41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, AUGUST 8, 1901, 



No, 32, 



I ^ Editorial. ^ I 



General vs. Special Knowledge. — 



The tendency nowadaj's is toward specialism. 

 Even in bee-keeping there are special lines, 

 and a man is likely to do his best when he 

 confines himself within certain limits. But it 

 is a serious mistake to think that one should 

 study up only what comes directl.v within his 

 line. It is not likely that any bee-keeper be- 

 came very proficient in any one line without 

 being pretty well informed in all other lines 

 pertaining to bee-keeping. A good, all-around 

 bee-keeper makes the best basis for a good 

 specialist. Dr. Miller's advice in another 

 column is good. Inform yourself in advance, 

 even upon subjects that you think may never 

 have any interest for you. Study all of your 

 text-book until it is familiar. Don't omit a 

 knowledge of the Dzierzon theory. Lay a 

 solid foundation, and then when the time 

 comes that knowledge upon any point is 

 needed, it will be ready. 



Northern vs. Southern Queens. — A 



wordy discussion upon this subject occurs in 

 the Southland Queen between S. E. Miller and 

 E. J. Atchley, which, if it proves nothing else, 

 proves that men may have very different 

 views. What one claims for the North the 

 other claims for the South. Mr. Miller 

 claims that people of a temperate climate are 

 superior to those of a trojiical climate in 

 strength, hardiness, industry, and otherwise, 

 and that where a Northern and a Southern 

 army meet on equal terms the Northern army 

 is victorious. Mr. Atchley says late history 

 proves that it takes ten Northern men to con- 

 quer one Southern man ; that the men and 

 women of the South, as a rule, are .'^iroug and 

 robust, capable of enduring great hardships, 

 and less subject to disease than those of the 

 North; that Southern queens lay more and 

 live longer, and the bees live longer, are more 

 hardy, and gather more honey. 



Feeding Back — Editor Hutchinson is 

 one of the limited number who has made a 

 success of getting sections conijiletcd by feed- 

 ing back. In the Bee-Kecpers" Review he 

 gives some excellent hints. If the feeding is 

 begun just as the flow from basswood is be- 

 ginning to slack up, the work will go on 

 apace, whereas every day's delay after that 

 time will make it necessary for the bees to 

 fill up again in the brood-chamber. Contract 

 to five Langstroth combs at i he most. Three 



are better, Ijut in that ease there will be a 

 weakened colony unless it is strengthened by 

 adding to it cases of sections, bees and all. 

 from other colonies. Add boiling water to 

 the honey to he fed until it is thin as nectar. 

 With 100 pounds of unfinished sections and 100 

 pounds of extracted honey, Mr. Hutchinson 

 gets 160 pounds of finished sections. He says 

 further: 



Black bees do the best work ; hybrids next; 

 then comes the dark Italians. Light Italians 

 do very poor work in feedingback. 



Sort over the sections, making two grades 

 of them as regards their completion. Con- 

 tract the brood-nests of the colonies that are 

 to be employed. Set the cases of sections 

 around, one on a hive, but not on the hives 

 containing the colonies that are to be em- 

 ployed in feeding back. The bees will go up 

 and occupy the sections. Now gather up the 

 cases, bees and all. and put two cases on each 

 hive. This is done to secure populous colo- 

 nies, as they do the best work in feeding back. 

 I have never had trouble from the bees quar- 

 reling. Put a case of nearly finished sections 

 next to the brood-nest, and those that are not 

 so nearly finished on top, and then the feeder. 



Note the peculiarities of the different colo- 

 nies. One will take down the feed and draw 

 out the combs much better than will some of 

 the others. Another colony will be a poor 

 " feeder," but will cap the honey much bet- 

 ter than some other colonies will cap their 

 honey. As the work progresses, and fewer 

 colonies are needed, throw out those that do 

 the poorest work. 



A Putty-Knife as a Hive-Tool, to 



scrape propolis off the hives, pry frames apart 

 with, and for scraping off burr-combs, is rec- 

 ommended in the Progressive Bee-Keejier. 

 " Somnambulist " suggests that a small trowel 

 with the edges sharpened is hard to beat. 



Moving Bees for Fall Flow.— An in- 

 teresting discusssion upon this topic at the 

 Ontario convention is reported in the Cana- 

 dian Bee .Journal. Among the points brought 

 out was one that even if no surplus is gained 

 there may be pay for the trouble in the better 

 supply of winter stores, and still further there 

 may be a great advantage in the greater num- 

 ber of young bees to go into winter quarters. 

 It was urged that, although for spring and 

 fall moving a large-sized entrance covered 

 with wire-cloth may give sufficient ventila- 

 tion, this will not do when moving to the 

 buckwheat fields in hot weather. There 

 should be a space of two inches over the 

 brood-frames, with wire-cloth over. Some 

 preferred a hay-rack with a layer of hay with- 

 out springs; others preferred heav}' springs. 

 A board platform may be used with common 

 carpet tacks sprinkled over it. The tacks will 

 sink into the platform and into the hive- 

 bottoms, preventing the hives from sliding 

 about. 



To prevent Irotilile with a nervous driver in 



case any hives should spring a leak, mosquito 

 net may cover the entire load. On a close, 

 warm day, it bees begin to stick their tongues 

 up through the wire-cloth, they should be 

 well sprinkled with water. The bees will 

 suffer less if hauled at night, or if the start 

 be made in the middle of the night. Frames 

 should run crosswise on the wagon. Some 

 hauled the bees home late in the fall, putting 

 them immediately in the cellar without oppor- 

 tunity for a Hight, and found no bad results. 



Alfalfa Honey, although always of good 

 Havor, says Editor Root, varies in color, in 

 some localities being light amber, and in 

 others almost water-white. 



5Ieasuring Bees' Tongues. — It has 



more than once been suggested that it is no 

 safe criterion to judge the value of a worker- 

 bee by mere length of tongue alone, because 

 there may be a difference in the energy of two 

 bees having tongues of the same length. This 

 difference can be measured by the difference 

 in the amount of stores gathered by two colo- 

 nies. A. .J. Wright, in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture, proposes a more expeditious method of 

 measuring this energy, and without taking 

 all the bees of a colony. He has constructed 

 an ingenious glossometer, which gives meas- 

 urements to the thousandth of an inch, and 

 says: 



' ' The energy of the bees is clearly shown 

 in their efforts to reach the candy. While 

 some are easily discouraged, and give up 

 without much effort, others will persevere, 

 and work and stretch their tongues to the 

 utmost limit ; and when the candy is clearly 

 beyond their reach they seem loath to yield."' 



Mr. Wright is perhaps the first to suggest 

 the advisability of measuring the capacity of 

 the honey-sacs of different bees, in doing 

 which only one bee must be taken at a time 

 and allowed to fill its sac from a receptacle so 

 small that the amount taken can be accurately 

 determined. While in general larger honey- 

 sacs go with longer tongues, two bees having 

 tongues of the same length may have honey- 

 sacs of different capacities. It is not hard to 

 believe that a bee with a small honey-sac 

 must make more journeys, hence consume 

 more time, in storing a given amount, than 

 one with a larger sac. He says that the liv- 

 ing bee, when reaching for nectar, can pro- 

 trude its tongue further than the tongue of 

 the dead bee can be stretched without rup- 

 ture, and that the bees of a queen, if pure. 

 differ but little from each other in tongue 

 meastire. capacity of the lione.v-sac, and 

 working energy. Objection is made to using 

 wire-cloth in a glossometer. as the apertures 

 are by no means uniform in size or shape. 



