132 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 2, 1899. 



who have plenty of unimproved land, to plant eucalyptus 

 trees wherever and whenever they can. Those who have 

 little room may plant out what trees their land will accom- 

 modate. Raise more plants than you require for your own 

 use, and give the surplus ones to your neighbor to plant. 

 He may be glad to get them, for he may have been wishing 

 to establish a windbreak behind his barn, or, perhaps, he 

 had been thinking that he should set out a lot of trees that 

 would give all the fuel and fence-posts he and his children 

 would require in the future. Just cast j-our bread upon the 

 waters and it will return a hundred fold. 



W. A. Pry.\l 



Mr. Brodbeck practices migratory bee-keeping, moves 

 his bees from the sage-fields in the mountains to the sub- 

 urbs of the city where the bees have access to a large acre- 

 age of the eucalyptus trees ; the bees get enough honey to 

 keep them through the winter, and sometimes they store a 

 surplus. 



Mr. Steele recommended eucalyptus robusta as a good 

 honey-producing tree. It required great care to start the 

 growth of the tree from the seed. The seed should be sown 

 in fine soil in trays, and covered lightly with fine soil, and 

 exposed to warmth and moisture. The young tree, when 

 first planted, requires some nursing with water for a few 

 years, but when it becomes fully rooted it will take a very 

 severe drouth to kill it. 



METHODS OF FBKDING BEES. 



Methods of feeding were discust by M. H. Mendleson 

 and others. Mr. Mendleson crowds the bees upon a few 

 combs, compelling them to crowd the queen into small 

 space ; by so doing the queen is prevented from enlarging 

 the brood-nest and rearing a large number of bees to con- 

 sume the temporary stores given them. He used for a 

 feeder a half of a five-gallon can in which a float is placed. 



Mr. Mclntyre used a six-pound feeder on the rear of 

 his hives, the bees having access to it through an auger- 

 hole. The feeder has a cover to it, and there is no chance 

 for robbers to molest the colony — they would make no at- 

 tempts to gain an entrance in front of the hive. 



Mr. Aldrich feeds at even,' tenth hive ; to this colony he 

 gives all of the feed and distributes combs as fast as they 

 are filled to the colonies that most need the food. 



Mr. Wilkin found that bees could be fed nicely at night, 

 by tilting up the front of the hive and turning the feed in 

 at the entrance, the bees taking it up from the bottom- 

 board. 



The session of the Association on the morning of the 

 12th showed some signs of dwindling. Altho the attend- 

 ance was not so numerous, the discussion of foul brood laws 

 and foul brood was quite animated, and consumed a good 

 portion of the forenoon. 



The question was askt if the bee-keepers would make 

 an exhibit at the Paris Exhibition. As no concerted action 

 was taken it will probably remain an open question, and 

 made, if at all, upon individual contributions. California 

 has never made a creditable exhibition of honey as repre- 

 senting the whole State, and probably never will until the 

 advent of that " sweet bye-and-bye " referred to in the open- 

 ing paper by Mr. Brodbeck. 



MARKETING HONEY AND CO-OPERATION. 



Mr.'McNay, of Wisconsin, was present, and gave an 

 interesting talk on marketing honey. He stated that nearly 

 all of the Eastern honey is put in up barrels and kegs, and 

 dealers prefer Eastern honey in that style of package. He 

 advised bee-keepers not to ship honey to commission-men 

 unless they got a good advance upon their hone}'. Honey 

 that is sent on without exacting an advance, is usually put 

 in the back portion of the warehouse, and is the last to be 

 sold ; that is the reason why bee-keepers sometimes have to 

 wait so long for their returns. He found that where ex- 

 tracted honey was put upon the market, and where people 

 could have confidence that it was the pure article, it would 

 sell better than comb honey, and the sales could be increast. 

 As there is a difference in tastes, and as some people like a 

 strong-flavored honey, he could sell buckwheat at the same 

 price as the light-colored and milder-flavored. 



