680 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and pollen, and now they are putting 

 forth their best efforts to insure a crop 

 of peaches upon the two dozen trees 

 located in different parts of the apiary. 

 Cherry bloom is very abundant, and 

 crab-apples are opening. 



I am sorry to record the absence of 

 white clover. I have diligently searched. 

 I have failed to discover a single plant. 

 It is our main reliance for white honey 

 in this section. Its failure to appear 

 may be accounted for by the protracted 

 drouths which have prevailed for several 

 seasons. The warm, showery, weather 

 which has prevailed during this month 

 was very favorable for vegetation, and 

 now young clover of two leaves may be 

 found. But it will be too late to yield 

 honey this season. It will be a grand 

 bonanza this season for an apiarist to 

 be located near to a field of alsike clover 

 {TrifoUum hybrkla), in the absence of 

 white clover. I am not aware of any 

 fields of this clover being within flight of 

 my bees. Sweet clover, melilot, is 

 yearly on the increase in this locality, 

 and is now of very rank growth for this 

 time of the year, and will bloom from 

 the middle of June until October. — Mrs. 

 L. Harrisox. in the Prairie Farmer. 



Combs Built on the Limb of a Tree. 



Did you ever know or hear of a swarm 

 of bees building their combs in the open 

 air, in the limbs of a tree, in this coun- 

 try ? I believe they do in tropical coun- 

 tries. In going through my pear or- 

 chard in November, after the leaves had 

 fallen, I saw what I took to be a hor- 

 net's nest; but on examination I found 

 it was a large bunch of comb, built by a 

 swarm of bees. I got a ladder and took 

 it down. It is quite a curiosity. — W. W., 

 in the Ploughman. 



Chilled-Brood and Foul-Brood. 



One of the results of non-protection in 

 the Spring is chilled and dead brood, 

 liable to end in foul-brood. So says 

 Allen Pringle, and so say a great many 

 other writers on bees. Now, is it a fact, 

 that foul-brood can be started in that 

 way ? I, for one, do not believe it. I 

 have been a bee-keeper all my life, and 

 am now 67. I always winter my bees 

 out-doors, and have never seen a case of 

 foul-brood yet. I am quite sure that I 

 have had hundreds of cases of chilled 

 and dead brood, in all of these years. 



Sometimes a colony gets brood well 

 started in the Spring, and then deserts 

 the hive, or " swarms out," leaving 



their brood to chill and die, and then the 

 first warm day that comes, the other 

 bees in the yard go in and clean out the 

 honey, and suck those chilled and dead 

 larvae as dry as chips. 



Another colony dies early in Spring 

 from starvation, leaving brood to chill 

 and die. The other bees overhaul the 

 combs in search of plunder, and no foul- 

 brood results. 



Now, there is a long list of cases in all 

 those years of bee-keeping and out-door 

 wintering where there has been chilled 

 brood, but never a case of foul-brood has 

 there been. How is it that I have 

 escaped ? Can any one prove that foul- 

 brood ever originated in such way ? I 

 doubt it. — E. France, in Gleanings. 



Spreading the Brood-Nest. 



I think it bad practice to force the 

 bees in the forepart of the season to en- 

 large their brood-nest by spreading the 

 frames of brood, and inserting an un- 

 occupied one in the center. It will, as a 

 rule, do more harm than good. Strength- 

 ening weak colonies by combs of brood 

 taken from strong colonies is a good 

 plan, but requires a good understanding 

 and .judgment not to work damage. It 

 should not be done until Spring is well 

 advanced, and with us, not before the 

 middle of May. The brood taken must 

 be about all sealed, and some of it ripe 

 enough to hatch. If the colony to be 

 strengthened is very weak, cage the 

 queen for two or three days, and shake 

 in a good lot of young bees from other 

 colonies. If the bees are taken from 

 different colonies, they will unite all the 

 better. The old bees thrown in with 

 the young ones, will, of course, go back 

 to their hives, but if plenty are" shaken 

 in, enough will stay to make, with the 

 additional brood put in, a good colony, 

 with little trouble. — Julius Hoffman, 

 in the Farm and Home. 



Why Bees Cluster on Leaving Hives. 



As I state in my Bee-Keepers' Guide, 

 I think the bees cluster to give the 

 queen a rest after trying her wings, 

 which are unwonted to labor. I sup- 

 posed it settled, that bees look out a 

 home before the swarm issues. They 

 certainly do sometimes ; and if so, I 

 guess always. — Prof. A. J. Cook, in 

 Oleanings. 



Clubs of 5 New Subscriptions for $4.00, 

 to any addresses. Ten for $7.50. 



