THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



253 



he people of Southern Minnesota is now 

 chiefly made from whea' made in Dakota 

 and other distant parts. Who could have 

 dreamed of this thirty years ago. The ques- 

 tion now is : Can any possible skill in cul- 

 ture restore old-time crops of honey ? We 

 fear not. There have, owing no doubt to the 

 ignorance of greedy man, changes taken 

 place in the country through false methods 

 of agriculture that have already made 

 changes in rainfall and other climatic con- 

 ditions that cannot be easily restored. One 

 particular noticeable to me, is the fact that 

 the millions of birds of various kinds, whose 

 songs used to be heard from daylight till 

 dark, are now mostly gone from us, many 

 species having entirely disappeared. In 

 wandering through the woods lately we were 

 struck by the solitude — no cherry bird songs. 

 * * * 



The bee-keeper will now, in our opinion, 

 have to recognize the changed conditions 

 and use more skillful ways. We have for 

 many years believed that we could get a crop 

 of surplus honey that would pay well for the 

 labor expended, even in what we call poor 

 seasons, and we have this year proved it to 

 be possible. The average bee keeper, with 

 old methods and ordinary care, got no sur- 

 plus white honey here this year. While we, 

 by extra care and new means, secured fifty 

 pounds of white comb honey per colony, 

 spring count. The means by which this was 

 accomplished was by having strong colonies 

 ready for the only considerable honey flow, 

 that of basswood ; and then having plenty of 

 supers readly filled with sections of drawn 

 comb. We have these combs made the year 

 previous by giving the colonies sections filled 

 with comb foundation. The honey is then 

 extracted from all unfinished white ones and 

 from all dark ones. The sections are then 

 returned to the supers and then set out in 

 the evening of a warm day to be cleaned by 

 the bees of every particle of honey. The 

 combs are then leveled to equal thickness 

 with the comb leveler and kept in a secure 

 place for use the next year. 



This year the flow from basswood was fair 

 and lasted about twelve days. Now, with 

 supers of sections filled full of foundation 

 the bees in this short time will finish but lit- 

 tle comb honey ; but with plenty of empty 

 combs in which there is nothing to do but 

 empty the loads of nectar the combs will be 

 filled and finished in a surprisingly short 

 time. The same is true of extracted honey 

 where we have extracting combs ready to be 

 filled. 



We are confident that bee-keepers whose 

 object is honey for home use would get far 

 more paying results by working for extract- 

 ed honey : it takes far less skill than comb 

 and is superior to it in point of health for 

 daily use, provided it is cured properly. 



We found the swarms that had large stores 

 of honey when set out this spring and needed 

 no doctoring gave the earliest swarms and 

 by far the largest yields of surplus. This is 

 not saying that feeding may not be done 

 with greater profit in proper circumstances, 

 but the average bee-keeper is poorly able to 

 judge of such proper circumstances, and the 

 best policy is to let the bees fill their hives 



well with fall honey where possible. Where 

 there is no fall flow of course feeding will be 

 in order, but to be safe it should be done as 

 early as the middle of September, and earli- 

 er would be better. In our own apiary all 

 supers were taken ott" at the end of basswood. 

 The extra strong colonies will be given an 

 extra hive of extracting combs ; these combs 

 are the same size as the brood combe, and 

 when filled will be used to supply any col- 

 onies that may be found light in stores at 

 the end of the honey season." 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



iTTiND now the reports of the Baldridge 

 f\ style of treating foul brood are begin- 

 ning to come in. There must be more 

 than an ordinary wire cloth cone on the 

 hive to be treated, else some of the bees will 

 occasionally get back again (no great harm) 

 and extra-enterprising robbers will find the 

 way in — and that won't do at all. 



And so, because his bees swarmed little 

 last year and none this year, Heddon thinks 

 he is having cheerful success in breeding 

 out the swarming impulse. We thought he 

 had an older head on his shoulders than that. 

 Look here ; my swarmy bees didn't swarm 

 any to speak of this year ; and I haven't been 

 doing any thing at all to hinder them, or 

 breed out their impulses. Only a penny to 

 choose 'twixt Heddon who works and Hasty 

 who plays — and the playful boy will get it, 

 if you don't look out, brother H. 



If friend John Phin was in a courting way, 

 and he should meet his fair one some morn 

 carrying a poodle, I just wonder if he would 

 have the courage of his convictions, and say, 

 " Good morning. Miss Sweetsie ; I am de- 

 lighted to meet you, and your mongrel dog." 

 As to the word " cross," it can and will be 

 used to some extent. In some sentences it 

 is all right ; in others it has the disadvantage 

 of being ambiguous. No one who takes 

 pride in his apiary likes to speak of his bees 

 as " cross " bees — bulk of mankind too ready 

 to go for the wrong meaning. 



I fear the method of fumigating recom- 

 mended by Mr. Doolittle seldom or never 

 makes a very good job of it, and often re- 

 sults in nearly total failure. I never trust 

 mine without an air pipe, and diligent blow- 

 ing with a new smoker. Am none too well 

 satisfied with my results either. Glad to see 

 from friend Van Deusen (Review, 214) a 