Mr. R. Wilkin, our well-known veteran bee-keeper, gave 

 an interesting- address upon "Co-operation." He had noted 

 a great improvement in honey-production since 1861. Since 

 that period more conventions were held, and journals pub- 

 lisht, and they all had an influence to elevate the business 

 of bee-culture. The person who did not read the bee-papers, 

 or did not attend the meetings of an association, obtained a 

 second-hand knowledge of the business. Bee-keepers are 



proverbial for their generosity in imparting their knowl- 

 edge. His idea was that we should come together often, 

 and trust each other more, and the result would be in a bet- 

 ter class of bee-keepers. He indorst the labors of the United 

 States Bee-Keepers' Association, and hoped all would join 

 the organization. 



Mr. Wilkin was elected President for the coming year, 

 J. F. Mclntyre re-elected Secretary, and the present Treas- 

 urer continued. 



A short honey season is not conducive to a large attend- 

 ance at a bee-convention in California. Fully SO percent of 

 the bees have died, and the rains have not been suflicient 

 encouragement to ensure a honey crop. 



Los Angeles Co., Jan. 21. 



Winter Flig-hts for Bees — Constipation. 



BY C. P. DAD.\NT. 



WE are having a good winter for the bees, tho it is a 

 poor season here for the wheat-grower. There has 

 been but little snow, but the alternatives of cold and 

 warmth have g^iven our bees repeated chances for winter 

 flights thus far. It would now be very strange if the bees 

 did not winter well. The early and rigorous cold weather 

 of November and December threatened us with a long win- 

 ter, but January proved to be mild, and the severe but short 

 cold spell of February has not done them much harm. 



Bees are a warm-blooded insect, and as long as a colon}' 

 keeps in health the temperature of the cluster is about the 

 same as the normal temperature of the blood of a human 

 being. So the bees go safely through some of the most ex- 

 treme cold-spells, even with a great deal more ventilation 

 than one would think was good for them. 



We had a neighbor bee-keeper, years ago, who kept bees 

 in the old-fashioned way, and allowed them to go through 

 the winter without a bottom-board, the hives being raised 

 from the ground on stakes, and his winter losses were not 

 much greater than the average. He held that they win- 

 tered better in that way, as they never lackt ventilation and 

 pure air, which was true, but it always seemed to me that it 

 was like sleeping with a window open. I know of people 

 who never sleep without an open current of cold air. I 

 never could become quite convinced that this was the proper 

 way to avoid colds and catarrh, altho I will acknowledge 

 that a change of air is necessary, or rather, indispensable, 

 but I want mine warmed up before it reaches me, during 

 zero weather at least. Tho our bees are in no fear of 

 catarrh and cold, the protracted cold and extremes of tem- 

 perature compel them to consume an unusual quantity of 

 stores, and their abdomens become distended with fecal 

 matter which they must discharge occasionally, if they are 

 expected to keep healthy and winter well. 



So an occasional warm day, allowing them to take wing 

 and cleanse themselves, is always beneficial, and it may be 

 safely asserted that with a warm day once every three 

 weeks, ordinary colonies will live through the most frigid 

 weather that is known in our latitude. When the cold 

 weather is of long duration they are not only in danger of 

 being compelled to discharge their bowels in the hive, but 

 are also running the risk of constipation. And, by the way, 

 this constipation which, in some years, seems to take the 

 shape of a contagious disease, is but little seen outside of 

 long confinement. I have often thought that the disease 

 generally called " the nameless bee-disease," might be but 

 a contagious form of constipation. 



Cheshire, who has made an anatomical examination of 

 this disease, gives it the scientific name of " bacillus gay- 

 toni," after Miss Gayton, who, it seems, called his attention 

 to it. In constipation, a.s in the " nameless," the bee is 

 apparently crippled by the distended condition of her abdo- 

 men ; when the contents of the bowels are examined, they 

 are found loaded with ofi^ensive matter as foul as that dis- 

 charged by healthy bees that have been confined a long 

 time in the hive. The disease seems to be most prevalent 

 among the oldest bees, for in most cases the sick ones are 



