MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 107weather being damp and cool was very much against thosecolonies.These colonies had lived for the first three weeks on thepunctured fruit and on the honey off of the fruit which had beendipped; as there were at that season few plants in flower fromwhich they could gather nectar, these bees had died of starvation,notwithstanding the proximity of the ripe, juicy fruit. The supplyof food which they were so urgently in need of was only separatedfrom them by the skin of the fruit, which, however, thisevidence proves, they could not puncture, asthey did not do so."Fruit-Bloom.—Q. Is there much honey from fruit-bloom (principallyapples) ?A. I am in a region of abundant fruit-bloom, but I never hada pound of surplus from it. It is all used up in rearing brood.If it came in the middle of June I should probably have had tonsof honey from it. Yet I wouldn't for many dollars have it in June.The bees reared from fruit-bloom are what gather the surpluslater on, and so fruit-bloom is of the highest value. In this regionapple is worth all the rest put together, for it lasts two to fourweeks, there being that difference between the earliest and latestvarieties.Gentle Bees.—Q. What strain or race of bees do you considermost gentle and easy to handle?A. The Caucasians are claimed to be gentlest of all, but reportsdo not all agree. Italians are good.German Bee-Papers.—Q. Is there a German bee-paper published,either here or in foreign countries?A. No German bee-paper is published in this country, but anumber across the water, among them Schweizerische Bienenzeitung,Praktischer Wegweiser, Leipziger Bienenzeitung, Bienen-Vater,Deutsche Imker aus Boehmen. Names and addressesof German papers can probably be obtained by addressing requestto the officeof the American Bee Journal.Giant Bee of India.—Q. Do you think the giant East Indianhoneybee will ever be imported to this country?A. No; and I don't believe it would be of any value if it werebrought here.Glass for Super-Covers.—Q. I have noticed two or threetimes in the American Bee Journal beekeepers using a sheet ofglass for a super cover. I would like to adopt it myself if it