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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLHWAC. 



June 30, 1904. 



have always been in the nature of a report that some one 

 had heard of some one who had succeeded.. It is doubtful 

 if any eg^g^s were ever hatched in this manner. The normal 

 temperature of a colony of bees never goes above 100 de- 

 grees, while the temperature of a fowl is 105 degrees. The 

 temperature of a colony of ^ees is not high enough to hatch 

 the eggs of a foul. Incubators for hatching eggs are kept 

 at a temperature above 100 degrees, while the brood of bees 

 will not endure such a temperature, as I learned to my sor- 

 row when using a lamp-nursery in hatching out queens. I 

 several times tried to hatch hens' eggs in the lamp-nursery, 

 which was kept at a temperature of about 97 degrees, but 

 never succeeded. The germ would seem to begin to grow, 

 and red veins would branch out from it, and then develop- 

 ment would cease and remain the same, even though the 

 egg remained in the lamp-nursery for several weeks." 



Mr. Hutchinson's experience is much like that of others, 

 but is he not in error in thinking that no one has given a 

 direct report of success 7 On page 300, J. G. Norton says': 

 "I still hatch chicks in bee-hives. It is no fake, and I have 

 no patent for sale. I practice the same at home for my own 

 satisfaction." 



Orange Honey. 



Grate the yellow rind from two fine oranges and add to 

 it two pounds of strained honey. Remove the juice and 

 pulp from one dozen oranges ; this should measure at least 

 a quart ; add this to the honey. Turn the whole in a pre- 

 serving-kettle and boil carefully for half an hour ; then put 

 it into pots, and when cold cover with paraffin or oiled 

 paper.— Mrs. S. T. Rorkr, in Ladies' Home Journal. 



Winter Losses — Prospects Good. 



t)EAR Miss Wilson :— The past winter has been enough 

 to try the faith and courage of the oldest and most experi- 

 enced bee-keepers, and never was such a large percentage 

 of loss of bees suffered within the memory of any living 

 bee-keeper. Some have lost every colony, and others have 

 lost a few. 



Last fall I put 21 colonies into winter quarters in as 

 fine condition as I ever saw bees. There was plenty of 

 honey in the hives, and the colonies unusually strong. 

 Judging from past experience, I confidently expected to 

 have a fine apiary ready to begin work in the spring. But, 

 alas! "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft' 

 agley " (and women, too). I have to day just 4 colonies of 

 bees, and those not very strong. 



Those bees were dug out from four to ten feet of snow 

 eight times during the winter. I find that my bees suffered 

 from excess of moisture. The snow above and around the 

 hives kept them warm and damp, some of the combs full 

 of honey dripping with the condensed moisture, and the 

 heavier the colony the worse the trouble. The few that I 

 saved were more exposed, with a better chance for ventila- 

 tion. Now, I would like to know what any one could have 

 done to combat those conditions of last winter. 



I have been successful in wintering bees on the sum- 

 mer stands for several years, but this experience leaves me 

 in a condition of mind that I imagine hundreds of bee- 

 keepers in the North can understand, and that is, that we 

 have additional proof that there is much that we do not 

 know about bee-keeping. 



I am wondering a little about Mr. Doolittle, the success- 

 ful bee-man of New York, as to whether he lost as large a 

 percentage as many of us have. If he saved his bees, I 

 wish he would tell us how he did it— and I shall be ready to 

 join his class for beginners. 



This promises to be a great year for honey in Central 

 New York, for those who have bees to gather the nectar. 

 White clover and alsike are fine, and the fruit-trees full of 

 bloom, but colonies are so weak that they are coming up 

 slowly. 



My home, until three weeks ago, was in Oneida Co., N. 

 Y. The enclosed clipping will explain why I subscribe my- 

 self— Mrs. Henry Alley. 



Essex Co., Mass., May 29. 



It is hardly safe to say what might have prevented so 

 g:reat a loss, but as th'e colonies that had the most ventila- 

 tion wintered the best, perhaps more abundant ventilation 

 for all might prove successful. How would it do to winter 

 them in the cellar? 



