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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



Bonney's advertising has been read 

 and now is being passed on. Now is 

 the time for other beemen to be 

 thinking about advertising before the 

 bottom drops out of the price of 

 honey. 



Nectar From Corn 



Last fall, while passing through a 

 field near my apiary, the owner jok- 

 ingly called to me that my lues were 

 "eating his corn." 



This corn had been planted tun late 

 and did not get ripe. The leaves had 

 turned yellow, but the stalks and 

 ears were more or less green and full 

 in' juice. The owner was gathering a 

 small quantity for his hogs._ and I 

 found from two to five or six bees 

 sucking the sweetish juice from the 

 end of the cobs, where these had 

 been broken from the stalks. 



Would it not seem probable, there- 

 fore, that the bees could also_ gather 

 this juice through the medium of 

 aphids on the stalk or leaves. 

 whether they secure honey from this 

 plant in another manner or not? 

 A. G. VAN RONZELEN. 

 St. Louis. Mo. 



Montana Beekeepers to Meet 



As we go tn press we get the an- 

 nouncement of an interesting pro- 

 gram of the Montana beeki 

 who will meet at Billings on March 

 11 and 12. The meeting will be held 

 in the Family Hillings Public Library. 



Honey From Corn 



One summer my bees were starving: 

 no flowers or nectar anywhere. One 

 morning the bees went roaring as 

 though they were .swarming. As they 

 all went east. I followed to see what 

 caused the excitement. As I climbed 

 over the fence into the cornfield the 

 bees were just roaring all over it 

 like they do in basswood trees in 

 bloom. I went over the field and 

 watched them for a long time. They 

 were working on the tassel and not 

 on the silk. They were not gather- 

 ing any pollen nor carrying any in 

 the hives. All the honey I got that 

 season was from the cornfields. I 

 got about 20 pounds per colony for 

 the season, and that was the only 

 time I ever got pure corn honey. It 

 was of the constituency and color of 

 basswood, but was of a peculiar fla- 

 vor. Nothing else was mixed with 

 it. 



Since then T have seen them gath- 

 ering nectar a few times, but only 

 spasmodically, and not amounting to 

 anvthing. 



They also gather pollen from corn 

 every season. T never saw them 

 working on the silks. 



The corn tassels do not secrete 

 nectar every year. The weather con- 

 ditions must he just right for the 

 bees to get anything at all. 



Now as to aphides: I hav een 

 thousands of them; but my honey 

 was not aphide secretion, but the 

 pure nectar, with a flavor not for- 

 gotten if once learned. 



SYLVESTER KALER. 

 Arkansas City. Ark. 



Another Pioneer Beekeeper Gone 

 M. M Baldridge, the oldest sub- 

 scriber rican Bee Journal. 

 died at his home at St. Charles, 111.. 

 lanuarv 31. He was a reader of the 

 Journal since its first issue. Mr. 

 Baldridge was 81 years old. His face 

 was a familiar figure at the Chicago 

 bee conventions. 



Ashes on the Snow 



For several years we have been 

 overcoming the snow handicap by 

 spreading fine dry ashes over the 

 snow at the first indication that it 

 will be warm enough to begin melt- 

 ing the snow, and also considering 

 the bees will have a flight. 



If the bees should come out before 

 the snow is melted very much the 

 ashes darken the snow, taking the 

 glare off, thereby eliminating snow- 

 blindness among the bees and loss of 

 bees from alighting in the snow in 

 front of the hives. 



We sack up our ashes in the fall 

 when they are dry and find that 

 three or four sacks, if dry, are suf- 

 ficient for a yard of 100 to ISO colo- 

 nies. 



We begin spreading the ashes on 

 the windward side of the yard and 

 find that it spreads best by a throw- 

 ing motion, using considerable force. 

 R. L. PENNELL, 

 Ignacio, Colo. 



Confining Queens During Honeyflow 



I am going to put a question up to 

 you which is causing me a good deal 

 of worry in anticipation. 



You know that here in Minnesota 

 our honeyflow is from white clover 

 and basswood, which comes practi- 

 cally in one continuous rush. Now, 

 when this rush is over, there is noth- 

 ing more doing, as far as surplus 

 honey is concerned, so it behooves us 

 to conserve this flow in every way 

 possible. 



