618 



AMERICAN BEE JCU5NAL. 



Sept. 28, 1899. 



The Alfalfa Injured.— W. J. Fulton says that in his part 

 of Kansas there has been too much rain for the alfalfa, a 

 j'ellow butterfly monopolizes the nectar, and a web-worm 

 webs the buds and bloom into a knot. So the bees have 

 done no good since the first of July, and if the third bloom 

 is no better than the second the honey crop will be almost a 

 failure. — Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



How to Wax Rubber Rings — Dr. Miller said in a Stray 

 Straw that C. Davenport's plan of waxing- rubber rings to 

 prevent the leaking of self-sealing cans didn't work in his 

 "locality" — the wax flaked off the rings. Mr. Davenport 

 says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture that the trouble was in 

 having the wax too cold. The wax must be boiling, and the 

 rings just dipt in and instantly withdrawn. 



The Best Size of Hive, according to S. P. CuUey in the 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper, depends upon three things : Your 

 localitj', the sort of man you are, and what you want to do. 

 For a locality subject to drouth no hive will be satisfactory ; 

 an 8-frame hive is best where fruit-bloom is plentiful with 

 a fair flow of clover and a fair fall flow ; a 10-f rame for two 

 very strong flows each season ; and a 12-frame for a strong 

 flow from March till October. 



A Winter Flow of Honey would seem at first blush, to 

 those whose bees are imprisoned 4 or 5 months, to be a very 

 nice thing. But repliers in the Australian Bee Bulletin 

 seem in general to think otherwise, and G. R. Harrison says : 



"After five years' experience of a country where they 

 often have winter flows. I envy those people who are located 

 where they have a decent winter so that thej' can shut down 

 the hives and forget all about the apiary for from 4 to 6 

 months." 



Bees and Public Schools. — The Progressive Bee-Keeper 

 copies from the American Bee Journal Anna Sundberg's 

 synopsis of our talk about bees in the public school, ex- 

 presses the hope that we may find time to address more 

 schools, and asks : 



" Would it not be a good idea for all of us to follow Bro. 

 York's plan, and see if we cannot have at least one lecture 

 a year on bees, delivered to the children of our public 

 schools ?" 



" Extra Fancy" Honey.— A nameless writer in Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture sounds a note of alarm. " Extra fancy " 

 honey has" been quoted by a commission man, and it is 

 feared that such quotation will only have the efi'ect to bring 

 down the general price, the extra fancy taking the place of 

 what was before highest, the price of lower grades falling. 

 Is there any such danger, especially as the quoting of extra 

 fancj- was accompanied b3- a rise in price of the same ? The 

 argument is used that not one bee-keeper in 500 will have 

 an}' extra fancy, and yet why is that one in 500 not entitled 

 to reward for the superiority of his honey ? 



The Time Between the Prime and Second Swarm is 



given by Doolittle as nine days. Critic Taylor, in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, thinks that doesn't apply to his locality. 

 He kept track of 10 cases, in which one second swarm issued 

 in 5 days ; 2 in 7 days ; 2 in 8 days : 4 in 9 days ; 1 in 10 days. 

 That makes an average of a little more than 8 days ; so 

 there is not so very much difference between them. Possi- 

 bly Mr. Taylor had in mind that the length of time was not 

 the same in all cases, and that view is hardly held by Mr. 

 Doolittle. It might also be added that in some cases the 

 time is considerably more than 10 days. 



Western Hanipuiation is the title of an article in the 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper by F. L. Thompson. That sounds 

 a little novel, for it is perhaps too much the case that in- 

 struction for management is given as tho all places were 

 alike. " With two flows," says Mr. Thompson, "thefirstbe- 

 ginning June 10 to 15, and the last ending somewhere about 

 Aug. 20, with a not entirely barren interval of two or three 

 weeks between them, this being the condition of thousands 



of apiaries all over the West proper, it seems high time that 

 we had .something else written about management than is 

 applicable to white clover and basswood flows, and that the 

 unqualified talk about ' useless consumers' should be given 

 a rest." Western colonies should continue breeding heavily 

 for some time after June 10, so as to be ready for that Aug- 

 ust flow. An additional reason for continually large colo- 

 nies is that the cool nights make the weaker colonies desert 

 the outer parts of the supers, working only in the centers. 

