330 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ducts of salt water, I enclose the fol- 

 lowing clipped from the Halifax 

 Journal of April 15, 1886 : 



" Any one in the vicinity of Day- 

 tona ' showing up ' a lifty, sixty, or a 

 hundred acre orange grove, a ten 

 acre corn, rice, sugar-cane, tobacco 

 or cotton (ield, will secure the Iliilifax 

 Jonrnul for fifty years as a premium." 



While we earnestly desire to secure 

 good neighbors, and render every 

 available means in our power to iti- 

 form them of what they must expect 

 should they locate among us, we do 

 not forget that it is due to them that 

 they should be truthfully informed on 

 such subjects as are necessary for 

 their comfort and welfare, should 

 they locate among us. When neces- 

 sary I propose to state facts when 

 they are called for, so far as they 

 have come under my observation. 

 Instead of looking upon the dark side 

 of I lie matter, I have unbounded hope 

 for the future of the East Coast of 

 Fi'uida, and I would say that I know 

 01 no time better tlian the present to 

 SH' ure a home in this locality. 



New Smyrna.© Fla. 



For tlie American Bee JuumaL 



Fall Feefliug vs. Spriug Feefliug, etc. 



.7. C. KAWLINS. 



it failed to hatch, I raised the cover 

 and placed one on the comb over the 

 bees ; in about two hours 1 looked in, 

 and what a beauty I beheld ! It was 

 a line yellow queen biting at the cell, 

 and not a bee helping. 



Another thing he said about bees 

 swarming : " Ihave also known bees 

 to swarm and not leave anything 

 nearer a queen than newly laid eggs." 

 That is a new idea for me. Was it a 

 natural swarm V I am working in the 

 apiary of Mr. Z.A.Clark. I am a hire- 

 ling, but one that careth for the bees. 



Arkadelphia, ? Ark. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



All Apiary in Ontario, Canada. 



n. F. nOLTBRMANN. 



In the article on " Honey for Bees 

 in Winter," on page 247, by J. E. 

 Pond, Jr., I think he hit the nail ou 

 the head about the consumer's idea 

 when sugar is fed to bees. Why I 

 think so, is that last year, in Feb- 

 ruary and March, we fed 85 pounds of 

 molasses sugar to 8-5 colonies, and 

 some people think (or say they do) 

 that is why our honey granulates. 

 They say that pure honey will not 

 granulate for 2 or 3 years after it is 

 taken. It is very hard to get them to 

 understand liow" honey is gathered in 

 such large quantities. 



I have been a close observer on the 

 subj.'Ct of feeding, and I think that 

 bees should be fed early in the fall, 

 and given a little more tlian you 

 think they will consume by the mid- 

 dle of the next April. Colonies that 

 were very populous last fall, but were 

 extracted from late, and fed only a 

 little, and that when the weather was 

 cold, and have been fed this spring 

 when very cold, are now weak. But 

 those whose hives were left full of 

 honey, and not disturbed until the 

 past week, are very strong. We feed 

 to stimulate brood-rearing, but if 

 they have plenty in tlie hive the 

 queen, according to nature, knows 

 when to begin her part in the repro- 

 duction of tier species. 



Mr. S. J. Youngman, in his article 

 on page 2-lS. says : " The cells if left 

 too long must be carefully watched, 

 for wtien the first queen hatches the 

 hees will destroy the remaining cells." 

 But I think that tlie queen does this 

 work. I think I have proof of this; 

 for twice I have found the queen at 

 work on the cell, one time I know 

 that she was by lierself. This was in 

 a box-hive whose colony had been 

 transferred a la Ileddon, and a cell 

 given at the time. But thinking that 



As Mr. J. B.Hall, of Woodstock, 

 Ontario, is known as one of Canada's 

 most successful apiarists, although 

 not owning the largest number of 

 colonies ; and as it is also well known 

 that he never wields the pen and 

 gives any of the numerous bee-papers 

 a report of his doings and the result 

 of his exi>erience, a description of his 

 apiary will not be amiss. 