One way is to confine or remove 

 the queen at the beginning of the 

 honeyflow while the bees are raising 

 a young queen. This not only pre- 

 vents the use of this flow for brood- 

 feeding, but also prevents the pro- 

 duction of such a swarm of useless 

 bees after the season is over. 



Again. I wish to put the brood in 

 such relation to the hive that I shall 

 not lie obliged to look into any divis- 

 ion but the top for queen-cells when, 

 in ten days, they must he disposed of. 



After the change is made the hive 

 will be arranged: first division (the 

 main hive") with empty drawn combs; 

 second division, empty drawn combs; 

 third division, all of the brood except 

 as specified in question three. 



Now for the questions: 



DR. L. D. LEONARD. 



First. Will the bees work just as 

 well in the two divisions below the 

 brood if the queen is removed from 

 the hive at the time the brood is put 

 above? 



Answer. I believe they will, for 

 they will not be hopelessly queenless. 

 id. Will the bees work better 

 if the queen is confined in a small 

 cage just inside the entrance, no 

 brood being present below the top 

 division? 



Answer. I do not think it will 



make much, if any difference from 

 No. 1. 



Third. Will a blanket made of 

 queen-excluding zinc holding two 

 frames of brood placed in the first di- 

 vision (hivebody) wherein the queen 

 may be confined, be enough better 

 than either one or the other alterna- 

 tives to warrant the expense in mak- 

 ing? 



Answer. It may, but I hardly think 

 so. Try 3 or 4. 



Fourth. If in ten days I remove 

 queen and place a frame of brood 

 with a queen-cell from the top di- 

 vision to the bottom, destroying or 

 removing all other cells in the hive, 

 will the bees be likely to swarm when 

 the young queen is hatched and goes 

 out on her mating flight? 



Answqr. This depends entirely 

 upon the crop conditions. If they are 

 good, I believe the bees may swarm. 



These questions we do not have to 

 answer in our localities <)f spring 

 and summer flows. So the replies 

 can only be tentative. 



Why not confine the queens in a 

 cage for only 8 or 9 days; then open 

 the hive, release her and destroy the 

 queen-cells, if she does not do it her- 

 self? I can see no objection to so 

 short a confinement. But in a period 

 of 8 days, if the crop is good and 

 the bees bringing plenty of honey, 

 most of the breeding cells that are 

 emptied of their brood by the hatch- 

 ing of young bees, will have been 

 filled with honey. With the 8 days 

 or 9 days of non-laying and the 

 shortening of the brood space there- 

 by caused, the production of brood 

 might be delayed sufficiently to se- 

 cure the result wanted, a less num- 

 ber of bees to feed during late sum- 

 mer. We must make sure that the 

 colony is not sufficiently weakened or 

 endanger its chances to winter safe- 

 ly. A week or more of delay would, 

 in my mindj^e quite sufficient. 



Great fo^Jght must be exercised 

 not to remove the queen too soon, 

 as some of the force needed would 

 be lost. Of course, if the queen is 

 old or of poor value, it is best to re- 

 move her entirely. Let us hear the 

 experience of others. — C. P. D. 



I 



Value of Good Stock 



Mr. E. G. Carr, State Apiarist of 

 New Jersey, tells of a beekeeper who 

 four years ago was on the point of 

 giving up beekeeping because of Eu- 

 ropean foulbrood. He was induced 

 to try selected Italian stock, with 

 the result that this year he produced 

 400 pounds of extracted honey from 

 one colony, and it was not regarded 

 as a favorable season, cither. The 

 presence of European foulbrood 

 often stimulates beekeepers to give 

 more careful attention to their bees 

 than ever before. Its presence makes 

 the introduction of good stock im- 

 perative. Many good beekeepers 

 date their success from the time 

 when they began to fight this dis- 

 ease, so perhaps, on the whole, the 

 benefit derived from overcoming it 

 has mure than balanced the injury it 

 has caused to the industry. It has 

 served to call attention to value of 

 the best stock in a striking manner. 



