1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



67 



ferred to by Mr. Norton (page 514 — 1896), I intended to 

 make no comparison between the golden beauties and any 

 other bees I had in the yard, except the colony of 3-banded 

 bees which I got from Texas at the same time. These bees 

 were got at the same time, and were treated alike in every 

 respect. The " goldens," I am certain, did not die because 

 they were queenless. I have lost colonies of ti-banded bees 

 many times, but never any that went into winter quarters 

 under as favorable conditions as those goldens did. 



The viciousness which Mr. Nortion thinks he sees was not 

 in me, but in the circumstances attending the trial. I had 

 hoped the result would be different. I am aware that a single 

 trial is not worth much to base a judgment on. But the trial, 

 such as it was, points strongly to the conclusion that not all 

 yellow bees will winter as well as the o-banded ones. 



I believe there are some strains of the goldens that are as 

 good honey-gatherers as any of the 3-banded bees. I believe 

 their are some strains of the goldens that may go through the 

 winter as well as any o-banded bees, but I am satisfied that 

 the colony I had was not of this strain. For Mr. Norton's 

 satisfaction I will say that I never had but one colony of 

 golden beauties. I have heard 'good reports before of the 

 Duvall queens, and am obliged to Mr. Norton for calling at- 

 tention to them. 1 mean to make a thorough test of some of 

 these renowned goldens. 



doolittle's "old max." 



Did the readers of the American Bee Journal take note of 

 the antics of Doolittle's old man along in the latter part of 

 last summer and the beginning of autumn? The first I no- 

 ticed he was standing on his head. Next he was lying hori- 

 zontally, and at one time I feared he was lying about Doolit- 

 tle's queens. But then I reflected that Doolittle would not 

 allow him to break any of the commandments, and I was 

 forced to conclude that Doolittle had been sending out some 

 marvelously good queens, even if they were golden beauties. 



Next spring I mean to send to Doolittle for one of these 

 queens in the hope of getting one like the one that made the 

 record that stood the old man on his bead. 



Decatur Co., Iowa. 



Important Questions About Sweet Clover. 



BY DR. H. BE8SE. 



1. How far from the apiary can bees work profitably on 

 sweet clover, when they fly in the direction of a field of it, and 

 have nothing else to work on, and come in loaded ? 



2. How much sweet clover seed is considered a good aver- 

 age crop per acre ? 



3. How much honey per colony per day would be expected 

 in an apiary of 97 good and strong colonies, when one-half of 

 the colonies are located in a field of l acres of sweet clover iu 

 full bloom, from July 20 until Sept. 20, and the other half of 

 the apiary 2}^ miles from fields of sweet clover in great abun- 

 dance for the bees ? Delaware Co., Ohio. 



[The foregoing questions were submitted to two sweet 

 clover specialists — Mr. McArthur, of Canada, and Mr. Stolley, 

 of Nebraska — who reply as follows: — Editor.] 



MR. M'ARTHUR'S answers. 



1. Bees will work profitably on sweet clover, or any 

 honey-producing plants, if existing conditions are present for 

 the secretion of nectar, at 2,'.; miles. They will gather more 

 in proportion if only one mile, or less, distant. 



2. That depends on how it is grown, whether for hay first 

 and seed afterward. Sweet clover bay is valuable as winter 

 food for stock — the same value as other clover hay, allowing 

 the second crop to mature seed, averaging from .3 to 7 bushels 

 per acre, of clean, hulled seed, if properly handled. 



3. If a good season for the secretion of nectar, and an 

 abundance of sweet clover within a radius of 2J.> miles, with 

 strong colonies and plenty of surplus combs for extracting, 

 one pound per day, or about 100 pounds per colony, has been 

 secured from that source in this vicinity. Taking an average 

 of years, 00 pounds per colony would be a good average from 

 sweet clover. John McAkthur. 



SIR. stolley's answers. 



1. I think several miles ; but it should be within, or about, 

 one mile. 



2. ffe have never harvested seed on a large scale. The 

 yield is heavy, if you can manage to get the seed. 



3. About 50 colonies of bees on 4 acres of sweet clover 

 is more than should be allowed, to get the largest yield, since 



they need about 100 pounds of honey a day to live on during 

 the working season. In my judgment, 20 colonies would 

 carry more surplus honey from 4 acres than would 50 colonies. 

