AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



safety sake proceed thus: Take a 

 comb or two from the colony with 

 which you intend to unite them, 

 brush off adhering bees, and place 

 them in an empty hive-body. If there 

 is no honey in the combs, pour on 

 them some sugar syrup or diluted 

 honey, and as soon as the bees take 

 possession of them they begin to fill 

 themselves. When all the bees are 

 well clustered on the combs, place 

 them on one side of your weak colony 

 (not in the center), and there will be 

 no trouble whatever. The newcom- 

 ers are welcomed, and as they were 

 consciously queenless, they are now 

 desirous for a queen. To introduce 

 a package of bees with a queen to a 

 queenless colony, I proceed in a sim- 

 ilar manner, with good results. 

 Color of Honey 

 I am really surprised to read in the 

 October number that Aster honey 

 should be white. This shows that 

 what applies to one locality is differ- 

 ent in another. In this locality we 

 had seasons where white asters were 

 in such abundance that roadsides and 

 fields were covered white as snow. 

 Although there were hardly any 

 other flowers present the honey 

 which the bees gathered was rather 

 dark, while in some seasons the 

 honey from the same source was am- 

 ber. The same experience I had with 

 honey gathered from various sources 

 in the spring. As a rule the honey 

 extracted here in June is dark, 

 while in some seasons it happens to 

 be light amber. Although the sea- 

 sons in which this occurred produced 

 quite a bit of white clover, it is hard 

 to suppose that the bees skipped all 

 those dark honey-yielding flowers, 

 such as tulip poplar, of which we 

 have a great deal here, to gather 

 their surplus honey exclusively from 

 white clover, which yields honey of a 

 light amber color. The surplus honey 

 extracted during this season is all 



dark, in spite of the white clover, ol 

 which we had enough for some sur- 

 plus honey. With this experience. 1 

 am apt to believe that weather con- 

 ditions influence the color of honey- 

 in different seasons and different lo- 

 calities have probably still more to 

 do with it. 



For an inquirer 

 When comb foundation in wired 

 frames happens to freeze, it is not 

 injured from this source. I have had 

 some wired frames with foundation 

 time and again in the honey and sup- 

 ply house, where the thermometer 

 has gone below zero and I found that 

 the combs were practically as good 

 as before. When frozen, no combs 

 should be handled, to avoid break- 

 age. ALPHONSE VEITH, 



Indiana. 



Concrete Beehives 



Quite frequently someone suggests 

 concrete as a desirable material for 

 making beehives. It is argued that 

 such hives will last indefinitely and 

 can be made at home. However, the 

 weight alone is a sufficient objection 

 to make them impractical for com- 

 mercial beekeepers. 



The hives shown in the picture are 

 some made and used by S. L. Palmer, 

 Hutchinson, Kans. They are made of 

 reinforced concrete, with wood lin- 

 ing, surrounded by newspapers. In 

 spite of this extra insulation the 

 combs sometimes melt down in hot 

 weather. Concrete is so very cold 

 that it is objectionable on that ac- 

 count as well. Since wintering is the 

 great problem to beemen over a large 

 part of the country, a practical hive 

 must lend itself to the easy solution 

 of the winter question. 



Honey From Bitterweed 



It was about the 15th of July that 

 a friend of mine who lives 15 miles 

 away and has four or five hives of 



bees, told me that he had taken off 

 his spring crop and would I put the 

 supers back on. 1 told him that I 

 would not, at least till velvet began 

 to yield. There is no clover here. 



I saw him about two weeks later 

 and he asked me to fix up some su- 

 pers of sections and send to him, as 

 the bees were getting honey. I 

 couldn't imagine what it was, for it 

 was early for velvet beans, but I 

 sent them to him. Last week I was 

 out there and he said "I want to 

 show you something," and he showed 

 me a large bowl of very pretty honey. 

 I exclaimed, ''My, what a beautiful 

 bowl of velvet bean honey!" He said 

 "well, just taste it." and I can't begin 

 to tell you the shock that I got; it 

 was as bitter as gall. 



He had gotten a super around of 

 this bitter honey from Helenium 

 tenuifolium. He got 32 sections to 

 the hive. 



This is commonly called "yellow 

 top" or "bitterweed." 



It grows about 10 to 15 inches high 

 and has many little yellow ball-like 

 flowers. 



It grows on the roadside and in old 

 fields. 



I have seen a red clay road lined 

 between the wheel ruts and the ditch 

 with this plant. With the red road 

 with a strip or ribbon of yellow on 

 the edge with the brown pine needles 

 in the woods and generally a strip of 

 green grass in the ditches, there is a 

 very pleasing picture. 



While I have kept bees here for 

 seven years and there is a lot of this 

 yellow top, I have never gotten a sur- 

 plus crop from it nor have I ever 

 known the bees to get any honey 

 from it, though they get a lot of pol- 

 len from the plant. 



When cattle eat this plant the milk 

 and butter are too bitter to eat, but 

 they do not eat them as a rule. 



My friend has too much other 

 work to do to give the bees the at- 

 tention that they should have, and I 

 feel certain that if they had been 

 given more attention that they would 

 have given more than a super of 

 sections per hive of this bitter honey. 

 The sections were literally jam full, 

 which showed a heavy, or at least a 

 good flow on. Without attention you 

 generally do not get a super of sec- 

 tions like these unless there is 

 enough of a flow on for them to fill 

 in a hurry. 



I am sending the editor a sample 

 of this honey, and will let him give a 

 short description of its body, flavor, 



t. JOSEPH S. SCO I I. 



Mt. Pleasant, Ala. 



(The honey was duly received, but 

 the taste was so extremely hitter 

 ih.it one could not but lose all inter- 

 est in tile body and flavor. It is ap- 

 parently entirely worthless for any 

 put i" ise hut to feed hark to thi bees 

 —Ed.) 



Concrete beehives 



Minnesota State Association 



The Minnesota State Becker]" i 

 iation will meet December 4-3, 

 in the West Hotel. Minneapolis. For 

 del. ids and program write L. V. 

 France, Secretary, at the University 

 Farm, St. Paul. 



