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THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



December 



would say don't let your bees starve 

 at any time during winter or early 

 spring for lack of proper attention. If 

 in Avinter it is found necessary to feed 

 your bees, do so as quietly and quickly 

 as you can, and don't tear open the 

 brood-nest. But if honey in the frames 

 is to be fed put it next to the brood 

 on either side and put the fullest 

 frames of honey next to the brood 

 where the bees can easily reach it in 

 a warm spell. If candy is to be fed 

 it should be placed directly over the 

 brood on the frames, or if the bees are 

 out of food a little of the candy could 

 be pushed down between the frames, 

 put back the quilt and cushion as 

 snugly as found to avoid any direct 

 draught of air through the hive. 



Bees in this locality have done well 

 the past season, and notwithstanding 

 the protracted drouth here this last 

 summer my bees stored a good amount 

 of surplus honey from fall flowers; 

 and I have just finished extracting 

 about 80 pounds taken from the ex- 

 tracting supers when fixing bees for 

 winter. The frames of comb are now 

 ready for next season's use. 



I am just finishing painting some 

 new dovetailed hives (kept over) get- 

 ting them ready for next season's use. 

 When they are done I think I will 

 have about supplies enough for next 

 season, unless the season is extra good. 

 I may have to have some foundation. 

 Getting ready for next years honey 

 crop in the middle of November may 

 seem odd to some, but this is my old 

 habit to be on time, and as near as I 

 can be, in readiness when the honey 

 season opens up and thereby avoiding 

 the rush in bee-yard and factory. One 

 can generally get a discount on sup- 

 plies ordered early, and make them 



up at leasure during winter. If the 

 order is put off until late in spring or 

 summer, and the factory is run day 

 and night to its fullest capacity to fill 

 orders, it may be your order will have 

 to wait several days before being filled 

 if filled at all, as has been proven in 

 some cases the past season. 

 Chillicothe, Mo. 



Ed. Am. Bee Keeper, Dear Sir, — 

 1 noted an article in your Nov. num- 

 ber in which I was much interested. 

 The title was, "Bees as Agricul- 

 turists." 



Now I beg to inform you that there 

 is at least one Experimental Station 

 that has an Apiary Department. It 

 was started in April, '97, and although 

 no practical assistance was given to 

 the bee-keeping world at large, still 

 some work was accomplished during 

 the past summer. 



You, as a bee-keeper, know how 

 much work is connected with starting 

 an apiary and equipping a honey house 

 and but little more than this was 

 done. However, we tested the new 

 drawn foundation with the thin, and 

 started some experiments with bee- 

 pai-alysis and breeding bees with 

 longer tongues. We have not gone 

 far enough on them yet to make the 

 results public, but I will say that we 

 are on the right road to get a strain 

 of bees that have tongues as long as 

 their bodies if need be. By actual 

 measurement we have increased the 



