eaimiimgs ie Bee Celltimr 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. 

 H. H. Root, Managing Editor E. R. Root, Editor 



J. T. Calvert, Business Mgr. 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager. 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as second-olass matter 



VOL. XLII. 



DECEMBER 1, 1914 



NO. 23 



EDETOMEAL, 



OiLir Cover Picture 



In many northern localities the past 

 season, where clover proved almost a total 

 failure, many fall flowers were unusually 

 luxurious, especially goldenrod and aster. 

 There are many varieties of each, and espe- 

 cially of the aster, some of the varieties 

 having a very different appearance from 

 others better known. 



Near one of our swamp apiaries in Sep- 

 tember there were large tracts of unused 

 ground with an almost unbroken stand of 

 goldenrod. Our cover picture shows one of 

 these. This particular tract stretched out 

 for nearly a quarter of a mile. It was early 

 in the morning when the picture was taken ; 

 and when we first stopped there was not a 

 breath of air stirring, every stalk being 

 absolutely motionless. By the time we were 

 ready to " press the button," however, a 

 slight breeze had sprung up, causing the 

 blurred appearance of some of the blossoms. 



Winter Setting in Early 



This fall throughout the country, up till 

 about the 10th of November, the weather 

 was exceedingly mild. Bees had been gath- 

 ering pollen and nectar until very late. But 

 old dame Nature seems to have a fashion of 

 balancing up the weather. If it is very warm 

 at one jDeriod, that period is almost sure to 

 be followed by an extreme of cold, and so in 

 this case. Two or three weeks ago the ther- 

 mometer dropped to 10 and 20 above zero, 

 followed by high winds. Thousands of 

 colonies all over the United States were out 

 on their summer stands in single-walled 

 hives, waiting to go into the cellars. Many 

 beekeepers, however, wished they had their 

 bees inside. Dr. Miller among the number. 

 They had been hoping against hope that 

 they might have one more flight so they 

 could cleanse themselves, after which they 

 would be in flne condition to go into the 

 cellar. But this warm spell has not mate- 

 rialized, or it has not up to to-day, Nov. 24, 



although the temiDcrature is tending to rise 

 a little. 



This premature cold spell of two or three 

 weeks is going to be hard on the bees that 

 are in single-walled hives that are to be put 

 in the cellar. When the first warm fly day 

 comes we shall give them a mid-winter 

 flight, and then set them in again. Many 

 beekeepers do not believe this pays; but in 

 our locality it certainly does pay. Hives 

 that have been spotted with dysentery in the 

 cellar after one of these warm mid-winter 

 flights have repeatedly come out in the 

 spring in flne condition. Of course, where 

 a colony is badly affected with dysentery a 

 good flight for only one day does not help 

 much. The only remedy for such colonies 

 is continuous warm weather outdoors. 



C. F. BucHER, of Littlestown, Pa., has 

 forwarded to us a clipping from a local 

 paper published in Maryland regarding a 

 shipment of honey by parcel post which 

 thoroughly " messed up " the contents of a 

 large mail-sack, to the disgust of the post- 

 master and many of the patrons. 



We feel, as we have said before, that the 

 beekeeper or the producer should not make 

 experiments of this kind without knowing 

 what has been done by others. It is down- 

 right foolishness for any one to wrap up a 

 section of honey, or a bottle of honey, for 

 that matter, in a few thicknesses of paper, 

 or a flimsy pasteboard box, and send it 

 through the mails. Such a package may go 

 safely the first trip or the second, but soon- 

 er or later it is going to get broken and the 

 honey will be smeared over the contents of 

 the whole mail-sack. If this careless exper- 

 imenting is not stopped, beekeepers are 

 likely to suffer a hardship owing to the dan- 

 ger of honey in any kind of retainer being 

 ruled out of the mails absolutely. 



When we get a piece of comb containing 



