July, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



Conducted by EMMA M. WILSON. Marengo. 111. 



enough to keep them. June 16, the very- 

 time when honey should have been com- 

 ing in a flood, we were giving the bees 

 reserve combs of honey to keep them 

 from starving. There is some alsike 

 clover within reach, but not enough for 

 their needs. Yet it is hard to tell, for 

 the weather has been so cold and wet 

 that the bees have been kept indoors 

 a good deal, and even if they could 

 have flown, such weather is not the 

 best for the secretion of nectar. 



Bees have been cross and snarly. It 

 is hard to keep your enthusiasm up to 

 the proper pitch when tlley behave so. 



Feeding Sour Honey — Using Last 

 Season's Empty Comb. 



1. Is sour honey fit to feed the bees? If so, 

 how, and when is best to feed it? 



2. Will honeycomb that was left in the hives 

 last fall do to put back for them to fill this 

 spring, for comb honey to sell? 



Kentucky. 



1. You don't say whether the honey is in 

 the comb or extracted. If extracted it 

 can be heated and skimmed, then diluted 

 with water until thin enough, for the 

 bees to take easily. If in the comb, 

 feed just as it is, only in either case 

 feed at a time when bees can have a 

 flight every day. In no case is such 

 honey fit for winter stores, or to be fed 

 at a time when bees can not fly freely. 



2. Everything depends upon the condi- 

 tion of the comb. If the sections have 

 been emptied of all honey, and are white 

 and nicely cared for. there is nothing 

 better. On the other hand, if they have 

 been left with the bees until coated with 

 propolis, and are brown and hard, they 

 will not make nice sections when re- 

 filled. 



Honey Poultice for Swelling. 



Mrs. L. underwent a severe surgical 

 operation in the spring of 1907, as re- 

 lated in Leipziger Bienenzeitung. Six 

 months later a swelling in the left tem- 

 ple, with an inflamed spot in the cen- 

 ter and severe pain in the head. Dif- 

 ferent domestic remedies were tried in 

 vain to bring the inflamed spot to sup- 

 puration. The lady could not be in- 

 duced to call a physician for fear of the 

 knife. 



On the suggestion of a bee-keeper 

 honey-plasters were daily applied. The 

 result was very favorable. The swell- 

 ing came to a head and broke. The dis- 

 charge continued for about 2 weeks, dur- 

 ing which time a fresh honey-plaster 

 was applied daily. Gradually the pain 

 disappeared. Before the place was en- 

 tirely healed, Mrs. L. called on the 

 physician to pay her previous bill. Upon 

 noticing the nearly healed place, he told 

 her it was a case of a dangerous car- 

 buncle. When told of the remedy ap- 

 plied, he said, "I wouldn't have be- 

 lieved it ; but honey seems to be good 

 for everything." 



Honey for Cancer. 



Miss Florence J. Prugh, of Piqua, 

 Ohio, kindly sends the following clip- 

 ping on the use of honey as a remedy 

 for cancer and other blood diseases : 



It is passing strange that so many of nature's 

 valuable secrets should be before us every day, 

 yet we remain unconscious of their existence 

 until some one discovered that honey is a 



safe, certain and sure cure for cancer and all 

 other blood diseases. 



A farmer had contracted blood poison from 

 helping to lay out a friend, and. after two 

 years' treatment, had been given up to die 

 by doctors and friends, and had made his will. 

 Honey harvest had been iniusually heavy that 

 year, and he noticed that as soon as he began 

 eating it he began to improve, and in a few 

 weeks the symptoms disappeared and have never 

 returned. Since then he has cured three very 

 bad cases of cancer, two of blood poisoning, one 

 extremely bad case resulting from vaccination, 

 one of eczema and one of eruptions on the 

 face. 



The honey should be strained, as the virtue 

 is in the nectar, and taken very moderately at 

 first, taking a tablespoonful only three times 

 a day, gradually increasing until as much as a 

 gill can be taken at a meal with impunity. 

 Every one afflicted with cancer or blood dis- 

 ease of any kind should give the remedy a fair 

 trial, as it is cheap, safe and sure. For many 

 years they have been trying to find a remedy 

 for cancer. Here it is; give it a trial and be 

 convinced. 



A certain doctor to whom I gave the rem- 

 edy free, asking only that he make public the 

 discovery, has been planning to coin millions 

 out of the afflicted people's pockets. I want 

 every one to know and use it free. It is Na- 

 ture's medicine. — Wesley Clowes, in Macomb 

 Journal. 



