688 



Aug. 9, 1906 



American Bae Journal 



smoker is in full bias. ; veil in the side-pocket, and a butcher- 

 knife in the hip-pocket. My, what a load! Looks like the 

 stage in antebellum days. 



As I go with this historic cargo I meet inquisitive men. 

 anxious boys, and fair lassies, looking on from high win- 

 dows and vined verandas. The gentle zephvrs of the south 

 wmd were playing over thousands of acres of apple and 



pear m their robes of bloom. So the load was delivered 

 without a mishap, and the hives placed upon the stands. 

 But. oh. my. how these bees do sting after being released! 

 In less than an hour they were carrving in pollen freely 

 iwo days later, when I returned with another load, the 

 nr^t were fairly crowding their queens with new honev. 



Hudson, N. Y. 



C Dlur 



»ec-lfocpiii^ 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 



Requeening— Alfalfa— Selling Honey 



—Ordinance Against Bees— Bees 



and drapes 



How often do you advise requeening? 

 W here is a good place to get a queen ! I sent 

 away and got the only one I ever bought, and 

 I think a place near home would be better. I 

 don't suppose you recommend a firm or name 

 in .y ou l answers. I suppose I should have 

 said, What is the best way to obtain a good 

 queen? Do you advise a beginner to rear his 

 own queens lor requeening? It seems to me 

 to be a branch by itself, and would cost more 

 than to buy queens. How much 6hould one 

 pay for a good queen, not a breeding queen? 

 How do your bees work on alfalfa? I 

 planted some and it is blossoming now, but I 

 don't see a bee in the whole patch. I do not 

 know whether they don't work as well on 

 alfalfa, or whether there is no nectar on ac- 

 count of the cold and wet. The white clover 

 has blossomed profusely for nearly 3 weeks, 

 but the bees prefer to work on raspberry 

 bloom, and I hardly saw a bee on the clover. 

 It is the worst bee-weather ever. 



All my former customers are clamoring for 

 'some new honey." Folks who do not han- 

 dle bees imagine the bees " make " honey. I 

 have never had a bit of trouble disposing of 

 my honey. In fact, 1 could sell 4 times as 

 much as I have, and I have to put what I 

 want for my own use out of sight or it would 

 all be sold away from me. I sell it right from 

 the house. I have scales and change-box, 

 and weigh the honey right before my custo- 

 mer. I expect to be honest by them, and ex- 

 pect them to do the same by me. I never 

 have any complaints, as I make sure every- 

 thing is perfect about the honey when I sell it. 

 Last spring an alderman in the council put 

 in a bill to prohibit the keeping of bees inside 

 the city limits, but it didn't even come up to 

 be voted on. I am told that nearly every 

 spring some one tries to get such a bill 

 through, but always fails. I would feel sorry 

 to have to give up my bees just as I am be- 

 ginning to understand them. 



Is it a fact that bees sting and ruin grapes 

 it there is no other substance for them' I 

 have read in the Bee Journal that they do not 

 sting fruit, but will gather on the fruit pre- 

 viously bruised by birds. A lady in this city, 

 who has quite a large vineyard, says that 

 since a man moved near them who keeps bees, 

 all their grapes are spoiled by the bees. Pre- 

 vious to his coming they always had fine 

 grapes. She says the grapes are always full 

 of bees, and she knows it is " them bees." 

 ^ JT , ., ( Ul »s) Klsie A. Cutter. 

 brand Rapids, Mich., June 22. 



Some advise requeening every year; 

 some every 2 years ; and many leave 



the matter of superseding to the bees. 

 So good a bee-keeper as Mr. Doolittle 

 belongs to the latter class, and that is 

 the practise in this locality. If a 

 queen is doing good work, she is not 

 " Oslerized " on account of age. If her 

 work is poor, or her bees objectionable 

 in any way, off comes her head at the 

 first convenient opportunity. The bees 

 generally attend to the matter of super- 

 seding as soon as it is advisable. 



After a little experience, you will 

 probably find that requeening is a 

 much simpler matter than you suppose. 

