Mar. 31. 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



( 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The '■ Old Reliable '' seeu throut;h New and V'nreliable Glasses. 

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



EARLY OR LATB MARKETING — DOUBLE-TIER CASES. 



One of the times when we want to put in a denial, only 

 we fear it's perfectly true, is when W. L. Porter says the 

 man who gets his crop all in late will get the minimum 

 price. Well, how about the man who says, '• Don't demor- 

 alize the market ! Wait a little. Nothing gained by such 

 awful rushing " — and is himself the most frantic rusher ? 



Surprised to hear Mr. Porter say that the double-tier 

 case is coming more and more into favor again. Though: 

 its coffin had been forever nailed by the paper tray and no- 

 drip feature of the shallow case. Page 103. 



INFERIOR SWEET CLOVER HONEY FROM UNRIPENESS. 



W. D. Harris, page 108, seems to hit the mark when he 

 intimates that the inferior quality sometimes charged 

 against sweet clover honey is mainly because it is not 

 allowed to ripen fully on the hive. His own sweet clover 

 honey he calls good. 



EGGS AND BROOD AT SWARMING TIJIE. 



E. J. Babb suggests that a colony which has sent out a 

 heavy prime swarm often loses pretty much all its stock of 

 eggs, and some of the young brood, because they are, from 

 being so few in numbers, totally unable to feed so many 

 brood as are left on their hands. Is this correct? lam 

 inclined to think it is. It is a common opinion that such 

 colonies are contrary about accepting queens or cells ; and 

 I think it's just this overwork at breeding that makes them 

 so. Page 109. 



ECONOMY IN FRAMES, ETC. 



I see W. A. Moore makes his frames of lath, and his 

 wire-embedders of superannuated clock-wheels. There is 

 a style of man that would buy his breath already breathed 

 than breathe it himself were it possible to do so. The above 

 plainly shows that Mr. Moore is not that kind of man. 

 Page 110. 



IMPORTS AND EXPROTS OF BEE- PRODUCTS. 



And what is there to afterthink about the exports and 

 imports of honey and wax for the last two years ? The 

 United States is not apparently doing very much at either. 

 Self-contained country as to bee-products. Official price of 

 honey pretty low in 1903 — 33', cents a gallon — less than 3 

 cents a pound. Improved in 1903 to 40 cents a gallon — still 

 quite a bit below 4 cents a pound. The movements in 

 honey for the two years nearly balance, 136 car-loads coming 

 in and 143 car-loads going out — providing we call 20 tons a 

 car-load. But of wax we are evidently importers, the ex- 

 ports being incidental. One train of 23 cars would bring in 

 our two years' import of wax, of which we would keep 18 

 and send 5 out again. Page 115. 



"LONG-IDEAL" HIVE AND THINGS. 



And " long ideal " hive is the way we must " spake it " 

 now ! Whenever I meet that phrase something within me 

 will up and say that there is something logically absurd and 

 bad about it — worse than "long idea" hive which it displaced. 

 How can any ideal be long, or have dimensions of any kind? 

 Does it not compare pretty well with long perfection, long 

 notional, long beauty, or long eureka, in getting together 

 incongruous words and ru abing one's sense of propriety the 

 wrong way ? Page 115. 



APPLICATION OF FORMALIN GAS. 



Formalin gas fails to cure foul brood because the box 

 used is too tight, eh ? I don't exactly love to be impolite, 

 but it seems to me Mr. J. E. Johnson is treating us to a 

 sample of fine and well-ripened nonsense just this one time. 

 Page 115. 



A KINK IN QUEEN-RKARING. 



The Hewitt plan of defending minute larva? against 

 rough usage at the outsc: seems to me to be a valuable 

 queen-breeder's kink. Transfer twice— first time using big 

 fellows only intended to fie thrown away. Not being a 

 queen-breeder myself, I l:' .ertheless venture to guess that 

 the sooner the permanent Inhabitant of the cell is put in 



the better — only being sure that the bees themselves have 

 actually accepted the cell and are putting royal jelly in it 

 freely. Page 115. 



THE "LKWIS NUMBER." 



