584 



THE AMERICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



Bee-Notes for Septemlier. 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



It is now more than twenty years 

 since I commenced keeping bees, both 

 for pleasure and profit, and during all 

 that time I do not remember of a more 

 unfavorable year for honey than the 

 present. Last month we enjoyed 

 some seasonable rains; but the moist- 

 ure was soon gone, under the blazing 

 hot sun of July and August. What 

 little clover was left, has now nearly 

 entirely disappeared, and the prospect 

 for a fall crop is very small. I have 

 watched the bee-papers closely, and 

 find that this condition is prevailing 

 generally over the Western States. 

 Reports from the Southern States are 

 not much better. East they seem to 

 have had more rain, and there are 

 some reports of fair yields of honey. 

 California will have but little to ship 

 this year, so that it is now certain 

 that the supply will be very small. 

 Already the orders are coming in 

 thick and fast for some more of that 

 nice honey, like we sent last year, but 

 alas, our shelves are still empty, and 

 likely to remain so. 



THE " WILEY LIE." 



Every little while some paper gets 

 off some new version of the " Wiley 

 lie ;" that is, that nice comb honey is 

 now produced by machinery. If this 

 could be done, now would be the gold- 

 en opportunity for these mythical 

 factories to run night and day and 

 supply the demand, while the bee- 

 keepers themselves might buy quanti- 

 ties of sugar or glucose and feed it to 

 the bees, and cause them to make it 

 into nice comb hooey. If this could 

 be done, now if ever, would be the 

 time that the dishonest bee-keeper 

 would be reaping a golden harvest. 

 What are the facts? Although there 

 is an urgent demand, at a high price, 

 for a nice article, there is no supply to 

 meet it. Surely this ought to stamp 

 the " Wiley lie " in all its variations 

 out of existence. 



TAKE CAEB OF THE BEES. 



Owing to the extremely poor season 

 many bees will be left to starve the 

 coming winter. Somehow bee keepers, 

 and especially farmers, seem to think 

 that if the bees cannot gather honey 

 enough for their own support they 

 ought to be left to starve. They do 

 not seem to apply this rule to any 

 other kind of stock. Many colonies 

 could no doubt be saved by feeding 

 a very few pounds of honey or sugar 

 syrup. The would-be successful bee- 

 keeper will see that the bees are sup- 

 plied with sufficient stores for winter, 

 and September is the time to do this. 

 It is now late enough to tell to a cer- 

 tainty just what the bees are able to 

 do for themselves, and any deficiency 

 should be supplied. 



During the early part of the month 

 each hive should be weighed, and the 

 weight of hive, bees and empty comb, 

 deducted to determine the actual 

 amount of honey in the hive, and the 

 amount should be marked on it. The 



amount at this time should not be less 

 than thirty pounds net, and forty 

 pounds will be better, if they are to 

 be wintered in a cellar, and it will re- 

 quire at least ten pounds more if they 

 are to be left on the summer stands. 

 For weighing I use a sort of tripod 

 and scale beam, which works very 

 nicely, and I can weigh them very 

 rapidly. Of course all hives falling 

 below the amount determined on for 

 the support must be fed up to the re- 

 quired weight. 



Great care must be used in doing 

 this feeding, so as not to start the 

 bees to robbing. I use a common 

 fruit-can as an entrance feeder, and 

 feed them only at night. The can 

 should have a cover to it, or cloth may 

 be tied over it, to keep the bees from 

 getting into it. When feeding I place 

 the front of the hive a little higher 

 than the rear, so that the feed will 

 run into the hive. For feed I should 

 use good honey or sugar syrup made 

 of sugar not below " C " grade. A 

 mixture of honey and such syrup 

 makes a very good feed for winter 

 stores. I usually feed about half a pint 

 to a colony each evening, by placing 

 the feeders, which have a small hole 

 punched near the bottom to allow the 

 svrup to leak out, at the eutrance. 

 They should be removed early the 

 next morning to prevent robbing, as 

 sometimes the bees have not removed 

 it all, or enough has collected under 

 the can to attract robbers. 



MOTH TRAP HUMBUGS. 



