February, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



2. Most likely. 



3. I don't know. Sounds well, but may 

 not pan out so well. Not very hard to try. 



4. Likely. It doesn't get out so much wax, 

 but is less expensive. 



5. All right for a while; but if the bees 

 in the upper hive try to get out and find they 

 are fastened in, there may be trouble. 



6. If you mean you're going to let the upper 

 bees be over wire-cloth with no chance to 

 get out. you may find both queen and bees 

 dead. The Alexander plan has them over an 

 excluder; but that can not be continued too 

 long. 



7. May work all right; but you'll find it not 

 an easy job to get the bees to rear drones 

 out of season, even with heavy feeding. Like- 

 wise not easy to rear young queens then. 

 Likewise not easy to get them mated then. 



8. Some speak well of such a cross; but it's 

 likely to be a cross cross, although perhaps 

 no worse than pure stock for swarming. 



9. Ought to work, if you're sure to get rid 

 of all cells having germs or spores, and of 

 all honey that has been in such cells. 





^Tteporf$&nd 



Rearing Young Bees in Winter. 



I put into winter quarters 54 colonies. I 

 cleaned out the dead bees this morning, and 

 all colonies seem to be doing well. I .have 

 one colony in my room where I keep the tem- 

 perature from 60 to 70 degrees. I am trying 

 an experiment which I have never heard of 

 from any books. It is to see if I can rear 

 young bees in January and February. I have 

 a Miller feeder on the hive, and on one side 

 I have water and on the other side honey and 

 syrup — half granulated sugar and half water, 

 and some honey in the combs. They are car- 

 rying the honey and syrup away. I think they 

 are storing in the combs below. 



Tames W. Bell. 



Bedford, Ky.. Jan. 18. 



Unfavorable Season for Honey. 



Bees were no good here this year. I have 

 48 colonies, and got only about 400 pounds 

 of extracted honey. I haven't put them into 

 the cellar yet. It is too warm. They are out 

 every few days. Today was like summer. The 

 last "two years the bees that wintered on the 

 summer stands have come out the best in 

 the spring. We had nearly 5 weeks of rain 

 in the last of May and' the first of June. 

 It drowned out the white clover on the bot- 

 tom land, so it did no good. There is no 

 money in bees here except now and then a 

 year. Abram Palmateer. 



Creston, Neb., Jan. 4. 



Kerosine Oil for Robber-Bees. 



I read 3 bee-papers, and see many cures for 

 robbing. But I have failed to see my simple 

 cure: 



Take a small quantity of kerosene in an 

 old can and 2 or 3 turkey or goose quills. 

 Ui" the quills in the kerosene, and swab the 

 entrance to the hive, or any place \\ here rob- 

 bers bother. If bees are very thick at the 

 entrance, use a little smoke, as the coal oil 

 is apt to kill. It works like magic. 



Duluth, Minn., Tan. 23. Wm. TabEr. 



Reduction of Tariff on Honey? 



While all kinds of talk is going on about 

 the reduction of tariff, I have heard nothing 

 said as yet either for or against reducing the 

 tariff on honey, and I take three bee-papers. 



To the bee-keepers of the States who us- 

 ually have a local market for their product 

 the reduction of tariff would cut no figure to 

 speak of, but to the honey-producers not only 

 of the Insular Possessions, but to a large 

 number of bcc-mcn within the confines of 

 the United States, who depend upon a distant 

 market, a protective tariff is an important 

 item. 



I quote from a letter dated Dec. 31st, from 

 a New York honey-buyer. 



" However, since Cuba and Mexico, as 

 well as Hati and San Domingo, arc offering 

 riuitc freely now, prices are lower, and the 

 demand has dropped off." 



The following is from a manufacturing firm 

 in New Tork to whom I shipped 13 tons of 

 honey, they paying a price that netted me an 

 insignificant 4S cents per gallon: 



"Furthermore, we desire to state for your 

 information that we did not have such an 

 exceedingly good bargain in this entire trans- 

 action, because the honey can be bought in 

 Havana at a much lower basis." 



