THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



457 



over-powered and robbed by other 

 bees. 



Thirdly, when the extractor is used 

 they are far superior to the Italians 

 by being so easily shaken and brushed 

 from the combs. 



Fourthly, they tty faster and further 

 for stores, and have a longer tongue 

 than Italians or blacks, and they 

 work well on the cotton, and this 

 feature alone ought to bring them 

 into favor with the bee-keepers of the 

 South ; and 



Lastly, tlie sun never gets too hot 

 for them ; I have seen theui this year, 

 when the thermometer was at 104'^ F. 

 in the shade, wt)rking riglit along, as 

 if it was spring-like weather, and my 

 3 colonies of Italians and one black 

 colony were not even showing a de- 

 sire to do anything but l>riiig in a 

 little water, and very little of tliat. 



I have one of G. M. Doolittle's best 

 Italian colonies. The bees are perfect 

 beauties, and as gentle as pet chick- 

 ens, and I have a host of Cyprian 

 colonies just as gentle, and I handle 

 without smoke or gloves. 



I have about 25 colonies of Holy 

 Land bees, and as this is my first year 

 to give these a thorough test, I am 

 satisfied they are almost identical 

 with the Cyprians, and their temper 

 is not quite so high strung. There is 

 no doubt they will stand the test. I 

 see some grand reports coming in 

 from these bees from different parts 

 of our broad domain, and it is only a 

 question of time when these bees will 

 be the favorites with Americau bee- 

 keepers. 



Dresden, Texas, Sept. 1, 1883. 



Prairie Farmer. 



Apiary Talks— Seasonable Hints. 



MRS. L. HARRISON. 



It is well to observe closely during 

 the honey season, and ascertain from 

 what source the supply is obtained. 

 Where 1 am " rusticating," in Con- 

 necticut, near the sea-shore (Aug, 

 21 ), boneset or motherwort, goldenrod, 

 and a species of wild touch-me-not are 

 in bloom, and bees are apparently 

 doing well. For several days it has 

 been showery, and the sun comes ont 

 very hot, and the nights are warm, 

 insuring the right condition for the 

 secretion of nectar. Where the early 

 potatoes were raised. Polygonum wiil 

 soon be blooming. The sweet clovers 

 (melilot) of the white and yellow va- 

 rieties, are now ripening their seed, 

 and it should be gathered and scat- 

 tered in waste places. 1 saw, lately, 

 the yellow variety which is some- 

 times called Bokhara clover, growing 

 around the edge of a salt meadow and 

 on rocky ledges. Though it is not a 

 bad weed, it will hold its own when it 

 has gained a foothold. 



In most Western and Northern 

 localities, the three or four weeks 

 preceding frost bring on flowers 

 which often afford the very best pas- 

 turage of the year. During tliis late 

 honey flow, encouragement should be 

 given to the rearing of brood, so that 

 there may be plenty of young bees to 

 go into winter quarters. Sometimes 



the brood-nest is almost filled with 

 honey, and the queen cannot find a 

 cell in which to lay ; a part of the 

 combs should be extracted and re- 

 turned. Sometimes tliis fails to in- 

 sure brood-rearing, as we have found 

 such combs in a few days (during a 

 big flow) to have every cell glistening 

 with honey. We lose our bees the 

 coming winter, " charm we ever so 

 wisely," but we will stand a much 

 greater chance of preserving them if 

 we look well to them now. Some 

 colonies, although prosperous the past 

 season, have queens whose usefulness 

 has departed, and who are decrepit 

 with old age, and should be super- 

 seded with a young vigorous one, 

 able to withstand wintry blasts. All 

 after-swarms have young queens, and 

 if they are too small to winter, they 

 might be wintered with an old stock, 

 by first removing the old queen 

 Colonies that are found to be queen- 

 less, or have done laying queens, 

 should have queens given them or 

 united. 



Many people complain of moths 

 destroying their bees, when they only 

 moved in when the house was empty, 

 from defect or loss of queen. 



l^hat and Baxxj. 



ANSWERS BY 



James Heddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Bees Italliiig their Queen. 



Will .James Heddon please inform 

 me why mv bees balled a virgin queen 

 about "12 days old ; also, why they 

 balled a dollar queen, which I intro- 

 duced about 6 weeks ago, and was 

 laying nicely ever since, and was lay- 

 ing when they balled her V They 

 started queen-cells at the same hive. 

 I took her out and put her in a nucleus, 

 and she was laying the next day. 



'Richard Grinsell. 



Baden, Mo., Aug., 27, 1883. 



Answer.— Bees ball strange queens 

 and queens that for any cause (and 

 some causes are as yet unknown) they 

 are jealous of. Why they should 

 have been entertaining a " sidewise " 

 feeling toward your 12-days old virgin 

 queen, I do not know enough about 

 the minor circumstances to tell. Per- 

 haps because she was aiming at be- 

 coming a wrinkled, cross old maid. 

 Workers are quite often suspicious 

 of introduced fertile queens for many 

 days after they begin to lay, and often 

 pounce upon and kill them upon the 

 least provocation, such as opening 

 the hive, when if they had been left 

 undisturbed, they would have acted 

 like dutiful children. I should think 

 a week time enough to lay aside all 

 this jealousy. I have found that to 

 suffice as a rule. I have had colonies 



ball their queens on opening the hive; 

 queens that were mothers to every 

 bee in the hive. I have never known 

 a case of the kind, but what the col- 

 ony was in some way sliglitly out of 

 perfectly normal condition ; a little 

 spring sickness, or clipped queen, or 

 something of the sort. 



Wide Frames. 



In a recent number of your Jour- 

 nal Mr. Heddon says the wide frames 

 are being superseded. Will he be 

 kind enough to tell us by what, with 

 details sutiicient to enable a man of 

 ordinary understanding (not a me- 

 chanic) to make them for trial. 



RUSTICUS. 



Answer.— The broad frames are, 

 with many of our leading and recog- 

 nized most intelligent apiarists, being 

 laid aside for the case system. I 

 cannot, in this space, fully describe 

 the case that 1 use and prefer, but 

 I will say that the broad frame supers 

 differ from tlie cases, inasmuch as 

 that the cases, instead of taking 

 frames at all, receive the sections be- 

 tween partitions, without the use of 

 frames or separators. I will refer you 

 to cut Fig. 1, Sec. D, page 659, Bee 

 Journal for 1882. 





OUR L 



The Fall Crop. 



Bees are storing honey a few hours 

 in the middle of the day. The hearts- 

 ease and goldenrod bloom is abundant, 

 but the weather is too dry, and the 

 nights too cool, for a large flow of 

 honey. A good rain and warm weather 

 would give us a heavy flow. The honey 

 crop in Ih^s part of the State is not a 

 heavy one, although in a few localities, 

 where strict attention has been given, 

 a fair crop will be secured. 



Reuben Havens. 



Onarga, 111., Sept. 4, 1883. 



Horse Balm Honey. 



Enclosed find a plant for name. I 

 have exhausted my botanical resources 

 without being able to name it. Bees 

 work on it freely, and it undoubtedly 

 yields a large amount of honey. 1 

 have a suspicion that the honey is 

 bitter. The plant grows in rich 

 woods. It is not very abundant. 



M. Mahin. 



New Castle, Ind., Aug. 28, 1883. 



[The plant is the widely dissemina- 

 ted Horse Balm [Collinsonia Canadeti- 

 sis). It is hardly possible that the 

 honey is bitter. The plant belongs to 

 one of the most important families 

 (iabictto) of honey producers, and is 

 itself pleasantly aromatic— T. J. B.] 