The Quinby hive is used. The top- 

 bar is square, ncft as formerly V- 

 sliaped. The bar (an inch deep, I 

 think), I understand, acts in a meas- 

 ure as a honey-board, helping to keep 

 the queen down, and the workers are 

 less liable to build comb joining the 

 lower story and supers. Perforated 

 metal is used between the body of 

 the hive and the supers or upper 

 story. No drone comb is wanted for 

 store comb, if there is no drone conb 

 in the body of the liive, and the per- 

 forated metal is used to keep the 

 queen from the upper part. The bees 

 will not appropriate the drone comb 

 above for storing honey, but true to 

 the instinct to desire drones, they 

 will leave the drone-cells empty for 

 brood-rearing. 



I fortunately arrived on the evening 

 w hen Mr. Hall was going to remove 

 his bees from their winter quarters, 

 viz : April 19. The house and grounds 

 being .new, the water had obtained 

 access to tlie cellar to a depth of 8 

 inches, and had to be pumped out; 

 otherwise the bees, owing to the ex- 

 traordinary season, would have been 

 removed earlier. The temperature 

 of the repository was at 6:2=', and the 

 bees were clustering more or less 

 about the hive-entrances. The stands, 

 cushions, lids and half-stories were 

 all ready outside, and a carrying- 

 stand for 2 colonies, having four legs 

 and a pair of handles for two men, 

 facilitated the work very much. 



The liives were piled in rows back 

 to back, to the ceiling, or nearly so, 

 and four or five abreast — over 200 in 

 all. The men carried. Mr. Ilall ex- 

 amined, and I— observed. The ex- 

 amination consisted of lifting the 

 hive and tapping to discover the 

 strength of its colony. An experi- 

 enced bee-keeper will understand how 

 carefully they must have been carried 

 out to ' do "this. Only one colony 

 showed by the entrance any signs of 



diarrhea, and this had the disease- 

 since December. They appeared 

 strong ai d flew well in the morning. 

 Several others had starved, but the- 

 balance appeared to be in good con- 

 dition, although Mr. Hall says that 

 they were not quite as good as they 

 were the previous spring. In their flight 

 in the morning — which was a beauti- 

 ful one — they spotted their hives but 

 little. As nearly as one could esti- 

 mate there were 3 bushels of dead. 

 bees in the cellar. 



The brood-chamber is but little- 

 disturbed during the season, twice 

 only, as a rule, for the purpose of 

 examining their condition, in the 

 spring and in the fall. Comb and 

 extracted honey is produced, and the 

 stock on hand consisted of no more 

 than would be consumed in the house 

 before the coming honey-season. 



Mr. Hall breeds his bees not for 

 color, but excellence as honey-pro- 

 ducers, winterers, etc. They showed 

 (with the exception of the various 

 races he is experimenting with, for 

 various experiments are in progress 

 most of the time) a mixture of Ger- 

 man and Italian blood. lie keeps a 

 record of what quantities of honey 

 his colonies produce, and the results 

 of his large experience convince him 

 that he can produce 80 pounds of 

 comb honey as readily as 100 pounds 

 of extracted. Later I will give his 

 interesting account of his experiment 

 with the Caucasian bee. 



Bees throughout this part of Canada 

 have done remarkably well, storing 

 and capping honey, and actually 

 drawing out cells along the top-bars 

 in full-framed colonies. 



Brantford, Out. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Troulilesome Bees. 



JAMES nEDDON. 



I have noticed Mr. Deer's ques- 

 tions, on page 314, and I do not be- 

 lieve that any one should move his 

 bees because it is claimed that they 

 are "troublesome." They cannot be 

 expelled until the nature and extent 

 of the annoyance is such as to legally 

 declare them a "nuisance." 



Some neighbor may be annoyed be- 

 cause they are handsomely "paying 

 their owner. Another, because he 

 ignorantly thinks, or fears, that they 

 work on the blossoms and injure 

 fruiting. Again, others may think 

 that because a bee sometimes gets 

 into the rain-water barrel or pump, 

 to their discomfiture, that all must; 

 go. It is not so at all. 



Our relations with our neighbors 

 are more or less a continual com- 

 promise, and a nuisance is something 

 that causes sickness, or annoyance 

 greatly disproportionate to its use- 

 fulness. Bees may become a nui- 

 sance, but I do notbelieve that Mr. 

 D's bees have become such. 



If we do not claim and defend all 

 of our rights now, we shall sorely 

 neglect a duty that we owe to the 

 generation of bee-keepers that will 

 follow us. 



Dowagiac, ? Mich. 