While editors of bee-papers and bee-keepers, 

 as a rule, are not politicians, still I see no 

 reason why they should not ask for protec- 

 tion. W. J. Young. 



Arecibo, Porto Rico, Jan. 18. 



[This subject was brought up at the De- 

 troit National Convention, and a motion passed 

 favoring it. ^Editor.] 



Iowa Foul-Brood Law — Why Not? 



It seems that Iowa ought to have a foul- 

 brood law. The disease is getting quite a 

 start in the State, so I am informed. I be- 

 lieve that every State adjourning Iowa has a 

 foul-brood law. Our representative from this 

 county is a bee-keeper, and will do all that 

 he can to pass the foul brood law. Why 

 not the bee-keepers of Iowa meet and organize 

 an Iowa State Bee-Keepers' Association, and 

 then we will be in a position to get a law 

 passed? I am willing to do all I can to get 

 the law passed. T. L- Shawler. 



Silver City, Iowa, Dec. so- 



Large Flow of Honey. 



I have kept a few bees for the last 35 

 years, but have never known such a large 

 flow of honey as the past season. I have 7 

 colonies of Italians that averaged me $15, be- 

 sides what I gave away and kept for my 

 own use. White and sweet clover and hart- 

 weed all gave us a good flow. 



G. T. Willis. 



Hoopeston, 111., Jan. 4. 



Good Queens Essential. 



My crop of honey this year was a little 

 light, averaging about 20 pounds per colony, 

 although my best colony gave me 70 pounds. 

 It was headed by a young Italian queen of 

 my own rearing. I have learned by experi- 

 ence that the most essential thing for a good 

 crop of honey is a good, young, prolific queen, 

 and to see that the bees do not run short 

 of stores in early spring. H. L. Russell. 



Lone Oak, Tex., Dec. 28. 



Bright Prospects for 1909. 



The year 1009 is here, and we, as West 

 Virginians, have the brightest prospects for a 

 prosperous year we have ever had. The peo- 

 ple are becomiitg more interested in handling 

 bees than they ever were in this country. 



J. E. Waggoner. 



Orlando, W. Va., Jan. 5. 



Making Increase. 



I have but 5 colonics of bees, and I did 

 pretty well with them last season, getting 100 

 pounds of honey. One of them stored over 

 34 pounds of nice honey, which is pretty 

 good for this part of the country, as it is 

 not very well adapted for bee-keeping. The 

 main source of honey is alfalfa and smart- 

 weed. 



I captured my first swarm in a decoy hive 

 placed in an apple-tree, and increased to the 

 number I have now. My way of making in- 

 crease is as follows: I go to one of the strong 

 colonies and take 3 frames of brood and what 

 bees cling to it, and place them in a new 

 hive and cage a queen if I have any extra 

 ones. If not, I let them rear their own, 

 and after that is done. I place the new hive 

 on the old stand so as to get the field- force, 

 and set the old hive about 3 feet to one side 

 of them, and the work is done. What do you 

 think of that way of making increase, in a 

 small way? C. W. Barr. 



Florence, Kans., Dec. 31. 



Introducing Queens. 



In September. 1907, I had some small colo- 

 nics which I wished to build up, and also had 

 a strong colony with a mismated queen. 1 

 killed the mismated queen, and two days 

 later I smoked the colony, removed 2 combs 

 of sealed brood, intending to give them to 

 the small colony, and as I brushed the bees 

 off in front of their hive, the bees and queen 

 came from the small colony, and went in 

 with the bees which had been brushed off their 



combs, and there was no fighting. Next day 

 I looked through the hive and found the 

 young queen laying. So I left them alone, 

 and in 190S that was the best colony I had. 