 The habit of Italians, filling up the brood-nest early, Mr. T. 

 thinks a serious fault for the West, and he seems to have a 

 leaning toward Palestines, Carniolans, or Carniolan-Italian 

 hybrids. 



How Many Bees for Wintering?— To the question as to 

 how many pounds of bees should be put in a nucleus-box in 

 order to make a full colony to winter over, Mr. Doolittle re- 

 plies in Gleanings in Bee-Culture somewhat after the fol- 

 lowing fashion : About 5,000 bees make a pound when the 

 bees are not filled with honey : about 2,500 when the bees 

 are filled. Three weeks before swarming, 20,000 bees make 

 a strong colony, and 40,000 to 50,000 a strong colon}' for 

 working in sections to the best advantage. A colony good 

 enough to winter successfully must have 12,000 to 15,000 

 bees, and these, when well filled with honey, will weigh 5 

 or 6 pounds. 



Thick or Thin Winter-Packing. — Most of the Wiscon- 

 sin bee-keepers cellar their bees, but occasionally one in the 

 southern part or near the lake packs out-doors. R. H. 

 Schmidt wintered 45 colonies thus in the last severe winter 

 with no loss, and attributes his success to the thinness of 

 the packing and packing-box. The outside case is made of 

 strips only 's-inch in thickness, and the packing is three 

 inches. On the other hand, O. O. Poppleton places great 

 stress upon /liick packing. Mr. Schmidt says the thin 

 packing allows the bees to warm up enough for a flight on 

 warm days : but T. F. Bingham says bees with thick pack- 

 ing "don't have to" fly. — Bee-Keepers" Review. 



Advantage of Clipping to the Breeder.— When a custo- 

 mer receives from H. L. Jones an unsatisfactory queen, he 

 replaces it and asks the return of the faulty one. On sev- 

 eral occasions he has had returned queens with perfect 

 wings, when the queens he sent out were dipt, the custo- 

 mers not having noticed the difference. The editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture commends the plan of having 

 queens dipt before being sent out by the breeder. He says 

 that every year they have been obliged to replace queens 

 that he felt morally certain were all right, but probably de- 

 stroyed by the bees, their places being taken by inferior 

 queens already in the hives. Clipping would be a check on 

 that sort of thing. 



Fastening Foundation in the Top=Bar. — Editor Tipper 

 says in the Australian Bee-Bulletin : 



" While in Sydney we saw frames with slits on the un- 

 derside of the top-bar. sufficiently large to place the edge of 

 the foundation in, and a slip of wood '4 -inch square and the 

 length of the underside of the bar, to wedge the same in. It 

 seemed very convenient and trouble-saving." 



Doubtless you would think much more convenient the 

 plan in use in this country, Mr. Tipper. Make a saw-kerf 

 wide enough to receive the foundation, then very close be- 

 side it another kerf to receive a strip of wood perhaps 1-16 

 or 's-inch in thickness. You will see that in this case the 

 wedging strip does not touch the foundation at all, and is 

 very easily crowded into place. 



Selling Honey by the Section. — In Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, " American Tramp " says : 



Bee-keepers are very foolish to sell their comb honey by 

 the pound. The proper way is to sell it like the retailers, 

 by the section. While in Florida I sold all my comb honey 

 by the section, direct to the retailers. When I first started 

 in, here is about the way I was met by the grocers : 



" That's very nice honey ; how much do you ask for it ?" 



"I want 12'4 cents each." 



"Well, but they don't weigh a pound." 



"I did not say they did." 



" But honey-sections are supposed to weigh a pound." 



" "Do you sell them by the pound ?" 



That generally settled it. There was no more said. My 

 sections were 4'4x4'4, seven to the foot, and weighed about 

 13 ounces each. They sold right along side by side at the 

 same price with the six-to-the-foot sections. 



