324 



age, go out foraging, and do no more 

 housework if they can help it. Five to 

 6 weeks is the age worker bees at- 

 tain during the height of the honey sea- 

 son. They disappear — worn out by hard 

 work, a prey to birds and other ene- 

 mies, drowned, get entangled in the 

 grass, etc. A hive would be decimated 

 in a short time were it not for the great 

 fertility of the queen, who is capable of 

 laying as many as 3,000 eggs in a day. 



This is the routine of business in a 

 bee-hive. But there is no rule without 

 an exception. So we find in early spring 

 the old bees nursing the first young and 

 doing all the housework. No hive is in 

 a thriving condition without plenty of 

 young bees ; and as the honey yield is 

 often of a short duration no colony can 

 bring in a large crop of honey without 

 a huge number of old worker bees at 

 the proper time. 



To have strong colonies in the early 

 part of the season, and to keep them 

 strong as long as the season lasts, 

 should be the object of the bee-keeper. 



It happens often to inexperienced 

 bee-keepers that a hive is without a 

 queen for some time, and that, with 

 their best efforts, they do not succeed 

 in introducing a new queen, as the bees 

 will kill every queen liberated among 

 them, and destroy every queen cell 

 given them to hatch. The reason for 

 such conduct is generally that the bees 

 are all old— too old for nurses and for 

 housework— feel no necessity for a 

 queen, and will not tolerate one among 

 them. 



Give to such a colony 2 or 3 combs 

 with hatching brood and all the adher- 

 ing young bees, from some strong colony 

 or colonies, when a queen will be ac- 

 cepted without any trouble, and the 

 colony will soon be in a normal condition 

 again. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey Dew Again, Etc. 



WM. MAXWELL. 



Bees are doing poorly in this vicinity, 

 the loss by starvation and spring 

 dwindling being heavy ; what few came 

 through did pretty we'll, while the fruit 

 bloom lasted, but now there is a scarcity 

 of pasturage. 



I want to call attention thus early to 

 the " Honey Dew" subject, and I have 

 made the offer to go 500 miles and pay 

 $10 to any individual who will show me 

 5 drops of liquid honey dew, free from 

 any deception ; provided he will pay my 

 traveling expenses in case he fails to 

 show it. 



Now I want it particularly noted that 

 I do not deny that there may be often 

 seen a glistening substance on hickory, 

 and perhaps some other kind of leaves, 

 that may be tasted by applying the 

 tongue ; ' but it is never found in a 

 liquid form. I also do not deny that 

 some kinds of trees or plants may exude 

 some saccharine from the glands of their 

 leaves, but never in quantity to be col- 

 lected by bees, or produce the tremend- 

 ous amount of "dew "as seen by my 

 Missouri friend that "fairly dripped 

 from the leaves," or my Texas friend, 

 where it was so " heavy as to kill the 

 trees." I think that all such accounts, 

 together with that remarkable phenom- 

 enon of the bees piling up in one of the 

 counties of Missouri to such a degree 

 that the people had to haul straw and 

 burn them up, and published as an ap- 

 pendix to " Baron Munchausen." 



I am aware that people, like myself, 

 have been educated to believe in the 

 existence of " honey dew," but for the 

 last 15 years I have made the standing 

 request of my neighbors to send for me 

 whenever they saw any of it ; but I 

 have never been sent for. 



Edgerton, Kan. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Spring Feeding and Management. 



H. L. JEFFREY. 



I have looked over about 250 colonies 

 of bees within a circuit of 15 miles and 

 inquired about the wintering of as 

 many more. Those that were wintered 

 on the summer stands have done well. 

 The first pollen gathered was on Feb. 

 20 from skunk cabbage and some tag 

 alder ; they worked 3 or 4 days, then we 

 had a frost that killed off all the pollen- 

 yielding plants that had started so early 

 on account of the mildness of the win- 

 ter. The first honey gathered was from 

 maple, and for 2 or 3 days they stored 

 honey very abundantly, then we had 3 

 or 4 cloudy days, and honey weather 

 came again, lasting a few days, then 

 windy and rainy weather prevented 

 much flying till the hard maples 

 bloomed,' which gave an uncommon 

 yield. About May 1, cherry trees 

 bloomed exceedingly full, which for 2 

 or 3 days kept the bees very busy, and 

 wore out most of the old ones. On May 

 6, apple trees began to bloom, lasting 

 about 12 days, furnishing the largest 

 yield, in this locality, known in the past 

 12 years, and a good many box hives 

 had honey stored in surplus boxes (these 

 colonies always showed a mixture of 

 Italian blood to a greater or less degree ; 



