June 23, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



441 



empty hive, as all the comb he could see was full of 

 " worms." I went, expecting' to find a weak colony, riddled 

 by moths. Imagine my surprise to find one of the strongest 

 colonies of Italians I ever saw, chock-full of brood and 

 honey, and lying out in front in a cluster as large as a pint 

 cup ! He finally consented (but with a doubtful mind) for 

 me to block the comb full of zconns (brood), and fit in frames 

 in the new hive. Imagine, sisters, of throwing away 

 enough brood to fill 16 Langstroth frames ! 



One question, please, and then I will go : L,ast summer 

 one of our colonies refused to store honey in a super — I even 

 put 2 frames of honey " up-stairs " to coax them, but they 

 simply would not do anything but loaf. Can you tell me 

 why ? 



Success to the sisters, and the dear old Journal. 



Monroe Co., W. Va. Mrs. Anna Parkbk. 



There may have been various reasons why those bees 

 would not work. There may have been no nectar for them 

 to get. Sometimes bloom is abundant and no nectar. The 

 probability is, however, that other colonies were storing at 

 the time that those bees were doing nothing. They may 

 have been too weak to work in a super, or they may have 

 been queenless. Queenless bees are more apt to loaf. If 

 thwarted by any means in their preparations for swarming, 

 it may make them sulk and loaf. 



Comments, Queenlessness, Yellow Sweet Clover. 



We have had some strong articles in the American Bee 

 Journal lately. There were Messrs. Townsend and Doolit- 

 tle, both well equipped to give a reason for the faith that is 

 in them. As it happens, I am capable of appreciating the 

 articles of both gentlemen, because I have a small out-api- 

 ary run each year with a decreasing amount of attention, 

 and paying well for what little it gets, while the home api- 

 ary is run after the manner of Mr. Doolittle — how far after 

 of course I can not tell. I find Dr. Miller's comments most 

 pertinent, and think he has not left very much to be said. 



As I understand it, it is a pleasnre for Mr. Doolittle to 

 be in close touch with the bees ; also, as a professional 

 queen-breeder, it is essential that he do more " fussing " 

 than is needed when one aims simply to push honey-gather- 

 ing to the utmost, as most of us wish to do. While we may 

 be of the "fussy " order at the start, we become content to 

 dispense with whatever we think non-essential to success, 

 and leave the fussing to the beginner who enjoys a sense 

 of mastery over his bees, and delights in his own bravery. 



Then, as Mr. Townsend has pointed out, few of us can 

 make manipulation pay as Mr. Doolittle does. This matter 

 is analogous to another. There are plenty of people who 

 can be good agriculturists. They can be corn and stock 

 men, and make money at it, as many of them do here in the 

 West, but they have not the patience and skill to be horti- 

 culturists. Rarely we have a Kellogg or a Burbank. There 

 is room enough for both classes, but the rank and file must 

 be the ^ewera/ rather than the special. 



I call Mr. Rickett's article a strong one, too. Bee-keep- 

 ers, as well as others, need to be reminded that there are 

 two sides to a question. Those who have been writing on 

 the heinousness of invading another's field could hardly 

 have had such cases as these in mind, but rather the villain 

 who, having no intrenched interests, deliberately comes to 

 rival another. It surely is bad policy for some one to bring 

 a large number of bees where there are already enough to 

 glean the field. I think we err in urging so much the in- 

 jury he is doing to his neighbor — we want to show him that 

 it ivill not pay. Selfishness (really " the struggle for exis- 

 tence " which brings about " the survival of the fittest '") is 

 inherent in human nature, and must be met on its own 

 ground. It seems a pity when so much nectar goes to 

 waste, that there should be crowding in particular fields,, 

 but that is the way of the world. 



Mr. Hasty, I hope you succeeded in helping the some- 

 what jaundiced vision of the man with the tree. You havo 

 my sympathy, but, after all, poor " Nebraska " caught it 

 really worse than you did, and made no comment, presum- 

 ably lest what was a little harmless pleasantry might grow 

 to be unpleasant, or at least become "much ado aboi't 

 nothing." 



