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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



ciation came to a close with the final 

 session in the Hotel Rennert on the 

 night of April 29. This series of night 

 meetings has been exceptionally well 

 attended and proved to be of wonder- 

 ful success. The crowning feature 

 was the splendid address by Mr. G. S. 

 Demnth, of the Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, Office of Bee Investigations, on 

 swarm control with its application to 

 comb-honey production. His appear- 

 ance on the program came as a re- 

 sult of a request for his services as a 

 lecturer, and was more than antici- 

 pated by the Maryland beekeepers. 



Beekeepers Are Organizing 



The Inilletin for April from the of- 

 fice of the State Apiarist announces 

 that there are now eighteen county 

 associations of beekeepers in Iowa. 

 These are working in affiliation with 

 the State Beekeepers' Association, of 

 which F. B. Paddock is secretary. 

 Some States have even more county 

 organizations than has Iowa. Much 

 benefit is to be derived from this 

 movement, and we hope that the 

 benefits or organization can soon be 

 extended to the beekeepers of every 

 State where honey production is im- 

 portant. 



sweet spraying compounds, but never to a 

 very great extent. We have never yet heard 

 of human beings having been poisoned in this 

 way. 



Answered by the Editor during the illness of Dr. Miller. 



If en addressed stamped envelope is enclosed with the questions 

 asked, a copy of the reply to be published will be mailed to the en- 

 quirer. Some questions require too lengthy answers to be available 

 in this department. In such case the enquirer will be referred to the 

 proper authorities or treatises. In many cases if the enquirer will 

 read the questions of the previous numbers he will find exactly what 

 he seeks. 



Sowing Buckwheat 



I am writing you for some information in 

 regard to sowing buckwheat. 



Z. How much seed is required to sow an 

 acre? 



2. What kind of land is best for its produc- 

 tion, rich land, medium or poor? Is bottom 

 land good for it? 



3. Which month do you consider the best to 

 sow seed? 



4. Should it be sown broadcast, drilled or 

 some other way? 



5. After corn is plowed the last time, say 

 the latter part of June, would it be all right 

 to sow it among the corn broadcast, or drilled 

 in between the rows? 



6. I want to get a honey crop from the buck- 

 wheat blossoms, and also gather the grain ; 

 can this be done? 



7. About how much buckwheat will an acre 

 of ground produce? 



8. Will stock thrive on the grain, and does 

 it make good chicken feed, and does it have to 

 be ground, or fed whole? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. From 2 pecks to a oushel and a 

 quarter, according to the richness of the soil. 

 In poor soil it takes more, as it does not 

 branch out so luxuriantly. Sowing it in a 

 cornfield probably two pecks would be enough. 



2. Any soil will do. It is one of the main 

 crops in the poor lands of Normandy and 

 Brittany, in France. It is grown plentifully in 

 the New York State hills, also in Michigan, 

 Ontario, etc. It will surely thrive in "bot- 

 tom land." 



3. We would sow it about July 1. But it may 

 be sown as late as August 1, though early 

 frosts in September would kill it. 



4. It may be drilled or sowed broadcast. 



5. Either way is good. Do not sow it too 

 early, as it might suffer from drought. It will 

 not yield as much honey in a cornfield as sep- 

 arately, but will yield some. 



6. Yes, but buckwheat is a very uncertain 

 crop with us. ''American Honey Plants" re- 

 ports it as very successful in Ontario and in 

 New York State. Our experience is that bees 

 work on it only in the forenoon, rarely in ihe 



afternoon. 



7. From nothing up to 40 bushels or more, 



according to circumstances. 



8. It is good chicken feed, but is usually in 

 good demand for buckwheat flour. The chick- 



ens eat it whole. We don't think it is fed to 

 cattle. 



We used to donate buckwheat to our neigh- 

 bors for sowing it on their farms. As it blooms 

 at the same time as the persicarias (hearts- 

 ease, smartweed) , we decided it did not pay, 

 especially as buckwheat honey is of very poor 

 quality, a fourth grade honey, and damages the 

 quality of the other honey harvested at the 

 same time. 



Bees Getting Household Poisons 



Will you kindly advise me as to the possible 

 danger from bees getting access to certain 

 types of household poison now being commonly 

 used throughout the country. I refer to poison 

 the preparation of which includes honey and 

 sugar, and which is placed about the homes to 

 kill ants and other insects, and later is tossed 

 out the windows where it can be found by 

 the bees. Is there any danger to human life 

 from the bees storing such poisonous sweets? 