In looking through a late number of 

 the American Inventor, I notice some 

 one has invented an attachment for 

 bee-hives to prevent moths from en- 

 tering the hive, or rather a separate 

 little chamber for the moth to lay 

 their eggs. Of course it is predicted 

 that " all bee-keepers " will soon re- 

 alize the fact that they cannot live or 

 keep bees successfully without these 

 traps. What stuff — as if the moth 

 was the diQiculty, or in fact any seri- 

 our evil at all, against which bee- 

 keepers are contending ! How long 

 will these would-be benefactors keep 

 throwing their money away on these 

 worthless patents ? if some of these 

 smart ones would patent some sure 

 way of having good honey seasons 

 every year, I think bee-keepers would 

 generally invest. But perhaps this 

 inventor is not as green as he seems 

 to be, and will yet do a good business 

 in selling those worthless traps to gul- 

 lable farmers who do not take the 

 papers. 



Another party has invented a hive 

 with a wire gauze bottom, through 

 which it is calculated the moth eggs 

 will fall into a convenient pan, which 

 can be removed and cleaned. Another 

 feature of this hive is that it is made 

 in two parts or chambers, divided 

 perpendicularly, and it is claimed that 

 the bees can be easily excluded from 

 either part to permit an examination 

 of the comb, etc. There is but a small 

 opening between the two sections, 

 over which a sort of button closes. I 

 do not see how a person can readily 

 exclude the bees from either part, or 

 why it is necessary to do so. There is 

 no suitable arrangement for securing 



honey, and the whole thing is awk- 

 ward and impracticable. 



The main idea of these inventors 

 seems to be directed against the 

 moth. Of course the practical apiarists 

 are not caught by such traps, but I 

 presume the inexperienced will con- 

 tinue to fall easy victims to these 

 moth-trap ''improvements." 



SHADE FOR THE APIARY. 



I do not understand how some good 

 bee-keepers can advocate " no shade" 

 for the apiary. I should think that 

 the present summer, with its fearful 

 heat, would soon convince them that 

 if not absolutely necessary, a little 

 shade is very nice for the keeper as 

 well as the bees. In setting out trees 

 for shading an apiary I should select 

 such as do not grow very tall, such as 

 cherry, plum, Siberian crab-apple and 

 other fruit-bearing trees. If you 

 plant such as the elm, maple, ash, etc., 

 they soon become too tall, as swarms 

 usually go to the highest branch and 

 cause needless trouble in getting them 

 down. It is also quite a job to trim 

 such trees back and keep them low 

 enough. Then, too, why not raise 

 some fruit, as well as honey, in the 

 apiary, and secure a nice shade at the 

 same time ? 



BENEFITS OF A POOR SEASON. 



The markets will be supplied with 

 honey this year, and prices for a nice 

 article will be high. I notice in a late 

 number of the Bee Journal some 

 small sales being made at 20 and 25 

 cents per pound. If the present sea- 

 son will restore prices to a paying 

 basis, it will be something gained to 

 offset our very small crop. 



The white clover in this section is 

 about entirely burned out, and if we 

 do not get abundant rains the pros- 

 pects for another year are not very 

 good. The clover plants will have to 

 come from the seed, that will produce 

 our next honey crop, and the outlook 

 is not now favorable. The time, 

 however, is coming when beekeep- 

 ing will again be on the boom. 



Milan, to 111. 



For the American Bee Jonmal. 



Founilation in tlie Sections, etc. 



C. THEILMANN. 



There are two mistakes in my article 

 on page S-'iS. In the last paragraph of 

 the first column, where it reads, " I 

 prefer the Dadant extra thin founda- 

 tion, 3J^x8>^-inch sheets," should 

 read, " '6%i<.l8% inches." The piece 

 that I use for one section is just 

 about 3^x3 inches when fastened in 

 the section. 



The other error is two lines below 

 the first error, where it reads thus : 

 " I place another little table on a box 

 or top of a hive, etc.," which should 

 have read, " I place another little 

 table, or a box, etc." I use one of my 

 caps, or the top of a hive on top of the 

 kitchen table, to make it convenient 

 for my height. 



Why I use so large a piece of founda- 

 tion in a section is, so that I can ot)- 



