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AMERICAN iBEE JOURNAL. 



Wavelets of News. 



One Paying Colony of Bees. 



At the last meeting of the Farmers' 

 Institute at Garden City, Kans., it was 

 sliown that alfalfa, in Finney county, 

 gives abundance of seasonable flora for 

 bees. One farmer paid $10 for a colony 

 of bees, last year, and thought that a 

 liigh price. But during the season he 

 took from it 40 pounds of honey, which 

 had a market value of $10 ; thus his 

 ibees boarded themselves, and paid first 

 cost in one season. — Field and Farm. 



Box-Hives and Honey Gathering. 



A Texas correspondent wishes to 

 know how to get bees in a gum or box- 

 hive to store honey in some receptacle 

 where it can be easily obtained. This is 

 rather uncertain business. 



About the only way that promises suc- 

 cess, is to put a box on top of the hive. 

 I would use a box that would hold 30 or 

 40 pounds ; then make a hole on top of 

 the hive 3 or 4 inches in diameter. 



First, smoke your bees, then bore an 

 auger hole ; then smoke them until the 

 bees will let you work out a hole the 

 right size; then, if you have a little 

 empty comb, fasten it in the top of the 

 box by means of melted wax ; the bees 

 will be more likely to work in it. 



Fit the box perfectly tight on the top 

 of the hive, even if you have to use clay 

 or putty to stop the cracks. If I had 

 your box-hives, I would transfer the bees 

 into Langstroth or Simplicity movable- 

 frame hives, and then you could do any- 

 thing you wish with them, and if they 

 gather more honey than they need, you 

 could certainly get it. Then take the 

 American Bee Journal, and you will 

 soon be in a way to know all that can be 

 known about jjees. The writer keeps 

 nearly 200 colonies of bees, and con- 

 siders bee-keeping one of the most im- 

 portant industries of the country. — A. C. 

 Aten, in the Home and Farm. 



Facts About the Q,ueen-Bee. 



A queen can beat a hen at laying. 

 Give her the best surroundings, with 

 plenty of honey coming in, and all that, 

 and she .will lay 3,000 eggs in 24 hours. 

 She does not cackle over it, either. Each 

 egg measures 1/14 of an inch in length, 

 and 1/70 of an inch in thickness. Even 

 when she is only doing an average busi- 



ness she will lay more than twice her 

 own weight in 24 hours. But, mind 

 you, she does not do anything else. 

 Does not even feed herself. You will 

 see the workers constantly offering her 

 food. 



NOT A queen — ONLY A MOTHER. 



You have read about a. retinue con- 

 stantly accompanying her and offering 

 her homage. That is all moonshine. 



Whenever she stops long enough in 

 one place you will see a circle of bees 

 with their heads turned toward her, but 

 that set will never again circle about 

 her ; and when she makes her next stop, 

 a new set will form about her, just the 

 ones that happen to be nearest. 



She has nothing to do with the gov- 

 ernment of the hive, so she is really not 

 a queen at all — only a mother bee. 



The workers feed her with concen- 

 trated food, so she has not much to do in 

 the way of digestion. When not laying, 

 however, I think she has to skirmish for 

 herself, and get honey from the cells. 



As a general rule, only one queen is in 

 a hive, but it is not so rare a thing to 

 find a mother and her daughter both 

 laying in the same hive. But you nr5,y 

 soon expect the mother to give out from 

 old age. 



It is the old queen that goes off with 

 a first swarm ; but, of course, a young 

 one must go with anything after the 

 first. — Dr. C. C. Miller, in Stockman 

 and Farmer. 



Feeding Bees in the Spring. 



As I have had some experience in 

 Spring feeding, I will give results: I 

 have fed both sugar syrup and molasses. 

 I have come to the conclusion that 

 if I have to buy, it is just about as cheap 

 to buy the best grade of sugar and make 

 it into syrup and feed as to buy molasses 

 to feed; but if I could get a poor grade of 

 molasses very cheap, or had molasses in 

 the house, if not burned I would feed it. 



Bees will not take molasses at first, 

 but after going several days to a feeding 

 trough for sugar syrup, I add a little mo- 

 lasses, diluted as I do sugar, each day, 

 until after a few days I can get them to 

 take the feed half molasses, even if it is 

 very poor stuff, and will cause no rob- 

 bing. Yet I do not believe I would feed 

 it in the hives — I mean very poor molas- 

 ses — as it might not be taken, and would 

 sour. I have always fed such poor feed 

 out-of-doors. Last Spring I fed about 

 two barrels of poor sorghum syrup that 

 I could not use for cooking or on the 

 table, mixed with about tlyee barrels of 



