200 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLkiXAC. 



Mar. 17, 1904. 



caused them to drop into the water and drown. Straw 

 thrown around would have saved them. 



I lost many colonies before I could do anything for them. 

 As soon as possible I began to stimulate brood-rearing, and 

 it was a wonder the way those bees built up, and particu- 

 larly those which had a strain of the golden Adels in them — 

 what workers they are ! Those yellow-banded bees built 

 up strong colonies before my blacks had shaken off the 

 drowsiness of their winter's sleep. When a honey-flow was 

 on, they worked for all there was in it, and I got a good 

 crop of honey in spite of the unpromising beginning. 



I notice something about the greenish tint of sweet 

 clover honey. The past season I found in the later gather- 

 ing quite a lot of sections of greenish honey of the most 

 delicious flavor, and wondered because I did not know of 

 any sweet clover growing in this locality. 



One day I took a walk half a mile away, and the mys- 

 tery was explained. The road-bed up a steep hill, and the 

 banks of red shale on either side, were a mass of sweet 

 clover. A young bee-keeping friend of mine, who died 

 three years ago, had lived near that section, and left this 

 fragrant legacy to the bees he loved so well. 



All the work in the apiary is done by myself — hiving 

 swarms, putting together sections, taking off honey, etc. I 

 can tell the sisters that there is no more delightful and 

 healthful work in the world for women than keeping bees, 

 and almost any woman in ordinary health can conduct and 

 manage an apiary. Mrs. C. A. Ball. 



Oneida Co., N. Y., Feb. 29. 



Lady Bee-Keepers and Tobacco-Smoking:. 



Somnambulist, the delightful dreamer of the Progres- 

 sive Bee-Keeper, after saying something very complimen- 

 tary about the Sisters' department, replies to my question 

 whether he ever heard of a lady bee-keeper addicted to the 

 smoking habit, as follows : 



Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Wilson. To tell tlie truth, I have 

 known two women who were at one and the same time devotees of the 

 filthy weed and bees. Two who have always held a warm place in my 

 heart, having entered therein by way of the sugar-cooky route in the 

 sweet days of my childhood. Even now there are some elderly women 

 who would as lief do without their " eatens " as their pipe. They are 

 true-hearted, generous souls, and harbor not the slightest suspicion 

 that they are not ladies in the highest sense. Pray do not think for a 

 moment that I advocate the habit. The enjoyment to be had by the 

 use of either whiskey or toliacco is to me, as yet, an unsolved mys- 

 tery, and one which I am not at all anxious to probe. 



I admire your " grit " in your assumption of the defensive on this 

 question, as well as the matter of " peddling out " wives. All honor 

 to any and all women who stand by their sex. If they themselves 

 can not afford to do it, who can? 



Long live and flourish the department assigned to your jealous 

 care. 



I Hasty's Afterthcughts | 



The " Old Reliable '' seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

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



QUBEN-LARV.T. PRODUCING WORKBR-BEBS. 



So Pastor Kline has transferred natural queen-larva? to 

 worker-cells, and seen them grow to worker-bees. Very 

 good. He calls our attention to the fact that we can't make 

 a regular half-and-half of worker and queen (comparable to 

 the working queens of the wasps), yet we seem to get a few 

 steps in that direction. Sometimes, with the worst reared 

 queens, a worker aspect or some worker marks appear. 

 Never on a queen good pollen-baskets, or a workable work- 

 er's tongue. Out of 30 transferred into queen-cells, very 

 young, and then after two days transferred back again, 

 only two were brought to maturity at all. One turned out a 

 plain worker-bee, and the other, though small and weak and 

 poor, was evidently a queen. Curious to see that the one 

 worker was given some food and sealed up immediately (old- 

 woman-in-the-shoe style), the sealing much earlier than in 

 the case of unbemeddled larvie. Page 54. 



HONEY GRANDLATION AND RE-GRANULATION. 



The Northwestern didn't strike any new bonanza of 

 wisdom on the granulation question. Spanish-needle honey 



very good to remain liquid, and alfalfa the reverse. Dr. 

