552 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLKJXAU. 



Ang. 11, 1904. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





' Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

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



QUEENS MATING MORE THAN ONCE- 



As to queens mating more than once, two very different 

 cases are mooted. One is a second fertilization some 

 months or years after the first, to renew a waning- fecundity. 

 I think the evidence is pretty scanty of this ever having 

 really occurred. The other is a second meeting quite 

 closely subsequent to a first one — the reason of this second 

 meeting^ being that the first was insufficient. If the first 

 bucket does not fill the reservoir take another one ; have the 

 sperm-reservoir filled somehow. This kind of repeating is 

 so reasonable, and the evidence of its occurring occasionally 

 is so positive, and so high in character, that I guess we would 

 better accept it — provisionally. That a queen very often 

 goes out more than once is, I believe, well accepted. But 

 some have inclined to the opinion that three or four trips, 

 and two or more meetings, was the normal and usual style. 

 Hardly to be accepted at present, although, as Dr. Bohrer 

 says, it may be more frequent than generally known. 

 Pages 373 and 374. 



PERFECT CELLAR-WINTERING OF BEES. 



That there is often a slight murmur of sound to be 

 heard in the bee-Cellar when bees are wintering fairly well 

 seems to be pretty well established — backed by Mr. Doolit- 

 tle for one — but how about the very best of wintering ? S. 

 T. Pettit claims that there is a still better sort of wintering, 

 during which perfect silence is the rule — that is, so nearly 

 a perfect silence that the human ear does not readily catch 

 any sound. I guess he is right — and that perfect health of 

 the bees, perfect quality of the honey, sound pollen, pure 

 air, and complete abstinence from all brood-rearing are the 

 elements. Mr. Pettit also thinks that the temperament of 

 the bees determines whether they winter silently in No. 1 

 style or winter in No. 2 style with more or less of stir and 

 noise. Perhaps he is right in this also. Yes, the larger 

 half of the fraternity do not properly estimate how much 

 better perfect wintering is than the tolerable kind which is 

 almost universal, except when the poor kind prevails. The 

 astonishing yields of early surplus reported from Notre 

 Dame College apiary argue in the same direction — large 

 hive, extra-strong colony in the fall, perfect wintering. 

 Page 453. 



WIDTH OF SEPARATORS — HEAVY WEIGHT SECTION. 



A. C. F. Bartz is right in esteeming it very foolish to 

 have separators so narrow that the honey will be bulged at 

 the top and bottom. I'm not so sure that he is right in hav- 

 ing no passage at all at the top. 



And what shall we do with the 17-ounce section ? Mr. 

 B. sells it for a pound. Good way — for the man whose mind 

 feels easy about it, but perhaps too much to ask of the aver- 

 age bee-man. We've been working and lifting hard to get 

 him up to the 16ounce level ; and if we ask him to go higher 

 I fear he'll " go all to pieces." Home use and presents take 

 some honey, and the 17-ounce section is good for these pur- 

 poses. Page 454. 



BLACK BROOD. 



Bee-Inspector West tells us a thing about black brood 

 which I have been waiting to hear. " Black brood is more 

 radical in a new territory than after it has been there a year 

 or two." Most of the violent infectious diseases, both of 



our fellow creatures and ourselves, show the same pecu- 

 liarity. The first reports we had of black brood seemed to 

 indicate that it would quickly sweep the United States and 

 leave us no bees. It has not done so ; and it was reason- 

 able to infer at the time that it would not. Mr. West very 

 reasonably suggests that a colony in which the bees are 

 mostly old, and in which they have become dumpish and 

 apparently sick, can not be cured. Destroy them at once. 

 Page 454. 



BEE-CENSUS OF THE WORLD. 



As to the figures on page 460, representing the bee- 

 census of the different nations, they look a little as if they 

 were manufactured. Too round. Switzerland is quite a 

 country, and somewhat famous for its bee-culture ; how 

 about so few as 30,000 for Switzerland ? 



[ Our Bee^HeeplnS Sisters J 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Manag-ement of Swarming-— Sheet Bee-Escape- 



TransfeFring- — Drones and Burr-Combs— 



Superseding- a Queen and Swarming. 



Dear Sister BeeKeepers : — I will give some of my 

 experience in bee-keeping. I began in the spring of 1902. 

 We bought 6 or 7 colonies in home-made hives, with frames 

 running crosswise instead of lengthwise. I did not know 

 one bee from another, and thought all there was to do was 

 to get the honey when it was stored. 



But coming across an article on the care of bees in the 

 spring, I found there was something to do, so I looked 

 through the hives. One colony had already died, and most 

 of the others were on the verge of starvation. I fed them 

 as directed, and had no further trouble. I then subscribed 

 for the American Bee Journal, and I could not now do with- 

 out it. I think a bee-paper is indispensable to successful 

 bee-keeping, also the " A B C of Bee Culture." 



Some of the old bee-keepers in this localitj', who have 

 kept bees for 30 years, are surprised that I keep my bees 

 from swarming. I have not had a natural swarm this year, 

 but have had 17 artificial swarms. I go through the hives 

 every week, dividing if I want increase, and cutting out 

 queen-cells and changing frames about if I do not. Last 

 year I did not follow this method, and the bees swarmed a 

 plenty. I caught several swarms by taking a frame of 

 brood, tying a string to each end of the frame, and hanging 

 it on a nail driven in the end of the pole of the swarm- 

 catcher. The queen would very soon crawl onto the frame 

 of brood, and the bees would follow. Some swarms settled 

 in the low, thick hedge where I could not get at them, so I 

 just slipped the brood in front of them, and in a little while 

 I had the queen, then I put the frame in the hive on the 

 ground, and the bees followed. 



When I take off supers I stand them on end on the 

 ground, then spread a white sheet over them, tucking it in 

 around the bottom so that no bees can get in from outside. 

 In a few minutes I go around to the different groups and 

 turn the sheet over. That throws the bees outside, and in 

 a half an hour, or an hour, I have all the bees out. They 

 crawl up on the sheet. This year I cut a hole in the sheet 

 and sewed a screen-wire cone in, and the bees just hustle 

 out through the cone. 



I also use a white sheet to cover the hive where there is 



