AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



649 



bee-keeper to take several of the best bee- 

 periodicals, and not stop with only one. 

 Also, all the best bee-books should be found 

 in the bee-keeper's library. These are what 

 might be called " reading times," and bee- 

 folks should not permit themselves to fall 

 behind the rest of the world in being posted 

 in their calling. 



** T'lie Honey-Dee : Its Natural 

 History, Anatomy and Physiology," is the 

 title of the book written by Thos. Wm. 

 Cowan, editor of the Britis?i Bee Journal. It 

 is bound in cloth, beautifully illustrated, 

 and very interesting. Price, $1.00, post- 

 paid ; or we club it with the Bee Journal 

 one year for $1.65. We have only four of 

 these books left. 



1'lie I»Ii<l-TFiiiter Fair, to be held 

 in San Francisco, Calif., beginning Jan. 

 1st, is being put in order as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. Mr. H. L. Jones, a bee-keeper there, 

 Informs us that the bee-keepers of South- 

 ern California are making arrangements to 

 secure space in which to fittingly represent 

 the industry. They wish to display all bee- 

 products in glass cases, showing honey in 

 the comb, and in all subsequent stages 

 until it is ready for the market. They will 

 show also several colonies of bees, and all 

 the bee-appliances. We hope that justice 

 may now be done the bee-industry in Cali- 

 fornia, as that State was very prominent 

 on account of its almost total absence from 

 the apiarian department at the World's 

 Fair in Chicago. 



A JBee iii tlie Ear is what Editor 

 Leahy, of the Progressive Bee-Keeper, has 

 been troubled with lately. It caused him 

 about as much trouble as a "bee in the 

 bonnet," we should imagine from reading 

 his account of it. He says the bee " kept 

 walking in until nothing but her hind legs 

 could be seen" — and he " had to have her 

 pulled out with a pair of tweezers." Just 

 think what might have happened, had she 

 gone in backwards — what a "random 

 sting " Bro. Leahy might have received. It 

 would have been far different than the Bee 

 Journal's "Stinger"' inflicts, for Bro. L. 

 says in the same issue that The Stinger's 

 " sting is usually very penetrating, but 

 causes a pleasant sensation." There is 

 nothing like " knowing how," even when it 

 comes to " stinging." 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the 20 Or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting- on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat-, 

 ters that particularly interest beginners. — Ed. 



Feeding' Bees for and During' Winter. 



I have 5 colonies, and 3 of them are 

 weak, so that I will have to feed them 

 through the whole winter, for this year 

 there was a poor crop here, and bees 

 gathered hardly any honey. What is 

 the best way to feed them, and where 

 to keep them in winter when they have 

 to be fed? Or ought I to feed just be- 

 fore it gets cold, and then stop, and feed 

 a little in the spring again ? 



Wesley H. Washichek. 



Munden, Kans. 



Answers. — The best thing is for you 

 to feed your bees several weeks before 

 this reaches you. If you cannot do that, 

 and the probability is that you can't, 

 then you must do the next best thing. 

 If possible, get enough feed into the 

 hives before cold weather settles down in 

 full force. Of course, if you have combs 

 of honey to give them, there need be no 

 trouble, for you can place that adjoin- 

 ing the brood-nest and it will be the 

 same as though the bees had stored it 

 there. 



But the probability is that you have no 

 honey, and must depend upon sugar 

 syrup. Get thera to take it on warm 

 days — providing, always, that you have 

 warm days. Feed it warm — hot. If hot 

 enough to burn their tongues, there 

 isn't much danger — they will go at it 

 carefully. But be sure that the syrup 

 is not burnt, for burnt syrup as a winter 

 food is death to bees. 



Maybe you will have weather that will 

 allow them to make good work on a 

 feeder, but if very cold it may be safer 

 to put the syrup in combs, and put the 

 combs close up to the bees, the same as 

 in giving combs of honey. They will 

 work on a comb adjoining one of the 

 combs on which the bees are clustered, 

 when they would not leave the cluster to 

 work on a feeder. 



Fill the syrup into the combs by let- 

 ting it fall in fine streams upon the 

 combs from a height of three, four or 

 five feet. Have the syrup as hot as pos- 

 sible without melting the combs. Give 



