186 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 21, 1901. 



* The Afterthought. * \ 



*r>r'>'n'r*n'?'>?Tr"^r>r'' 



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

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



THAT MAGNIFIED QUEEN PHOTOGRAPH. 



I am inclined to get enthusiastic over that maftnified pho- 

 tograph of queen and egg on the front of No. 9. Between 

 "approximately correct"' and "correct" is a long and impor- 

 tant step. One of the great, grand things that we want of the 

 twentieth century is to take away our approximations and 

 give us some reals. For instance, let it take away our good 

 novels, which are approximations, and a lot of our biographies, 

 which are not so much as approximations, and give us some 

 real views of other lives than our own. Well, here at last we 

 have a real look at the queen on paper, can see the gloss on 

 her back, and the fur on her shoulders, the exact shape of 

 her foot, and the style of her " horns " {a la Utter) ; can see 

 that the true taper of her abdomen does not look like a 

 wooden plug whittled out ; can see the three little eyes on the 

 top of her head, sticking up like crab's eyes, and ready (if 

 they do utilize X rays) to locate just where the last egg on 

 the other side of the comb was put. 



SINGLE-BOARD COVERS, WIDE FRAMES, ETC. 



I agree with Mr. Greiner that the single-board cover is not 

 an improvement on the old telescope roof. Also I like the old 

 wide frames for putting on sections. As to the old honey- 

 board, I'll let some other fellow agree with him about that — 

 doubtless " other fellow " will not be very hard to find. Page 

 89. 



A LESSON ON THE LAMP-STOVE. 



Friend Roe, 

 You ought to know 

 30's too low 

 For bees to go. 



If you had known all that " with your heart," and had 

 properly meditated on it last fall, perchance the treacherous 

 lamp-stove would not have been invited to do its worst. Now 

 sit at my feet while I shake my finger and tell you. Lamp- 

 stoves are treacherous, even if you don't cover them up. 

 Never should be left alone long. Liable to char their own 

 wicks, and get up such a state of things internally as will set 

 up an impromptu lamp-black factory — if not worse. Been 

 there. Don't want anything worse. Interesting to see that 

 the bees, even tho aching for a temptation to fly at something 

 were "controlled " by the smoke and kept in their hives. O 

 smoke, thou art a daisy ! Some angel (sister to the one that 

 gave the moss-rose its moss) surely gave thee thy bee-control- 

 ling powers. Page 89. 



ALTERNATION OF RAINF.^LL IN CALIFORNIA. 



Ten years of California rainfall shows up as a regular 

 alternation of first scant and then plentiful, except that 

 1899, which should have been plentiful, was instead the most 

 scanty of all — as if some cause, not connected with the law of 

 alternation, had knockt it completely out. Page 90. 



A CHIDER CHIDED A LITTLE. 



Mr. Carlzen, page 91, chides Dr. Miller for not being 

 explicit enough, and then proceeds to sin much more deeply 

 and darkly himself. (No wonder we do just so after scolding.) 

 The specific gravity of 20 is just that of quicksilver — and can 

 not be his meaning. We would grasp at the theory that 20 is 

 merely a slip for 20 hundredths, but that would be lighter 

 than any fluid we have to do with. Perchance it's the arbi- 

 trary numbering of the scale on some little instrument he has : 

 but how are we to know that unless he tells us "? 



SWARMING ECCENTRICITIES. 



The eccentricities related by Edward Knoll, page 92. 

 seem to me to be instructive. Bees without a queen do not 

 swarm, but a swarm left without a queen comes back soon. 

 Here having gotten themselves partly on the end and partly 

 on the roof of their home, they played that home hadn't any 

 queen, and kept up the delusion for more than a week. Were 

 not ready yet to give it up when the second swarm issued, but 

 "saw the point " when the third swarm appeared. I surmise 

 the old queen came out when she did because the bees had 

 recently been worrying her — for them to kill her would be 

 rather the normal course, I think. 



PERHAPS THE FRENCHMAN WAS RIGHT. 



