348 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



yield honey to bees is a superstition 

 brought from the old country. They 

 say that when the Lord made the 

 bees they insisted on working on 

 Sunday and, since they would not de- 

 sist, He forbade them the use of red 

 clover. That superstition is all there 

 is to it. J. D. KAUFMAN, 



Kalispell, Mont. 

 (We insert this letter because of 

 the legend, of which we had never 

 heard, and also because it is another 

 evidence that red clover does yield 

 honey in some places. But our own 

 experience in the matter leads us to 

 believe that red clover often con- 

 tains honey that the bees cannot 

 reach because of the depth of the 

 corolla. Otherwise, why should only 

 bumblebees be seen upon it when we 

 can smell the honey in it and can 

 actually taste it by picking a blos- 

 som and sucking at the base of the 

 calyx? Friend Kaufman's experi- 

 ence has evidently been upon clover 

 the corolla of which was more or 

 less stunted by the dryness of the 

 climate. But he is right when he 

 says that some plants yield honey in 

 some localities and not in others. 

 The Swiss beekeepers are practically 

 unanimous in saying that there is no 

 honey in white clover in Switzerland. 

 —Ed.) 



Another Experience. — I have read 

 Mr. Pellett's letter on "Red Clover 

 as a Honey Plant." I wish to add 

 my experience on the same. 



In my first beekeeping I gave very 

 little attention to the different 

 sources of honey. I was too closely 

 confined to my business, and kept a 

 few colonies as a side line. It was in 

 1901 that I first took notice of red 

 clover as a honey-plant. In that 

 year, up to August, the honey crop 

 was a failure. I had given no atten- 

 tion to the bees except to give them 

 plenty of room for extracted honey. 

 My folks would leave the honey- 

 house door ajar occasionally, and 

 still the bees did not give any trou- 

 ble. It was in the latter part of 

 August that I went out to see why 

 the bees were so modest about in- 

 vading the honey-house, thinking that 

 there was no honey. Imagine my 

 surprise on finding every space filled 

 and the bees busy, all going east in 

 the direction of a fine field of second 

 crop red clover, much dwarfed by the 

 dry weather. On my way through 

 town I met another beekeeper, Mr. 

 Pritchett, who kept an apiary of 

 about forty colonies. I asked him to 

 come and extract the honey for me, 

 as I was getting ready to make an 

 extended trip south. His reply was, 

 "I don't know anything about ex- 

 tracting, and you haven't any honey 

 to extract; my bees haven't any, 

 and I know yours haven't." 



I went on and investigated the clo- 

 ver field and found the bees in full 

 force and, as busy as I ever saw 

 them, gathering honey from red clo- 

 ver. On my way home I met Mr. 

 Pritchett carrying two full crates of 

 as fine section honey as I ever saw. 

 I said to him, "Where did you get 

 that?" His reply was, "After meet- 



ing you 1 went home and found I 

 have plenty of it." 



His apiary was within three rods 

 of his kitchen door, but so quietly 

 had the bees worked that he took no 

 notice of their progress. 



Again, in 1916, we had a fine crop 

 of white clover, but the dry weather 

 in July and August cut it off. Yet my 

 bees continued to bring in honey. I 

 again investigated the red clover, 

 which was very much dwarfed, and 

 the bees as busy as could be. 



In both these cases the same con- 

 ditions existed — the extreme dry 

 weather had dwarfed the red clover 

 and there was a complete absence 

 of other honey-plants. The quality 

 of the honey in both cases was the 

 best. Perhaps a shade darker than 

 white clover. It was very heavy. Of 

 the 1916 crop we used the last in sec- 

 tions a few weeks ago. It kept in 

 perfect condition. 



B. A. MANLEY, Milo, Iowa. 



Losses in Southern Beekeeping. — 



What is it? I had last year three 

 yards of bees; in one yard I 

 noticed, about the first of June, a 

 patch of brood that had every aspect 

 of European foulbrood. As I had 

 never seen any disease at all I sent 

 a sample of the brood to the Govern- 

 ment and asked them what was the 

 matter with it. They wrote back say- 

 ing that there was no trace of dis- 

 ease at all and that the brood prob- 

 ably became chilled or overheated. I 

 know that they had died of neither 

 of these causes. The disease(?) af- 

 fected several combs in this one hive 

 and one comb in another hive. This 

 was all that I could find in the three 

 apiaries of 200 hives. 



