190 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



paign of the League. If you want to 

 help, personally tax yourself 5 cents 

 per colony and mail your check to the 

 League Secretary. 



The League movement has caused 

 activity in regions where beekeeping 

 is seldom heard from. Letters from 

 beekeepers from everywhere indicate 

 this interest. Many of the States not 

 known as honey producers will be 

 League members before some of the 

 more noted ones. The result is easy 

 to be seen. These men are develop- 

 ing their own market and creating a 

 market for others. 



San Antonio, Texas. 



SALT FOR BEES 



While making some obsei-vations 

 along a roadside, the previous season, 

 I made casual acquaintance with a 

 man whose name and address I regret 

 to state I failed to procure. We soon 

 became absorbed in conversation 

 concerning bees and of the things 

 which he said, the following im- 

 pressed nie greatly: 



"I worked for years with a man in 

 the East (east Pennsylvania), who 

 had great success with 1 ees, never 

 having any bee disease or winter 

 losses, and the bees were just as tame 

 as kittens; this was due to a discov- 

 ery the bee man had made and held 

 secret from others, but seeing that 

 you are interested I will tell you. If 

 you want to have success, see that 

 your bees get salt." 



That was the secret. That salt. 

 plays such an important part is 

 doubtful, but that it has some effect 

 I am almost positive. Following the 

 receipt of this "secret" many experi- 

 ments were made and results tabu- 

 lated. 



Dry salt was not noticed. Moist- 

 ened salt was lapped by a few bees. 

 A heavy salt solution was ignored, 

 even though it was covered with bur- 

 lap, so as to keep the cloth moist. A 

 lighter solution was somewhat suc- 

 cessful, but not sufficiently so to ren- 

 der cari-ying on further experiments 

 profitable, and for a time no consid- 

 eration was given the subject. 



Some time later, bees were noticed 

 frequenting a swampy place to the 

 exclusion of several others near by. 

 Examination of the soil showed it to 

 be slightly saline, merely perceptible 

 to the taste. Spurred to other ex- 

 periments by this, handfuls of salt 

 were placed or scattered on several 

 nearby swampy places, and the num- 

 ber of bees that frequented the salted 

 swamps a few days later convinced 

 me that salt is important. The late 

 season prevented further study. 



Whether bees require salt for 

 brood rearing, or at all times, the 

 short observation period did not re- 

 veal exactly. No doubt other bee- 

 keepers will be able to give further 

 information after this season. 



J. W. Nordstrom. 



Pennsylvania. 



Another Observation 



I am located on a sheltered harbor 

 in western Washington, and during 

 the summer everyone here notices 

 bees on a seaweed and grass next to 



the water, evidently after the salty 

 water. Richard J. Thaine. 



Washing-ton. 



Wisconsin Bees Like Salt 



Replying to Daniel Danielson's ar- 

 ticle, February issue, "Do Bees Need 

 Salt?" permit me to say: whether or 

 not they need it, one thing is cer- 

 tain, they surely like it, and I doubt 

 very much if the Government Experi- 

 ment Station knows any more about 

 it than observing beekeepers do. 



When I embarked in beekeeping we 

 had numerous springs of pure hard 

 water on the farm and the bees 

 watered at various places. Then a 

 salt barrel was installed under the 

 eaves of the house to catch rain 

 water for washing, and after it was 

 soaked and wet thousands of bees 

 patronized the outside of the staves 

 and around the top as a watering 

 place. 



For the last 25 or 30 years I have 

 kept a candy pail in my beeyard filled 

 with pure but haixl well water in 

 which a good big handful of salt is 

 dissolved, and covered with cork 

 chips, and while this is more or less 

 patronized from early spring to late 

 fall every day, yet at the same time 

 the majority of the bees carry water 

 from seeping springs 15 or 20 rods 

 distant. They seem to be very anx- 

 ious for the salty water, yet by put- 

 ting in two handfuls they will quit, 

 and if none at all is used they scarce- 

 ly notice the pail. What they seem to 

 desire most as a watering place is 

 pure black mud or sand thoroughly 

 soaked and warmed to some extent 

 by the sunshine, and barely possible 

 some such places may contain the 

 requisite amount of salt used in 

 brood rearing. Elias Fox. 



Wisconsin. 



DIVERSITIES 



By E. P. Stiles 



On page 64 of the American Bee 

 Journal for February, Mr. Arthur 

 C. Miller, of Rhode Island, recom- 

 mends the oiling of the stiff leather of 

 bellows smokers with "neatsfoot oil, 

 or any oil or grease." That is good 

 advice in some parts of the North, but 

 not so good for the South. Numerous 

 varieties of ants in the South are very 

 destructive to leather greased with 

 any animal grease, especially that 

 greased with tallow. Users of bee 

 smokei-s should, first of all, not leave 

 these indispensable instruments ex- 

 posed to rain and sun. If, in time, 

 the leather needs oil, vaseline, in the 

 South, is far preferable to animal oils, 

 as it makes the leather obnoxious to 

 ants and some other Southern insects 

 which destroy leather. 



Again Mr. Miller says: "Scrape all 

 the propolis from the frames, just to 

 facilitate handling next season as well 

 as to insure accurate spacing." Of 

 course Mr. Miller is referring to Hoff- 

 man frames. If propolis was as 

 abundant in Providence as in Austin, 

 he wouldn't use Hoffman frames at 

 all, not even if he had to move his 

 bees two or three times a year. 



So far south as this, the beekeeper 

 has very little "slack time," in fact, 



if he acts on Mr. Miller's wise sug- 

 gestions, for which I thank him, he 

 vrill have no slack time at all. This 

 advice is, however, two or three 

 months too late for us. Work in the 

 South for 1921 has begun. Today 

 (February 9), at Austin, Texas, I 

 find several combs of sealed brood in 

 my colonies. A month ago there was 

 not even an egg. Bees are bringing 

 in pollen and honey from several 

 trees and shrubs when the weather 

 permits. 

 Texas. 



Government Position Open 



The Civil Service Commission an- 

 nounces an examination for the posi- 

 tion of Apicultural Assistant in the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 with salary of $2,250 to $3,000, for 

 work within the depai-tment or in 

 the field. Those interested should ap- 

 ply at once to the Civil Service Com- 

 mission at Washington, stating the 

 position for which they wish to qual- 



ify. 



BEEKEEPERS BY THE WAY 



W. A. Weir^ of Toronto. 



A Handy Canadian 



W. A. Weir, of Toronto, is the fel- 

 low the Canadians fall back on for 

 most any emergency. On two differ- 

 ent occasions, when thei-e has been a 

 vacancy in the position of Provincial 

 Apiarist at Guelph, Weir has been 

 called upon to keep things going un- 

 til the place could be filled. Like- 

 wise he has served as editor of the 

 bee department of the Canadian 

 magazine published for the purpose 

 of serving the mutual interests of 

 fruit growers and beekeepers. 



Weir lives in the city, and in com- 

 pany with his brother has a line of 

 outyards within reach in the sur- 

 rounding counti-y. The honey, for 

 the most part, is of light color and 

 fine quality and the local market 

 takes a large portion of the crop. 