 This has been the case in our apiary. At the time when 60 

 to 70 colonies were kept, we had to feed in the fall for winter 

 stores, and hardly any surplus ; but since the number of colo- 

 nies is in proportion to the melilot bloom, the surplus has 

 been year after year from 400 to 500 pounds to the acre, 

 through the season. Richard Stolley. 



Productiou of Comb Honey vs. Extracted. 



BY C. DAVENrORT. 



As I said in my first article on this subject (see page 5), 

 the 40 colonies selected for the experiment were ail in good 

 condition, and they were divided as eqally as possible, with 

 the exception that the 5 colonies in 10-frame hives were all 

 put among the 20 which were run for extracted honey. These 

 5 hives contained considerable more honey than the others ; 

 this would have been some advantage to the set to which 

 they were assigned, but three of them swarmed, and on ac- 

 count of the way all swarms from both sets were treated, the 

 advantage was but slight. 



All swarms from both sets were hived in 8-frame hives. 

 No feeding whatever was done before or during the experi- 

 ment, for last season from early spring until the main flow 

 from clover, enough honey was gathered to keep brood-rearing 

 up in good shape. 



All the sections given to the colonies run for comb honey 

 were filled with full sheets of foundation, and for the set run 

 for extracted, 30 half-depth supers, each containing 7 frames 

 of drawn comb, were used on 10 hives, which gave 3 supers 

 for each one as needed. On the other 10, 20 full-depth upper 

 stories containing drawn combs were used. With those run 

 for comb honey no queen-excluding honey-boards were used ; 

 with the set run for extracted, 10 queen-excluding honey- 

 boards were used — 5 on the ones on which were used half- 

 depth extracting supers, and 5 on the ones with full-depth 

 extracting stories. These excluders were all used so that the 

 queen was confined to the eight frames in the lower story. 



Altho the experiment with the queen-excluders was, of 

 course, not large enough to prove anything definitely, they 

 certainly seemed to decrease the amount of surplus somewhat, 

 and 5 of the 7 swarms which issued from the set of 20 run 

 for extracted honey were from hives on which excluders were 

 used; but with them the filled supers can be removed much 

 easier in some cases, for when there is no brood in the upper 

 stories they can be readily cleared of bees, in a very short 

 time, with an escape-board, which I have before described ; 

 but with brood in the upper story, even if it is but a very 

 small amount, no bee-escape or escape-board will clear it up 

 of bees, whether the queen is there or not, and most of the 

 10 colonies on which no excluders were used had some brood 

 in the second story, but I do not think that any of them at 

 any time had more brood in both stories than 8, or, at most, 

 10 frames would have held if they had all been reasonably 

 full. 



By using shallow supers containing only 7 frames instead 

 of 8, I hardly expected that the queens would lay in them, on 

 account of their cells being deeper than those iu regular 

 brood-frames, but this did not appear to make any difference. 



The total yield of the 20 colonies run for extracted honey 

 was 1,960 pounds — an average of 98 pounds to the colony. 

 The 20 colonies run for comb honey, stored 1,380 pounds in 

 standard-size sections, of finisht honey, and 134 pounds in un- 

 finisht sections — an averagee of 69 pounds per colony, of 

 finisht honey. 



If the extracted had been put in 60-pound cans, the comb 

 honey crated, and both lots shipt to and sold to some large 

 city market at current prices, there would have been (after 

 deducting the cost of thf; crates for the comb hoiiey and the 

 cans for the extracted, also taking iuto consideration the lower 

 freight rate on the latter) a large — for the amount involved — 

 balance in favor of the comb honey, providing both lots ar- 

 rived at their destination without loss or damage, tho I do not 

 know as their chances would have been equal on this, for in 

 all the very large amount of comb honey I have shipt, some of 

 it over 1,000 miles, I have never, so far as known, had a 

 dollar's worth lost or damaged in transit; and this is more 

 than I can say for what little extracted I have shipt. 



The 134 pounds in the unfinlsht sections would perhaps 

 offset the cost of the sections and foundation used with the 

 comb honey set. 



As fall flowers did not yield much, considerable feeding 

 bad to be done for winter stores — no record of the amount was 



