

42d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, OCT, 23, 1902, 



No, 43. 



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^ Editorial Comments. 



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Time to Bring Bees Home from Out- Apiaries. — At 



this time of the year inquiries arise as to the right time to 

 bring home bees from out-apiaries, said bees to be cellared 

 at home. It is bad policy to bring them home too early, for 

 there will generally be a few late flowers on which the bees 

 can work, and the bees may just as well have the benefit 

 of this late pasturage by being left at the out-apiary as late 

 as possible. Another reason why it is not best to be in too 

 much haste is that it is not so safe for weak colonies. In a 

 time of scarcity, let a colony be put in a new place, and a 

 careful investigation will be made by marauding bees to see 

 if any weak point of attack can be found. A weak colony 

 that has stood unmolested in an out-apiary for days or 

 weeks, is sure to have its proper measure taken vehen set 

 down in or near the home apiary, and, if the weather is fair 

 for a number of days in succession, it stands a fair chance 

 of being robbed out. If brought home after the weather 

 has become so cold that only an occasional day offers the 

 opportunity for flight, its chances for safety are much 

 better. 



But it will not do to defer the matter till all flight days 

 are over. To be sure, some say there is no objection to 

 hauling bees home and putting them directly into the cel- 

 lar, but others report loss therefrom, and it looks reason- 

 able that the excitement of hauling the bees home will 

 make them consume an extra quantity of honej', equivalent 

 to a longer degree of confinement. At any rate, it is well 

 to be on the safe side. 



So let the bringing home be delayed, only not so late 

 but that the bees will have a chance for a flight before 

 being put into the cellar. In the North the last of October 

 will not be far out of the way. 



A Short Crop in England — D. M. M. says in the 

 British Bee Journal : 



" Not only is there no surplus worth naming at the end 

 of this sunless summer, but a very large percentage of col- 

 onies will require less or more feeding to preserve them for 

 another season's work." 



Although in this country there has been a summer more 

 nearly sunless than usual, yet in many places where a 

 dearth prevailed in the early part of the season a late flow 

 came in most opportunely, and contrary to earlier expecta- 

 tions, the hives are heavy with winter stores. 



The Proper Province of a Bee-Paper is sometimes not 

 rightly understood, especially by beginners. Occasionally 

 a subscriber writes to the effect that he has read the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal carefully for so many months and has 

 never seen any instruction given upon a certain point in 



bee-keeping upon which he desires information, there being 

 an implied suggestion that the Journal is not performing 

 its full duty. A bee-paper has, however, its limitations, 

 beyond which it can not go without loss to its readers. It 

 should be clearly understood that its province is tioi to give 

 such information as is considered absolutely necessary for 

 every beginner in order to work in even a moderately intel- 

 ligent manner. That is the province of the text-books on 

 bee-keeping. 



There are, however, constantly coming up more or less 

 new things not in the nature of the case to be found in the 

 text-books, and the bee-paper furnishes the proper field for 

 their exploitation. There are also things given in the text- 

 books about which there may be some point not entirely 

 clear, even after careful study, and upon such points infor- 

 mation in the bee-papers can generally be had for the 

 asking. 



Instead of being wronged by not finding in a bee-paper 

 the matter found in a text-book, the reader would be 

 wronged if its columns were filled with such matter. For 

 example, every bee-keeper should know that when a queen 

 lays an egg in a certain kind of cell a worker-bee will be 

 produced, there being so many days for the egg, so many 

 for the larva, and so many from the laying of the egg to the 

 emergence of the young worker-bee, and that after so many 

 days it will begin work in the field, etc. If he expects to 

 find these things in a bee-paper, and if he is not disap- 

 pointed in his expectations, there will be new subscribers 

 within a year who will want the same things repeated ; and 

 so it will come to pass that every year there will be much 

 space taken up with things that all but the latest comers 

 will have already learned, and the very ones who have com- 

 plained at not finding the things desired will be the ones to 

 complain that space is taken up with things already learned. 



So it is a real kindness to beginners to urge persist- 

 ently that they study carefully the text-book, and then let 

 the bee-paper take its proper place as supplementing the 

 text-book. 



Stock Eating Sweet Clover.— Some complain that 

 stock will not eat clover. On the other hand, some com- 

 plain that they eat it too much for the good of the bee- 

 keeper. Somnambulist says in the Progressive Bee-Keeper : 



" The great trouble in regard to sowing sweet clover in 

 this vicinity is that the stock will not let it come into 

 flower, they keep it cropped off and only a stray stalk here 

 and there ever reaches the blossoming period." 



The Honey Crop In Canada — Secretary Couse, of the 

 Ontario Bee Keepers' Association, says this in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal : 



About a week ago there was mailed to each member 

 of the Ontario Bee- Keepers" Association a circular asking 

 them to report on their honey crop. At this date about one- 

 half have reported ; from these reports there can be some 

 idea formed as to the crop in the Province. Twenty-eight 

 report a light crop, six of these say equal to, and 22 say 

 less than the two previous years ; 21 report an average crop 



