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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 14, 19C4, 



time to rise again. Birth, and death, and slaughter in his 

 mind readily, but somehow not resurrection. Well, here on 

 page 770, is a welcome and timely resurrection. We hailed 

 the birth of the thing with general acclaim, when the de- 

 funct Apiculturist started it so long ago. It wore by 

 degrees — got threadbare by degrees — wore out — all tired of 

 it — decently buried. Already " the heavens be changed " 

 (to quote Job — more spiritual than Solomon) ; and here be- 

 hold our department ready for a new term of useful life ! 



And, meantime, the Langstroth frame appears to have 

 been holding its own, if not a little more, since it was ques- 

 tioned about last. About 17 for it against 10 to all others. 

 Of the 10 about 4 are for a long, shallow frame — and no 

 other three in a class. The growth of sentiment in favor 

 of the very shallow frame is not at all huge ; but apparently 

 it does grow some. 



CAI,IFORNIA NEW-COMERS AND OCEAN WATER. 



So the self-renunciatory Californians bid the new-comer 

 take water out of the Pacific Ocean, just as if the stuff was 

 free ! Page 762. 



SWARMING AND NON-SWARMING QUEENS. 



Methinks, deciding the relative rank and real value of 

 the queens that swarm as compared with the queens that 

 don't swarm, is one of the most difficult things we have to 

 do. If it's rattleheadedness that causes the swarming, of 

 course we don't want it. Very doubtful if it is always that. 

 If a higher order of vim, against unfavorable weather and 

 circumstances, puts them above the swarming level when 

 all others keep below it, it seems rather hard to condemn 

 them just because for one year the surplus account figured 

 smaller — and go to breeding from something with less nat- 

 ural vigor. Page 762. 



ONE IN 10 FOR THE NATIONAL. 



Modest request, truly — that one in ten of the beekeep- 

 ers that take the papers shall also join the Association. 

 Keep agitating and I guess they will. Yes, and here's my 

 own membership out, or nearly so, and I hadn't thought of 

 it for a long time — and wasn't likely to. Make us see our 

 duty big and often, somewhat as we have to see the last 

 new cereal in the newspapers. Page 755. 



ON INDOOR WINTERING OF BEES. 



As to that mild two weeks in November, I don't believe 

 a colony outside consumes any more than when inside. 

 May be I'm all wrong there. And some more of the edi- 

 torial reasoning on page 755 I am not quite inclined to ac- 

 cept either. It's not the abstract length of the confinement 

 that counts, but the number of days after they get to stir- 

 ring and eating more freely than their first style of deport- 

 ment. I suspect that that first and very desirable period of 

 placidity is variable, variable to a large extent, and that 

 how to make it as long as possible is one of the most im- 

 portant wintering problems left for us to solve. 



THE COLOR FAD IN HONBY. 



I can support Mr. Pryal, that the demand for extreme 

 whiteness in honey is somewhat a fad, and likely to mod- 

 erate eventually. But one consideration comes in there 

 which will hinder a little. While an amber honey, or even 

 a dark honey, may be better than a given white honey, the 

 honey from the same species of plant varies a good deal in 

 color, and it's best when it's whitest. Basswood honey, for 

 instance, is much better when it is nearly water-white than 

 vrhen it is yellow. Page 757. 



DISINFECTING FOUL-BROODY HIVES. 



So the smell of foul brood is to the smell of black brood 

 as old glue is to rotten apple. 



I think page 759 suggests a style of treating hives that 

 if not new is near enough to it to be the better for repeat- 

 ing. Premising doubtless that the inner surface is scraped 

 entirely clean, brush it over with a mixture of gasoline and 

 bisulphide of carbon— brush it in such a free way that part 

 of the fluid must needs soak in before it evaporates — and 

 one-quarter bisulphide to three-quarters gasoline will an- 

 swer. Don't trust too much to so green a doctor as I, but I 

 should call this a good way to do. 



Amerlkanische Bienenzucht, by Hans Buschbauer, is 

 a bee-keeper's handbook of 138 pages, which is just what 

 our German friends will want. It is fully illustrated, and 

 neatly bound in cloth. Price, postpaid, SI. 00 ; or with the 

 American Bee Journal one year— both for $1.75. Address 

 all orders to this office. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Dr. Miller's New Year's Greeting. 



