458 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



abbreviating business parlance the 

 first part comb would soon be drop- 



Eed, then we would have " freed " 

 oney — good enough for the frater- 

 nity, but not for the honey-eaters. It 

 would still be more abbreviated to 

 "free" honey, which would be no 

 better than what we have. It would 

 constantly have to be explained. The 

 last, " combless," is not bad, but the 

 people would imagine we had a new 

 kind of bees that make honey without 

 comb ; many questions would have to 

 be answered. But " separated " honey 

 will require the least talking, and I 

 do not think we can get anything 

 better. 

 Deuster,© "Wis. 



[Of the three we prefer " combless 

 honey ;" like boneless fish or seedtess 

 figs ! But something better than that 

 is what we need — something needing 

 no explanation. — Ed.] 



Colorado Farmer. 



Honey Crop of Colorado, etc. 



ROBERT JAMES. 



The outlook for honey for this sea- 

 son is very good at the present time. 

 The reports from different sources, so 

 far, are very encouraging. Bees are 

 swarming well, and the new swarms 

 are gathering lots of very nice, clear, 

 light honey. The wild black-sage is 

 in full bloom, from which the bees 

 gather very fine honey. 



The Rocky Mountain bee-plant has 

 been in bloom nearly three weeks, but 

 I do not think the bees are getting 

 much honey from that source at pres- 

 ent. Where alfalfa is in bloom the 

 bees are very busy on the blossoms, 

 and the honey gathered from that 

 source is very nice. The wild poppy 

 (called by some milk-weed) yields very 

 fine honey also, but the wild rose, now 

 about gone out of bloom, furnishes 

 the most delicious honey I have 

 tasted in Colorado. 



The bees work on the cactus bloom, 

 but whether they get anything more 

 than pollen from it, I cannot say. Our 

 principal honey crop comes the latter 

 part of July, and continues until our 

 September frost. 



The weather now is very good for 

 honey-gathering, and should it con- 

 tinue to be favorable, we will hear of 

 some large yields of honey per colony, 

 at the close of the season. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



In introducing a fertile queen into a 

 queenless clolouy, care must be used 

 or the queen will be destroyed. If 

 the colony has long been queenless, 

 the bees will generally accept her at 

 once, but in any event the queen 

 should be caged for 24 hours in a 

 queen-cage placed among the bees ; 

 if upon examination you find the bees 

 quietly crawling over the cage, then 

 you can release her ladyship and all 

 will be right. On the other hand, 

 should the bees be excited, piling up 

 over and upon the cage, as if anxious 

 to get inside, then you must not re- 

 lease the queen, but close up the hive 



and wait another day, when generally 

 quiet, then the queen can be released 

 without danger. Sometimes it will 

 be necessary to keep the queen caged 

 for nearly a week, but such are ex- 

 ceptional cases. 



When the queen is released, open 

 the hive again in about 15 minutes, 

 and if you find " her majesty " crawl- 

 ing over the combs quietly, the bees 

 following about her and making way 

 for her, you can generally conclude 

 that she is all right. Then close up 

 the hive, and do not open it again for 

 four or five days. 



Denver,© Colo. 



For the American Bee JounmL 



Foundation in Sections— Winterins. 



T. M. COLEMAN. 



I am surprised that there should be 

 any discussion in regard to thick or 

 brood foundation in sections. I would 

 not eat comb honey at all with such 

 foundation all through it ; and a 

 great many who buy, object to such 

 starters, however small, and I do not 

 blame them. I have experimented 

 with the various ways in common 

 use, and I find that nothing answers 

 the purpose (to suit me), and secure 

 straight combs, so well as the thin- 

 nest foundation I can get, cut into 

 strips three-fourths of an inch in 

 width, and then cut in pieces about 2 

 inches long on one side, and I inch or 

 less on the other. Sometimes I use 

 triangular pieces with about J^ of a 

 square inch of foundation to the sec- 

 tion ; and they do very well in the 

 main, but sometimes there will be 

 crooked ones. These I use myself or 

 sell to the neighbors, who do not care 

 for it being a little out of shape. 



