THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



347 



of 10 hives one frame of plant-louse 

 nectar all capped over, about (i pounds 

 to the frame. This honey 1 got of 

 my son whose bees all died. 1 had 

 about HO pounds of it, and I supposed 

 that it would be sate to feed bees 

 when they could liy every day. These 

 10 colonies were affected the worst. 

 The rest of tlie honey I had at the 

 same time I put out, so that they all 

 helped themselves. A few colonies 

 died with brood in the combs. They 

 are over it now, but two-thirds of 

 them are very weak, and one-third of 

 them that were not affected are 

 strong, and will be ready for the rasp- 

 berry which will be in bloom in about 

 a week. Some of my neighbors think 

 that the bees were poisoned, but 1 

 cannot think so. Will some of the 

 prominent bee-keepers give their 

 opinion about this case V I picked up 

 some of the bees and put them back 

 into the hive, but they ran out as 

 quickly as possible. It was a sad 

 sight for me. I never have seen any- 

 thing like it, and I hope never to see 

 the like again. 



Storing Honey Finely.— G. W. 



Rankins, Weston,*o Ky., on May 21, 

 1886, says : 



Bees are storing honey finely now. 

 I wintered my bees on the summer 

 stands ; put away 10 colonies, and had 

 9 this spring. I lost one by starva- 

 tion. 1 have had 2 nice swarms, one 

 on May i:i, and the other on May 14. 

 I thinli that we will have agoodhoney 

 harvest this year. 



Bees Taxable in Indiana.— D. C. 



Noble, Larwill,(^ Ind., says : 



On page 309, Mr. T. B. Blair asks, 

 " Are bees taxable property ?" In 

 this State bees are taxable property, 

 valued at one or two dollars per col- 

 ony. They are assessed on April 1 of 

 each year. We also pay one dollar 

 per head on dogs. 



Frost, Feeding Bees, etc.— Fred F. 

 Rockwell, Leonard, d Texas, on May 

 21, 1886, writes: 



On March 28 we had a heavy frost, 

 followed by cold rains, which* was 

 followed by a storm that destroyed all 

 blooms on plum, red-bud and haw, 

 that the frost bad not killed ; and also 

 attacked the elms, so that they looked 

 aS though a lire had run through 

 them. 1 at this time was away on 

 the farm and did not notice the bees 

 for a week or so, and in fact I rather 

 looked for swarms. Tiaster Sunday I 

 noticed my ■■ first swarm " hanging 

 on a peach-tree. I hived them, and 

 about 'A p.m. they came out of the 

 new hive and settled on another hive 

 containing Italian bees. I then gave 

 them two combs of brood and bees 

 from >t strong Italian colony, and 

 changed their stands, and they re- 

 mained all right, and went to work. 

 A few bees were flying around a hive 

 that had a strong colony, which at- 

 tracted my attention, and on opening 

 it I found eggs, unsealed and sealed 

 brood, but no honey and no bees. So 



the " first swarm " undoubtedly came 

 from this hive, having deserted it. 

 On Monday moriiiug 1 looked over the 

 entire yard, aiul found the bees 

 actually starving and dying in April— 

 in Texas. All drones had been killed, 

 and my only fair colonies were the 

 ones that were comparatively poor 

 before. Will some; one advise me of 

 the best way to feed bees under such 

 circumstances, so as to build them up 

 the most rapidly V We have had a 

 splendid flow of rattan honey, and 

 the colonies that an^ strong are doing 

 rapid work, and are storing surplus 

 honey. It seems strange though not 

 to see a drone or to have had a prime 

 swarm yet. It is my first experience 

 of the kind. I hope to have my bees 

 in good condition for the horse-mint, 

 should that plant yield any honey. 



Bees Heads and Honey-Cells.— R. 



Woodward, of Cheltenham, England, 

 writes : 



I have lately discovered a curious 

 connection between the head of the 

 worker bee and the honey-cell, which 

 may perhaps throw some light upon 

 comb-building. Suppose a worker 

 bee's head is severed from its body 

 and laid flat on a sheet of paper, the 

 angle which would be represented, if 

 lines were drawn on the paper along 

 and beyond the side of its head, 

 would, by careful measurement, be 

 found to contain 60^ Now, as the 

 angle formed in the honey-cells con- 

 tains 120-^, it will be seen that this 

 angle is just double the size of the 

 one formed by the bee's head, or if 

 we place two bees' heads side by side, 

 we shall then obtain the exact angle 

 of the honey-cell or hexagon, namely, 

 an angle equal to 120°. This is surely 

 a singular coincidence, as the worker 

 bee, apart from instinct and reason, 

 seems to contain in the shape of its 

 liead an angle-setting-out instrument 

 suitable to the construction of the 

 cells that it has to build. 