I am sitting at my typewriter, coat and vest oil — I'm not always 

 clad in such a summery manner in the middle of winter, but often warm 

 up at my work — and was just about to attempt to answer the first ques- 

 tion appearing before me for 1904, when it occurred to me that this 

 being the first day of January I might at least wish a Happy New Year 

 to all the good friends who honor this page by looking over it. To be 

 sure, this may not appear in print until after the first number of the 

 Journal for 1'.KI4 has seen the light, but, at any rate, I'm taking the 

 right day to utter the wish. 



When a man doesn't eojoy his work there's a misfit somewhere. 

 However much I may have come short in doing satisfactory work in 

 this department, I am sure I'm not a misfit at least to this extent, that 

 I have thoroughly enjoyed the work. I like to talk about bees and 

 tell what's the best thing to do with them, and only wish I knew more, 

 so that I could tell more The many kind words that have come to 

 me from time to time have cheered me more than I can well express. 

 If I should ever live to be old enoiigh I suppose I won't care for kind 

 words, but at my time of life they are greatly relished. The only re- 

 gret is that I cannot reply in kind, but hope you will take this brief 

 acknowledgment in lieu of a personal reply. 



So, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thou- 

 sand nine hundred four, I am heartily wishing you, my good friends of 

 the Journal family, a very Happy New Year. C. C. Miller. 



[The foregoing from Dr. Miller did not arrive at this office in 

 time for it to appear in last week's issue. However, its kindly spirit 

 and grateful wishes will doubtless be just as acceptable to all as if 

 they had arrived "on time." — Editor.] 



Cellar-Wintering of Bees Short of Stores. 



I am a beginner, and also a new subscriber to the American Bee 

 Journal. On December .5, I bought 4 colonies of Italian bees in dove- 

 tailed hives. These bees were apparently in good condition, but had 

 almost exhausted their winter stores. I put them into the cellar, but as 

 soon as I started to feed them they became uneasy and flew around the 

 cellar. I closed the entrances with wire netting, and fed each of them 

 7 pounds of sugar (made into syrup) with a Miller feeder. I then put 

 them in one end of the cellar, with a curtain across to keep out 

 what little light came in. After they became quiet I removed the 

 wire and turned the bottom-boards to give them more ventilation, 

 and they have remained very quiet ever since. I see in the Bee Jour- 

 nal that you advise feeding sugar syrup only when the bees can fly. 



1. Please give the reason. 



3. How many pounds of sugar would you feed a fair-sized colony 

 to winter them in the cellar? 



S. How many pounds when wintering outside? 



The cellar in which I have these bees has a cemented-bottom, and 

 a hot-air furnace in one end. The temperature varies from 38 degrees 

 F. to 50 degrees F. So far, the end in which I have the bees has kept 

 about 50 degrees. 



4. Have I any chance of bringing these bees through to the har- 

 vest. Westchester. 



Answers. — 1. You have yourself partly answered the question 

 when you say that feeding syrup made the bees become uneasy and fly 

 around the cellar. There is also danger of diarrhea resulting. 



2. 20 or more. 



3. HO or more. 



4. Yes, if they will only remain " very quiet '' they may pull 

 through all right. Unless your thermometer marks too high, they 

 would probably do better to be no higher than 45 to 4S degrees. 



Arrangement of Sections in t Supers— Bees Dying in 

 Winter. 



1. What is the arrangement of sections in your supers, as shown 

 in " Forty Years Among ihe Bees," pagelHS As the outside dimen- 

 sions of an 8-franie hive is 20 inches, assuming the super is the same 

 the inside of super, if tnade of '„-mch lumber would be 18'4 inches, a 

 row of 4'4 sections would be only ir inches. What tills up this 134- 

 inch space at the end of the super, as you, I believe, use 5 tins in 

 place of section-holders? 



2. I am wintering bees on the summer stands, in single-walled 

 hives, and in cleaning the bottotn-boards I find from a pint to upwards 

 of a quart of dead bees. The colonies are the strongest and heaviest 

 in the apiary. If it were weak colonies losing bees it would not be 



