Jan. 21, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



41 



( 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Kural, Toledo, Ohio. 



HATCHING OF EGGS OF BEES. 



Barely possible (if Dzierzon says so) that in exceptional 

 circumstances an egg might be hatchable two weeks after 

 being laid. Wish I knew more about the usual time of be- 

 coming worthless. I'll guess it at four days — or one day of 

 utter neglect — and let somebody who knows better poke me 

 up about being so green. Also, I entertain a suspicion that, 

 sometimes, from drying, eggs become non-hatchable in 

 much less than a day — perhaps not dead absolutely, but 

 might as well be. You see, if it was usual for bees to keep 

 eggs two weeks, we should have after-swarms issuing 14 

 plus 16- 30 days from prime. Page 763. 



GROWING OF CATNIP. 



Thanks to J. W. Johnson for his catnip experiment. 

 Nine and a half acres seemingly well put in in spring just 

 died out under a not-over-severe dry-spell. Presumably the 

 case of a spring without any dry-spells might bring an ex- 

 ceptional success. To be feared that an extra-severe drouth 

 in the fall might also mean failure. Well to note that it 

 doesn't bear cutting well when little — the half acre among 

 the weeds lived in spite of spring drouth, while the big field 

 was dying — but died incontinently when cut with a mower. 

 From the natural habits of the plant we may conclude that 

 what it hankers after is partial shade — a thing we can't 

 well give it on a large scale. Page 766. 



GNAWING WOOD SEPARATORS. 



" Some " on gnawing, I should call A. F. Foote's bees, 

 to take down wood separators a half inch in one season. 

 Give 'em some tin to break their teeth on. Page 766. 



CHANGING THE COLOR OF HONEY. 



Interesting to see that they succeeded in making a sam- 

 ple of dark extracted honey light with three hours of ex- 

 posure to ozone. But the coloring matter in honey is not 

 always the same thing chemically. There's the carbon 

 (soot) in the honey of a big city ; and it's not only possible, 

 but probable, that different plants put in different sub- 

 stances as color. One experiment is not quite full assur- 

 ance of the process working on other chemicals than it has 

 been tried on. Sunlight has been found to work well on the 

 soiled cappings of comb honey ; wonder how it succeeds — or 

 might succeed — with extracted. Page 771. 



'give CHILDREN SWEETS— PLENTY OF HONEY. 



I'm not much on Dowie, but he's right on children and 

 sweets. Have the candy made under your own supervision, 

 and so be sure there is no harmful thing in it, and then 

 keep them from eating too much by having it on the table 

 everyday. I don't think we do well to do much scolding 

 abQut candy and jam. L,et's tell the truth about them, and 

 say give the children the choice between candy and honey 

 — reasonably plenty of both. As bee-keepers, let us meet 

 the competition of pure candy in diamond-cut-diamond 

 spirit. Undoubtedly children (and their elders, too) very 

 often suffer from too large a quantity taken into the 

 stomach — and then the blame is put on whatever tastes 

 best. That's not a fair conclusion, though very natural. 

 Neither is it fair to lay it down that a health-food must of 

 course be something that does not taste very good. Not 

 creditable to the Creator if thesanseshe has made always 

 err in judgment of what is good and what is not. Page 772. 



CZl _V; CARBON-BISULPHIDE AND MOTH -KILLING. CZI C3 



So if you get the under-floor space of your dwelling per- 

 meated with carbon-bisulphide, in your moth-killing efforts, 

 you have to pay for it with a long spell of bad smell while 

 it takes its own time to work out again. Easy to see ; but, 

 perhaps, not so easy to foresee. Page 783. 



NICK, CAPPED HONEY SOURING IN THE HIVE. 



When nice, new, capped honey sours in the hive (and I 

 think it's not such an uncommon affair), it is usually be- 

 cause the colony has swarmed, and left it uncared for in 

 hot, damp weather — moisture also steaming up from thou- 



sands of brood below. I incline to " bet a cooky " that J. 

 T. Reno's bees, page 783, swarmed and went to the woods 

 when he knew nothing about it. And sour honey, if you 

 don't lose it you'll probably do worse than lose it. Same 

 might be true even in case you try to make vinegar of it. 



