148 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Questions by Querist— No. 6. 



Querist desires to come again before the read- 

 ers of the Bee Journal, with some more ques- 

 tions. He has been silent for some months, not 

 because he had run short of questions, but be- 

 cause he has been too busy to jlrepare any. He 

 is very much obliged to those who have made 

 the attempt to answer his former questions, and 

 would now request a solution of the following. 

 If the reader cannot find a solution to some of 

 the questions, please do not fly into a passion 

 and become personal. The questions are re- 

 garded by Querist as practical ones, and he de- 

 sires to have practical and philosophical replies. 



No. 1. — Some bee-keepers take the position 

 that natural swarms will gather more honey, build 

 more comb, and have more brood, during the first 

 week after they are hived, than artificial ones. 

 Is this true ? And, if so, why ? 



No. 2. — Suppose we have, at the beginning 

 of the honey harvest, two colonies in the same 

 apiary, each having twenty or thirty thousand 

 bees — the same number of young and old bees — 

 the same amount of worker and drone comb, a 

 fertile queen equally prolific, the same quantity 

 of honey and bee-bread, in the same style of 

 hive, managed alike in every respect, and one 

 gathers fifty pounds of honey and the other 

 seventy -five pounds — what should cause the dif- 

 ference ? We have cases on record very simi- 

 lar to the above, and who can give the solution? 



No. 3. — Novice says, on page 113 of the Bee 

 Journal, that he cannot doubt but that it 

 "saved them honey in some way or other." 

 Now, is Novice sure of this ? Please tell us 

 what your bees used to make those little pellets 

 of flour and \nea\pack so nicely in their baskets? 

 Do you think it was water ? If it was not water, 

 was it not honey ? If honey, whence did they 

 get it, if not from their own hives ? Are you 

 sure they did not even go so far as to unseal 

 their honey for the purpose named ? If each 

 hive used say five pounds of that rye and oat 

 meal, how much honey think you does it take to 

 pack it into bee-dough ? Did you not also ob- 

 serve that your bees began to breed quite rapid- 

 ly as soon as they began to work on your out- 

 door food ? When they are raising young 

 bees, do they not use up the honey just in pro- 

 portion to the rapidity of breeding ? Think this 

 matter over, and give us your revised views. 



No. 4. — Novice says that his low, broad, flat, 

 " shallow things 1 ' have given him, the past two 

 years, more box-honey, and have been stronger 

 in winter stores, than the tall, narrow hives. 

 Why this is so he cannot explain. Now, here 

 is a chance for Gallup to do something. Come, 

 gentlemen, let us have this great mystery ex- 

 plained. Quinby is tremendous on explaining 

 "mysteries" and knotty questions, and why 

 cannot he come. to the rescue ? 



No. 5. — Mr. Bingham, on page 115, writes 

 about preparing hives for winter, and comments 

 on Langstroth's statement that he found frost 

 on the top of a board placed above six thick- 

 nesses of carpet, and then assumes that no mois- 

 ture can pass through a tight board placed over 



a colony of bees. Is that sound philosophy ? la 

 not lumber so porous that heat can drive mois- 

 ture through it ? 



No. 6. — On page 110, I find that the darker 

 the hive the more contented the bees are. Now, 

 would you advise me to paint my hive black ? 



No. 7. — On page 114, I observe that young 

 swarms build worker comb exclusively at first. 

 No exception to this rule, I suppose. Now, it 

 a young swarm has a fertile queen, and she fills 

 a small comb with eggs during the first forty- 

 eight hours after being hived, and then dies from 

 disease or accident, would the bees make much 

 worker comb while they are rearing a new queen? 

 or would the bees decamp ? 



Querist. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Sorghum as Bee Food. 



Mr. Editor :— On page 118, vol. 4, of the 

 Journal, you say that a correspondent desires 

 to know, through the Journal, "whether 

 Sorghum or Impheeis good for bees?" I answer 

 that if the Sorghum is good, it is good for bees. 

 But an inferior article is not good for bees or 

 anything else. Bees will not consume what 

 might be called a bad article of Sorghum ; and 

 if they consume what might be called an infe- 

 rior article, it will have a deleterious effect upon 

 them, similar to that produced by feeding au in- 

 ferior article of sugar, or Cuba honey. In 

 the spring of 1867, I had two colonies which 

 were scarce of bees and stores, or, in other 

 words, they were weak. About the first of 

 April I commenced feeding them on Sorghum 

 molasses, which I had procured in the fail pre- 

 vious lor family use, having first prepared it by 

 diluting with water, boiling and scumming it. 

 This was what I called a good article of Sor- 

 ghum, and which had been purchased by me in 

 the fall of 1866 because it was good. It was 

 granulated, and of a bright straw color. The 

 supply of this being quite limited it did not last 

 long ; but, while it did last, the bees consumed 

 and stored it away quite rapidly ; were healthy, 

 and improving. As soon as my supply of this 

 was gone, I purchased half a gallon of common 

 Sorghum molasses of one of our grocers, prepar- 

 ed it as I did the other, and gave it to my bees in 

 the same vessels as the other ; and, after wait- 

 ing for two days and nights, I could not perceive 

 that they had either consumed or stored away 

 any of it. I then procured another half gallon 

 of the best Sorghum I could find in town, 

 (which, however, was of an inferior quality,) 

 prepared it and gave it to my bees as before. This 

 they gradually consumed and stored away un- 

 til about one half of the supply was gone. Then 

 I dissolved three pounds of coffee sugar, added 

 it to what was left, reboiled and scummed the 

 mixture, and gave it to the bees. This prepara- 

 tion they soon used up. During the time they 

 were slowly consuming the third supply of Sor- 

 ghum the dullness and stupidity of the bees was 

 plainly perceptible, but when the supply of dis- 

 solved sugar was furnished them they soon re- 

 vived, became active and vigilant, and none 

 died afterwards. Belmont. 



