224 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[APRIL y 



replacing any queen who lays less than 1,800 eggs 

 per day in the breeding season. I have had some 

 dealings with this breeder ; he complained several 

 times of the color of the queens he has received 

 from me, but he lauded their prolificness every 

 time. 



I have had three queeus whose eggs did not 

 hatch ; and every time I noticed that these queens 

 were very light colored. 



As my business is less to sell queens than to pro- 

 duce honey, I always give the preference to dark- 

 colored queens. If the bands of their progeny are 

 leather-colored, instead of yellow, it is of no matter, 

 for I know that these workers will fill their hives 

 and boxes, if there is some honey in the flowers. 



How is it that a light-colored queen can produce 

 dark daughters, and vice versa? I don't know. 

 Perhaps the color or the quality of the honey, or of 

 the pollen, causes it. Perhaps the weather was 

 cold or rainy while the queen was yet a young 

 grub. Perhaps the wind blew from the north or 

 from the west. Perhaps electricity plays its part 

 in that, as well as in other things. I care not. 

 But of two queens, one very light yellow, the other 

 very dark, whose worker-bees are equally well 

 marked, I would nst hesitate to choose the darkest. 



Ch. Dadant. 



Hamilton, III., Feb. 11, 1873. 



P. S. — In order that the above article may be 

 well understood, I will add that in Lombardy the 

 queens are generally leather-colored; the dark and 

 the yellow are exceptions. I have accepted all the 

 light-colored because they answer well to the desire 

 of our queen-breeders; but of the dark, I have ac- 

 cepted only the most prolific. If I had chosen all 

 the queens for myself, I would have discarded all 

 the light-colored. Ch. D. 



Feeding Bees. 



The following article is from the Louisville Weekly 

 Ledger of March 12th. From the style, use of the 

 term "Melipult," and other circumstances, we con- 

 clude that it is from the pen of Gen. D. L. Adair. 

 It will repay attentive perusal, especially on the 

 part of those who are comparatively inexperienced 

 in bee-culture: 



No bee-keeper can have the best success that does 

 not understand the necessity for timely feeding. 

 Few resort to it at all, while very few are even 

 aware of its importance. Our standard authors 

 either pass over the subject in a careless way, or 

 condemn it altogether. 



Mr. Hosmer, whose wonderful success has made 

 everybody stare with wonder and incredulity, 

 stated, at Indianapolis, before the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, that "The whole theory was 

 to keep the bees feeding all the time when they can 

 get no honey iu the fields, regardless of the time of 

 year." 



We propose briefly to notice the conditions under 

 which it is either necessary or beneficial to feed 

 bees. 



1. In the spring of the year the queen will not 

 breed much, until honey is being gathered rapidly 

 by the bees, so that by the time the colony becomes 



populous enough to gather much honey a consider- 

 able part of the best of the honey season is past, 

 and frequently, in some localities, all of it. By 

 commencing as soon as the bees can fly out, and 

 continuing to feed until the flowers yield honey, a 

 month's time may be gained, and the surplus honey 

 increased four-fold. If once commenced it must be 

 continued, and enough food given to feed the grow- 

 ing brood ; for, to stop when the comb is filled with 

 brood and eggs would result in starvation and 

 death. The feeding should not be too abundant, as 

 the bees will fill the comb cells, and leave the 

 queen no room to lay; and, besides, it would be an 

 unnecessary waste. A few table-spoonsful, at first, 

 will do; but, as the brood increases, the quantity 

 should be increased to a half pint or more each day. 



2. It frequently happens in the spring, after the 

 honey harvest begins and the hive is full of brood 

 in all stages, that a sudden change of weather cuts 

 off the supply, and even confines the bees to the 

 hive, and unless a supply of food is furnished, the 

 queen will cease to lay, and perhaps much of the 

 brood perish. At such a time feeding will be profit- 

 able. 



3. There is no season of the year in which there 

 are so many colonies of bees die out as in the early 

 spring, before the flowers yield honey, the bees 

 having exhausted all their winter stores, die of star- 

 vation, or in their extremities swarm out and either 

 go off, or join other colonies that have a supply — it 

 may be only to hasten the destruction of their hos- 

 pitable neighbors. Even if a regular system of 

 feeding is not adopted, the bee-keeper should ex- 

 amine all of his stocks at the opening of spring, and 

 feed those needing it. 



4. In the fall of the year a good bee-keeper will 

 strengthen all his weak colonies by liberal feeding. 

 In this instance the food should be given as fast as 

 the bees will take it, so that it may be capped over 

 before winter, otherwise it may ferment and pro- 

 duce disease. 



5. Where supers or boxes are used the bees will 

 not deposit honey in them until the brood chamber 

 is filled. Sugar, syrup, or dark honey may be fed 

 to them to do this with, so that the nice clover- 

 honey may be deposited in the boxes. 



6. At the end of the honey season some boxes will 

 be not quite full. Honey may be fed to the bees to- 

 finish them out. 



7. When bees are afflicted with dysentery or 

 cholera, or other disease induced by bad honey, or 

 infection in it, all of their stores should be taken 

 from them, empty comb given them, and then they 

 should be supplied with pure sugar syrup. Or if 

 no empty comb can be procured the infected comb 

 should be emptied of its honey with the Melipult, 

 and after being thoroughly fumigated with the 

 smoke of burning sulphur, exposed to the air for a 

 few hours and returned to the hive, and the syrup 

 fed to the bees to be stored in it. 



8. When the nucleus system of swarming is re- 

 sorted to, (that is setting up small colonies and 

 building them up,) it cannot be depended upon 

 with certainty, unless any deficiency or cessation of 

 natural forage is made up by feeding. 



9. The queen-breeder cannot pursue his business 

 with much success, except while honey is abundant, 

 unless he resorts to timely feeding, and when it is 



