• DEIVOTE-Ci^g 



•AND MOMEL- •''** 



•INTE.nEST^ 



Published Semi-monthly at $1.00 pep yeap, by R. I. Root, JWedina, 



Vol. XIX. 



AUGUST 15, 1891. 



No. 16. 



FROM DR. C. V. MILLER. 



Does melilot piodnee pollen? I have not 

 seen bees gathering pollen from it. 



Dry ceuak bahk. cut short and pounded 

 fine, is the favorite smoker fuel of the C. B. J. 



"Absence of occupation is not rest: 

 A mind quite vacant is a mind distrest." 



"Bees swarm.'" says Miles Long, "because 

 it's s'warm. That's how the bees be-hive in 

 Canada.'" 



Wedging up sections in a T super after E. 

 R. Root's plan works very satisfactorily with 

 me so far as I have tried it. 



The Porter escape is a big success. Put 

 one under a finished super to-day, and to-mor- 

 row the super is ready to carry into the honey- 

 room. 



The IT'cster/i Bee-keeper gets rid of laying 

 workers by placing the whole colony over an- 

 other containing a laying queen, and extracts 

 later. A good way too. 



Gasoline is a good thing — makes a better fire 

 than wood to cook by if you don't want your 

 wife roasted, and is a grand thing to use for 

 moths and bedbugs. 



Twelve sections in each super is what I 

 am using now. Aug. 1. patting back the unfin- 

 ished sections in hopes of getting them sealed, 

 in spite of the bees working so slowly. 



J. A. Green has a rose-bush with 1:.' kinds of 

 roses budded on it. I suspect that a good many 

 bee-keepers are great lovers of flowers. It's a 

 pleasure that leaves no bad taste in the mouth. 



I commenced the season with 2.36 colonies; 

 and if I had it to do over again the number 

 would be 3(3 less. I'd rather have less honey, 

 and have enough time to sleep, and look at my 

 roses. 



Queens of second swarms, accoiding to H. 

 Spuhler, in Revue Internationale, are better 

 than the queen left in the old hive, mainly be- 

 cause there is a choice of several queens in the 

 second swarm. 



July 30, bees commenced robbing, and stor- 

 ing let up. although clover bloom was abundant. 

 and plenty of young blossoms coming on. 8ome 

 of the time, however, honey shook out of the 

 combs. It's a mixed mess. 



On page .589 Rambler goes even beyond Prof. 

 Cook"s teaching, using "we" and " I" and " he " 

 with such rapid changes that it makes one 

 dizzy, changing nine times in the course of his 

 article. Prof. Cook has much to answer for. 



A SURE sign of swarming, says C. B. J., is the 

 back and forward movement of the bees on the 

 fiont of the hive and alighting-board, some- 

 ti7nes called "raking." "After they commence 

 doing that they are almost sure to swarm the 

 same day, and will very seldom, if weather is 

 favorable, wait till the next." 



Laying workeiis have been very easily 

 cured in the few cases I have tried, by simply 

 dropping into the hive a young queen just 

 hatched, and I have generally pulled the young 

 queen out of the cell without waiting for her to 

 hatch. But further trial is needed to see if it 

 will always work. Will others try it and report 

 results ? 



Crimson or scarlet clover has a good re- 

 port for West Virginia from R. A. Little, in 

 National Stockmnn. He says, " I have tried a 

 number of ditt'erent grass and foliage plants 

 the last few years, and am better pleased with 

 the crimson clover than any thing else. . . . 

 . . It is a beautiful sight when in full bloom, 

 and I never saw so many bees on one acre of 

 ground." 



Top-bars, reinforced with strips of separator 

 % of an inch wide, have worked just as well, 

 this season, as slat honey-boards. But then I 

 had them in only one hive, and the bees of that 

 hive may have had something to do with it. 

 The top-bars were % wide, and most of my top- 

 bars are one inch wide. I wonder whether it 

 will do to make them l^g wide with the sepa- 

 rator, or would it do to use strips of tin? 



For out-apiaries I know of nothing to come 

 up to the little mosquito-tents in the way of 

 bee-escapes. Where desirable to leave on over 

 night, the Porter escape is better; but if you 

 want to rush the thing through the same day, 

 smoke the bees out pretty well before taking 

 off, pile l.T or less in a pile, and then put on a 

 tent. In that way we took off and brought 

 home 7.5 supers from the Wilson apiary July 31. 



Virgin queens may yet become a pi'opei' ar- 

 ticle of commerce. I received two virgin Punic 

 queens from "A Hallamshire Bee-keeper," Eng- 

 land; and although they were ten days in the 

 mail on the way, by following his instructions 

 they were safely introduced. Think of it! A 

 virgin queen crossing the ocean and a good part 

 of the American continent, knocked about in 

 the mails till ten days old or older, and then 

 safely introduced! 



A satisfactory bee-brush is yet to be in- 

 vented. I can make a good brush, but it is 

 good for only a day. Tie together a good lot of 

 mayweed, goldenrod. sweet clover, timothy, or 

 some other plant 18 to 34 inches long. Let the 

 tops of the plants be all laid together, so it is 

 big at the brush end, and use enough so that 

 it is all that can be comfortably handled at the 



