June 16, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



421 



Minnie E. Sherman, of Fresno County, tells me she has ob- 

 served just this thing in her eucalypts. 



FATAL STINGING BY BEES. 



We have record, during the past week, of two fatal ac- 

 cidents due from bee-stings — the one a horse, the other 

 a child. The horse belonged to Mr. Mendleson, of Ven- 

 tura County, and was hitched near the bees ; the child is 

 supposed to have disturbed and angered the bees with a 

 stick. 



This shows that we can not be too careful in all cases. 

 Tying horses or cattle near the line of flight of bees, espe- 

 cially when the bees are idle, is always attended with risk. 

 In case of severe stinging, wrapping cloths wet in hot soda- 

 water, is the best ready remedy for a person ; and covering 

 a hgrse or cow with blankets wet with hot water, as hot as 

 can be borne, or in case it can not be done at once, until the 

 hot water is ready, in cold water is the best remedy. I have 

 known that to save valuable horses that were seriously 

 stung. Either hot or cold water will check the congestion. 

 Eos Angeles Co., Calif. 



Grading Honey— Winter Confinement, Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes me thus : "Mr. Doolittle, 

 will you tell us through the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal how you sort sections for casing when pre- 

 paring your honey for market ? A friend tells me you have 

 a way different from others, and we'd like to know about 

 it." 



There are very few bee-keepers who do things exactly 

 alike, and probably my way of sorting sections for casing 

 will appear as unworthy of notice by most of the readers of 

 the American Bee Journal, but as I have never refused to 

 answer questions as requested, I will tell my way of assort- 

 ing sections. 



My honey is all stored in sections which are held in 

 wide frames, four sections to each wide frame. The wide 

 frames are clamped together by means of springs or wedges, 

 so that there are five, seven, or eleven to the super, accord- 

 ing to the number I think the colony will work in to the 

 best advantage. 



When the super is finished by the bees, and these wide 

 frames are undamped preparatory to casing the honey for 

 market, the eye soon decides to which grade the honey be- 

 longs. In putting honey up for market I make three grades 

 which I mark X, XX, and XXX, the three X being for 

 fancy, the two X for No. 1, while the one X is for anything 

 not good enough to go in either of the other two grades. 



A sample wide frame of four sections is set on a shelf 

 close by where the wide frames are undamped, and they 

 are always kept there as a sample for the eye to " work " 

 from, so it takes only a glance at any wide frame of sections, 

 or any section in one of these wide frames, to tell under 

 which X it should go. My shipping-cases hold 20 sections ; 

 and as soon as I have five wide frames, or 20 single sections, 

 I place the sections on a little tray, set the tray on the scrap- 

 ingblock, and the shipping-case close by, and then, as I 

 scrape and clean the sections of propolis or any foreign sub- 

 stance, I set them in the shipping-case as soon as all is 

 deaned off nicely. 



I had hardly thought this way of casing honey of enough 

 importance to tell of it, still I know that it is by the use of 

 the many, many little kinks, having them all massed to- 

 gether in the mind, that we become fully '• fledged " bee- 

 keepers. I much prefer the X's for rules in grading to any- 

 thing else, for these can be put in the handholds of the case, 

 out of sight from any one except as wanted for rapidly sort- 

 ing the cases when they get mixed up in hauling to the 

 railroad or otherwise. 



OUEKN LAYING ON OUTSIDE OF COMBS. 



Another correspondent wishes me to tell him in the 

 American Bee Journal, why it is that the queen, in spread- 

 ing her brood from the center of the brood-nest outward, in 

 enlarging it, lays first on the side of a fresh comb furthest 

 from the brood already in that nest. This is something that 

 I have often noticed, and away back in the early seventies I 

 noticed that at all times when the bees are enlarging their 

 brood-nest rapidly, and when pollen is also coming in plenti- 

 fully, the first eggs laid in any comb near the brood, but ~o 

 far not containing brood, are laid in the cells of said comb 

 on the side furthest from the brood, the queen going ckar 

 around the comb to near the center of the furthest side io 



lay the first eggs, instead of laying them in this new comb, 

 right opposite the brood in the comb already occupied. 



