1.900 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



175 



Pertinent Paragraphs, 

 Paraphrased and Quoted, 

 with Comment. 



Fivm Gleanings in Bee-culture. 



The following paragraph from the 

 pen of that^terse and practical writer. 

 John H. Martin, presents a solution of 

 a little difficulty not infrequently en- 

 countered in the apiary, which may 

 prove of value. "From recent issues of 

 Oleanings I note that not a few bee- 

 keepers, and notably Dr. Miller, page 

 435, have much trouble in finding the 

 queen. A good sliare of this trouble is 

 from lack of concentration of atten- 

 tion. The greater portion of bee-keepers 

 while hunting for the queen, scatter 

 their thoughts. For instance, if an un- 

 usually nice yellow drone crosses the 

 vision, the bee-keeper exclaims, 'My ! 

 isn't he a beauty ? Wish I could get a 

 queen mated to him.' Then, with 

 drone in the eye, more drones are seen. 

 Then a bee loaded with pollen will di- 

 vert the eye, or a sunken cell-cap. 

 'Wonder if that is foul-brood;' and with 

 this thought in mind the queen might 

 pass directly over the spot and not be 

 noticed. A person looking for the queen 

 should look for her and nothing else. 

 Everything but the queen must be a 

 blank. A good aid to concentration 

 upon this object is to keep repeating in 

 the mind, queen, queen, and mentally 

 hold her picture steadily in the mind. 

 With the other precautions for having 

 good eyes and not too much disturbance, 

 the queen will be found with little 

 trouble." 



"Three years ago I extracted about 

 2000 pounds of nearly pure dandelion 

 honey before white clover commenced 

 to yield," says C. Davenport in Am. Bee 

 Journal. He says the honey is dark, 

 rank-tasting, fit only for brood-rearing 

 or to sell for manufacturing purposes. 

 (Doolittle says it is splendid when a year 

 or two old.) Formerly dandelion bloom 

 was about gone soon after fruit bloom, 

 but it has increased so much that now 

 there is too much of it, and the honey 

 is sometimes mixed with that of white 

 clover. About Merango it has increased 

 to such an extent that it blooms till fall 

 frosts ; but I doubt whether bees work 

 on it much, late in the season. — 

 Dr. C. C. Mii,i,er. 



A. Norton discusses the question of 

 shade for hives from a scientific stand- 

 point, directing attention to the fact 

 that when a hive is surrounded by a 

 cooler atmosphere, even though the 

 ventilating currents remain unchanged, 

 the rate of evaporation must necessarily 

 be decreased in proportion to the lower 

 temperature ; and that a decreased ven- 

 tilating current, with unchanged tem- 

 perature would yield a like result. While 

 he thinks the matter one regarding 

 which there should be no conjecture, 

 and suggests that "some system of 

 experiments be tried to establish a 

 delimiting point of average temperature, 

 warmer than which shade is beneficial 

 and cooler than which it is undesirable." 



This from our own well-known cor- 

 respondent, Mr. F. Greiner, from the 

 bee-keepers' point of view, is not an un- 

 pleasant observation: "The fruit 

 growers of the present day are becom- 

 ing more and more convinced of the 

 importance of the part the honey-bee 

 plays in the pollination and cross-pol- 

 lination of the blossoms of our common 

 cultivated fruits, and that to such an 

 extent that already many orchardists 

 have either themselves engaged in 

 bee-culture or have induced bee-keepers 

 to establish apiaries in their localities." 



As against the majority of bee-keepers 

 we have for several years practiced and 

 written in favor of stimulative feeding, 

 when done with care and discretion. 

 We agree with Mr. W. O. Victor, who 

 keeps a number of large apiaries in 

 Texas, when he says: "In this locality 

 I have found it best to feed a little for 

 two or three days about six or seven 

 weeks before we expect our first honey- 

 flow, which, with me, is about April 5th 

 to loth, so you see from tlie 15tli to the 

 25th of February will be the proper 

 time. This will start brood-rearing with 

 a rush; but when the feeding is stopped 

 the queen will most likely cease laying to 

 a considerable extent." 



Dr. Miller gives in detail the results 

 of a series of experiments and observa- 

 tions conducted by himself, last year, 

 relating to the development of queens 

 from the freshly-laid egg to the natural 