"Balling" ftueens, etc.— W. S. 

 Douglass, Jjexiiigton,© Tex., on May 

 12, 1886, writes : 



A great many bee-keepers think 

 that when they see bees " balling " 

 their queen that they intend to kill 

 her. This, however, is not always 

 the case. Bees often '• ball " their 

 queen to protect her. I had a second 

 swarm the other day, and I made 

 them very wet; I then shook them 

 into a tin pan and then poured them 

 on an old door laid down flat. I saw 

 that they had two queens. By that 

 time a swarm came out of another 

 hive and commenced to settle with 

 this swarm on the door, the bees of 

 which were so wet that they could 

 not fly. As soon as they commenced 

 settling with the swarm on the door, 

 I watched them. Of course 1 could 

 not have known them apart if they 

 had not been wet. I saw them make 

 for their queens, and I thought that 

 they intended to kill them. On each 

 queen there was a lump of bees as 

 large as a hen's egg. I then began to 

 rake them off, and was surprised to 



find that not a single bee was trving 

 to bite or sting their queen. They 

 were protecting them from the other 

 bees. The same is true when a col- 

 ony of bees are being robbed. As 

 soon as the robbed colony finds that 

 they are being robbed, and robbers 

 are inside of tlie hive, they at once 

 cover their queen lor protection, and 

 it the robbing is not stopped in a day 

 or two the queen will surely die ; for 

 they will stick to her till the robbers 

 leave. The queen either dies from 

 fear or smothers ; I have not been able 

 to discover which. Hees are working 

 on the persiinrnoti now. The horse- 

 mint is commencing to bloom, and 

 the hives are overflowing with worker 

 bees. Some of my hives [ believe 

 have a half bushel of bees hanging 

 on the outside. I expect many swarma 

 during horse-mint bloom. 



Working on i.ocust, etc.— T. F. 



Kinsell, Sliiloh,6 O., on May 2.5, 1886, 

 writes : 



Colonies are very strong, and are 

 working now on locust and raspberry. 

 White clover is just commencing to 

 bloom. Without a drouth or exces- 

 sive rains, we have no break in honey- 

 flows, up to the close of white clover 

 bloom, and the season so far has been 

 much better than the average. Last 

 year was not a good one for bees, and 

 the winter losses previous to that 

 season, left bee-keepers pretty blue. 



Preventing Increase.— Mr.^ H. M. 



Parker, Fly mouth, 6 O., on May 25, 

 1886, writes : 



Can I keep the bees from increasing 

 by managing them in this way V After 

 the swarm issues, put all the frames- 

 containing brood in the lower story, 

 and filling it (the lower story) out 

 with frames of foundation ; then put 

 the frames containing honey in the 

 upper story, filling out with frames 

 ol foundation ; then run in the swarm 

 or put on the top story, after hiving 

 the swarm. I could place a frame 

 of foundation between the frames of 

 brood to change the interior of the 

 hive so that the bees would hardly 

 know it was their old hive. When 

 the upper story is filled with honey, I 

 can extract it. I have never read or 

 heard of this way ; will it work V 



[Yes, if you cut out the qlieen-cells, 

 you will prevent immediate increase, 

 and in the interim other conditions 

 may surround that will prevent their 

 swarming for the season — perhaps a 

 copious honey-flow. But w.hy do you 

 use a brood-chamber so large that 

 only part of the combs are filled with 

 brood V Is this economy V Again, I 

 do not want coiubs built, or drawn, 

 between completed combs. Such are 

 apt to be made unnaturally thin. In 

 my locality, colonies treated as you 

 describe are almost sure to repeat 

 swarming within 10 to 1.5 days. Be- 

 sides this, your plan has proven by 

 repeated tests to be too laborious for 

 practical adoption in large apiaries. 

 We want, and I think we will get, 

 something better and easier. — James 

 Heddon.1 