For a year or two I asked myself why this was the case, 

 as our correspondent asks, and the only satisfactory answer 

 that came was that the pollen has all to do with it ; for 

 when little pollen is coming in I have generally found the 

 first eggs next the comb having brood already in it. When 

 pollen comes in plentifully the bees pack it in the cells im- 

 mediately surrounding the brood, and hence it comes about 

 that, when the hard maple is in bloom in this locality, we 

 have combs next the brood-nest solid, or very nearly so, on 

 the side of the comb next the brood, on either side of the 

 brood-nest, so that the queen can find no vacant cells to lay 

 in ; hence she is obliged to go clear around the comb to a 

 point opposite the center of the brood in the comb adjoin- 

 ing, to lay, when the brood is on the increase. Immediately 

 on her doing this, pollen is rushed into the cells of the next 

 comb opposite the eggs she is laying ; this, in turn, compels 

 her to go to the opposite side of this comb to lay her eggs 

 also, and thus it keeps on till the outside of the hive is 

 reached. 



Soon after she has filled the cells furthest from the 

 brood with eggs, hundreds of larvae are hatching in the 

 comb opposite the cells which are filled with pollen, this 

 causing the bees to remove the pollen for use in the manu- 

 facture of larval food, when the queen now fills these cells 

 with eggs, though she often scatters eggs all through the 

 pollen-mass, wherever she can find a vacant cell, before the 

 general removal of pollen. From this cause we always find 

 during the proficient brood-rearing in May and the first 

 half of June, the first eggs and the first sealed brood on the 

 outside of the combs, or on the sides furthest from the cen- 

 ter of the brood-nest. In noticing this thing our correspon- 

 dent shows that he is a close observer, for in speaking of it 

 to some of our most prominent bee-keepers, I have been told 

 that they had never thought of looking for anything of the 

 kind. 



OVER ONE-HALF YEAR OF CONFINEMENT. 



Another correspondent writes that his bees were confined 

 to the hive from November 10 to April IS, or for a period of 

 over five months, and that as a result he has lost heavily. 

 He wishes to know if any one ever had bees confined so 

 long before. 



I answer yes. But I do not think it possible that bees 

 can be confined for that long, when wintered on the sum- 

 mer stands, and come out in perfect shape for the summer's 

 work. My bees had no flight after October 30, 1903, till 

 April 5, 1904, or during a period of five months and six days. 

 Some appeared not to have suffered materially by this long 

 confinement, at the time, but since then they have 

 shown that this long holding of their excrement told on 

 their vitality, and none of the 7 colonies wintered on the 

 summer stands are at this date (May 17) what could be 

 called good, perfect colonies, for all have dwindled, and 

 three are dead. After April 5, we had more cold, and snow- 

 storm after snow-storm followed, with high winds, clouds 

 and cold, so that it was impossible, on account of the 

 weather, to remove the bees from the cellar till May 2, when 

 they were removed ; those at the out-apiary on the forenoon 

 of that day, and these at home in the afternoon. This gave 

 a confinement of three days more than one-half year, and it 

 is something worth recording, for, if my memory serves me 

 rightly, such long confinement of bees has never been re- 

 corded before. 



" Well, how did they come out ? " I think I hear some 

 one asking. At the out-apiary 3 were put in short of stores, 

 they having only about 8 pounds of honey each, and these 

 starved. I had expected to feed these, and so marked them, 

 but the winter swooped down on us before I got to it, and I 

 thought I would chance them rather than open up the hives 

 to set in combs of honey with the mercury nearly down to 

 zero. These 3, and 1 other away back in the eighties, are 

 all the bees I ever lost by starvation, and I don't feel a bit 

 good over the matter, for it is wicked, it seems to me, to al- 

 low anything that has served us faithfully, to starve. Three 

 other colonies died of diarrhea, and the rest came out in 

 good shape, or fully as good as an average. 



Of those in the underground cellar here at home, all 

 came out in fairly good shape except the united nuclei, used 

 for queen-rearing, which were mostly composed of old bees. 

 Of these united nuclei, about otie-third died from the wast- 

 ing of bees during the last two weeks in April, and the re- 

 mainder are from fair colonies down to weak ones. 



At the out-apiary I have nearly all kinds and varieties 

 of bees, and I find that some of them stood this long con- 

 finement much better than did others. The golden Italians 



