Dec. 22, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



857 



filled therewith and vomit ", it mig-ht better be imagined 

 than painted, I suppose. (Pag-e 765.) 



And we would hardly want any but a first-class artist 

 to try his hand at The Risen Christ Eating the Honey- 

 Comb. Dropping- to domestic scenes, the Honey-Moon 

 would furnish quite a variety of pictures not above the 

 youthful artist. The Honey Ache, and the Two Young 

 Queens, a-nd Early Rising (lark, bee and sun,) and Industry, 

 mottoed with " Keep a hoeing ob the corn, Honey ", would 

 all be available. Think my first trial would be just a good- 

 sized rose, with a little bee, and a little bird, and a little 

 youth hovering over, and the motto : 



'• But de birds and de bees, and we all ob us knows 

 Dat we's jes hangin" round for to look at my rose ". 



A HELD BEE AND ITS EATING. 



Prof. Cook finds that a bee, when held a prisoner in the 

 fingers, will always take honey. Reminds me somewhat of 

 the mouse which, when made a prisoner, often dies of 

 fright and cold in a few hours ; yet it doesn't collapse alto- 

 gether ; it usually nibbles up everything nibbleable it can 

 get at. A bee, if held a prisoner in such a way that it can 

 worry, will die in about an hour; but, it seems, when held 

 so that violent hustling about is impossible it will eat. I 

 should hardly have expected it to turn out so. I still think, 

 if the experiment were tried often enough with all sorts of 

 bees in all sorts of circumstances, such exceptions would 

 occur. Page 758. 



MIGRATORY BEE-KEEPING ON RIVERS. 



Rafts and flatboats on rivers would be more used to set 

 apiaries on if the great rivers of the bee's world only ran 

 the other way. As it is, the season travels one way while 

 the hives would have to travel the other— unless a tug is 

 hired, and that is pretty expensive ; and the tug is not 

 always to be had when wanted. Page 765. 



TEMPORARY APIARY FENCE. 



For a small apiary the Kilgore arrangement for a tem- 

 porary fence around it during winter is so moderate in cost, 

 and so evidently excellent, that one wonders why it is not 

 in general use. Never mind, Mr. K., the bicycle didn't get 

 into general use until a great many years after it was in- 

 vented. Different showing 20 years hence, maybe. I'm 



not sure but eight more boards, making a center division 

 from north to south, would pay as well as the outsides. But 

 many brethren would demur at outer cases for the hives, 

 and an outer case for the whole apiary, too. It would look 

 to them as a needless duplication. Page 777. 



TIN-FOIL-BASE COMB I'OUNDATION. 



I had a frame or two of that Detwiler foundation with 

 tin-foil in the middle. Hardly know what became of it. 

 Probably went to ruin with some colony that the worms 

 cleaned out. The bees did not peel the tin bare badly 

 enough to be prohibitory if one very much wanted to use it. 

 An attempt to sustain a patent on it now would be quite an 

 outrage. Page 771. 



HILARITY RATHER THAN WRATH. 



If a cross-roads local newspaper suggests that folks 

 leave off taking the Chicago Tribune or the New York 

 Journal in order to make room for itself, probably it would 

 promote hilarity rather than wrath in the otBces named. 

 Similarly I think our leading apicultural journals ought to 

 be able to smile without much bitterness at the inflated self- 

 appreciation of the small fry. Page 772. 



GARDENING FOR " LADY OF THE HOUSE ". 



Eeave gardening for the lady of the house to superin- 

 tend, eh 7 Very good. Very good indeed — until we hear 

 from the lady of the house. Page 775. 



BACKSLIDING TO BULK COMB HONEY. 



Where an old scientific apiculturist and progressive 

 man like Mr. Stachelhausen takes to bulk comb exclusively — 

 and gets 20,000 pounds of it — the " antis " have a chance to 

 wonder who'll backslide next. Page 775. 



isn't IT A BASSWOOD TREE ? 



O yes — must fling a parting club — that pretty tree on 

 the outside of No. 46 is no more a basswood than the por- 

 trait in the other corner is a picture of me. Pictures 

 changed in the cradle, (somehow. Why, just see how small 

 and thick the foliage is — and the objects below are proof 

 that it is not distance that makes the leaves so small. — 

 [We'll ask Mr. Blair for the proof. He called it a basswood 

 in full bloom when sending us the picture. — Editor.] 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Uncapping and Returning Drone-Brood. 



Is it safe to uncap drone-brood and then put it back in 

 the hive for the bees to clean the cells ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Entirely safe ; but you can save the bees the 

 labor of cleaning out the cells, and also save the consider- 

 able amount of food fed to the larvEe if you cut out each 

 patch of drone-comb and put in its place a patch of worker- 

 comb. • 



Size of Frame for Extracted Honey— Shipping-Case 

 Sizes— Best Hive for Tennessee. 



1. What size of frame is the most practical for extracted 

 honey production ? How many to the hive ? 



2. What are the sizes of shipping-cases now in use ? 



3. Give the dimensions of the best hive, in your judg- 

 ment) to use in middle Tennessee. Tennessee. 



Answers. — 1. That's a tough one. With the right man 

 to handle it in a good locality, almost any frame may be 

 expected to give good results ; but for extracted honey I 

 should hesitate between the Langstroth frame and some- 

 thing larger ; perhaps settling on the Langstroth because 

 more the fashion. Ten frames would be the least for the 

 lower story, and nine in the extracting supers if they are 

 the same size as the bro d-chamber. If a business is to be 



made of it, there are some advantages in having shallower 

 frames for extracting supers. 



2. There is no one size, as you will see by consulting 

 the manufacturers' or dealers' catalogs. Among the sizes 

 in most common use, I think, are those holding 12 sections 

 and those holding 24 sections. The publishers of this jour- 

 nal having been in the supply business not so very long 

 ago, they can answer this question with more certainty 

 than I. [We would refer the questioner to the catalogs of 

 our advertisers. — Editor.] 



3. Your first question being practically the same ques- 

 tion with regard to hives for extracted honey, this probably 

 refers to hives for comb honey. If you intend to give full 

 time and attention to the business, the 8-frame dovetail 

 ought to suit you ; if the bees are to be left more to their 

 own devices, the 10-frame will be better. 



Red Clover Queens-Sainfoln-Comft-Honey Hives-Late 

 aueen Introducing. 



1. I have 17 colonies of black bees which are very easily 

 handled. As there is more red clover in my locality than 

 white, would it pay me to get red clover Italian queens, or 

 the so-called long-tongued red clover queens ? 



2. Which are the better, Italian 3 or 5 banded bees ? 



3. Do yon think sainfoin would grow in Tennessee ? If 

 so, where can I get the seed 7 What will it cost ? How 