I may say to the sisters that the clipping referred to 



gives an account of the somewhat romantic marriage of 

 Mrs. Margaret Ball, of Oneida Co., N. Y., to the well-known 

 queen-breeder, Henry Alley, of Essex Co., Mass. 



Three years ago Mrs. Ball bought a queen-bee of Mr. 

 Alley, and her workers proved to be fine honey-gatherers. 

 A correspondence regarding that queen ensued, in which 

 an acqaintance was formed. Mr. Alley wanted that queen 

 back, but the widow was loath to part with it. Persever- 

 ance, however, finally secured both widow and queen, and 

 Mrs. Ball is now Mrs. Alley. 



( 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





' Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

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



PBESBRVING SOME PURE BLACK BEES. 



I can heartily second Allen Latham's suggestion that 

 some means be taken to keep a few colonies of black bees 

 pure. Some not too big island somewhere would seem to 

 be the thing. Those of us who have the love of Nature in 

 us regret to see the extinction of any decided natural form. 

 Much has been done to prevent the extinction of the buf- 

 falo. It is greatly regretted that the dodo slipped away 

 from earth just before the love of Nature's things grew up. 

 And if somebody had a practical scheme to prevent the ex- 

 tinction of the great auk, he would find plenty of people 

 willing to subscribe toward the expenses of it. But the 

 German race of bees we want for something more than for 

 mere sentiment's sake. Their whiteness of capping, and 

 especially their willingness to store honey a long distance 

 away from the brood, are grand qualities which we should 

 collectively be fools if we did not safeguard somehow. My 

 verdict is, Italians for extracted honey, and pretty well 

 blacked hybrids for comb — and to be sure of securing these 

 we don't want to let either of the ingredients disappear. So 

 many intelligent apiarists in England don't want anything 

 else than pure blacks that perhaps they have already gotten 

 things in safe shape. But if America possesses in the 

 brown bee of Arkansas a peculiar strain of the German 

 race better than any one else has, we are the ones to attend 

 to that. Page 343. 



LETTING NATURAL SWARMS HANG HALF A DAY. 



It would be a very unsafe rule to leave natural swarms 

 on the bough half a day — often go in less than an hour. 

 Wonder if Allen Latham has had experience long enough 

 and broad enough with his driven hive clusters to be able 

 to guarantee that they will not "pick up and leave." Page 

 343. 



GROUND cork's MOVING HABIT. 



So ground cork has the sand-in-the-hour-glassbad habit 

 of perpetual movement if it can find even a very small hole 

 to get through. A novice might think it easy always to 

 have bee-cushions and cloths absolutely tight — but we'uns, 

 the graybeards, know the opposite. Page 343. 



KEEPING EMPTY COMBS. 



Sometimes combs will keep in summer with no more 

 care than the spiders and ants give them. 'Spects this 

 must cover the case of F. Z. Dexter, page 351. So I advise 

 trying in a very small way at first (if indeed you try at all) 

 the scheme of fixing hives full of combs so the moth can't 

 get in without getting sulphur on her feet. The plan seems 

 to offer no defense against eggs already in the combs, laid 

 during fall and winter. My experience is that combs on 

 which bees have died are pretty apt to have lots of eggs in 

 them, while empty extracting-combs usually have none. 



SWARMS CARRYING KOl'L BROOD. 



The question, Do bees ever carry foul brood with them 

 in swarming ? seems to imply an opinion that usually they 

 do not. Glad if that is so. I have )>ut little experience of 

 my own, but much reading about foul brood somehow put 

 the idea into my head that not only tiiey sometimes do, but 

 that they usually do. Quite likely vvi ong. When we think 

 a moment we see that as it is at least four days before they 

 can have any brood to feed it to, thi . e is a fair possibility 

 of all infected honey getting eaten uji before that. It just 

 pops into my head that a swarm probably can not develop 



