I ay 7. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



183 



CONDUCTED BY 



D/e. O. O. MHI-EK, M.AJLB'SGO, ILL, 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.] 



'^ Highly Italianized Bees." 



What are highly Italianized bees?" 



R. M. E. 



Answer. — I don't know. If you take a piece of board and 

 cut it exactly square, I suppose that piece of board might be 

 said to be squared. Now what would you mean if you should 

 say it was highly squared ? Ifyou answer that question, I'll 

 answer the other. If you have a colony of bees that is not of 

 Italian stock, and give to it a pure Italian queen, then that 

 colony is Italianized. If the queen isn't Italian, then the col- 

 ony isn't Italianized, and if she is, then the colony can't be 

 any more highly Italianized. Whoever used the term perhaps 

 had in mind bees of high grade. For in bees of mixt blood 

 there may be all degrees, from pure black to pure Italian, and 

 the greater the predominance of Italian blood the higher the 

 grade. 



^^B ■ ^^m 



Feeding a Substitute for Pollen in the Hive. 



Can bees bo fed a substitute for pollen inside the hive ? I 

 have often heard men say they had, or had known others to do 

 so — generally using corn-bread soakt in syrup or honey. I 

 have tried it, but I think the bees only cut the bread away so 

 as to get the sweet out of it. B. 



Answer. — Yes, yon can give bees a substitute for pollen 

 In the hive, but hardly in the shape of corn-bread. In England 

 I think pea-meal is mixt with syrup or honey, and if you can't 

 readily get pea-meal you can use rye or wheat flour in honey 

 or sugar syrup. Don't use enough flour to thicken the honey. 

 Most bee-keepers prefer to feed the substitute for pollen out- 

 side, in the shape of ground corn and oats, ground corn, or 

 other ground grain unbolted. Perhaps I ought to have said 

 most bee-keepers who give artificial pollen, for the great ma- 

 jority probably never meddle with the matter at all, and gen- 

 erally bees have all the pollen they need. 



A Quintet of Questions. 



1. Will wide frames, the short way in the super, and 

 orood-frames the long way in the body of the standard hive, 

 work well ? 



2. Do you practice clipping your queen's wings? 



3. I noticed, in an observatory hive, bees going into the 

 cells head first, and remaining there hours. What were they 

 doing ? 



4. When the queen moves over the combs, the workers 

 give her a wide berth. Is this through fear or respect ? When 

 one does not discover the queen until she is in immediate 

 proximity, it is really amusing to see the little thing "git up 

 and git," as tho she had committed some grave indiscretion. 



5. I have an acre lot that I wish to set in clover, as much 

 for bee-pasturage as for hay — in fact, equally for both. What 

 kind would you advise me to use ? We have no clover in this 

 part of the country. It is claimed by some that our long, hot 

 summers will kill out clover. I do not believe it, and will try 

 it. If not from you, where will I get the fullest information 

 about the subject, that is, the amount of seed to the acrp, 

 when to sow, how, etc.? Arkansas. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, all right. But in that case you must 

 be careful to have your hive level in both directions, from 

 front to rear, and from side to side. I've seen it claiaied in 

 foreign bee-journals that when this arrangement is used the 

 queen will not go up into the super. Just why it is thought 

 so is not explained. It's a raretbing for a queen to go up into 

 one of my supers when sections and frames run the same way. 

 and I don't see why it should be different when sections cross 

 brood-frames. 



2. Yes, indeed ; I wouldn't leave my queens unclipt for a 

 good bit of money. Saves many a swarm. 



3. I don't know of anything they could be doing for that 

 length of time, unless resting. Wish you had noticed whether 

 the cells were empty after the bees came out. 



4. I've seen a queen run from workers as if through fear, 

 but I never saw a worker that appeared to be afraid of a 

 queen. A queen stopping for any length of time in one spot 

 seems to have a circle of admirers gather around her, and, as 

 she moves about, each worker soeuis inclined to turn its head 

 toward her as if from respect. Often, however, she brushes 

 by some of the workers that don't seem to notice her at all, 

 evidently not seeing her. I don't believe I ever saw a case 

 where the bees seemed to try to get away from her, but I have 

 often seen them climb all over her, as if fondling her. 



5. Taking into consideration tho honey to be obtained, I 

 believe I'd try sweet clover. It will give a longer yield than 

 perhaps any other clover, and is worth trying for hay. Back 

 numbers of the American Bee Journal give full information 

 as to sowing, etc. On page 754, for Nov. 26, 1896, you will 

 see Mr. Stolley says : " I have found that the driest seasons, 

 and when nearly all other crops fail, sweet clover Is at its 

 best ;" so your hot summers may be just the thing for it. 



Taxing Bees in Iowa. 



Is there any law on taxing bees? Are they taxable, or 

 not? If they are, why are they ? If they are not, why are 

 they not? They are taxt here, .■:? LUG a colony. Iowa. 



Answer. — I don't know why bees shouldn't be taxt just as 

 any other live stock, but as a matter of fact I think they are 

 not taxt in Iowa. At any rate, I have an impression that a 

 peculiar wording of the law in that State made them non-tax- 

 able. Possibly the law has been changed, for my information, 

 if I remember correctly, dates back several years. It ought 

 not to be a difficult thing to find a copy of the law near by, 

 and that would settle it. 



Getting Sweet Clover Seed to Grow. 



Last spring I had nicely prepared about one acre of 

 ground and sowed it to sweet clover, and I don't think there 

 were two dozen plants that came up on the whole piece, and 

 that all died out before fall ; but I got the finest piece of rag- 

 weed you ever saw. 



After sowing the clover in the spring, we had no rain for 

 five or six weeks, and this is why I thought it came up no bet- 

 ter. But what caused that that did come to die out? Some 

 of it got to be from 5 to 10 inches high. Do you think if I 

 would go over this ground in the spring with a harrow two or 

 three times, then sow the seed, going over it again with har- 

 row or brush, that this would do, as the ground has not be- 

 come very hard ? or should I plow it over again ? 1 think 

 there is no sweet clover in New Hampshire. N. H. 



Answer. — I don't know for certain what the trouble was. 

 From some experience of my own, I'm inclined to think the 

 trouble was that you treated the sweet clover too well. If you 

 had simply thrown the seed on the hard ground very early in 

 the spring, and then when the ground was quite muddy had 

 turned in a lot of horses or cattle to tramp all over it, you 

 might have had a good stand. And it is just possible that the 

 few plants that came up were killed because the ground was 

 too soft. If your ground is mellow, the seed should be cov- 

 ered deep. I don't know how deep, but no surface scratching 

 will do as for other clover. Light covering will do if the 

 ground is hard, and it seems almost impossible to have ground 

 so bard that sweet clover will not grow in it. If I were you, 

 I believe I'd try part of that piece without plowing, sowing 

 the seed as early as possible, then scratching in the seed, or 

 still better, having it trodden in by live stock. The other part 

 I'd make mellow, sow, then turn under with a plow or cultiva- 

 tor. Perhaps that on the hard ground will be the surest 

 catch, but the other may make the best growth. Be sure to 

 report if you get a good catch, no matter which way you sow, 

 for there seems to be a good deal of trouble about getting the 

 seed to grow, altho when left to itself there is no trouble. 



Xlie AIcKvoy Foul Brood Xreattuent Is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price. 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 — be th for $1.10. 