GEOROIA. 



Answer. — There woul ' perhaps be some dan- 

 ger to human beings, if the poison you men- 

 tion could be stored by bees in large quan- 

 tity, and especially if this poison was slow in 

 its action. 



The arguments that militate against the pos- 

 sible injury to human beings, in the con- 

 sumption by the bees of a small quantity of 

 poisonous sweets, lie in the fact that bees will 

 not take other sweets than honey in the 

 blossom, unless there are none in the fields. 

 In other words, when there is nectar in the 

 flowers, the bees care but little for other 

 sweets. When there is no nectar in the 

 fields, a small quantity of poisonous sweet, 

 gathered by them, would probably be stored 

 in the cells of the brood chamber to be used 

 in feeding the brood. So the poisons would 

 damage the bees and their brood, when they 

 might not endanger human beings who con- 

 sumed the honey from that hive afterwards. 



If the poisonous compounds were gathered 

 in large quantity, this would be a very differ- 

 ent question, as the storage of this harvest 

 might be in the supers or surplus honey re- 

 ceptacles as well as in the brood combs. 



We have heard of bees being poisoned by 



Shipping Bees 



I have bought 20 colonies of bees and they 

 are at "Haubstadt," Indiana. Now could I 

 ship these hives by parcel post, providing the 

 hives did not weigh over 70 pounds each, or 

 would you think it would be cheaper to ship 

 them by express to Chicago ? What would 

 they charge per 100 pounds for bees when the 

 distance would be about 300 miles from Chi- 

 cago. 111? Would you screen them at the top? 



CHICAGO. 



Answer. — It would be out of the question, 

 we believe, to ship hives of bees by parcel 

 ])Ost, even if the weight was not prohibitive. 

 The time may come when this can be done. 



The cost by express on a 300-mile run is 

 about $2.25 per hundred weight. On a 

 straight line to Chicago, like the C. & E. I., 

 there ought to be little delay. If arrange- 

 ments could be made to get them on a 

 through freight, the bees might -- shipped 

 in that way and not be more than two or three 

 days on the way. You could find this out from 

 the freight agent at Chicago, 112 West Adams 

 St. But as the railroads charge very high 

 freight rates on bees, it may be cheapest 

 to send by express. 



If the colonies are strong and you ship in 

 warm weather, the bees should have a screen 

 at least 4 inches wide across the top, and per- 

 haps one of similar size across the bottom. The 

 requirements depend upon the strength of the 

 colonies. Very strong colonies, in hot weather, 

 need a space of an inch or two above the 

 frames in which to congregate and, in such 

 cases, a whole screen on top is advisable. Do 

 not ship colonies containing fresh honey, at any 

 time. 



Honey From Diseased Colonies 



Does honey that has been extracted from 

 foulbrood colonies contain foulbrood germs or 

 bacteria? CALIFORNIA. 



Answer. — Yes, there is great danger that 

 honey from foulbrood colonies may contain 

 germs of the bacilli that cause foulbrood. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. White, the germ of Bacillus plu- 

 ton, the cause of European foulbrood, is not 

 likely to be carried in honey over winter, as 

 it usually dies in honey, in from 3 to 7 

 months. But the Bacillus larvE, the cause of 

 American foulbrood, lives much longer. In 

 practice, when a colony cures itself of Euro- 

 pean foulbrood through the removal and re- 

 placing of the queen, there appears to be lit- 

 tle danger of its honey being contaminated, 

 while in American foulbrood it seems as if 

 the least amount of honey of a diseased colony 

 transmits it. But in all these matters the 

 proportion of disease in the hive has much 

 influence upon the result. We would hesi- 

 tate to give to a healthy colony any of the 

 honey from a diseased colony. 



Location 



I expect to be out of the army in a short 

 time and I intend to make beekeeping (in 

 which I have limited experience) my work. I 

 intend to start with a few colonies and gradu- 

 ally expand until 1 have the largest number I 

 find it practical to manage. The first prob- 

 lem is to determine where to locate. 



Please inform me what sections of the coun- 

 try you consider beekcei>ing can be engaged in 

 on a large scale to best advantage, and why. 

 In particular, I should like your opinion on 

 conditions in Washington, Oregon, California 

 and Arizona. ILLINOIS. 



Answer. — There are good spots and poor 

 spots in almost every State. If I were travel- 

 ing through the United States, and visited 

 this particular spot, where I live at present^ 

 with its shortage of clover bloom in perspec- 



