheat. 



As a result of the erroneous idea 

 that bees destroy grapes by cutting 

 the skin and extracting the juice, 

 there are counties in Califoruia where- 

 in bee-keeping is prohibited by law. 



Replying to S. M. Keeler : The 

 honey of " stingless bees " has not 

 "the same good keeping qualities as 

 that from our stinging bees," doubt- 

 less owing to the absence of formic 

 acid. The honey is not stored in 

 combs, but in irregular globes of a 

 composition resembling propolis rath- 

 er than wax, the odor of which is (to 

 me) extremely offensive. 



I have had bees, occupying improv- 

 ed hives, which required a second su- 

 per before any of the several box hives 

 in the same yard cast a swarm. Such 



Bee-Keepers in the vicinity of 

 Hawks Park, Florida, are considera- 

 bly alarmed by the recent appearance 

 of foul brood in that section. The 

 present cases, which exist in the api- 

 aries of E. G. Hewett, W. S, Hart and 

 E. P. Porcher, the latter on Merritt's 

 Island, are the first ever reported from 

 Florida. It is, however, hopefully 

 anticipated that it will soon be effect- 

 ually eradicated by the " wide awake," 

 resident bee-keepers, who, fortunate- 

 ly, are thoroughly competent to cope 

 with the scourage. 



Of the '*hive bee," published in 

 1855, Frost's Encyclopedia of Anima- 

 ted Nature says : " Each society has 

 but one female, the queen, several 

 hundred males, called drones ; and 

 about twenty thousand working bees, 

 which are sexless. The latter build 

 the hives, construct the combs, secrete 

 the honey, and in a word, do all the 

 work of the establishment. The hon- 

 ey finds its was out of the abdomen of 

 the workers in little scales, which be- 

 ing taken up and kneaded by the 

 jaws, is then put in the proper place." 

 Prof. Frost probably supposed they 

 gathered the wax from clover^ and 

 buckwheat. And this but forty years 

 ago. 



Titusville, Pa. 



" How TO Manage Bees," a 50c 

 book, and the American Bbe-Keep- 

 ER a year for only GOc, or A. B. C. 

 of Bee Culture and the Bee-Keeper 

 one year for 75c, or including Glean- 

 ings one year for $1.65. 



