Sept. 22, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



649 



let it melt, then let the fire die down, close the oven d'n,r. 

 and leave it all night, taking ont next morning before 

 starting the tire. Then scrape the impurities off the bot- 

 tom of the cake. 



^ ■- ^ 



The 8-Frame vs. 10-Frame Hive. 



In deciding between 8-frame and 10-frame or larger 

 hives, a factor that deserves respectful consideration is 

 the difference in the weight of supers — at least for those 

 of the sisters who work for comb-honey. This summer 

 the writer has had to handle supers more than usual, and 

 when tired out at the close of a hard day's work, the 

 thought would oomp. "Well. I'm tired; but I'd be a good 

 deal' more tired i£ the supers were 25 per cent heavier, as 

 they would be with 10-frame hives." Of course there are 

 other thijigs to be considered, especially safety in winter- 

 ing, and in that respect the larger hives have decidedly 

 the advantage. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





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

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



CLIPS A LEG INSTEAD OF THE WING. 



Ah, Mr. Broderick doesn't claim that clipping a wing 

 will suffice to make bees supersede their queen! It was 

 a leg he clipped. How nicely that musses up the outpour- 

 ing of w'isdom which I indulged in over it! The correc- 

 tion puts the thing on an entirely different basis; but it 

 still leaves it an important suggestion, which will make 

 some racket, I reckon. The vials of wrath from the clip- 

 pers will have to be suddenly corked; but now the anti- 

 clippers will take a hand. Shall we chop our queens up 

 piecemeal — butcher them to make a Roman (honey) hol- 

 iday? I don't think I should enjoy performing this man 

 ipulation — although I do not say I would not under any 

 circumstances do it. Page 564. 



HONEY IN BO.MtDING HOUSES. 



So Arkansas tinds that the boarding houses of a city 

 of 25,000 cannot be made to buy honey. Here's a kettle 

 of fish that we might as well look into. No doubt about 

 the experience being a genuine one; and we may well sus- 

 pect that a similar state of things prevails very widely- 

 The keeper of a boarding-house is not in the business for 

 her health. She experiences hard-scrabble and small 

 profits; and her first look-in at the proposition is; "Here's 

 an extra expense for no purpose." Is she right? Well, 

 she's not altogether wrong. Honey, to get into her house 

 easily, must offer itself as a substitute for something. Ex- 

 tracted honey is the natural substitute for syrup; and the 

 abominably poor quality and lack of sweetness realized 

 in- grocery syrups is one of our strongest helps. Why 

 won't this avail at the boarding house as well as at the 

 private family? With patience and perseverance it will. 

 to some extent, in time, but not much just now. The 

 habit of never buying honey is among the greatest of all 

 adverse winds. Let us consider a little. She don't want 

 to fuss with two different kinds of liquid sweets on the 

 table at the same time — what will happen if she leaves oft 

 the syrup and puts on extracted honey? One-third of her 

 crowd don't eat honey, some claiming, either as a whim 

 or as a reality, that they can't eat it without pain, and 

 they will complain bitterly at the substitution. Here we 

 are "up a stump;" and it's a big stump not easy to pull. 



The situation as to section honey is also, from our 

 point of view, unsatisfactory. The vender of honey wants 

 to say: "More honey and less butter';" but it doesn't work 

 that way. Honey greases the runners of the sled on 

 which the butter slides down — and takes at least one ex- 

 tra biscuit along with it. Possibly some day this wib 

 come to be regarded as a thing of course; but not just 

 yet it isn't. When habit comes to work for us, instead 

 of working against us, that will be a happier day. Also 

 when nearly all the private families come to have honc\- 



on the table regularly the better class of boarding houses 

 will be driven in, so to speak. Page 553. 



I liEES MARKING THEIR LOCATION. 



I feel like putting in a mild protest or query, nom- 

 inally founded on the editorial note, page 564, but really 



I hitting in a great many other spots as well. When we 

 say bees leave off marking location after the first trip, 

 are we not repeating things after one another rather than 

 stating the exact facts? Granting that they take more 

 pains on a first trip, it still seems to me that bees most 

 of the time circle 'round a good deal when leaving home. 



I "They like to do so I guess, it's so easy and natural. Or 

 is it like the dog's turning 'round in a circle before he 

 lies down — one of the things no fellow can find out? 



I Poising and reciprocating back and forth closely in 



front of the hive is also some of the time marking the 

 location; but it has various other objects and reasons, I 

 take it. 



PACKING POLLEN IN CELLS. 



Yes, I suppose we may as well climb down and ad- 

 mit that most of the pollen-packing is not done on the 

 battering-ram plan, but by the bees' mandibles. A bat- 

 tering-ram sort of motion would be frequently seen were 

 that the style. Still, it being pretty hard to prove a nega- 

 tive, Mr. Arthur C. Miller hardly proves they never give 

 it a little bit of a bunt "just for greens." That prepared 

 pollen "would completely clog these organs," is hardly 

 established. Sometimes wet clay completely clogs our 

 hands; but other times we can manipulate it with ease 

 without clogging. Page 565. 



BUCK\VHE.\T TIED AND UNTIED. 



So, in "Pennsylvania's" locality, buckwheat is never 

 tied! Here, in Ohio, it is tied close to the top, after be- 

 ing set up on end in sub-conical shape. It is not tied 

 with such a tie as is given to a bundle of wheat — but suf- 

 ficient to help it stand up. and keep it from scattering 

 around. Our way better than t'other. Page 569. 



c 



Dr. Miller's Answers 





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

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Dlvidlng-aueens in tiie Mails— Finding ttueens- 

 Extracting-Comfis— Drawn Foundation. 



1. I have 12 double hives full of brood and honey (in 

 both stories). Would it be advisable to divide them, giv- 

 ing one a young queen? I would like the increase. 



2. Does it injure a young queen-bee to be sent 

 through the mails this time of year? 



3. Can you give any suggestions to a novice as to 

 how to find the queen? 



4. Is there a way to get combs for extracting next 

 summer before the fiow? 



5. How can I get the bees to draw out foundation 

 (wired frames) ? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. Getting pretty late for that sort of 

 thing, especially for a novice; so it might be well for you 

 not to try it on many. 



2. This time of year is probably as good as any. 

 Sometimes a queen in badly injured by a journey thiough 

 the mails, while often she seems none the w.jrse f-ir it. 



3. Experience is the best thing. After some prac- 

 tice you'll spot a queen on a comb very readily. Don't do 

 anything to set the bees to running. If they get to run- 

 ning, you may as well close the hive till another time. 

 The two things most likely to set them to running are 

 too much smoke and too rough handling. So vise just as 

 little smoke as will keep the bees under subjection, and 

 be slow and gentle in all your movements. G. ^I. Doolit- 

 tle says that from 9 o'clock till 3 the queen is most likely 

 to be found on the outside cnnib that has brood in. either 

 on one side or the other. It you lift out two or three 

 frames and set them in an empty hive, that gives you 



