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WINTER FOOD. 



Some Observationi on Feeding 

 and 'Wintering Itee§. 



Written for the Farm, Field and Stockman 

 BY S. E. MILLER. 



If the fall finds your bees shoi't of a 

 winter supply of honey, feed about a 

 quart of sj'rup or honey every evening 

 until the}' have sufficient. If j^ou wish 

 to use syrup, and do not know how to 

 make it, use this recipe : Take about 

 four parts of granulated sugar to one 

 of boiling water, and boil till the sugar 

 is well dissolved. This will all be used 

 up before you get anj' surplus the ne.xt 

 .season, so you need have no fear of 

 having 3'our honey mixed with sugar 

 syrup. 



If the bees seem backward about 

 taking the feed, give it to them warm, 

 and pour a little down among them, 

 and then make a trail of syrup or 

 honey to the feeder. 



While a great part of the bee-keep- 

 ers, and perhaps the majority of them, 

 are in favor of cellar wintering, and 

 while I have no doubt that it is best 

 further north, I do not believe that it 

 will pay to go to the trouble of cellar 

 wintering in this latitude (Central 

 Missouri). Still, the bee-keepers liav- 

 ing the largest apiaries in Montgom- 

 ery count}', practice ceUar wintering, 

 and I should not advise thos(! having 

 suitable cellars to leave their bees out- 

 side if they believe in wintering bees 

 in the cellar. 



My brother and I have wintered our 

 bees out-of-doors for the past three 

 winters with fair success ; our apiary, 

 however, is well protected on the 

 northwest, which may have something 

 to do with it, and I should advise all 

 who winter their bees out-of-doors to 

 have some kind of a wind-break to 

 shelter them from the prevailing 

 winds. 



In case you have to feed, it should 

 be Commenced as early as you can tell 

 whether there will be a honey-How or 

 not from autumn flowers. If neglected 

 too long, the bees may not 1)0 settled 

 down for winter when it sets in. 



When through with preparing your 

 bees for winter, you will most likely 

 have a lot of combs to be taken care 

 of through the winter'; if containing 

 honey, they should be kept in a dry 

 room, where the temperature never 

 gets much, if any, below freezing. 

 They should be looked after occasion- 

 ally, if there is much warm weather, 

 to see that the motli does not destroy 

 them. These combs, if containing 

 honey, will come handy in the spring, 

 if you find any of your colonies run- 

 ning short of food. 

 Montgomery, Mo. 



Some Autumnal Ai>i-Xlioiig:lit«. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY GEO. W. yOKK. 



The summer now is ended. 



The hee its work has dune- 

 Its hum no more extended 

 To greet the moruiuK sun. 



Its days were full of toiling. 

 In garnerina the stores, 



Lest much of it bespoilJni< 

 Ou fields, side hills and shores. 



The bee hath hastened ever. 

 That time may not be lost. 



To gather up wliat never 

 Siiould waste at any cost. 



And now the winter cometli— 

 With cold and stormy breeze — 



" That tries the souls of men," 

 And sometimes those of bees ; 



But frugal little workers, 

 With stores of nectar sweet, 



Are never like the shirkers, 

 Wlio nothing have to eat. 



Then quietly they cluster. 



Between the condjs so snug- 

 All ready for spring muster 

 Is every "honey-bug." 

 Chicago, Ills., Oct. 23, 188S. 



PURE BEES. 



Parthenogenesis Discussed- 

 Rearing Pure Bees. 



Written fur the Home and Farm 



BY T. E. HANBURG. 



This is a subject every apiarist 

 should understancl. Without an ac- 

 curate and thorough knowledge of 

 this theory, the practice of bee-culture 

 cannot be conducted with the skill and 

 judgment necessary to successful re- 

 sults. 



This theory as applied to the honey- 

 bee is, that the eggs of ;i virgin queen 

 will hatch, but that such eggs will only 

 protluce drones, and for the eggs of 

 any queen to produce workers (jr 

 queens, she must be fecundated once 

 in life by a drone. 



If this drone is impure or is tainted 

 with black blood, the progeny of such 

 a queen will not be pure Italian bees, 

 and hence, the workers will not be 

 uniformly marked with the three dis- 

 tinct yellow bands which .always char- 

 acterize the pure Italians. Some of 

 these bees, it is true, may have three 

 bands, but others will have only two, 

 and some one, hence they will be pure, 

 mixed bloods or hybrids. 



If now a queen should be reared 

 from the egg of such a queen, and 

 even though she mates witli a pure 

 Italian drone, her progeny will not be 

 pure. This is the reason that so many 

 commence with Italian bees and after 

 a while they run backwards into 

 hybrids, and should a queen be reared 

 from the egg of this latter queen, the 

 resultins workers will run still further 



backwards until they are black bees. 

 It will thus be seen that a contamina- 

 tion, be it ever so slight, will lower the 

 standard of the pure bees. 



A theory has been advanced which 

 has a large number of adherents, that 

 an Italian queen will always produce 

 pure drones, no matter with what kind 

 of a drone she has mated. I do not ac- 

 cept this theory, but reject it in part, 

 with all due respect to the opinions of 

 many eminent apiarists. They claim 

 with due force, and that which is true, 

 that the sperm of the male is so man- 

 aged in the oviduct of the queen that 

 she can impregnate the eggs, or not, 

 as they pass down through the oviduct, 

 and come in contact with the sperm- 

 atica which contains the male sperm. 

 All eggs thus passing without touching 

 and absorbing some of the male sperm 

 produce drones only, and that the 

 eggs, becoming thus Impregnated, 

 marvelous as it is, produce queens or 

 workers, according as they are treated 

 by the bees. 



They claim that which is true, that 

 the queen can and does impregnate 

 these eggs at will. Of course, eggs 

 thus passing the oviduct without com- 

 ing in contact with the spormatica, 

 produce drones only. This theory I 

 do not carry further, and believe in 

 its entirety. 



It is a well-known fact that if a 

 pure leghorn pullet mates but once 

 with a black .Spanish cock, her chicks 

 ever afterwards will occasionally show 

 a l)lack feather : and lay like reasoning 

 and by observation which comes by a 

 long practical experience, I believe it 

 is so with bees. 



If those who fully liold to this theory 

 think that the mating of an Italian 

 queen with a lilack drone, has no ef- 

 fect on her progeny, they must be 

 somewhat in error, for certainly by 

 absorption the queen's blood becomes 

 somewhat contaminated, as the eft'ect 

 of such mating. She may be able to 

 produce pure or nearly pure drones, 

 lint the contamination is in her blood 

 all the saihe, which will show to some 

 extent in her workers, and of course, 

 if an eg^ from such a queen, which 

 would have produced a worker be so 

 treated that it produces a queen, such 

 a queen will not be a pure Italian, but 

 will be hybrid, and her drones, of 

 course, will partake of this qualit}-. 



It is generally conceded that it is 

 rare that an Italian quci'U .will dupli- 

 cate herself in her daughters. The 

 old q\ieen may produce workers, every 

 one of which will show the tliree dis- 

 tinct bands, but her daughters, as a 

 rule, will produce bees that vary in 

 this respect. This may be owing to 

 tlie daughter's mating with a half- 

 blood drone, or it may be owing to 

 the mother or grandmother, etc., hav- 



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