A Good Year — Catalpa for Honey. 



Dear Miss Wilson. — 1. Will this be a good 

 year for honey? I put the supers on the first 

 week in June. One colony is busy in them. 

 The other 2 are not doing anything. 



2. Do they fill up the center first? They 

 are killing off the drones; seem very busy. 

 They came through the winter in fine shape. 



3. Do the bees work on the catalpa trees? 

 They are in full bloom now. The bees are too 

 busy to swarm. 



The American Bee Journal has been very 

 helpful to me. Mrs. E. P. Day. 



Bloomington, 111., June 18. 



1. Up to June 2ist it is an exceedingly 

 poor year with us, as the bees are having 

 to be fed to keep them from starving, 

 when they should be rolling in the hon- 

 ey. But we may have some fall crop. 

 Never can tell. But that doesn't mean 

 that it must be a poor year with you. 

 You say that one colony is busy in the 

 super. That looks promising, although 

 later you say they are killing off drones. 

 That would indicate that the flow is not 

 very good. 



2. Yes. Usually the outside sections 

 are finished last, and this is more pro- 

 nounced if the harvest is poor. 



3. I don't know. I never heard the 

 catalpa tree mentioned as a good honey- 

 producer. You can tell something about 

 it by watching to see whether the bees 

 work upon it. 



Honey Prospects Discouraging. 



The prospect of any crop from white 

 clover in this locality is now (June 21) 

 very poor indeed. There is very little 

 clover to begin with, and there doesn't 

 seem to be any nectar in what there is, 

 at least the bees are not gatliering 



Color of Raspberry Pollen. 



Raspberry pollen is yellowish green in 

 color. 



Hearing Rather than Seeing Bees. 



The ear is better than the eye when 

 one wants to find whether bees are 

 working well on any given source. Stand 

 under a basswood tree and if bees are 

 not very thick upon it you can easily 

 hear them when you can hardly see a 

 bee. Same way on a field of alsike. 



Yellow Sweet Clover. 



We have a patch of several square 

 rods of yellow sweet clover. It blooms 

 much earlier than the white variety; 

 does not grow so tall, and has a more 

 slender leaf. In fact, aside from the 

 blossom, the plant resembles alfalfa 

 fully as much as it does white sweet 

 clover. This year it showed its first 

 bloom on the same day as white clover 

 (June 6), as also did alsike. The ear- 

 lier blossoming of yellow sweet clover 

 makes it of less value than the white 

 variety in a good white clover year. 

 But when white clover is a failure the 

 yellow sweet clover ought to be es- 

 pecially valuable. 



A Vermont Sister's Experience. 



Dear Miss Wilson. — I have been a reader 

 of the .American Bee Journal for several years, 

 and have found it a real friend. I became 

 interested in bees 7 or 8 years ago. I live 

 on a farm on one of the prettiest locations 

 to be found anywhere, without any exception. 

 From my dining-room windows we look down 

 tile length of beautiful Memphramagog Lake, 

 and one side Owl's Head and Bear Mountains, 

 and with the valleys and evergreen forests, the 

 view must be seen to be appreciated. Our 

 neighboring meadows were laden with alsike 

 and white clover, and I thought what a pity 

 so much sweetness should be lost and given 

 to the winds. I said to my husband. "I wish 

 I had some bees. I believe I could handle 

 them." But no bees for him, he said. He 

 would take care of the honey, but the bees 

 he would let some one else care for. 



Well, I succeeded in getting a swarm in a 

 box-hive for $5.00, I went to our library and 

 found a book. "A B C of Bee-Culture." I 

 wrote to Cornell University. Ithaca, N. Y., 

 for information, and they referred me to the 

 .•\merican Bee-Keeper. I subscribed for that 

 journal and continued to take it until they 

 discontinued. I subscribed for the paper and 

 bought L,angstroth on the Honey-Bee." I win- 

 tered 32 colonies. I sold a few this spring. 

 Several of my neighbors have since become 

 interested in bees and keep irom fi to a dozen 

 colonies. My husband was called Home two 

 years ago, and with the care of a 14-cow dairy 

 and poultry farm. I do not get down to do very 

 fine work in apiculture, but ..ave made _ the 

 bees pay for themselves, and all cost besides. 

 I have a bountiful supply of honey for my 

 own table, some profit, and lots of real pleas- 

 ure also. 



How did I manage the stings? Just as we 