And so the G. B. Lewis Co. used 800 car-loads of lumber 

 last year. Like a colony of bees we may be small individ- 

 ually, but in totality we are great. Most of us, if afflicted 

 with manufacturing on the brain, would think of buying 

 half a dozen trees, and getting a dozen wagon-loads of lum- 

 ber sawed out — and then where would we be at ? The pic- 

 tures (in what might be called the Lewis Number) show 

 plainly that that firm put up their factory for business — 

 not wholly to make it what the Irishman said the Hoosac 

 Tunnel was to be, an " ornymint " to society. Page 117. 



ONE OF THE SISTERS. 



How bloodthirsty of Sister Austin to wish her evening 

 visitor dead ! And yet some one would have us understand 

 that all the sex (e'eny most) are waiting to "to bear and 

 forbear " — well, with bears ! Page 121. 



Q 



Dr. Miller's Answers 



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

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





Feeding Sugar Syrup. 



1. Will sugar syrup, after being a month in an extractor, covered 

 with muslin cloth, harm the bees? 



2. How will it keep the best, cooked oi uncooked? Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. No. 



2. Cooking makes no difference; sugar is thoroughly cooked in 

 the making, and all that you do in making it into syrup is to unite 

 water with it. The thing you probably have in mind as to its not 

 keeping is its granulating, and it will very likely granulate if it stands ' 

 a month. It will keep it from granulating if you add a level teaspoon- 

 ful of tartaric acid for each 20 pounds of syrup, previously dissolving 

 the acid in a little water. Still better, put in a pound of extracted 

 honey for each .5 or 10 pounds of syrup. 



Bee-Books-Buckwheat— aueen-Exciuders. 



1. Is there any better book than " A B C of Bee-Culture J '' If so, 



what? , , , ,_ , 



2. Is silverhuU buckwheat any better than Japanese buckwheat? 

 The former stays in bloom longer, so it is claimed. 



3. Would it be all rigbt to use a queen-excluder on the entrance to 

 keep a new swarm from deserting its hive? 



4. Will the bees build comb behind a follower if more than yj of 

 an inch from the wall? Illinois. 



Answers. 1. While there may be no better book, it may be a 



desirable thing to add to your knowledge by having such booKs ai 

 Langslroth and Cook. 



2. There isprobalily no advantage in any other direction. It is cer- 

 tain that silverhuU stays in bloom longer? 



3. Yes, unless it should be an afler-swarm with a virgin queen, in 

 which case it would not do to keep the queen in too long, lest she 

 might not be fertilized. 



4. Not unless badly crowded for room, and then not unless a good 

 deal more than :'![,. 



Possibly Laying Worker-Getting Increase. 



1. Last fall I had 4 colonies of black bees in Langstroth hives (S 

 Hoffman frames). Hive No. 4, ho>vever, had only 5 frames filled, it 

 being a late swarm, but as they seemed to have plenty of stores I 

 thought they would winter all right. In the latter part of December I 

 purchased 6 colonies of black bees in old-fashioned box-hives, or 

 " gums," intending to transfer ihem in the spring. On Jan. 9 I no- 

 ticed great excitement in front of box-hive ■' F," bees fighting, and 

 lots of dead bees in front; all oth^ir colonies seemed quiet. I closed 

 the entrances to all the hives and soon the trouble seemed over. I 

 took it for granted that " F " was attacked by robbers, and by closing 

 the entrance of course stopped it. On looking over my hives on Jan. 

 15, however, I discovered hive No. 4 ( the one with only o frames) to 

 hive died out; about 20 or ;« dead bees lying on the boitom-board, the 

 rest all gone; still, each of the .''i frames had a strip of sealed honey 2 

 or 3 inches wide next to the top-bar. I.s it likely they left their hive 

 and tried to unite with box-hive " K " on the 9th, and were killed la 

 the attempt? and what should have induced them to do so? 



2. [ gave the 5 frames with what honey there was in them to colony 

 No. 3. Feb. 13 I was surprised to see some drones flying in front of 

 hive 1. I opened the hive and found abundant scores, and in 2 frames 



