AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



to bees mating. (See page 479 of the 

 Bee Journal for April 7, 1892.) 

 Allow me to say that I can account for 

 the pure mating of his and Mr. Wheeler's 

 queens one year and the failure the next. 

 The probability is that although there 

 was such an overwhelming number of 

 black colonies in the neighborhood, that 

 there were very few, if any, black 

 drones at that time, while in the very 

 few Italian colonies there were plenty of 

 drones (this often happens) ; of course, 

 the young queens were purely mated. 



The next year the black colonies were 

 full of drones, and there being at least 

 25 black colonies to one Italian, of 

 course the greater portion of the young 

 queens mismated. If he had reared 

 queens that year from an imported 

 queen, it would have been the same. It 

 takes no " guessing " to know this. Any 

 one that has ever reared queens from an 

 imported mother, knows that when 

 there are blacks in reach, that quite 

 often the young queens produce bees 

 from three-banded to almost black. 



Round Rock, Tex., June 16, 1892. 



Rearing Bees for Die Harvest 



MRS. L. HARRISON. 



Bee-keepers have had an abiding faith 

 that there would be a good crop of clover 

 honey this year. The rains we have had 

 will bring forth summer and autumn 

 flowers ; where floods have destroyed 

 crops on the lowlands, they will have a 

 rich deposit, and Spanish-needles, beg- 

 gar-ticks, black-heart and other weeds, 

 will possess the land, and secrete 

 autumn honey. White clover is " spread- 

 ing itself like a green bay tree," and 

 sweet clover is luxuriant. 



The bees which will gather the crop of 

 white clover honey, if there should be 

 one, must be reared from the product of 

 the sugar cane. A barrel of granulated 

 A sugar is now being rolled into my 

 honey-house for their use. Bees are 

 very wise little folks, and they do not 

 allow the queen-bee to rear a large 

 family of young ones to starve. As soon 

 as their out-go exceeds their income, she 

 is told to reduce her egg-production, and 

 even some eggs already laid are eaten 

 by the workers. Therefore, when there 

 is no income, brood-rearing ceases, and 

 the colony gradually grows less. 



It is the instinct of the bee to gather 

 nectar from blossoms, and from the ex- 

 udations of leaves and plants, and not 

 to sip syrup from a dish like a fly, and 



they will only consume the syrup as a 

 last resort. As soon as honey is to be 

 gathered from flowers, they neglect the 

 feeders, flying off to the fields to gather 

 their natural food. — 0. Judd Farmer. 

 Peoria, Ills. 



Bee-Feeders, tie Season, Etc, 



MILTON LIMES. 



I have seen several feeders described 

 in the Bee Journal, so I thought I 

 would describe mine. I make a box the 

 size I want, 2% inches high, then put in 

 partitions 2 inches high, and % inch 

 apart. The first partition is for syrup, 

 and the next is open in the bottom for 

 the bees to go up ; the next two are for 

 syrup, next for the bees, and the next 

 for syrup. Then I take propolis scraped 

 from the sections, melt it, and propolize 

 the feeder inside. I then place the feeder 

 on the brood-frames, and cover with 

 wire-cloth. Lay one or two pieces, 

 3^-inch square, crosswise, to hold up the 

 wire, then cover all with a cushion. 



You can make them of any size to 

 suit, from % pint to one gallon. It is a 

 feeder that will not leak, and no robbers 

 can get at it. You can feed in the spring 

 earlier with it, and with no danger of 

 chilling the brood. I have had bees to 

 come up and take food when it was 15 c 

 or 20° below freezing. 



I have been keeping bees for three 

 years. I commenced with 4 colonies, 

 and I now have 11. I have asked the 

 bees a great many questions, and they 

 say that if I do not hurt them they will 

 not hurt me. I have blacks, hybrids, 

 and Italians, and I cannot see much dif- 

 ference in their temper, if I am careful 

 in handling them. I like the Italians 

 best, because they breed up in the spring 

 the strongest. The colony that gave me 

 the most honey has an Italian queen 

 mated with a black drone. I saw her 

 when she came out to take her wedding 

 flight. She was gone nine minutes, by 

 the watch. Another one was out seven 

 minutes, and met an Italian drone. 



This has been a hard spring on bees, 

 but they are doing well now. For the 

 last week they have been working on 

 white clover. I have had only two 

 swarms as yet — on June 1 and 13, and 

 one that came to me the first week' in 

 June. I hived and fed them, and they 

 are working nicely. 



A good many bees starved this spring. 

 Some bee-keepers lost half the bees they 

 had. I did not let any of mine starve. I 



