1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



ing, by feeding, in our location, 1 doubt very much the advis- 

 ability of feeding for this purpose, but whoro the spring bloom 

 is it may be very desirable, and of considerable value. What- 

 ever food is given, should not be too thicl< — it should not be as 

 thiclf as well-ripened honey. 



After trying most of the bee-feeders in use, I find none 

 equal to that of J. A. Golden. It is so handy, economizes the 

 heat; it is used just over the brood. The feeder is set in a 

 surplus case used for 4,'4 sections. The food receptacle can 

 be made shallow or deep, as desired. If shallow, for stimula- 

 tive spring feeding, a mat can be placed over the feeder 

 proper, and the hive cover on this, thus retaining the heat to 

 the maximum. 



I am yet feeding a little each spring to further test the 

 matter in the way of increast brood-rearing. We sometimes 

 have a dearth of bloom between apple, raspberry, etc., com- 

 ing early, and clover at the opening of summer. In this case, 

 feeding will be very useful. For general purposes I reserve 

 brood-frames tilled with honey to supply any colonies deOicient 

 in honey, and prefer it to any other plan. 



The beginner should not strive to more than double his 

 colonies any year. Try to Iteep all strong, i'eeding for win- 

 ter, except in extremely poor seasons, will not then be needed. 

 It does not pay to extract all honey and feed bacli syrup for 

 winter food. I prefer hives or brood-chambers large enough 

 to hold honey enough to last until May. I have tried small 

 ones to my heart's content. Carroll Co., 111. 



Things That are Worth Remembering. 



BY MRS. L. C. AXTELL. 



To feed the bees in seasons when they cannot get a living 

 themselves, and thus preserve alive " the goose that lays the 

 golden egg." 



To have the supers on the hives before the bees get the 

 swarming fever — a little too early is better than too late. 



To have everything in readiness for swarming time. 



To keep cool and collected when bees are swarming. 



To put all bee-utensils in place when done using them, in- 

 stead of leaving things lying around helter-slseiter, which 

 will often cause much loss of valuable time in hunting them. 



And to Ijeep a little reserve strength for emergencies. 



LOOSENING HONEY IN SUPERS. 



When taking honey from the hives, if the supers are in- 

 verted, and laid upon a honey-board, and then piled one upon 

 the otiier, nearly all the sections will break loose from the 

 super and slip down upon the board, so they are easily re- 

 moved from the super. This refers to honey taken from the 

 hives iu warm weather, and supers having a bee-space above 

 the sections. 



Should there be sections only partly filled, it would not be 

 well to turn the sections bottom upwards, as some would be 

 apt to crinkle down or fail over edgewise. 



If full supers taken off the hives late in the fall are in- 

 verted, and strips of wood a bee-space thick (or as thick as 

 the bee-space above the section in the super) were laid on 

 each row of sections, and the supers piled one above another, 

 their weight would press them loose if iu a warm room, and I 

 think probably they would loosen even if in a cold room, but 

 I am not sure. 



If full supers are inverted on the hives a few days before 

 taking off, the bees nicely till out all vacant places, and seal 

 them in nearly all around, but they soil the sections badly with 

 propolis, sealing the two sections together where the top one 

 rests upon the under one. Sometimes it will be diflicuit to 

 remove them from the hives — they will stick so. So it is not 

 advisable to turn supers over while on the hives. 



MAKING HONEY-VINEGAR. 



This is easily made by throwing into a Jar all scraps and 

 scrapings of clean refuse honey, and pouring in the jar warm 

 rainwater (well water will answer), and into the same jar 

 pour In all fruit-juices or jellies or preserves that have soured, 

 or settlings from the vinegar and mothers that gather on top 

 of the vinegar. 



If the honey-vinegar is wanted to be white, I would not 

 put in grape or any dark fruit-juices, but an amber vinegar 

 that does not look darker than cider sells just as well as a 

 white vinegar. Of course, it should not freeze; I keep mine 

 in the kitchen or pantry until it gets partly soured, then drain 

 it from the settlings into the largo jar with my other vinegar. 

