THE AMERiCAJS BEE JUURl^AJL.. 



823 



floats, it was all carried down, without 

 any bein^ drowned. 1 was puzzled 

 at this, for if a vessel of earthenware, 

 tin or glass had been used in this way, 

 it would have been full of drowning, 

 writhing bees. It was made plain at 

 the convention why this is so. When 

 a bee walks on wood, his tarsi or feet 

 take hold with a sort of grip, but he 

 cannot do this on a smooth surface 

 like glass. When a bee's feet are dry, 

 and It walks upon glass or tin, its 

 feet secrete a sticky substance which 

 enables it to hold to the surface. 



If a pane ot glass is examined with 

 a microscope after a bee has run up 

 and down it, its tracks can be seen, 

 and this is what discolors the white 

 comb, if it is left long on the hive 

 after it is sealed. I have often noticed 

 that glass was sticky after bees had 

 been running up and down on it, and 

 supposed that it was a wax secretion. 



The delay of winter has allowed the 

 bees time to get ready for cold 

 weather. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



For tlie American Bee Joomal 



Season's Resnlts— Sweet Clover. 



D. R. ROSEBKOUGH. 



The past fall was so dry that white 

 clover was killed out, and the fall 

 rains were so late that it is very small 

 and tender. If we have a hard win- 

 ter it will all be killed, and if that 

 should be the case, we will have no 

 honey in 1888 here. 1 have 58 colo- 

 nies in good condition. I did not 

 have a swarm this year, and 5(J0 

 pounds will cover my crop of honey. 

 It was my fault, and not the fault of 

 the bees; for in May and June, when 

 I should have been at work with the 

 bees I was at my work of township 

 assessor ; in fact I tried to keep the 

 bees back so I could get through with 

 assessing before swarming com- 

 menced ; but by the time I was 

 through assessing, the honey-flow was 

 over, and I lost about $-500 worth of 

 honey, and my oflice brought me only 

 $150. 



i'erhaps some would like to know 

 how I can tell that I lost so much. It 

 was in this way : Two or 3 colonies 

 that were close to the house I fed a 

 little honey between apple bloom and 

 white clover bloom, and they stored 

 about 80 pounds each. Those that I 

 did not stimulate by feeding, did not 

 store a pound. I bad plenty of honey 

 to have fed all the bees that I had, as 

 much as 1 did those that I did feed. 

 Still there is something to be learned, 

 and that is, to attend to that which 

 will pay the best. 



The bees are in good condition. 

 Honey brings 20 cents per pound here 

 in the stores. 



PLANTING SWEET CLOVER. 



To get a good stand of sweet clover, 

 follow these directions : Plow the 

 ground in the same way that you 

 would plow it to plant corn or pota- 

 toes ; and then from a place where 

 the sweet clover has a stand, dig it up 

 by the roots and set it out as you 



would cabbage. If it is planted in 

 rows as corn, or thicker, ii would do 

 belter. You can have a stand every 

 time in tliis way. It will grow and 

 bloom the lirst year, and seed the 

 ground, and it will give no further 

 trouble. 

 Casey ,o» Ills., Dec. 16, 1887. 



ror toe Amenoan Bee Jonnuu. 



Fastening Fonnilation in Sections. 



ELIAS FOX. 



It would seem from Mr. Eden's re- 

 marks on page 790, that there had 

 been no satisfactory method devel- 

 oped for fastening foundation in sec- 

 tions. My method is satisfactory to 

 me, although it lacks one of the fea- 

 tures which Mr. E. terms "spe'ed;" 

 although for neatness and strength I 

 donotlliink that it is surpassed by 

 any, and it is done speedily enough 

 for me. 



The implement which I use is 

 simply a piece of thoroughly seasoned 

 hickory (although any hard wood will 

 do) .5 inches long, J^ inch tliick, and 1 

 inch wide, at the widest end, this end 

 being shaped like the end of a putty- 

 knife, and nicely rounded, polished, 

 and oiled. I cut the foundation in 

 pieces about one inch square, and set 

 my sections on the work-bench ; take 

 the foundation in my left band, and 

 the implement in my right, and use 

 it just the same as if putting glass in 

 a window. 