SUGAR-HONEY IN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



Here's a fine kettle of fish — and what are we going to 

 do about it ? In the Hawaiian Islands bees can make sugar- 

 honey right from the cane-fields and sugar-mills — and mix 

 it with floral nectar brought in at the same time. Page 783 

 notes the arrival of 121 cases of such honey. May be more 

 a scare than anything else, but still a report to set one 

 thinking. Not at all impossible that the report may be a 

 mean and groundless suspicion of some extra-fine honey. 

 Imports into a new field oft before have encountered just 

 such. And if the stuff were deadly poison it wouldn't scare 

 our folks half as readily. 





Some Expert Opinion 



• In the multitude of counsellors there is safety." — Bible. 





The Best Size of Sections. 



If for some reason you were to start in anew to keep bees, and 

 were obliged to get an entirely new outfit — 



Ques. 4. — What section would you choose? Why? 

 N. E. France (Wis.) — 4x5 plain. 

 Wm. Rohrig (Ariz.) — I do not produce comb honey. 

 O. O. POPPLETON (Fla.) — I do not produce comb honey. 



Geo. W. Brodbeok (CaHf.)~4x5xl3B. They make the best dis- 

 play for the quantity. 



Mrs. L.Harrison (Ell.) — The regular one-pound section, that 

 fits into our surplus-cases. 



.1. M. Hambaugh (Calif.) — Whatever the markets call for. A 

 more ready sale is my reason. 



C. Davenport (.\Iinn.i — I don't know, but one thing I do jnow 

 is, that I am in favor of a standard of some size. 



R. L. Taylor (Mich. I — i^^s.i'^i, 7 to the foot, 4-piece. Because 

 they are the neatest, hold the right amount of honey, and suit me best. 



Prof. A. J. Cook (Calif.) — I think I prefer the one-pound, one- 

 piece section. The plain section with fence also has much to recom- 

 mend it. 



G. M. DooLiTTLE (N. Y.) — One-pound nailed section. Because 

 stronger, and of a more symmetrical appearance than the 4J^x4J^ 

 section. 



Eugene Sbcor (Iowa) — Perhaps the tall ones, but I am not quite 

 sure that they are any belter. The i}i'x.i}<i makes the finest shape for 

 table use. 



P. H. Elwood (N. Y.) — 4x5 for unglassed sections; 4x43.2 for 

 glassed sections; 1°-^ inches thick. Bees will store more honey in a 

 large section. 



Dr. C. C. Miller (111.) — 4^^x414x1'^, with insets, open top and 

 bottom. They are most nearly standard of any, and suit my trade 

 better than anything else I have tried. 



C. P. Dadant (111.) — The 4>4x4}4. Because it fits well on the 

 hive mentioned, and has proven satisfactory, while all other sizes are 

 more or less fancy, and have not been thoroughly tested. 



G. W. Demaree (Ky.)— I prefer the " open " bottom and top sec- 

 tion. Why? Because they can be worked with or without separators, 

 and are adapted to the " tiering system " without any additions. 



Adrian Getaz (Tenn.)— Whatever the market would prefer. 

 Here, at the present time, the 4'4x4>4 is the one adopted. The plain 

 section with fence separator, for the reasons stated in the previous 

 question. 



Jas. a. Stone (111.) — The plain section, \}4 inches wide. Because 

 I find the bees fill closer to the wood than they do in the wider section, 

 and therefore about the same weight as the 1% section, being in most 

 cases right at a pound. 



Rev. M. Mauin (Ind.) — That is a pretty hard question for me to 

 answer. All of my experience is with a section SxexlV^, and without 

 separators, would have little difficulty in casing the honey. I think 

 bees will occupy large sections more readily than small ones. 



L. Stacueliiausen (Tex.)— [ would use 4x5 sections, if I could 

 get the same price as for the .■itandard, 4,'4x'4 sections. It is some, 

 what easier for the bees to build combs in larger sections. We have 

 more sections in one super, consequently save some handling. 



C. H. Dibbern (111.)— I have used the whitewood 4-piece 4.'.4x4^- 

 XIJ4 for the past ten years, and prefer them to all others, unless it I9 