 Miller thinks honey that has never granulated at all is in a 

 more advantageous position than honey which has been re- 

 liquefied. Shouldn't wonder. But no evidence I have yet 

 in hand makes me feel at all sure of it. Let's don't swallow 

 that without some chewing. In fact, I rather think the 

 other way about a very common sort of honey — late honey 

 that granulates solidly, and at once just as soon as the 

 weather gets cool. 'Spects its general status becomes more 

 hopeful each time it is reliquefied. Page SS. 



RELIQUBFYING HONEY IN GLASS JARS. 



When it comes to reliquefying, Mr. Abbott contributes 

 very valuable experience. He succeeds in reliquefying jars 

 by dry heat without destroying labels — and it stays liquid 

 much longer than it did the first time. I suppose that 

 wouldn't work with poor honey. With a really fine article 

 that's just what everybody ought to succeed in doing — and 

 Mr. A. should have some honor as a pathfinder. Possibly 

 we will need to have the jars a little larger, allowing some- 

 what more air-space than has been usual. Page 56. 



PREVENTING LEAKAGB IN HONEY-JARS. 



Yes, with the Mason jar, either for fruit or honey, when 

 the jar is tipped up a small amount of the contents passes 

 over the edge of the jar proper, and can't get back again. 

 Finale is apt to be that it slowly creeps under the rubber, 

 soils the label, and sticks on somebody's fingers. I suppose 

 that with sufficient care most of the jars could be made so 

 tight that there couldn't be any creepage. But that suffi- 

 cient care is a big amount, more than usually gets bestowed. 

 The biggest light the Northwestern seemed to discover was 

 in that accurately cut disc of very thick manila paper 

 sprung in before the cover is screwed on. Matter for testi- 

 mony and experience whether it is a reliable remedy to 

 keep the contents from getting over the edge. Page 60. 



PRESSING WAX FROM COMBS. 



Work sometimes has gaps in it, and it's nice to utilize 

 these intervals by doing something else. Quite possible, 

 however, for economy to rehaSh itself right there — waste 

 more time than is saved bobbing back and forth — and do 

 two things poorly instead of one thing well. The discus- 

 sion between Huber Root and Dr. Miller seemed to show 

 that pressing wax has no worth-utilizing intervals of time, 

 and that the continual pressure that might be carried on by 

 a spring or weighted lever in one's absence is not nearly so 

 valuable as the several diggings over of constant presence 

 and attention. I would add that going off to work else- 

 where while wax is boiling on the stove is not the safest 

 thing in the world, either. Page 62. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





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

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



Giving Supers— Spacing Brood-Frames— Cleaning Pollen 

 Out of Combs— Keeping Honey in Open Barrels. 



I know some bee-keepers that do not want to read any bee papers 

 or books, for they know (?) all about it. It is different with me, and 

 the more I read the more stumbling-blocks 1 find in my way. In the 

 first place I wish to express my gratitude for your book, " Forty Years 

 Among the Bees," and I think that simple idea of that robber-cloth is 

 worth the money I paid for the book. As 1 have a more extensive 

 experience as a mechanic than in keeping bees, I admire your splints 

 in brood-frames very much, and it is a wonder to me that they are not 

 more in use, but this seems another evidence that we honor no saints, 

 nor build monuments to heroes, while they are living. 



The end-bars of my brood-frames were very poorly bored, some of 

 them 'h inch out of the center, and some of the foundation buckled 

 liadly, so you see that this rule of I'V inch from center to center is 

 poorly followed. In my extracting supers I used 9 frames in a 10- 

 frame hive. In the latter part of the season 1 found in many hives 

 brood and pollen scattered in the upper stories, and wondered what 

 caused it. 



1. Did I give supers too late when the iiueen was crowded for 

 room and went in the supers to breed ? 



2. Would it be advisable to space the frames in the brood-nest to 9 

 frames in a lu-frame hive, which would bring them abont 1 9-16 inches 

 from center to center? 



3. What are the results when frames in brood-nest are spaced too 



