WHO IS TO BLAME 



for adulterated comb-honey ? I say, 

 emphatically, man, not the bees ; they 

 are innocent. 



Bees would gather all their sweets, 

 from nature but for man, who puts un- 

 natural and artificial sweets in their 

 way, and then they only follow their 

 instinct in gathering it up. But they 

 do not gather it all up. If any one 

 would take the trouble to look in the 

 bottom of the feed pan they would see 

 a good many small particles of ingredi- 

 ents that the bees reject. 



I am of the opinion that those who 

 feed glucose do so either just before or 

 after a flow of honey from nature, for 

 I do not believe the bees would take it 

 in the midst of a flow of honey. If 

 they do it at the close of the season, it 

 is done in order to fill out the boxes that 

 were unfinished and unsealed. It were 

 a thousand times better to use such, as 

 I do, to winter weak colonies or ex- 

 tract the honey, rather than to adul- 

 terate it : but if you will have them 

 rilled out, use pure extracted honey 

 for the purpose. I never do so from 

 the fact that I can sell 100 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted to 5 lbs. of comb honey, even at 

 same price, at home. 



TESTED QUEENS. 



Let " dollar queens " go. I shall only 

 sell tested queens as usual. I, as a 

 breeder, agree with Prof. Cook, in his 

 Manual of the Apiary, that a tested 

 queen is richly worth $5.00 ; breeders 

 have come down to as low as $3.00, but 

 it hardly pays for the trouble. 



Lowell, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Another Bee Enemy— The Bee Mole. 



BY DR. J. W. GREENE. 



Mr. Edttor.— I herein send you a 

 specimen for your museum. I know 

 nothing at all about it except what I 

 learn from an inteligent bee-keeping 

 friend of mine — Mr. Lemon, of Utica, 

 Mo. 



This diminutive stranger is intro- 

 duced to me as a "Bee Mole." My 

 friend gave me some facts concerning 

 its habits that may or may not be new 

 and interesting. 



The size of this animal is 2i inches 

 long, 1 inch wide and i inch thick. Its 

 general appearance is much that of a 

 common ground mole ; its covering be- 

 ing that of the very finest of downy fur 

 of mouse color. Its general shape is 

 somewhat of a flying squirrel while its 

 nose or snout is of extraordinary length. 



Its eyes are invisible to the natural eye, 

 but as brilliant as diamonds under a 

 magnifying glass. This is said to be a 

 full grown animal, weighing just 50 

 grains, requiring 115 to the pound troy, 

 or about 154 to the avoirdupois pound. 



Mr. Lemon tells me this animal is one 

 of the worst of enemies to the bee, a 

 single one being able to destroy a colony 

 of bees in a few weeks. And he fur- 

 ther assures me that the mole can go 

 anywhere where a drone or large worker 

 can, having power to lengthen and 

 flatten itself to almost any desired 

 shape — its natural shape and appearance 

 being like that of a cockroach. 



The bee mole makes passways through 

 snow as the common ground mole does 

 through the ground, only much faster. 

 He says : It is quite common to see the 

 bee mole on top of the snow, when it 

 knows it is observed it rolls itself into 

 a ball not larger than a small thimble. 

 In this condition it will sometimes per- 

 mit quite a near approach. I would 

 not be much surprised to learn that it 

 is a species of the ant eater. Is it this, 

 or is it not the mice that are sometimes 

 mentioned by our writers on bee-ology ? 

 I have myself seen our common house 

 mice very destructive to bees, nesting 

 and breeding in the hive until the bees 

 and combs both were all destroyed. 



HOW MY BEES WERE PREPARED FOR 

 THE WINTER. 



I have this winter packed my bees 

 in prairie hay in the following manner : 



1 have my apiary in a light high en- 

 closure 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. I 

 set my bees within 6 inches of the fence 

 on the west side, one hive on another 2 

 and 3 tiers deep. I packed hay 6 inches 

 deep under the hives, behind them and 

 filled all spaces between them. I left 

 the caps on the top tiers filling them 

 also with hay. The whole thing is 

 covered and must be kept perfectly dry. 

 But the entire front of every hive is 

 exposed facing the east. I made winter 

 passages through every comb by boring 

 an inch hole in one side of the hive and 

 running a sharp pointed tough hickory 

 smooth stick, clear through, after it 

 was too late to repair the damage to 

 comb. I left no ventilation whatever, 

 excepting the entrance contracted to 



2 inches by i of an inch. Some of my 

 hives, however, have entire entrance 

 open. 



Now, let some one tell me in advance 

 how my bees will come through the 

 winter. They all had at least 30 lbs. of 

 sealed honey to the colony. I am win- 

 tering a number of nuclei in one room 

 of my dental office. 



Chillicothe, Mo. 