Mr. Dadant, may it not be that that French manager was 

 partly right? I mean about the non-advisability of working 

 second-hand wood with power. Even here when a railroad 

 wants old ties sawed up men do it by hand with big saws. 

 Too many gravel-stones that have workt into cracks for buzz- 

 saw work. Feeding a power saw allows too little time to 

 " watch out ;" and it can not be stopt when it strikes a stone. 

 Page 100. 



MAKING A COLONY SWARM. 



Well done, Mr. Bevins ! A practical way to make a colony 

 swarm at will is one of the most urgent of our lesser wants, 

 and you seem to have given us a good starter towards it. 

 Booming colony — tall hive — queen in the attic — zinc to keep 

 her there — then put her below just before the first princess 

 emerges. There might be some failures, however. A phleg- 

 matic colony might refuse to build cells below ; and an iras- 

 cible colony might kill the old queen when she appeared down- 

 stairs, and only save one princess. Page 101. 



KEEPING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Dr. Mason was a little "off" on page 102 when he said it 

 had never been tried how long extracted honey would keep. 

 I've tried it a number of times when it didn't keep thru the 

 first summer. How long the best, and most thoroly ripened, 

 select honey will keep is perhaps a little problematical yet. 

 And his contribution 15 years in an open package, and good 

 yet — is on the road toward finding out. As a general doctrine 

 I should say that honey not sealed up depreciates sotne every 

 summer it goes thru. Some innocent trader will get badly 

 bitten by trying to hold too long a dozen barrels of honey — if 

 he listens to our boys singing the imperishability of honey, as 

 they are so fond of doing. 



THE HATCH EXPERIMENT. 



And, ye experimenting folks, don't forget the Hatch 

 experiment when putting on supers this spring — filling all the 

 mid brood-chamber with sealed brood, and having plenty of 

 young larvffi in the outside frames. For locations with only 

 one harvest, and that not very long, I shouldn't wonder if 

 this might prove valuable. Worth something to start the stor- 

 ing in the outside sections, right over the young brood. Page 

 103. 



BUMBLE-BEE DRONES WORKING. 



Mr. Wallace, perhaps it is not very great merit in the 

 bumble-bee drones that they work to the extent of getting 

 their own food from the flowers. May be a simple case of 

 " root hog or die " — no honey at home at all. It's true, how- 

 ever, that our hive-drones would promptly accept the "die" 

 rather than the " root hog." Page 108. 



UNCAPPING HONEY FOR EXTRACTING. 



I am not an expert handler of the uncapping-knife — good 

 ways from it, I fear — and therefore the photograph of an 

 expert at his work has special value to me (and perhaps to all 

 my numerous family.) I am talking now about the photo- 

 graphs of Mr. Aikin on pages 117 and 118. He does not 

 lean his comb over to the right as much as I do. He cuts the 

 first stroke on the near end of the comb. Had I been in his 

 shoes, and commanded to begin on one end, I should probably 

 have cut the first stroke on the far end — working the heel of 

 the knife continually into fresh territory in preference to the 

 point — except of course when the surface is so uneven that 

 the point has to be used. Awhile ago I used to take off a little 

 strip pretty much all around the comb first thing : but I have 

 pretty much abandoned that as a greenhorn's unprofitable fuss- 

 ing. Had I been in Mr. Aikin's shoes and told to uncap that 

 comb just as I pleased, I should probably have set it on one 

 corner, leaned it over strongly to the right, placed the 

 middle of the blade under the bottom corner, and 

 made the first stroke from that corner to the opposite 

 or upper one. Then the rest of the territory I should have 

 finisht in a "permiscus"' kind of way. Presumably, Mr. 

 Aikin's way should be the better — but I should greatly enjoy 

 hearing other brethren tell just how they would attack a 

 comb — or, if they pleased, just how they would goat that par- 

 ticular comb which Mr. Aikin has in his hands. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song- in shee- 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenme3'er, a musical beet 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a copy 

 of this song. 



