Jan. 10, lyO' 



American ^Bae Journal 



I l>(.'lieve it was M. A. Kelley who says 

 in lice-Keepers' Review, "Bee-keepers 

 burdiiicd with a world of fixtures, long 

 for the simplicity of other days." But 

 it is debated as to whether it even pays 

 to paint hives or not. Yes, or even dress 

 the lumber. I have some hives in my 

 apiary in Nortli Carolina that have been 

 in service 20 years without paint, and 

 I expect to use them many years yet. 

 And tin rabbets — yes, we will cut this 

 off our bill, and use the plain wood- 

 bearing for frames; and the swarm- 

 catchers and self-spaced frames we don't 

 want. Paul says, "Let us lay aside every 

 weight and the sin that doth so easily 

 beset us, and run the race with pa- 

 tience." 



So we will suppose you have cast aside 

 these useless fixtures that must go to the 

 rear with the honey specialist. And we 

 will just step across the winter into the 

 lovely spring, after the warm sun has 

 caressed each bud and bloom, and the 

 bees have awakened from their long re- 

 pose. 



Now we will go along in front of the 

 rows of hives — how nice the bees fly. 

 See this colony lugging in the big loads 

 of pollen. We will not open the hive 

 as that would do more damage than 

 good, just now. See that colony! How 

 scant their pollen-loads! It is short 

 of stores. We give it enough reserve 

 honey to last till fruit-bloom. 



See that colony. How the bees run 

 around the entrance, fly oft" a little and 

 back! Let's look. Oh, plenty of stores, 

 but queenless. We verily let this alone, 

 as it never pays to fool with queenless 

 bees at this season. We will hive our 

 first swarm here. 



So our first inventory is made largely 

 by externals. 



April passes by. May comes in with 

 her gentle showers. We now can make 

 a thorough examination of the bees as 

 the fruit-trees are in full bloom. On 

 all strong colonies we put an extracting 

 story, as this advanced room tends to 

 allay swarming. And now every week 

 we make a brief examination, keeping 

 advance roarn on all colonies. When a 

 swarm issues, we hive it on the old 

 stand, placing the parent colony in a 

 new place to build up for the fall flow. 



So time goes by; the harvest is past, 

 and the summer is o'er. We rig up 

 for extracting the summer crop. 'Tis 

 quite a job from 425 colonies — our pres- 

 ent number. We run a 4-frame Cowan 

 reversible extractor, and a cart hold- 

 ing about 30 combs is used to bring in 

 the honey. I don't see how Alexander 

 ever "gets there" vi'ith his little, frail 

 O-frame carrier. 



We want a common cotton-tulle veil, 

 Coggshall brush, and heavy butcher 

 knife to pry loose the frames; also a 

 Bingham uncapping-knife. The honey, 

 as it leaves the extractor, runs down to 

 the cellar into a large tank holding over 

 a ton. From this it is drawn oft' into 

 cans, barrels, etc. The combs are again 

 returned to the bees, and about October 

 we do our fall extracting. 



Now we take an inventory of each 

 brood-nest, noting the amount of 

 stores, and this number is marked on 

 the cover. We estimate 28 pounds suf- 

 ficient to carry each colony till spring. 



Every colony that is short is fed till it 

 has this amount. We feed in a 10- 

 pound pail inverted over a pan, and 

 set in an upper story upon the frames. 

 We can feed 600 pounds of syrup in 

 30 minutes. 

 This is a glittipse of things in the 



apiaries of Jas. McNeill, where I have 

 been assisting. 



The autumn winds carry a chill, and 

 the leaves are taking on their rosy hues. 

 Soon I return to the South to look after 

 my interests there. 



Hudson, N. Y., Oct. i, 1906. 







Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunefels, Tex. 



