292 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Mav 11, 1899. 



taste is simply for defense, to disgust above-ground eaters, 

 it would not be surprising- if roots should be free from that 



taste I've just been out to get a sweet clover root to 



eat. I find the leaves have the most pungency, the stems 

 somewhat less, the roots still less, but yet not free from the 

 distinctive flavor of the plant. The robts seem to have a 

 sweetness in addition, which probablj- " fetcht 'em." But 

 if I were a cow I'd be ashamed to kick at either leaves, 

 stems or roots. 



JOSIE THE HONEV-E.\TER — HE OR SHE ? 



That 13-year-old Josie, on page 222, who oft eats a 

 pound of honey just for appetite's sake — is Josie a boj' Josie 

 or a girl Josie — that's what I want to know ? 



HONEY IN PRESERVING FRUIT. 



Bevins' trials of honey for preserving fruit (page 221) 

 seem to show that it will work in the stj-le of extra-sweet 

 pickles, but not alone on raw fruit. I made some grape- 

 jelly with honey last fall — damaged the honey, without 

 benefiting the grape-juice to any great extent. 



FRUIT-BLOSSOMS AND BEES. 



I protest (with due modesty, of course) against the first 

 editorial quotation on page 217. It's an ancient chestnut to 

 begin with — and, to end with, all bee-folks ought to know 

 that putting a hive of bees right under a tree does not 

 secure its flowers any more bee-visits than if the hive was a 

 quarter of a mile away. Field-bees rather prefer to fly a 

 short distance. What kept the bees off that tree the pre- 

 vious 25 j-ears is surely quite a mystery. Most bee-folks 

 do know these things, after a fashion ; but when political 

 editors and other outsiders give us tafi'y we tumble, and lose 

 our heads altogether too easily. The circulation of thinly- 

 disguised nonsense tends to make the public think that all 

 our claims are nonsense — which is far from being true — in 

 fact, some of the claims of that quotation are O. K. 



COGITATOR. 



Spring Manag'ement of Bees in Large Hives for 

 Extracted Honey Production. 



BV C. P. DADANT. 



A SUBSCRIBER desires my ideas on the management 

 of large hives for extracted honey for six weeks previ- 

 ous to the expected honey-flow. I believe that my last 

 articles on spring management would express the most im- 

 portant part of the system I would advise. To iiarvest large 

 crops we need bees, and those bees must come at the right 

 time. If the breeding of bees on a large scale does not be- 

 gin till the opening of the honey crop, and if this crop fs 

 short, say three weeks in duration, the bees will have been 

 reared to no purpose. It takes just about three weeks to 

 develop a hone)'-bee from the time the ^z% is laid ; and all, 

 or nearly all, our naturalists tell us that the bee does not 

 become an active field-worker till about a week after emerg- 

 ing from the cell, except in extraordinary circu-rastances, 

 such as the departing of a swarm or the deprivation of the 

 hive of its old bees by artificial swarming, which renders it 

 imperative for some of the bees to volunteer in search of 

 stores before the time set by nature. Thus the reader will 

 see that about a month elapses before the bee is of use to its 

 colony. Then it is fit that we should by all means induce 

 an increast laying when we forseea crop in the near future. 

 In late .seasons, altho the inducement to laj' is retarded 

 by the natural circumstances, yet the impetus given is 

 greater when it does come, for the reason that the number 

 of blooms that come out at once is of greater variety. For 

 instance, in early spring the willow is first to bloom, then 

 comes the gooseberry', then the peach, then the apple, etc. 

 These blossoms follow each other with intervals, during 

 which the cool days again retard the laying, so that altho 

 the inducements offered to the bees are oft-repeated, the 

 alternates of cold and heat, of bloom and dearth, make the 

 laying irregular. In a late sea.son the weather warms up 

 suddenly, but remains warm. The willow, the gooseberry, 



the peach, and the apple bloom so suddenly that one blos- 

 soming merges into another, and the push is steady and 

 vigorous. So the disadvantages of a late season are some- 

 what made up bj- the steadiness of its action. In our locality 

 we have never seen the vegetation so belated and so sud- 

 denly active as this year. The last of the snow disappeared 

 April ID. and we thought we were about to see the latest 

 fruit-blooming we had ever had. But by the 15th, or five 

 days later, the whip-poor-wills were whistling in our woods, 

 and the fruit-bloom is now as far advanced as in average 

 seasons. 



