514 



much lighter yield than they expected. 

 Consumers in the East will have to take 

 Western honey. It is just as good, but the 

 flavor is different. 



Western honey, owing to the lightness of 

 the Eastern crop, has advanced from half a 

 cent to a cent and a half over last year's 

 prices. Producers, however, should not make 

 the fatal mistake of making too radical or 

 too rapid an advance, as dealers will refuse 

 to pay the figure, and buy other commodi- 

 ties involving less risk. This statement is 

 not based on theory, for we can furnish the 

 names of a number of large buyers who will 

 not pay the prices now asked. If these 

 men drop out permanently it will have a 

 bad effect on the market. The more active 

 buyers we can have in the field, the better 

 for the trade. It will not do to advance 

 further, as we are fearful that it will queer 

 the market, with the result that prices will 

 take a slump when the buying season is 

 over. Let us hold the present prices if we 

 can; but let us not go higher. 



"FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES." 



Not many in our ranks have been keep- 

 ing bees continuously for half a century. 

 There are many who are alive to-day who 

 kept bees fifty years ago, but they have drop- 

 ped out of our ranks, or at least we do not 

 hear from them any more. If there is one 

 man in all the United States who can be 

 properly classed as the Nestor of American 

 bee-keeping — a man who has earned his 

 bread and butter from what he knows about 

 bees for a period of nearly fifty years, it is 

 the genial editor of Stray Straws, the man 

 who has the reputation of having a smile 

 that won't come off. For fifty years Dr. 

 Miller has been playing and working with 

 his bees. Playing? Yes, the sage of Maren- 

 go, 80 years young, has all these years been 

 making his work a play. It is quite remark- 

 able that one of that age should be so full of 

 enthusiasm; and more remarkable still that 

 his hobby of fifty years ago is his hobby to- 

 day — one that has been a money-maker. 



It is rare indeed that one can sell his crop 

 of fruit or honey before it has been produc- 

 ed. But Dr. Miller is one of those men who 

 have been able to produce such a fancy ar- 

 ticle of comb honey that he has been able 

 to sell it, not only by the carload, but before 

 the honey-flow "had actually begun. The 

 man who knows hoiv to play, and make his 

 play pay in dollars and cents, like this, 

 ought to be able to tell others how to do it. 

 If there is any one in all our ranks who 

 knows how to tell what he knows, it is the 

 author of Stray Straws and "Fifty Years 

 Among the Bees." 



It is needless to say that Dr. Miller's style 

 is conversational, attractive, and easy. He 

 takes the reader into his confidence, and 

 talks to him just as if he were in his 

 actual presence. He uses no "highfalu- 

 tin " expressions, but writes in the plainest 

 and clearest English. He talks familiarly 

 of the members of his own family; and after 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



you have read the whole book you feel as if 

 you had been spending a delightful summer 

 outing with the sage of American apiculture. 

 The new edition of "Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees" is not only thoroughly revised 

 but considerably enlarged. It is printed on 

 a high quality of enameled book paper, thus 

 bringing out the original photographs of the 

 author, so that they stand out clear and dis- 

 tinct. The price of the book is $1.00, post- 

 paid. 



A NEW OLD SCHEME FOR OUTDOOR FEED- 

 ING; HOW BEES HAVE THE POWER TO 

 EJECT THE EXCESS OF WATER FROM THIN 

 SYRUP WHILE ON THE WING. 



A FEW days ago we received a letter from 

 Mr. J. E. Hand, the inventor of the Hand 

 bottom-board, one of our regular contribu- 

 tors, and a prominent queen-breeder of 

 Northern Ohio. As his letter presents a 

 rather new idea in outdoor feeding we are 

 glad to place it before our readers: 



Mr. Editor:— In a recent number of Gleanings 

 you quote Mr. Pritchard as saying that scientific 

 feeding is preferable to an ordinary lioney-flow for 

 Queen-rearing, but leave us in the dark as to what 

 constitutes " scientific feeding."' With the hope of 

 gaining further information from Mr. Pritchard 

 upon the subject I will outline a system of open-air 

 feeding that, while it may not be exactly scientific, 

 approaches very closely to the conditions that ex- 

 ist during a natural honey-flow, with the advan- 

 tage that it is under the control of the apiarist. 



While we can scarcely hope to improve upon na- 

 ture's methods, we can imitate them so closely as 

 to enable us to rear queens during a dearth of nec- 

 tar that are every whit as good as those reared un- 

 der the swarming impulse in the midst of a natural 

 honey-flow. There has been no nectar to be gather- 

 ed in our location since the first of .July, and no 

 prospect of any change for the better during the re- 

 mainder of the season. About Aug. 1 many of our 

 nuclei had become almost destitute of stores, and 

 the feeding problem began to loom up before us 

 with alarming proportions. The situation was ren- 

 dered more aggravating by the fact that the bees 

 had become so ravenous that it was a difficult mat- 

 ter to cage queens or manipulate frames without 

 creating an uproar among them. Finally it became 

 evident that something had to be done quickly: so 

 we arranged ten of our old-style feeders in a line 

 close together uppn benches, and filled them with 

 syrup, half sugar and half water. This gave us a 

 feeding surface of about 15 square feet and 2 inches 

 deep, the pans being provided with slats standing 

 on edge K inch apart, so the bees could get the feed 

 without any danger of drowning. 



Now for the results: We soon found that the feed 

 was too rich, as it caused too much excitement 

 among the bees, and they gathered it up too rapid- 

 ly. After some experimenting we found the condi- 

 tions that prevail during an ordinary honey-flow. 

 There was no excitement about the feeder nor in 

 the apiary— only that quiet and contented hum 

 that gladdens the heart of the bee-keeper, and tells 

 him that his troubles are at an end so far as robbing 

 and starvation are concerned. Nor were we disap- 

 pointed in this respect, for the next day after start- 

 ing the open-air feeder we caged queens and manip- 

 ulated frames exactly as though we were in the ni idst 

 of a natural honey-flow, with no signs of robbers 

 anywhere. 



The conditions that approached more nearly to 

 those existing during a natural honey-ttow were 

 found when feeding a ten-per-cent solution— that is, 

 nine parts water to one part of sugar. We have 

 about 400 nuclei and 75 full colonies in the yard, 

 and the feeder above described affords ample room 

 for stimulative feeding when feed of the proper con- 

 sistency is used. The amount of food taken by the 

 bees is regulated by making it richer or poorer as 

 required, and is under the control of the bee-keep- 

 er. When feeding for winter stores the feed should 

 be considerably richer than for stimulative feeding 

 to produce an artificial honey-flow. Half and half 