In the summer the wax is perfectly 

 pliable, so the foundation can with 

 perfect ease be brought to the proper 

 shape, where I will guarantee that it 

 will stay, no matter which side of the 

 section is down. I can put in 300 

 starters in an hour, and not one in 

 5(10 will come out, no matter how 

 smooth the section is. In cold weather, 

 of course, the work will have to be 

 done in a warm room, I have prac- 

 ticed this method for three years with 

 perfect success. 



My idea of using so small a piece 

 of foundation is, that it entirely does 

 away with the leathery " tishbone " 

 which is so much complained of. 



Hillsborough,*© Wis. 



Bee Keepers' Magazine. 



Canses of a Liglit Honey-Crop. 



JOSHUA BULL. 



The winter of 1886-87 was notable 

 for its severe and long-continued cold 

 period. My bees, wintered upon the 

 summer stands, did not get an oppor- 

 tunity to have agood flight from Nov. 

 2, 1886 to March 9, 1887. I examined 

 them all at the latter date, and every 

 colony had capped brood in three or 

 four combs. I never saw bees in bet- 

 ter condition at that time of the year. 



On April 10 they commenced to 

 bring in fresh pollen, and things 

 looked very encouraging, but from 

 some cause the old bees seemed to 

 disappear about as fast as the young 

 ones hatched, so that on May 1 they 



did not appear to be much stronger 

 in numbers than they were in March ; 

 but by the last of May some colonies 

 were just boiling over with bees. 



White clover blossoms began to ap- 

 pear on May 30. and by June 10 there 

 was an abundance of it in bloom ; but 

 thus far it did not appear to yield 

 much, if any, honey. From June 10 

 to June 16 honey came in quite freely. 

 Some colonies nearly filled a case of 

 sections during these few days ; and 

 let me say right here, that this was 

 the driest time we had during the 

 summer. During the night following 

 June 16 we had a heavy thunder 

 shower, and for the next eight days 

 the bees made no perceptible increase 

 in the supers. On June 24 they began 

 to work more lively, but stored sur- 

 plus quite slowly. 



Basswood blossoms began to open 

 the last ot June, but did not appear 

 to secrete much nectar until July 4. 

 From July 4 to July 27, inclusive, it 

 yielded fairly well, and then it was all 

 over ; our harvest of white honey was 

 done, and a very light crop it was in- 

 deed. Bees continued to gather a 

 little honey from corn tassel and other 

 miscellaneous blossoms sufticient to 

 keep up brood rearing. 



About July 2-5 buckwheat, golden- 

 rod, celendine and thoroughwort be- 

 gan to bloom ; these, with a succes- 

 sion of other autumn flowers, supplied 

 a continuous moderate flow of honey 

 until Sept. 20, although the forepart 

 ot the month was too rainy and cool 

 for bees to do much. From Sept. 16 

 to Sept. 20 it was warm, Bne weather, 

 and the bees worked lively and stored 

 honey freely. During August and 

 September they stored more honey 

 than they did in June and July. This 

 was the best flow of fall honey that 

 we have had for the last 6ve years. 

 All bees in this vicinity are well sup- 

 plied with food for winter without 

 any feeding. 



It appears to be a very general 

 complaint from almost every quarter, 

 that the honey crop of 1887 has been 

 unusually light, and the cause is al- 

 most unanimously attributed to 

 drouth ; but I apprehend that the dry 

 weather was not the only cause, nor 

 do I think it was the principal cause 

 of the failure of the honey crop. If 

 such were the case, how could it hap- 

 pen that the best flow of honey that 

 we had last summer came durinp; a 

 few days right in the very driest time 

 in the whole season; while just be- 

 fore, and immediately after, there ap- 

 peared to be very little or no nectar in 

 the flowers ? That is the way it 

 worked in this locality, as near as I 

 could discover, and I watched things 

 pretty carefully, or at least I tried to. 



I think it was the late Moses Quinby 

 who said that the best time for bees 

 to store honey is when the farmers 

 begin to complain of the need of rain, 

 or words to that effect, and my ex- 

 perience coincides with that senti- 

 ment. Now. in this immediate vicin- 

 ity, it was not so extremely dry dur- 

 ing the past summer as to affect the 

 field crops very badly, although more 

 rain would, no doubt, have been 

 beneficial to them, yet the honey crop 

 was no better here in June and July 