 Mr. M. A. Gill, a very successful honey- 

 producer, buys queens by the hundred 

 every year ; but nearly all honey-pro- 

 ducers rear their own queens, or leave 

 it to the bees. Just exactly how it is 

 done here is given in detail in " Forty 

 Years Among the Bees," and it would 

 be hard to find a simpler or a better 

 plan. 



For the sake of getting in fresh 

 blood, especially if you can get better 

 blood, a new queen should occasionally 

 be obtained from a reliable source. The 

 shorter the distance a queen travels in 

 the mail the better, and yet, a queen 

 will make a long journey in safety. 

 An untested queen will cost about a 

 dollar, and nine times out of ten will 

 be as good as a tested one. 



Our bees don't work on alfalfa. 

 There is no alfalfa to speak of near 

 us. There is a field of it about 6 miles 

 away ; but the few times we have 

 passed it when in bloom, not a bee was 

 to be seen upon it. With the usual 

 optimism of bee-keepers, we are hop- 

 ing that when alfalfa becomes more 

 fully established here it may prove as 

 good a honey-plant as it is west of the 

 Mississippi. 



I am just a little afraid your white 

 clover this year may turn out like ours 

 —blossoms enough, but bees getting 

 nothing from it. 



Don't worry lest the city council 

 pass an ordinance against bee-keeping 

 in the city. It wouldn't stand. But if 

 you are not already a member of the 

 National Bee-Keepers* Association it 

 will be wise for you to join it, and then 

 if such an ordinance should be passed 

 you will have help to fight it. In the 



meantime, of course, you are no doubt 

 looking out to keep your bees where 

 they are not likely to molest people on 

 the streets. 



If you can do so, get that lady who 

 has the vineyard to come to your place 

 with some grapes, and place at the en- 

 trance of one or more hives a cluster of 

 perfectly sound grapes, and also a 

 cluster of punctured grapes. She will 

 then see with her own eyes that a bee 

 never disturbs a sound grape — only 

 sucking the juices from those pre- 

 viously punctured. Some intelligent 

 grape-raisers in your State have said 

 they are glad to have the bees clean up 

 the injured grapes, as the dry skins are 

 preferable to the soured pulp. 



Feeding Sugar Syrup Made in a 

 Bread-Mixer 



I see some woman (page 163), signing 

 " Colorado," has had many troubles with her 

 bee6. I make no suggestions as to remedies; 

 but one thing she did that was ruinous to 

 bees, and most people of ordinary common 

 sense would see it, only they are rushing 

 things so much that they have not time to 

 think. When 6he mixed that syrup so 

 " beautifully" in the bread-mixer, she would 

 be almost certain to start fermentation in 

 every colony that would feed on it. She 

 would not be allowed to feed it to mine for 

 their full value. I would rather she fed them 

 strychnine. Not one person in a hundred 

 would be likely to have the bread machine 60 

 sterilized as to have it fit for such a purpose 



x. r. z. 



Now that's just like a man, isn't it ? 

 To leave a bread-mixer without clean- 

 ing it out thoroughly after using it. 

 Bless your heart, the sisters don't do 

 that way ; after the utensil is used 

 they put it through such a course of 

 treatment that it is thoroughly steril- 

 ized—they don't call it that ; they just 

 say it's " clean." I wouldn't be afraid 

 to eat bread mixed by the Colorado sis- 

 ter—would rather like the chance— and 

 I'm sure I shouldn't want to if she 

 mixed it in a dirty dish. 



But, really, is it possible that even if 

 a lot of dough were left in the bread- 

 mixer, allowing it to be stirred into 

 the feed, that any serious results would 

 follow, unless such feed were given 

 rapidly very late in the season ? Mind 

 you, no assertion is made that such a 

 course would not be hurtful, only the 

 question is an open one until some 

 proof is offered. The little chemists 

 have a way of stopping fermentation, 

 and in the spring it has been consid- 

 ered safe to feed almost anything with 

 sweet enough in it to be acceptable to 

 them. 



At any rate, we may thank the 

 brother for calling attention to the 

 matter, and still more if he will give 

 some positive proof of the harm or 

 harmlessness of mixing the feed in a 

 dish not thoroughly sterilized. 