I see from Miss Wilson's remarks about queenlessness 

 that I am not the only one who has suffered in that respeC 

 I found 3 queenless colonies in 21, which represents m 

 winter loss. Not having a record of the queens, I can n 

 tell if they were old or young. I tell that by the queen 

 wings, as I do not clip until the second season; but wh- 



they are gone I can not tell. If I knew they were old queens 

 I would be thinking that I am in error in leaving requeen- 

 ing pretty much to the bees themselves. Will Miss Wilson 

 or Dr. Miller kitrdly say something on that head ? I believe 

 it is a matter where the masters of the craft are not agreed, 



With the above exception I can report my colonies 

 strong. We have had a very lavish blossoming of the fruit- 

 trees, and now yellow sweet clover is just coming into 

 bloom. Mrs. A. L. Amos. 



Custer Co., Nebr. 



Mrs. Amos, in her very interesting letter, expresses a 

 desire to know whether the queens she lost this spring were 

 lost because they were old. Probably that had little to do 

 with the matter. Other things being equal, an old queen is 

 more likely to die than a young one, but we have had queens 

 doing excellent work when four years old, and the loss of 

 queens the past spring was not only of those hoary with 

 age, but of those reared last year as well. If Mrs. Amos 

 will try keeping a record-book in which not only a record of 

 the age of the queen is kept, but a record of the quality of 

 her bees as honey-gatherers as well, I believe she will find 

 it much more satisfactory. 



We have a fashion of laying all the good or bad qualities 

 of the bees to the queen. So if the bees of a colony fail to 

 do good work as honey-gatherers, are very cross or objec- 

 tionable in any way, other things being equal, the head of 

 their queen is in some danger. 



Will Mrs. Amos kindly tell us a little more about yellow 

 sweet clover ? Its time of blooming in her locality is the 

 last of May. Now, how does that compare with the time of 

 white clover ? How much earlier is it than white sweet 

 clover 7 Is the honey from the yellow of the same flavor 

 and color as from the white ? Has it any advantage over 

 the white except as to the time of blooming 7 How about 

 the yellow as a plant for fodder ? 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 



) 



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

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



TEACHING BEES TO STEAI.. 

 Whether or not it is possible for bees to steal in the 

 strict application of the term, they undoubtedly go where 

 they are not wanted and carry off property which the pro- 

 prietors wish to have left alone— and they can be trained to 

 do it when they don't see the opportunity themselves. We 

 may imagine barrels of moist sugar with jammed and 

 broken staves, and standing in a warehouse with broken 

 windows. Bees would not go in the broken windows till 

 they are taught ; but once having learned the lesson they 

 would carry off considerable property. If the Enoch on 

 page 339 got so far from the righteousness of the other 

 Enoch as to start his bees at doing this, his wrong-doing is 

 punishable. But most likely some neighbors and he have 

 been quarreling, and they are trying to manufacture a case 

 against him. Such a case would be rather unique, although 

 I believe Scotland once had a famous case in which a man 

 taught an intelligent dog to steal and drive off the sheep of 

 distant flocks. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH HONEY-PLANTS. 



That Plant-Introducing Station, which Uncle Sam is 

 starting at Chico, Calif., is likely to be an important insti- 

 tution. Bee-folks would do well to seize the opportunity 

 and get Prof. Dorsett interested in honey-plants before he 

 gets so many things on his list of plants for trial that he 

 can't possibly take any more. Page 340. 



THE USE OF OUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



The queen -excluder gets more negatives than I wish it 

 did when the experts vote on it. In favor there are 16, and 

 opposed 11. S. T. Pettit brings out a somewhat novel idea. 

 He thinks it very desirable to keep the drones out of the 

 supers. If he would explain more fully the why of this per- 

 haps we would be edified. C. H. Dibbern has a reason for 

 excluders under the sections, which one rather has to admit 

 is valid as far as it goes. Bees will not run back and forth 

 with dirty wax pinched off the brood-combs if there is an 



