364 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAj 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



Beeville. Texas. 



Do All Pollen-Bearing Plants Furnish 

 Honey ? 



The above question was asked me a 

 short time ago, and I came very nearly 

 forgetting it. 



Yes, I do believe that all plants that 

 furnish pollen yield honey, too, but 

 some may only furnish a very small por- 

 tion, or not enough to amount to any- 

 thing ; while some plants seem to give 

 about half and half, as the peach-bloom. 

 I have noticed that the bees gather 

 about half pollen and half honey when 

 working on peach-bloom. That is, each 

 bee loads partly with both honey and 

 pollen. 



Horse-mint also furnishes a little pol- 

 len along with its abundance of honey, 

 and I think that it will work the other 

 way, too, and plants that produce nearly 

 all pollen yield a little bit of honey also. 

 Jennie Atchley. 



What Ailed the Bees ? 



Mrs. Atchley : — We have had some 

 pretty cold weather, as cold as 20^ be- 

 low zero. You said you almost froze at 

 your place with only one inch of ice. 

 Just think of 20^ below zero ! 



I have lost one colony of bees so far 

 this winter. I think a mouse or some- 

 thing must have bothered them when it 

 was so cold, causing them to break the 

 cluster, and they froze. I was looking 

 around the hives and found this one 

 making a kind of humming sound, and 

 now and then some of the bees would 

 come out on the alighting-board, and of 

 course it was death as soon as they left 

 the cluster. As soon as a warm day 

 came I looked them over, and every- 

 thing was nice and clean. There was 

 no signs of any mice. They had some 

 honey in the super, and the brood-cham- 

 ber was full of honey. I never had bees 



do this way before. The colonies near 

 this one were all as still as death. 



Understand I never bother my bees 

 when it is at all cold. I think at such 

 times they should be let alone. I don't 

 allow any jarring, or anything around 

 the hives at this time of the year. This 

 colony was as strong as any in the yard 

 in the fall. I failed to find the queen, I 

 think she was dead. I don't think the 

 queen being dead would make any 

 change in the bees at this time of the 

 year, for I have had them go through 

 the winter without a queen, all in good 

 condition, and not give them any brood 

 until April, and then have them do 

 finely — no moths nor webs, but every- 

 thing in fine condition. Now, when this 

 colony was doing this way, it was 20^ 

 below zero. If you know what was 

 wrong, I would like to have you tell me. 



Riverton, Ills. C. V. Mann. 



Bro. Mann, I give it up, unless they 

 had the diarrhea. Some good bee-keeper 

 in the North will please tell us what 

 was the matter with the bees. 



Jennie Atchley. 



How Bees Shape Cells. 



I met a bee-keeper a few days ago 

 who said he knew exactly how bees 

 measured or laid out their comb cells. 

 He said they did it with their legs. By 

 watching closely when they are building 

 combs, he said the bees could be seen 

 measuring out the shape of the cells. 

 What about this, anyway ? What do 

 the little Misses use for a pattern when 

 building comb ? Well, now, don't laugh, 

 but tell us just how it is done. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Some Interesting Bee-Notes. 



Mrs. Atchley : — Since my report of ' 

 Aug. 19th, the bees that had been prop- 

 erly cared for have done fairly well. A 

 nice shower of rain at the opening of 

 smart-weed bloom gave a nice honey-flow 

 for 10 days. All colonies at that time 

 that were in good condition filled up the 

 brood-chamber and stored a surplus of 

 34 pounds of extracted honey per col- 

 ony. There are but few black bees that 

 gathered enough stores to winter on. I 

 could have extracted several hundred 

 pounds more of honey than I did, but I 

 was afraid of another long, cold and 

 wet spring. My bees were in good con- 

 dition for winter. Three days is the 