My bees did very little until June 

 26, when linden bloom began, and it 

 is still good, and will be to the end of 

 this week, or longer, giving a splendid 

 flow of over two weeks. The tem- 

 perature of my cellars in the cold 

 weather was often as low as 34'-, and 

 my bees wintered well. In the dryest 

 cellar I wintered 12 colonies each 

 winter, and lost none for two years ; 

 in the other cellar I lost 2 out of 24 

 the first winter, and 3 out of 38 the 

 second. The temperature in it went 

 down to freezing, a time or two. I 

 intend to make it warmer next win- 

 ter, if I can. Out-door wintering here 

 generally fails. 



Glendon, *o Iowa, July 7, 1887. 



Tlie Lesson Emerience Teaclies. 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



With the continued dry weather 

 during May, our chances for securing 

 a good honey crop this year, rapidly 

 slipped away. Although the bees 

 may have been managed on the most 

 scientific principles, and everything 

 may have been done that, our best 

 authorities and long experience could 

 suggest, yet, without the nectar- 



secreting flowers and suitable weather 

 all will prove unavailing. There is 

 this satisfaction, however, that if we 

 do our part faltlifully, and we do not 

 reap the success we had anticipated, 

 we need not worry about it, but 

 should lay it to causes over which we 

 have no control. 



Is there not a lesson to be learned 

 in the present season of drouth and 

 failure of tlie white clover y In times 

 past, when but few colonies were 

 kept, it did not make so much differ- 

 ence — usually the bees took care ■ of 

 themselves, and generally managed 

 to get enough for their own support. 

 Now, however, when many men, and 

 women too, make this single branch 

 of agriculture their exclusive busi- 

 ness, and often keep many hundred 

 colonies, it becomes a serious matter. 

 The bees cannot gather honey if there 

 are no flowers, or they fail to secrete 

 nectar. They cannot produce some- 

 thing out of nothing. Unless they 

 are helped by feeding to carry them 

 over the succeeding winter, they must 

 perish. Now the question is, cannot 

 the bee-keeper guard against an occa- 

 sional failure of a single crop like 

 white clover? Must bee-keeping 

 always remain the haphazard busi- 

 ness that it has been in the past V 

 AVhen times are prosperous the bee- 

 keepers are jolly, some even seem to 

 feel so good that they almost give 

 away their honey, and when there is 

 a failure they are correspondingly 

 blue and discouraged. 



It seems to me that jf it pays to 

 keep bees at all, it will pay to keep 

 them well, and if nature does not pro- 

 duce an abundance of honey-produc- 

 ing flowers, we should by all means 

 in our power, increase the bloom. 

 This leads to planting for honey, and 

 unless this is done, bee-keeping must 

 ever remain a rather hazardous busi- 

 ness, when followed exclusively for a 

 living. 



In looking about for a plant for this 

 purpose, it is a good idea to select 

 that which is useful for other pur- 

 poses as well. Alsike clover stands 

 at the head of these, but as it blooms 

 at the same time as white clover, and 

 may occasionally fail, it is not well to 

 depend on that alone. I have tried 

 about all the honey-plants that have 

 been recommended in late years, and 

 have yet to find one equal to melilot 

 or sweet clover It seems to be both 

 winter and drouth proof. It blooms 

 just as other blossoms begin to fail, 

 and the quality of its honey is very 

 fine. So confident am I that this 

 crop will pay for the honey alone, that 

 I have this spring sown three acres 

 more, in addition to what I had be- 

 fore. Of course it will not bloom this 

 year, but it will be appreciated next, 

 even should honey then be abundant. 



Milan,*o Ills. 



tW The Darke County Union Bee-KeeperB' So- 

 ciety will hold their next meeting in the Opera 

 Hall at Union City. Ind., i.n Friday, July 29. 1887. 

 J. A. Roe. Sec. 



To give iiway a copy of " Honey as Food 

 and Medicine" to every one who buys a 

 package of honey, wii; sell lots of it. 