The larvae died for a period of 

 about fifteen days and the disease 

 then disappeared. 



This year, about June first, I found 

 a hive affected with the same thing 

 at another yard several miles from 

 the one that had it last year. I also 

 found, out of 75 hives, at least a 

 third of them affected, and in a few 

 days all were affected. I then looked 

 over the other two yards and found 

 that all of them were affected, also. 



I at once sent a large sample to 

 Washington. In about fifteen days I 

 got a report saying "No disease at 

 all," but to send another sample. 

 Well I could not find any more. The 

 disease had cleared up. And now all 

 colonies are as healthy as I could 

 wish. 



But for a period of about a week 

 I do not believe that a single egg 

 that was laid in the 200 hives ever 

 got to be a full-grown bee. They 

 would begin to die, from a 3-day 

 larva up to just about time to seal 

 the cell over the cocoon. 

 There was no odor at all; the larvas 

 would turn a blue color and in a few 

 days die and begin to shrink and 

 gradually dry up to a scale, if the 

 bees didn't carry them out before 

 they got dried up; while a few would 

 get ropy, just a little. Most of them 

 were carried out of the hivi 

 they had shrunk some. 



I have looked into every book on 



bees that I have (and I have quite a 

 few) and I can find nothing like it 

 except a description of European 

 foulbrood, and this has no odor. 

 Most of these hives were Italians 

 ami Mime blacks. The blacks got it 

 first and had it a little longer than 

 the Italians, but I could not say that 

 they showed less resistance to it 

 than the Italians; in fact, I don't 

 think that either of them showed 

 any resistance to the attack; no eggs 

 laid for a period of seven or eight 

 days, matured into adult bees. 



In Wilder's "Southern Bee Cul- 

 ture," edition of 1908 page 47, he 

 says : 



"While there is a loss, more or less 

 of young bees in all stages of develop- 

 ment, in many apiaries of the south, 

 yet it is not always owing to disease, 

 but to the source of feed, for there 

 are certain plants that yield nectar 

 or pollen that seems to poison the 

 young bees, and they die rapidly for 

 a short time, but soon it is all over 

 and no more symptoms appear till 

 that time next year. This loss of 

 bees is small, and not of enough con- 

 sequence for treatment." 



But with me, with 200 hives in 

 which for a period of seven days not 

 an egg matured to a live bee, the 

 loss is more than "small." 



Next year, if the disease appears 

 again, I will send brood to the Gov- 

 ernment and to anyone else who 

 wishes to see a sample, and also to 

 the editors of the different papers; 

 but in the meantime, can anyone 

 shed any light on the subject? 



JOSEPH C. SCOTT, 

 Mt. Pleasant, Ala. 



Supers for Sections. — I would like 

 to give my experience with different 

 styles of supers in hopes that it may 

 be of some help to others who, like 

 myself, may have found fault with 

 some of the more common styles. I 

 began keeping bees in 1908, with the 

 regular beeway super and style 2 

 scalloped sections 4J4x4J4xl% inches. 



In 1909 I bought some plain section 

 supers of both 4x5 and 4;4x4J4 styles 

 and liked either much better than the 

 beeway, as the separators were more 

 durable and furnished a more com- 

 fortable place for bees to work. 



But I was reading about this time 

 a series of articles from Mr. Town- 

 send to beginners, in which he advo- 

 cated the placing of sections and 

 frames in some supers at same time 

 I liked this plan from the start, and 

 still use it to advantage. But for 

 some time 1 did not find a super that 

 would admit both sections and the 

 regular Hoffman shallow frame. 



In 1912 I bought some supers that 



used .i-'svl'j sections, live in a tier. 



thus an 8-frame super holds 30 sec 



ind a 10-frame 35. I liked these 



so well that 1 have bought nothing 



else since, though I am Still using the 



othei three stales mentioned above, 

 but think I shall change them to con- 

 form to the last mentioned this sea- 

 son. 



I . laim the following advantages 

 for them: 



1. They are more economical and 



