24 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that I very seriously injured the said hives for 

 the season. 



For some reason or other I have never stic- 

 ceeded in getting my queens fertile until 

 from ten to fifteen days, generally when they 

 are about twelve days old, quite different from 

 the time given by most writers on the subject. 



In following the advice of an author to Ital- 

 ianize all old stocks before swarming, I did not 

 get ready to make my swarms until nearly Au- 

 gust, and, as the season Avas very poor here, my 

 my first year's bee-keeping was not very profi- 

 table, that is in doKars and cents. If experi- 

 ence is worth anything I did well, as I spent 

 almost the whole summer and then had to buy 

 a hundred pounds of coifee sugar for my swarms, 

 besides using all my surplus, and doubling them 

 up so that I had only four swarms from eight 

 hives. 



Perhaps a few facts may be interesting in my 

 queen raising : 



One of the black queens, after being in the 

 nucleus hive two days, was given to a friend 

 who wished to start an observatory hive. 



Some bees were taken from one of his hives 

 and were put into his g!ass hive, and the queen 

 introduced. Several days after, on going to 

 the nucleus hive from which she was taken, I 

 discovered that it contained two clusters of bees; 

 one at the front of the hive and one at the back. 

 As they had an Italian queen a few days old I 

 (;ould not account for it, until the friend in 

 question came to say that his glass hive was de- 

 serted. Another person saw them come over 

 direct to that hive. 



Now who can explain this for us. This queen 

 had been taken from a swarm that I purchased 

 about Christmas over three miles from here; 

 had never been out of her hive until I carried 

 her over there in the cage, and not a bee with 

 her. She had only been in the nucleus two 

 days. Did she take the location when I picked 

 her out with my fingers, or do queens possess 

 the power, like cats and pigs are said to, of 

 going home even when carried miles away in a 

 cheese box ? 



Again, it is said by many, that a queen does 

 not lead out a swarm. She must have done so 

 in that case, as she brought all my friend's bees 

 along, and picked out the nucleus she came from 

 from the midst of a dozen others. 



Again, at one time I had two queen cells so 

 close together that I could not separate them, 

 so I watched until one hatched and removed 

 the other to a new nucleus, which queen, nearly 

 as soon as hatched, returned with all the bees 

 to the one I cut the cell from. This it seems 

 muxt have been an accident, as I carried no 

 bees from there at all. Still they were both at 

 the extreme end of my apiary, and flew over 

 several other similar ones in going to that one. 



My experience with buckwheat was as fol- 

 low is : 



i bought six late swarms of a neighor and 

 carried them and set them in a buckwheat field 

 in full bloom. They had plenty of comb and 

 bees but no honey, and after leaving them there 

 three weeks, while the buckwheat was alive with 

 them, they did not improve a single pound. 

 Several bee-keepers about here give the same 



result, and say they have never known buck- 

 wheat to produce any honey at all, although 

 the bees seem very busy on it all the time it is 

 in bloom. 



One more piece of my experience and I have 

 done for the time: 



I gave $10 for a box hive in June last just as 

 they had commenced in tlie boxes. I carried 

 them home safely, and, as it was but a short 

 distance, I thought I would keep them shut up 

 for a day or two. 



I fastened a piece of wire cloth over the en- 

 trance which was about two inches long by 

 one-half wide, and also raised the drawers so 

 as to let air in at the top In the afternoon I 

 noticed they were very densely jjacked about 

 the entrance; tliey were put in the shade, and 

 toward night 1 saw honey running out ot the 

 bottom. I then opened them, and found them 

 almost scalding hot, and the combs and honey 

 all melted down on to them. 



I inferred that bees do need ventilation, and 

 plenty of it, anoher correspondent to the con- 

 trary. Of course all I had left for my $10 was 

 strained honey and an empty hive. 



A. J. Root. 



Medixa, Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal.} 



National Honey Plant. 



MELILOT CLOVER. 



(1.) Will it pay to cultivate any plant ex- 

 pressly foj' honey ? If so which plant is best ? 



(3.) How many acres will keep 100 colonies 

 busy while in bloom ? 



(8.) How many days in average seasons, 

 and how long each day does it yield honey ? 



(4.) What soils are best adapted to its 

 growth ? 



(5.) Is it an annual or a perennial? {See 

 Bee Journal^ Vol. 2 Page 165.) 



No one has answered these inquiries, so I 

 will try to do so — and in the order given. 



(1.) There is one plant, at least, that it will 

 pay to raise expressly for honey. The name of 

 this plant is Melilot Clover {Melilotus Leucan- 

 tha.) I have been well acquainted with the 

 plant for several years, and am making prepa- 

 rations to raise several acres of it. 



(2.) Ten acres will be enough to keep 100 

 families of bees at work while it is in blossom. 



(8.) It blossoms and yields both honey and 

 pollen through July, August, September, Octo- 

 ber and November. With us, last year, it was 

 in bloom in December — after the first fall of 

 snow. It is in fvdl bloom during November, 

 but the season is so cool in this latitude that 

 bees can work but little upon it. In southern 

 latitudes the plant is in blossom for a longer 

 period. I am credibly informed that it will 

 blossom in some of the Southern States during 

 every month of the year. The plant is not ma- 

 terially- afi'ected by drouths or frosts. It grows 

 very rank and shades the ground completely. 

 This in connection with the great length of the 

 tap root, is the cause of drouth not ali'ectiug it. 

 Early frosts do not usually kill the blossoms ; 