 I can never get barrels hoopt tight enough to hold vinegar if 

 kept in the cellar. Even if the bung is left out and the open- 

 ing covered with a cloth, the iron hoops always burst or the 



barrel springs a leak, and I lose my vinegar every time, be- 

 fore I find it out. So, of late years, I have been using 10- 

 gallon jars, and cover with a cloth and board, which lets In 

 just air enough to cause it to come quickly. 



If my vinegar shows signs of having those " vinegar eels " 

 In it, I scald and skim it, and wash out the jars carefully, 

 and tie cloths over tightly under the boards. 



Warren Co., III. 



Liquefying Candied Honey in the Combs. 



BY I. \V. BKCliWITH. 



Correspondents frequently ask what to do with combs of 

 candled honey ; and Dr. Miller either tells them to melt them, 

 or give them to the bees to clean, and save what little honey 

 they can from the bottom-board. 



Now I want to whisper in the Doctor's ear, and say to 

 him to tell the next one to put those combs in a very damp, 

 warm place, and in a few days the honey will all be liquified. 

 Uncapping will very much hasten the process. Probably the 

 best place is over a colony ot bees in the cellar, with a honey- 

 board between (that will let the heat and moisture pass, but 

 exclude the bees), and made tight as possible above. The 

 honey can then b^ extracted or ifcd to the bees without loss, 

 and without danger of any granules being left in the sections 

 to injure the next crop. 



MANAGING VICIOUS BEES. 



Reading the articles of L. S., page 486, and the one by 

 Geo. S. Vinal, on page 595 (1890) reminds me of some ex- 

 periments I had many years ago. 



I had two colonies, one pure Italian and the other " high 

 grade," that were as wicked as those that these gentlemen 

 tell about. It seemed that the more foreign blood, the longer 

 and more active their " tongues " at either end. They were 

 certainly the best workers I had. (See articles referred to 

 above.) The fowls and all other animals learned to avoid 

 that part of the orchard, and I am not sure but they kept the 

 thieving birds out of the cherry-trees. If one should pass the 

 hives when they were all inside (if it was not too cold or dark), 

 they would bo attracted either by the sound or jar of the foot- 

 steps, or by the smell, and come swarming out. The more I 

 smoked, the worse they were. I even smoked them till they 

 could not fly, and as soon as they recovered sufficiently they 

 would hoist the black flag-. 



At last I took the smoker, well filled, and approaching the 

 hives at night as cautiously as possible, I would ^(t the hives 

 with smoke, being careful not to let the smoker touch the 

 hive, nor jar it in any way. After doing this a few times, as 

 soon as they got the least smell of smoke they would run up 

 the white flag — that is, they would hum their subjection, and 

 soon became as docile as any bees I had ; and the next spring 

 they had not forgotten the lesson in the fall. 



Weld Co., Colo. 



% 



Yellow Sweet Clover — A Few Facts. 



BY .JOHN M'ARTHUK. 



In thus writing of the yellow variety of sweet clover 

 (raelilotus officinalis), my experience dates back 17 years, so 

 that all bee-keepers are not ignorant of it or its habits. From 

 the glowing accounts of it in northern Nebraska, one would 

 be led to believe that bee-keeping would be revolutionized by 

 a liberal application of the seed of melilotus officinalis. Re- 

 member, I am not writing from northern Nebraska, but from 

 Ontario, Canada, which means considerable in latitude, and 

 therefore may mean considerable iu the way of secretion of 

 nectar. 



An American bee-keeper, inquiring about seed, asks the 

 question : " Is it any better than the white variety ?" Now, 

 Mr. Editor, I crave the liberty of your columns, in order to 

 answer this correspondent, also to give my experience with 

 the two varieties, and their habits. 



I would say, emphatically, that the yellow is not equal to 

 the white in many respects, because it blooms at a time when 

 we have an abundance of white, Dutch and Alsike clovers, and 

 very few bees will then be seen upon it. Its roots are shorter, 

 and don't penetrate so deep into the subsoils to extract mois- 

 ture. Its spikes of bloom are fewer, and not so long, and it 

 sheds its bloom quicker; the shoots from the root or seed are 

 not so abundant ; while for hay it is not to be compared with 

 the white — I should say about two to one in favor of the 

 white. As to pasturage, both are eaten greedily — I see no dif- 



