THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



137 



Editor Am. Bee-Keeper, Dear 

 Sir : I find that buckwheat is no good 

 for Italian bees. I have just exam- 

 ined two large fields of Japanese buck- 

 wheat in full bloom and could not find 

 an Italian bee anywhere. The field 

 was just swarming with brown or our 

 native bees and occasionally a Hybrid. 

 I have 23 colonies of full-blooded 

 Italian bees in the same yard with my 

 brown bees. 



Bees do not fly as far in some places 

 as they do here, according to reports 

 in bee journals, for I have followed 

 bee-lines of our native bees three miles 

 and a half and cut the bees out of the 

 trees, and I have seen Italians four 

 miles from home. Yours truly, 



S. Nelson. 



Wistar, Pa., Aug. 5, 1891. 



[We believe it is generally under- 

 stood that Italian bees do not work to 

 any extent in buckwheat, while com- 

 mon bees and Hybrids usually get a 

 good harvest from it. We have known 

 of common bees storing buckwheat 

 honey in one hive, while next to it 

 was a hive of Italians storing white 

 honey. — En.J 



Editor Am. Bee-Keeper, Dear 



Sir : As at this season of the year one 

 can make a reasonable colculation of 

 the honey crop, I will say that the 

 crop of light honey is very slim and 

 the prospects for a fall flow are not 

 very flattering. It is very dry here. 

 There was a very heavy flow of honey 

 dew early in June and July, it being 

 the first that 1 have experienced. I 

 have been in the business five years 

 arid have 55 colonies. 



Lionel Brokaw. 

 Summer Hill, Aug. 10, 1891. 



FEEDING BACK. 



Whether feeding back to secure the 

 completion of partly filled section pays, 

 in the long run, I shall not now at- 

 tempt to decide, but I shall content 

 myself with suggesting three or four 

 points which must be maturely con- 

 sidered before the question can be 

 rightly determined. 



First, the honey thus produced is 

 never, I think, of the finest quality. I 

 always imagine it to have a flavor 

 foreign to comb honey produced in the 

 ordinary way ; and, at least, it candies 

 readily, which alone is likely to place 

 it among the lower grades of honey, 

 Secondly, when it becomes noised 

 abroad that comb honey is produced 

 by feeding the bees, consumers will be 

 startled, and the markets will be affect- 

 ed more or less ; and the sale of can- 

 died comb honey will have even greater 

 effect upon the market. The inexperi- 

 enced will buy it unawares and the 

 purchase by them of no more honey of 

 any kind would lie a very natural re- 

 sult. Thirdly, to be a success, feeding- 

 back must be done in the interval 

 between basswood and fall flowers, 

 when, of all the year, the weather and 

 the bees are the most trying — a combi- 

 nation which makes the labor very 

 undesirable. Fourthly, if foul brood 

 should find a lodgment in an apiary, 

 and remain for a time undiscovered 

 by the apiarist, nothing else would 



