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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 10, 1906 



ony is not going to hurt it very much." Very likely, too, 

 this may be said by some one of many years' experience. 

 Unless one has given especial attention to the matter one 

 is not likely to realize the harm. Early in the season, 

 while more or less cool weather prevails, a weakling, with 

 only bees enough to cover 2 or 3 frames of brood, will be at 

 a stand-still until warmer weather comes, if, indeed, it does 

 not grow weaker. On the other hand, a colony covering 4 

 or more frames of brood will walk right along. So the 

 frame of brood given to the queenless colony must be re- 

 newed from time to time, and will not be increasing ; 

 whereas, if left in the stronger colony, it will be doubling 

 up all the while. 



The right thing, then, is to break up all colonies that 

 do not have good laying queens early in the season. That 

 will make less hives containing bees, but there will be more 

 bees, and at the end of the season more colonies. 



Honey Good for a Discolored Neck 



A yellow, discolored neck is anything but adorable, 

 particularly when a woman wishes to appear in a decollete 

 frock. A simple home-made remedy is made thus : Take 1 

 ounce of honey, 1 teaspoonful of lemou-juice, 6 drops of oil 

 of bitter almonds, the whites of 2 eggs, and enough fine 

 oatmeal to make a smooth paste. Apply this at night, 

 covering with a bit of old, thin, soft linen. Three or four 

 applications will bleach the surface to a beautiful satin 

 whiteness. — Chicago Record Herald. 



Planting Flowers for Beauty and the Bees 



Planting flowers for bees is not likely to amount to very 

 much, unless planted by the acre. Yet when the sisters are 

 planning their posy beds they may as well give some Hi tie 

 precedence to the flowers that yield nectar. It is at least a 

 pleasure to see the busy little visitors working on them. 

 Mignonette is a prime favorite. A good-sized bed of crim- 

 son clover is a beautiful sight. The crocus is one of the 

 earliest favorites. Phacelia is considered a great honey- 

 plant in some localities, and its modest purple blossoms 

 make it worthy a place in the flower-bed. 



Green Hellebore 



What is the common and botanical name of the en- 

 closed plant ? The root is fibrous. The bees were thick 

 about it when first in bloom, but now they seem to have 

 deserted it. No one here seems to be acquainted with the 

 plant, and we are curious to know its name. It has been in 

 bloom for several weeks, and the same flowers continue for 

 a long time. It is a perennial plant, and hardy. 



Centerville, Ind., April 25. Kate V. Aostin. 



[The plant is the Green Hellebore— Helleborus viridis— 

 which was introduced from Europe some years ago and is 

 gradually spreading westward. The juice of the plant is 

 somewhat poisonous, but the bees seem to get something 

 good from the blossoms.— C. L. Walton.] 



Br. Colomban's Honey-Cakes 



Ingredients.— Three pounds of honey, 3 pounds of 

 flour, 1 ounce of powdered ammonia, a small teaspoonful of 

 ground cinnamon, '< teaspoonful of ground cloves, 6 ounces 

 of orange-peel cut very small, and 4 ounces of sweet almonds 

 cut small. 



Directions.— Pour the honey in a copper or enameled 

 pan, and set on a stove or quick fire. When it boils, draw 

 it aside and remove the scum (as honey boils up very 

 quickly, great care must be taken not to let it boil over). 

 Then pour the honey into the vessel in which the paste is 

 to be made; leave it to cool, then add flour and other in- 

 gredients except the ammonia, which latter must not be 

 added until the flour and honey have been mixed up, and 

 the paste has become quite cold. 



In preparing for use, place the ammonia in a cup, pour 

 a few drops of cold water and stir it well, so as to form a 

 thick paste, then mix it up with the rest. Then take a piece 

 of the paste, roll it out into a cake not over ,'4-inch thick, 

 and cut up into convenient sizes as desired. This done, 

 put the cakes on a flat tin (which must be greased before- 

 hand) and bake from 12 to 15 minutes in a hot oven. — British 

 Bee Journal. 



2Ttr. pasty's 



j 



The " Old Reliable" as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Preparing Watering Places for Bees 



A water pan under shelter, and covered with floating 

 cork-chips, and kept warm by a lamp underneath. Surely, 

 that ought to be satisfactory — and there's no denying that 

 the end in view is important, quite important enough to 

 justify the time and cash laid out. The rock on which you 

 will split (if you do split) may, perchance, be a catechism 

 gourd that may spring up over your Jonah booth. How 

 many bees am I getting to come here ? Lots of them. How 

 many still go elsewhere? Don't know — I'll try to find out. 

 Yes, and when you find out that three-quarters of them still 

 persist in going elsewhere, in spite of everything you can 

 think of to draw them, will you not let a natural indigna- 

 tion have play, and throw the whole thing overboard? 

 Otherwise you may incline to keep adding inducements from 

 time to time. A little salt helps. Hard to get the proper 

 amount just right. Too much drives them away instead of 

 attracting them. Willow twigs in the water have a recom- 

 mendation 2000 years old, and theoretically ought to be 

 beneficial. 



Bees feel severely the battle all living creatures have to 

 fight — the life or death struggle with septic microbes. Need 

 all the antiseptic they can secrete, and all they can collect 

 also. The water they choose very generally has second- 

 hand antiseptics in it, secreted by the digestive organs of 

 cow or pig, and cast out with the excrement after serving 

 its original purpose. Whether we can follow this hint in 

 preparing water to tempt them I hardly know. Looks pos- 

 sible. Imaginable that water kept warm day after day 

 might breed microbes at such a rate as to be unfit for the 

 purpose. As to the willows, they contain the original of 

 salicine, which is related to quinine, having similar prop- 

 erties in a less degree — power to repress microbes being one 

 of them, I think. Strikes me that solid bunches of willows 

 the size of one's wrist might be cut short off into very short 

 lengths; then keep several sections in the watering pan 

 standing on end. Page 291. 



That Hive of Bees Struck by Lightning 



The " brood of chickens struck with lightning " serves 

 a more or less useful turn as popular proverb. Hardly think 

 that " hive of bees struck with lightning " would be any 

 improvement. Interesting, however, to hear that a stroke 

 heavy enough to produce the wreck shown on page 285 left 

 enough of the bees alive that the colony went on. Say, 

 somebody get up a dynamo that will just kill Bacillus alvei 

 and not quite kill the bees. 



Selling Honey 



Thanks to R. C. Aikin for his reasonings in letting the 

 same common-sense, which is best in selling fruits and 

 vegetables, have free course in selling honey also. But I 

 eat a grain of salt with this claim that most customers will 

 be pleased with the taste of honey that has been through 

 the solar extractor. Say, rather, that some will. And even 

 that " some," I guess we would better educate their blunt 

 tastes than take advantage of them. Page 293. 



Marketing Comb Honey 



And now Mr. Greiner advises us to wrap our cases of 

 honey in nice-looking paper I Might we not stick on a few 

 chrysanthemums here and there outside the paper ? and 

 some little sponges wet in perfume? But one of the state- 

 ments he makes I haven't the heart to poke small fun at — 

 too sad, and too hopeless of adequate remedy. " Not one 

 man in 50 knows how to handle honey properly." What are 

 we going to do about it ? Just hand our honey over to the 

 market, and the market will hand it over to them — and let 

 them cellar it, and freeze it, and bang it, and ram their 

 fingers through it, and pile it corner to face in a round bas- 

 ket — and all the other capers at pleasure. Page 294. 



