1018 



Dec. 13, 1906 



American Hq® 



get into a rut as to the territory they 

 visit — fail to prospect as far as they 

 might, and neglect (possibly) some ter- 

 ritory near by, just because never in 

 the habit of going there. Bees set 



down in a totally strange location of 

 course do a big job of prospecting im- 

 mediately — may get familiar, and keep 

 familiar, with more and better fields 

 than the others do. 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Feeding Pollen Substitues In a Barrel 



Here is something of interest to the 

 sisters who feed the bees some substi- 

 tute for pollen in the spring. Mrs. A. 

 L. Amos says in Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture : 



"Apropos of this meal-feeding, I think I 

 have struck quite an improvement on the 

 shallow pan usually recommended. There 

 are objections to that here. We are seldom 

 without a good, stiff breeze that can blow the 

 meal, if not the pan, and the place is overrun 

 with these alert foragers, the White Leghorn 

 chickens, which are good at finding meal- 

 pans; so this spring I feed in the bottom of a 

 salt-barrel. I feed corn-meal and flour, and 

 the bees have used a lot of it. The same meal 

 does quite a while. I sift flour over the top, 

 and stir lightly. I leave the barrel out, 

 simply turning a galvanized tub over it at 

 night or during rain. It has been eminently 

 satisfactory to me and the bees." 



1 The Top of a Section ' 



The following paragraph is taken 

 from the British Bee Journal : 



" I have always been accustomed to see 

 sections," say6 J. A. Green, " with the lock- 

 corner down, aDd it came as a distinct sur- 

 prise to me when another bee-keeper asked 

 me, in sober earnest, why I put my sections 

 in the supers upside down. It seemed he had 

 been always accustomed to the other way." 



Well, that is just my experience, too. I 

 think placing sections with the lock-corner 

 up is the correct plan. I don't know if I 

 have any other than a woman's reason: " I 

 think it so, because I think it so;" but I cer- 

 tainly look on it as the natural position. I 

 wonder if others here take a contrary view. 



This was written by Mr. D. M. Mac- 

 donald, and as he hails from Scotland, 

 it may not be the easiest thing in the 

 world to convince him of the error of 

 his views. The present writer, how- 

 ever, having just as much Scotch blood 

 as Mr. Macdonald, and withal being a 

 woman, has just as good right as he to 

 give a woman's reason when stub- 

 bornly insisting that the lockcorner 

 should be down. In this case, however, 

 a woman's prerogative to insist upon a 

 thing without giving any reason will 

 not be insisted upon. 



In the first place, the lock-corner is 

 more easily pulled apart than the other 

 corners. As there is more danger of 

 the top-bar being pulled apart than the 

 tiottombar, it is desirable to have the 



weakest corner at the bottom. The 

 lock-corner is more likely to be daubed 

 with propolis, and should be kept more 

 out of sight. 



Sometimes it happens that the lock- 

 joints do not make a perfect fit, and 

 are inclined to spring apart. If such a 

 lock-corner be at the top there is noth- 

 ing to hold the top-bar down, but if it 

 be at the bottom, the pressure of the 

 side parts will hold it down, and when 

 filled it will be all right. 



Lastly, and in the eyes of a woman 

 the most important thing, a section 

 does not look so well with lock-corner 

 up. Mr. Macdonald may insist that 

 this is a matter of taste, and that to 

 him the lock corner looks better than 

 the solid corner. In that case he 

 should have the top-piece sections so 

 as to have both upper corners locked, 

 for a section with one of its upper cor- 

 ners locked, and the other plain, looks 

 too much like a woman with her hat on 

 crooked. 



In a later number of the British Bee 

 Journal, L. S. C. gives as a reason for 

 placing the lock-joint at the top, that 

 " the comb is better attached to the 

 upper sides, and there is less risk of its 

 parting company." In this locality 

 we don't have any troubleof that kind, 

 for we use bottom starters, making the 

 comb well attached to the bottom-bar. 



Bees and Red-Pepper 



To the Editor:— 

 Can you explain the following? 

 Yours very truly, 



Edward F. Bigelow. 



Dear St. Nicholas : — There are a great 

 many dogs around my home that dig up the 

 flower-beds. To prevent their doing this, 

 mother sprinkled red-pepper over the places 

 where the seeds were planted. She did it in 

 the morning, and when I returned from school 

 at half past three the ground where the pep- 

 per lay was covered with honey-bees. It was 

 early in the spring, and I had not then seen 

 any bees around. I should like to know why 

 the bees came after the pepper. 



Alice P. Garwood. 



Women being mostly interested in 

 the case, the foregoing letters have 

 found their way into the Sisters' corner. 

 It is no wonder tnat a woman bright 

 enough to think of sowing cayenne 

 pepper to keep dogs from digging up 

 the ground should be inquisitive as to 



the presence of bees where dogs would 

 not want to come. 



The first thought likely to occur is 

 that something sweet, perhaps rinsings 

 of a molasses jug or something of the 

 kind, had been thrown upon the 

 ground ; yet people don't generally 

 throw slops where seeds are sown. 

 There is, however, no impossibility in 

 the case, but consultation with one 

 who has some knowledge of bees and 

 their ways suggests another explana- 

 tion. 



It will be noted that it was early in 

 spring, and these were the first bees 

 seen around. When bees first fly in 

 spring, one of the places they are likely 

 to be seen is upon the sawdust at a 

 wood-pile, busily digging away at it 

 and seeming to make it take the place 

 of pollen. They also have been known 

 to work upon fine coal-dust, and per- 

 haps other material that one would 

 hardly think could take the place of 

 pollen. Is there anything impossible 

 about their using the fine pepper-dust 

 the same way ? Has any one a better 

 explanation ? 



r 



^ 



Pacific (£oast 

 ITIurmurtnas 



^ 



j 



"Groves" of Sweet Clover. 



So Kate Douglass Wiggins has been 

 soaring into airy fancies about bees ! 

 I wonder if she would know a bee if 

 she should see one. Perhaps little 

 " Patsy " could tell her. As I never 

 fancied the irrepressible lady-writer 

 from the Pacific Coast metropolis, I 

 never lost any time or sleep perusing 

 her stories. Thanks, however, to Miss 

 Emma Wilson for calling attention to 

 the sentence from one of the former's 

 recent fictions (page 785). Miss Wil- 

 son is charmed with our Kate's " mel- 

 lifluous sentence." But, please excuse 

 me, I am not so well pleased. Perhaps 

 it is because Kate is not one of my 

 sisters. 



Let me quote a portion of the sen- 

 tence in question : " Back of the barn 



was a grove of sweet clover whose 



white feathery tips," etc. That's suf- 

 ficient, for if there were more of the 

 same stuff I should surely have a fit of 

 that " tired feeling." Who ever saw a 

 grove of sweet clover ? But, by Jingo, 

 wouldn't it be immense if sweet clover 

 grew in great, gigantic groves like the 

 big trees of Mariposa, in California, 

 and their "feathery, flowery tips" 

 flowed nectar as full and freely as a 

 fire-plug after freezing weather was 

 past and gone ! Joy would be the lot 

 of the bees, as the mellifluous mess 

 came tripping to their honey-recepta- 

 cles. But gladder still would be the 

 heart of the bee-man as the hives 

 would overflow with the abundance of 

 forest-grown clover nectar. Just think 

 of it, I say, groves of sweet clover 

 honey, and it coming in so fast that 

 buckets and tanks could not hold it ! 

 Our dear old friend, " Uncle Novice," 

 to mix his name a little, in his halcyon 

 days, never dreamed of such flows from 

 the basswood and buckwheat sources 

 of supply, as would come from the 