But if we can, by artificial means, by oft-repeated feed- 

 ing early in the season, of small amounts of food, induce 

 our bees to breed early, they will be the better prepared to 

 increase their brood-nest at the first warm days, and the 

 bulk of our bees will be hatcht out of their cells before the 

 flow. This is the only secret of success. 



Compare two apiaries in which different plans are pur- 

 sued. In the one the bees are left to themselves without 

 shelter, perhaps without sunshine if their location is in an 

 unfavorable spot. Their supply of honey is .scant because 

 they have been too closely robbed by their owner the pre- 

 vious fall. They must stint themselves, they dare rear but 

 little brood until they are sure of a coming harvest close at 

 hand. They linger along, probably dwindle some in num- 

 bers, till the first bloom appears, but they cannot rear brood 

 largely till there is actually some honej- to be found in the 

 bloom. With the best efforts that they can put forward 

 they will not begin breeding to the full capacity of their 

 queen until the opening of the real harvest, and they will 

 be booming just in time to close the season with a small 

 crop of surplus to their owner. 



Now, the other apiary will give us a different story. 

 The hives have been left with plenty of stores in the fall, 

 they are well sheltered, they have all the sunshine that is 

 to be had. The first warm days find them ready to work. 

 They need not stint themselves since they have yet a sur- 

 plus. So the least inducement in the way of pollen-bearing 

 bloom encourages them to spread out. even tho no honey is 

 yet to be had in the field. When the fruit-bloom begins 

 they are sufliciently strong to give their queen the freedom 

 of every comb, that is, sufficient warmth on every comb to 

 enable her to lay eggs anywhere; they " horsewhip their 

 queen," as some of our friends would call it. No, the queen 

 does not lay any more in that hive than in the hives of the 

 late-breeding apiary if the liives are of the same size, but 

 she lays at the right time. The push comes so that the 

 hatching bees are in time for the feast, and help harvest 

 the crop instead of helping consume it. 



There is nearly always an interval of about three weeks 

 in this latitude between the fruit-bloom, which only incites 

 breeding, and the real honey crop from clover, basswood, 

 etc. It is during this interval that the thriving colony 

 builds itself, and it is only the colony that thus builds itself, 

 upon which we may .safely depend for a bountiful harvest 

 and a reward for our cares. 



I think I have said enough to show what is needed pre- 

 vious to the harvest. In another article I will speak of 

 what is done when the harvest is on. 



Hancock Co., 111. 



Large vs. Small Hives in Kansas. 



BY WM. H. E.-i-GERTY. 



IN looking over the articles written by Mr. Dadant for 

 the American Bee Journal, I wondered at his patience in 

 making the statement so often in regard to the large 

 hive as used by him. I have used both large and small 

 hives, and I know that the bee-keeper is, and will be, 

 pleased with the work done by a prime swarm when put 

 into a hive of moderate size, and for the first season the 

 swarm doing so much better than the bee-keeper expected, 

 but from actual use of both large and small hives, I will 

 take the large one, every time. 



Of course, there is a difference between the work done 

 here in Kansas, where we have no white clover, and our 

 honey-flow is mostly from fall flowers with a fine flow from 

 sweet clover and alfalfa. The bees here must be strong the 

 whole season thru, and it takes a good deal of honey to 

 carry the colony over winter, but those large colonies in 

 large hives pay well for all the honey they eat ; and while 

 it takes them some time to build combs in the brood-cham- 

 ber, they "get there " every time when the work is once 

 over ; while the old colony in the small hive has not room 

 the second season for both brood and honey in the brood- 



