Mar. 7, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



colony to have. In this way there will 

 be little or no excitement among the 

 bees, and we have the feed right where 

 it is wanted. 



COTTON-SEED MEAI, AS POLLEN 



A novice in bee-culture, here in the 

 South, who said he was a reader of the 

 American Bee Journal, wishes me to 

 answer the following questions for 

 him : 



1. I notice my bees at work very busily 

 where cotton-seed meal is being fed to stock, 

 collecting it and packing it on their legs like 

 pollen. For what purpose are the bees col- 

 lecting this naeal* 



2. Will this meal in any way harm the bees? 



3. What effect will this unusually warm 

 winter have on the bees i Will it be detrimen- 

 tal or otherwise to them? 



To the first question I will say that 

 the bees are gathering the cotton-seed 

 meal for the same purpose that they 

 use natural pollen. We have often 

 seen bees collecting cotton-seed meal 

 and using it for pollen, and they will 

 start brood-rearing the same as with 

 natural pollen. 



2. No, the meal will not harm the 

 bees except in one way— it will cause 

 them to start brood-rearing in winter, 

 and cause the bees to use an unusual 

 amount of stores. If you don't look 

 sharply they will starve before spring. 



3. The effect it will have on the bees 

 is given in the answer to the second 

 question— that is, brood-rearing out of 

 season and a large consumption of 

 stores, with the result that many of us 

 will be compelled to feed. So we con- 

 sider the warm winter detrimental 

 rather than otherwise to bees in the 

 South. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue, Tex. 



Perhaps I am wrong in my conclu- 

 sions that the bees get the honey from 

 the blooms of the elm, but I know the 

 honey comes from the elms all right. 

 We will watch again when they bloom. 



Poor Queens Often Cause Win- 

 ter Losses 



Winter losses are not always due to 

 the shortage of stores as much as to 

 poor queens. In many cases a colony is 

 short of stores because the queen has 

 been a poor one and the bees did not 

 store enough for the winter. In other 

 cases, the poor or failing queen is lost 

 during the winter months, and this re- 

 sults in winter loss. 



Canadian or Southern Weather? 



Summer weather still continues, and 

 85 degrees, Fahr., in the shade has be- 

 come quite common. To read of the 

 15-degrees-below-zero weather men- 

 tioned by Mr. Byer, on page 113, makes 

 a person shudder even if he is in a 

 " hot " climate. The lowest we have 

 experienced here was 28 degrees — not 

 below but above zero — and of such 

 short duration was this cold spell that 

 the "roses, violets, and carnations" 

 bloomed on just the same, besides 

 many other tlowers that have joined 

 them since those lines on page 70 were 

 written. 



Speaking from experience, having 



wintered both in the North and the 

 South, I prefer Southern weather, and 

 " I am free to confess that bees in the 

 air and 80 degrees Fahr. is pretty allur- 

 ing," indeed, when one must be 

 " cooped up " with cold, snow and ice 

 outside, while here I have been out 

 among the bees in shirt-waists making 

 the spring examinations, and counting 

 the frames of brood. It is true the 

 effect of such mild winters becomes 

 noticeable in the spring, as an in- 

 creased consumption of stores often 

 leaves colonies short. Fortunately, 



very few of my colonies will need feed- 

 ing, especially since a mild spring 

 means early bloom for them. Hence, 

 it will be seen that what has seemed to 

 be a loss in such mild winters is made 

 up in the spring, unless it is in locali- 

 ties where the bees have no access to 

 early spring blooming plants of some 

 kind. 



■ The weekly visits of the American 

 Bee Journal are always anxiously looked for. 

 W. S. Williams, of Pennsylvania. 



ur 



ee-Keepin 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A New Year's Wish to Each Sister 



" ' God keep thee,' friend, through all the 



years. 

 Through all the joys, the sorrows, tears 

 Of life — its commonplaces, too — 

 God keep thee sweet, and brave, and true. 



" Amid the doubts and fears that rise 

 In every life — the mysteries — 

 Things that are hard to understand, 

 The moyings of a mystic hand ; 

 God keep thy reason sound and sure. 

 Thy mind alert, thy heart still pure. 



" God keep thee always— this I pray 

 For thee, upon this New Year's day.' 



Frances E. Wheeler. 



Miss Frances E. Wheeler, the mis- 

 tress of Clovernook Duck Ranch, in 

 New York State, amid her many liter- 

 ary cares, as well as the cares of her 

 numerous feathered family, has found 

 time to send the above greeting to each 

 of the sisters. It was a little late in 

 coming, and has been delayed a little 

 more since coming, but it is so beauti- 

 ful in sentiment that, like many other 

 things, it will keep sweet and fresh in- 

 definitely, and is just as appropriate 

 now as earlier in the year. 



Buying and Selling Money Between 

 Bee-Keepers 



There was lately a very readable 

 article on "Successful Honey Market- 

 ing," in the Bee-Keepers' Review. I 

 can endorse much of it from actual ex- 

 perience. It did not, however, touch 

 on the caption above. There is more 

 or less buying of honey between bee- 

 keepers, and some thoughts on the 

 ethics of the thing have been forced 

 on me lately. 



I take it that to the novice no honey 

 is as good as his own, but as the years 

 go by, and the novelty of being a 

 honey-producer wears off, he is willing 

 to listen more to the praises " the other 

 fellow " showers upon his, and when he 



reads of "truly delicious honey — a 

 honey with a flavor all its own — a 

 flavor that smacks of the wild rasp- 

 berry of the forests ;" or when a Cali- 

 fornia brother " blows " about his or- 

 ange-blossom honey, or says, " I could 

 fairly taste the magnolia in it ;" his 

 mouth waters for "something better 

 than he has known." He is now inter- 

 ested. He is willing to try. In fish- 

 ing parlance, " the fish sees the bait ;" 

 but as every fisherman knows, to bait 

 a fish, even to hook him, is not always 

 to land him. To show what I mean, I 

 will relate a little transaction : 



A (master of language) offers honey 

 for sale ; free sample. B writes for it. 

 He receives a postal card which says, 



"The honey is all sold. I still 



have some very fine buckwheat, thick, 

 ripe, and rich, that I can sell at 6 cents. 

 If you can use any of this, I would be 

 glad of an order. I can send a sample 

 if you would care for it." 



B feels annoyed, as he says to him- 

 self, "Why should he send me a /o.?/- 

 card that shows me as trying to buy 

 honey, and containing an offer of 

 honey ? No doubt it is a good way to 

 advertise, but offers of honey sent into 

 another's territory might well be con- 

 fidential. I wanted his honey, if at 

 all, for my own use. From this postal 

 it might easily be inferred that I 

 wanted it for my trade, and some, at 

 least, of my customers would object to 

 that. They want home-produced honey. 



However, B decides to overlook the 

 postal annoyance as a trifling indis- 

 cretion, and says to himself: "I have 

 never tasted buckwheat honey to know 

 it as such. I might like it. I may as 

 well sample it, and if I like it I will 

 buy-a can." So without losing time 

 he asks that a sample be sent him as 

 offered. 



Fully 2 weeks after there comes a 

 second postal from A, saying, " I am 

 about closing a deal that will take all 

 the honey I have. Sorry to disappoint 



