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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



substitutes for good honey or pure 

 sugar syrup might do to incite breed- 

 ing, in the spring, when bees are not 

 confined to the hive. But we know 

 positively that the. juice of any fruit 

 is quite injurious, when the bees are 

 confined to the hive for any length 

 of time. Sorghum juice might be 

 the least offensive. Mr. Kerr lives in 

 a locality where bees are but little 

 confined, hence his possible success. — 

 Editor.) 



Another Fabre Book 



J. Henri Fabre, who died not long 

 since, is generally regarded as the 

 greatest naturalist of his time. His 

 greatest literary work is his "Souve- 

 nirs Entomologiques," on which he 

 spent twenty-eight years of his life. 

 This work, originally published in 

 French in ten volumes, is now ap- 

 pearing in English, one or two books 

 being translated each year. Many 

 nature lovers eagerly await the ap- 

 pearance of each new Fabre volume 

 in the English translation. 



"The Life of the Grasshopper" is 

 the lates: in this series to reach our 

 desk. This volume includes the vari- 

 ous essays by the author on the 

 grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, man- 

 tis, etc. 



In the chapter on the hunting of 

 the mantis, is a fascinating account 

 of the way in which the crab spider 

 captures the honeybee on the blos- 

 soms which she visits in search of 

 nectar. Several pages are devoted 

 to the details of capture, killing of 

 the captive and the final disposition 

 of the carcass. 



Like all of Fabre's books, this one 

 displays a wonderful insight into the 

 habits of the insects which he de- 

 scribes and it is well worth a place in 

 the library of everv nature lover. The 

 book is published by Dodd, Mead & 

 Co., of Xew York, at $1.60, but can be 

 ordered through this office if desired. 



Candy for Late Winter Feeding 



"Some of my colonies are short of 

 honey in the brood-combs for winter. 

 I would like to have a receipt for 

 making candy. Is there a way to 

 make it in sheets for insertion in the 

 brood-frames for feeding them 

 through the winter? This informa- 

 tion would be interesting to me and 

 other green beekeepers. 



H. E. C, Manchester, N. H. 



The receipt for making candy is 

 given in most of the bee books. It 

 may be found at paragraph 611 of the 

 "Hive and Honey Bee" and at para- 

 graph 194 of "First Lessons." As 

 the receipt is short and simple, we 

 will give it here : 



Heat about 4 parts of sugar with 

 one part of water and boil it until 

 thick enough. Stir constantly so that 

 it will ii"t burn To knew when it is 

 thick enough, dip your finger Inst 

 into cold water, then into the syrup. 

 If what adheres is brittle to the 

 teeth, it is boiled enough. Put into 

 shallow pans of proper size. Some 

 people use thin tissue paper under 

 the cakes. Others use very light 

 muslin and make the cakes thin 

 enough to slip down between the 

 frames. 



When bees are short of food as late 



as December, a very good way is to 

 put the hives down in a cool, dry 

 cellar and place sheets of this candy 

 over the top of the frames, in a shal- 

 low super, above the cluster, so the 

 lues may get to the candy without 

 leaving the brood-chamber. We have 

 often seen a comparatively weak 

 colony winter thus, and it is quite in- 

 teresting to go down into the cellar 

 with a flash light, lift up the cap 

 carefully and noiselessly and see the 

 bees gathered around the sugar, in 

 i quiet cluster. It does not require 

 over 6 or 7 pounds of this candy to 

 bring them to the days of spring. 

 After that they must be fed with 

 more watery food, for they need 

 water to breed, and candy is insuf- 

 ficient. Even colonies in box hives 

 may be fed in this way by inverting 

 in the cellar and placing candy on the 

 end of the combs. 



Loss of Bees by Diarrhea — Introduc- 

 tion of Queens 



Last winter and spring we lost 47 

 colonies by diarrhea, from November 

 to May. We would be glad to have 

 advice on the treatment of the dis- 

 ease. 



We bought and introduced several 

 queens in the past 4 years and lost 

 some until we tried the following 

 plan : Catch the old queen and rub 

 her all over the cage containing the 

 young queen before introducing the 

 latter. Then put the cage between 

 two combs and let her alone 4 days. 

 You will then find that the bees have 

 released her and that she is laying. 

 J. M., Speers' Ferry. \'a. 



Answer. — As a rule, diarrhea is 

 caused by a poor quality of winter 

 food. It is easier prevented than 

 cured. Perhaps your bees had honej'- 

 dew or fruit juices, and were con- 

 fined to the hives a long time by bad 

 weather. When any such stores are 

 in the hives, it is necessary to ex- 

 tract the bad food and feed either 

 good honey or sugar syrup, 2 or 2^4 

 parts sugar to 1 of water. Located 

 where you are, south of the 37th de- 

 gree of latitude, if you place your 

 colonies in a well-sheltered spot, 

 facing south, and have good food in 

 the hives, you will not find any di- 

 arrhea. 



Your method of introducing queens 

 is similar to that given by Dr. Miller 

 in May, 1917, page 158, which consists 

 in putting the old queen in the cage 

 for an hour or two previous to put- 

 ting the young queen into it. But 

 your method has the advantage that 

 it is not necessary to remove the new 

 queen from the cage in which you 

 have received her, letting the bees 

 release her by eating the candy at 

 the end of the cage. — Editor. 



Swarm in a City Street 



While on their 500-mile walk from 

 l.os Angeles. Calif., to San Francisco, 

 Calif. Jim Beatty and Joe Haberstock, 

 known in vaudeville as the "Happy 

 Hikers," walking song-writers, 



snapped the accompanying photo in 

 San Jose, Calif. 



The swarm of bees on the radiator 

 of this automobile, caused quite a 

 little excitement and amusement. 



The lobby of a picture theater near- 

 by was so attractive to Mrs. "Queen 

 Bee" that after studying the face 

 of her favorite screen hero, she ma- 

 jestically settled herself on the dome 

 of the ticket office and, naturally 

 enough, thousands of her tiny fol- 

 lowers were soon buzzing, humming 

 and singing to the ragtime time 

 ground out on the mechanical piano 

 within. 



But the "swarm" proved too friend- 

 ly to suit the pretty cashier, who 

 finally was forced to flee from the of- 

 fice. Business was suspended until 

 the "Queen" took a notion for an au- 

 tomobile ride and landed on the 

 radiator of the machine shown in the 

 photo. The owner is trying to collect 

 the bees in the box. 



Bees Quickly Locate Selves 



The most remarkable instance of 

 bees locating themselves occurred 

 with me only a short time ago. To 

 be accurate it was the last week of 

 September. A friend of mine sold a 

 ranch on which he reared mostly 

 cattle and goats. On this ranch he 

 had eight colonies of black bees. 

 Having sold the ranch and all be- 

 longing to it except the bees, he of- 

 fered to sell them to me. They were 

 in old hives of the standard movable 

 frame variety, badly warped and 



takes pos 



lion of an automobile 



