NOVEMBER 15, 1916 



not see that it was of any help whatever. 

 However, I hit upon a scheme rather late in 

 the season that seemed to work. The water- 

 ing-place for my cow and horse, that the 

 bees seemed to like so well, was an old cedar 

 tub that had been part of a washing-ma- 

 chine. I found that, by sprinkling a little 

 kerosene on the water and on the edges of 

 the tub a day or two apart for two or three 

 times, the bees deserted the tub entirely, and 

 that it did not seem to bother the stock in 

 the least. N. Fred Gardiner. 



Geary, Okla. 



Starved-out Swarm. 



I wish to relate an experience I had with 

 a five-frame nucleus having an Italian queen. 

 Altho I ha\e kejit bees for over thirty years, 

 I never saw the same before. 



The colony worked very well, and filled 

 the frames with brood. In July I put on a 

 super of 21 boxes; the bees partly filled 

 these, and continued quite active. On Sep- 

 tember 15 I happened to look at the hive, 

 and, to my surprise, it was silent. Two days 

 before they were just as busy as they could 

 be. I immediately examined it, and found 

 it was deserted. The bees had left two days 

 before. The frames were full of brood just 

 hatching. I immediately transferred the 

 brood to another hive, so that it could be 

 cared for. There was no honey in the hive 

 when I examined it. Can you explain this 

 ' ' desertion '"? 



Newton, Mass. Frank Edwards. 



[It is very apparent that the bees left 

 because they were starved out. Had you 

 fed them a little sugar syrup a day or two 

 previous they would have remained. There 

 are certain stages of the year when a colony 

 that is increasing very rapidly needs to be 

 watched very closely, or it will starve out 

 or swarm out. It is, therefore, what we call 

 a starved-out swarm. — Ed.] 



Two Field Meetings in Pennsylvania 



The Philadelphia Beekeepers ' Association 

 has recently held two very interesting field 

 meetings. The first was at the apiary of 

 Captain Weston, at Essington, Pa., when 

 over 100 beekeepers were present. Some 

 very interesting demonstrations with the 

 bees were given, and considerable bee-talk 

 indulged in. Not the least interesting part 

 was the "eats," so kindly furnished by the 

 A. I. Root Co., and in such profusion that we 

 were asked to ,eat sev'eral fellows ' share. 



This meeting took place at about the open- 

 ing of the "yellow" honey-flow peculiar to 

 the section adjacent to the Delaware River 

 meadows. The plant, yielding the nectar, 

 has a profusion of names; but no one, not 

 even our learned botanists at Washington, 

 seem able to give it the proper one. Locally 

 it is known as the yellow flower, coreopsis, 

 marsh sunflower, etc. The fields and mead- 

 ows were a mass of golden yellow, such as 

 the traveler has never seen elsewhere. The 

 plant seems to be a relative of the Spanish 



needle. Imt, unlike it, the flower has golden- 

 yellow petals, and the seed does not cling to 

 the beekeeper's trousers "closer than a 

 brother," as does the Spanish-needle seed 

 (beggarweed as some call it). 



About two weeks later another meeting 

 M'as held at the residence of Dr. Weaver, 

 7103 Woodland Ave., Philadelphia. Over 

 fifty members were present. In the early 

 part of the meeting the genial doctor turned 

 his apiary over to the crowd. ' ' They 're yours. 

 Do what you wish with them, ' ' and they did. 



During the inside meeting much that was 

 good concerning the wintering of bees "in 

 this locality" was brought out; but the con- 

 sensus of opinion was that the prime re- 

 quisites for successful wintering are plenty 

 of young bees and a goodly supply of honey. 

 The ' ' eats ' ' were not forgotten either. 



At the Essington meeting those who wait- 

 ed were rewarded by the appearance of Edi- 

 tor Root at the 11th hour (due to train de- 

 lays), and his talk on advertising honey. 



Oct. 10 the writer visited the Taylor 

 apiary at the Rifle Range at Essington, and 

 assisted in taking off and extracting between 

 1200 and 1800 lbs. of the rich, heavy, golden 

 honey of the n)uch-named yellow flower. On 

 account of the cool atmosphere, fast work in 

 extracting was impossible; and as no nectar 

 was coming in the bees rather resented an 

 intrusion. These bees were brought from 

 Malvern, about 25 miles distant, about Aug. 

 18, purposely for this fall flow; and, despite 

 the fact that hundreds of combs had to be 

 built from foundation, the surplus will prob- 

 ably be between 4000 and 5000 lbs. for the 

 100 colonies. Had it been possible to supply 

 diawn combs, the crop would have been verv 

 much larger. Chas. F. Hoser. 



Norristown, Pa. 



Nectar and Juice from the Cowitch Berry. 



I am mailing you under separate cover two 

 bunches of cowitch berries. We got a nice 

 lot of honey from the bloom in summer, but 

 did not know we got two crops from it. A 

 few days ago I was walking on the island 

 near us, looking at the wild white asters just 

 beginning to bloom, and found the bees on 

 these berries very thick. You will see where 

 they get the honey (?). I don't think they 

 jiuncture the berry first. I think it is done 

 by some other insect, and then the bees get 

 the juice. I want you to taste the juice that 

 is in one. From the taste it should be good 

 honey. I want to know if they make honey 

 e\'ery year from these berries. You can find 

 four bees to each berry. J. W. Potts. 



Gunnison, Miss., Oct. 16. 



[This was referred to our botanist, .lohn 

 H. Lovell, who replies:] 



The letter and box of berries from J. W. 

 Potts, Gunnison, Miss., was duly received. 

 The sjiecies is Cissus incisa Desmoul., listed 

 by Scholl in "Texas Honey-plants" under 

 the name of "cowitch." It belongs to the 

 vine family, or Vitaceae, and is found in all 