Feeding Bees in Winter 



Bees generally are apt to be in poor 

 condition on account of the poor season 

 the past year, hence it will pay every 

 bee-keeper to look well ahead and feed 

 if necessary. During a poor season much 

 of the enthusiasm of the bee-keeper is 

 lost, and his little workers sufifer more 

 or less neglect than when a paying crop 

 is made. When the bees have gone 

 through a poor season, they need close 

 attention, and this given in time may 

 mean money in the owner's pocket the 

 following season, which may be a good 

 one, while otherwise his bees may all 

 have starved. 



The wintering problem with us is 

 mostly a question of stores, and if the 

 colonies are found short of natural 

 stores at this time, candy feeding should 

 be resorted to at once. This is the 

 safest thing to do, and the candy is 

 easily prepared by liquefying granulated 

 sugar with water and boiling it until it 

 will harden if a little be dropped in cold 

 water. This is then poured into large 

 shallow pans and broken into pieces of 

 suitable size, or into forms already the 

 right size desired. 



The cakes are laid over the brood- 

 frames, directly over the cluster, 2 small 

 sticks being placed under the cake to 

 allow a passageway for the bees. An 

 empty super can then be placed on and 

 some covering material — a mat or old 

 sacking — to retain the heat of the colony. 



Full combs of honey from other or 

 "rich" colonies are good, but I do not 

 advise this to any great extent, on ac- 

 count of the many dangers of spreading 

 diseases, especially if honey is obtained 

 from some unknown source. 



Corn-Tassel Honey Again 



Editor Scholl; — I have just received 

 the American Bee Journal for Dec. 6, 

 and note what you and others have to 

 say about corn-tassels yielding honey. I 

 also note the extract you make from an 

 article written by me for the Dallas 

 News, and can not resist the tempta- 

 tion to write further on the subject — 

 not that I have had cause to cliange my 



mind in regard to the various plants 

 mentioned in the extract you made from 

 the News, but you know it is said, 

 "Smart men seldom change their minds, 

 and a fool never." (I've not changed). 

 I am sure, yes, very sure, that bees 

 get no honey from the corn-tassel 

 blooms. Now note that I say from the 

 tassel bloom, for it is a fact that in some 

 of our very dry years that our corn, 

 cane, etc., become infested with "plant- 

 lice," which cause the corn to become 

 covered with the so-called "honey-dew," 

 and I have had bees store considerable 

 honey from this source at various times 

 in the past ; but the tassel of the corn 

 had nothing to do with the secretion of 

 this so-called "honey-dew," for it was 

 caused by the "plant-lice." And it would 

 be an easy matter for any one to con- 

 clude at such times that bees were gath- 

 ering honey fast from the corn-tassel 

 blooms. 



In the spring of 1886 (1886 and 1887 

 were the two extremely dry years in 

 Texas) it was very dry, so much so that 

 I was sure, after fruit-bloom, I would 

 be compelled to feed my bees to prevent 

 starvation. At the close of fruit-bloom 

 the various oaks were in bloom, which 

 the bees worked on vigorously for about 

 10 days, filling the hives almost full of 

 pollen, but no honey, and the bees were 

 almost at the point of starvation. In 

 a few days, however, a change came. 

 The bees were dropping at the entrances 

 of their hives and roaring at night, that 

 clearly showed a honey-flow season. I 

 was puzzled at first to know what this 

 flow was from, but a little investigation 

 showed that a small green worm was 

 gnawing and puncturing the small, ten- 

 der leaves of the oaks, from which a 

 sweet substance was oozing that the bees 

 were eagerly lapping up and carrying 

 to their hives; and this was as near 

 a real honey-dew as I have ever seen. 

 Strong colonies stored from 25 to 30 

 pounds of this dark honey, that had both 

 the taste and smell of oak leaves. 



Don't you see how easy it would have 

 have been for me, or any one that was 

 not a close observer, to have thought 

 this honey was gathered from the oak 

 blooms? 



It is easy to determine when bees 

 are getting honey from any plant, by 