 Would it not be a safe way to introduce a 

 queen by removing the old queen, after one 

 or 2 days brush the bees off of 2 frames in 

 front of the hive after smoking them well, 

 then turn a queen loose and let her run in 

 with them, or shake the bees and queen from 

 a small nucleus down with the in-going bees 

 and send a few puffs of smoke in with them? 

 I have never heard of any one trying the 

 plan. I mentioned the plan to a man who has 

 had some experience in introducing queens. 

 He said he would not want to risk the plan 

 with a queen that he had paid for, but it 

 niiglit do to try one of his own rearing. I 

 would like to have an opinion on this method 

 of introducing. J. L. Young. 



Manliattan. Kans., Jan. 13. 



Good Year for Bees. 



We had a good year for bees this year, and 

 I hope we will have another good year in 

 1909, as clover is alive yet, and the winter is 

 fine. I wintered 61 colonies in the cellar, 

 and they are all well supplied with honey and 

 bees, which I believe is the best a begiunrr 

 can do. My last year's crop was 2462 sec- 

 tions, well filled, from 30 colonies, sprin:; 

 count. I captured 4 stray swarms, and took 

 4 out of hollow trees. They are in frame- 

 hives. Nick Jentgen. 



La Motte, Iowa, Jan. 18. 



Massachusetts Foul Brood Law. 



At the regular meeting of the Massachusetts 

 Bee-Keepers* Association last Saturday after- 

 noon. Prof. W. P. Brooks, director of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, 

 gave an address upon crops and honey, with 

 a brief reference to wild flowers. He de- 

 voted most of the time to clover, and said 

 that there was nothin" that could be planted 

 profitably for honey alone, but the nearest 

 to it would be sweet clover. Clover was most 

 valuable for milk — and incidentally for honey. 

 Fertilizers, of course, were largely considered. 

 At the close of his lecture he answered numer- 

 ous questions on pertinent matters. The bee- 

 keepers in this State are talking of a law to 

 deal with foul brood, and it was voted to 

 ask the Worcester Society to have a committee 

 join with one from this Society and meet 

 with Prof. Brooks for the purpose of fram- 

 ing a suitable law to be submitted to tlie 

 Legislature at the present session. 



Joseph B. Luvens. 



Maiden, Mass., Jan. 6. 



"Hives for Comb Honey." 



With all the interest of G. M. Doolittlc's 

 article on, "Hives for Comb Honey," on page 

 16, the essential point is cloudy, at least not 

 clear to me. Kindly read from the beginning 

 of the last paragraph on the second column, 

 "With the 10- frame hive of the Longstroth," 

 etc., and then tell me in your next issue what 

 he does with this original lo-frame hive after 

 he has placed the one which he had put 

 on it, on its place, and the supers on that. 

 I can not make it out, and it surely must 

 be full of brood. Does he put it on top of 

 the supers, or start a new colony with it, or 

 what? 



Then the sentence, "Then, on the opening 

 of this bloom," beginning on line 7 from 

 the bottom of column z, is not clear to me. 

 What does he mean by the "that" where he 

 says on line 4 from the bottom, "together with 

 that?" Does he mean "that" honey or "that" 

 hive? C. Eberlicin. 



[We referred the above to Mr. Doolittle, 

 wlio answers thus: — Editor.] 



It is evident that Mr. E. could not have 

 read carefully the last sentence in the article 

 on page 16, or he would have noted tliat 

 "The combs of beeless brood are given to 

 weaker colonies." Or, perhaps, if he did. 

 he failed to see that this sentence meant that 

 the hive containing the now beeless brood, 

 (the hive which was the original one on the 

 stanfl during the spring) was placed over 

 some weak colony, so that the bees from this 

 weak colony would care for and perfect the 

 brood in these combs. In working this plan 

 I often have one, 2, 3, and in some cases 

 4 hives of such beeless brood on top of one 

 oT these weaker colonies, and in no case have 

 I met with a loss of any brood, as is explained 

 in the book, "A Year's Work in an Out- 

 Apiary." 



Regarding that "that" which puzzks Mr. E. : 



