668 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 17, 191 1. 



The Drone's Folks. 



■' The drone,'' says a Straw in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture, " is always a half orphan, for 

 his lather is always dead before he is born. 

 He never has a full sister, for the father of 

 his mother's female children is never his 

 father. In fact, he never has any father ex- 

 cept his grandfather, and he never lives to 

 see any of his children." 



In<.Breeding.i 



The worst dangers of in-breeding are where 

 two beings are mated that are of exactly the 

 same blood, having the same father and 

 mother. Fortunately, the bee-keeper need 

 take no pains to avoid .such close breeding; 

 Nature takes care of that. A drone and a 

 queen from the same mother are not full 

 brother and sister, for the father of the queen 

 is not father of the drone. The only way to 

 mate two of exactly the same blood is to mate 

 a drone to his mother, and the drone is horn 

 too late for that. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Bees and Pear-Blight. 



Regarding the bee and pear-blight question 

 in central California, I am pleased to an- 

 nounce that many of the fruit-growers are 

 coming to (or appear to be coming to) the 

 conviction that the removal of the bees dur- 

 ing the time the trees are in bloom will not 

 materially abate the destructive effects of the 

 pear-blight virus. It appears that the reso- 

 lution passed by the bee-keepers in their con- 

 vention, to move the bees out of the region of 

 the pear-orchard during the time they were in 

 bloom, required some ratifying action on the 

 part of the fruit-men in tilling out certain 

 blanks. These blanks were laid hrforr them 



some time ago, but nothing has lire n ,1 , [i 



is probably true that the peai-i.rrli:ir.ii-i an- 

 not very sanguine as to the biiirlicial rtl'.i-is 

 of the proposed removal, and many of them 

 are fair men, and therefore disinclined to put 

 the bee-keepers to this expense unnecessarily. 



I talked with Prof. Waite (who, it will be 

 remembered, originally declared the bees to 

 be guilty), while in Buffalo, regarding this 

 case. He was not .sure the removal of the 

 bees would bring about relief, owing to the 

 presence of wild bees and numerous other 

 insects that would, undoubtedly, spread the 

 disease. He was sure, from extended experi- 

 ments, that the bees were very necessary for 

 the fertilization and proper maturing of the 

 fruit, although he admitted that possibly con- 

 ditions in California might be different. 

 Prof. Waite is a careful, candid man, and a 

 friend of the bees, and so much so that he 

 deems it necessary to have a few colonies of 

 them in his own pear-orchard, pear-blight or 

 no pear-blight. 



Taking everything into consideration, it 

 appears now there will be no conflicting of 

 interests between the bee-keepers and pear- 

 men ; and it is hoped that the matter will 

 rectify itself when the pear-blight disease 

 loses its hold or '^ runs out," as we sincerely 

 hope it may.— Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



"Reviewlets" from the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review. 



Beeswax is the last thing that I should 

 think of using for a lurjricant, yet when I 

 took my spectacles to a jeweler because one 

 of the joints turned so hard that it was difti- 

 cult to move it, he simply rubbed beeswax 

 around the joint and held it over a lamp until 

 it melted and penetrated the joint. Since 

 then it has worked all right. He says that 

 when the hinge to a watch-case works hard 

 Be treats it in a similar manner. 



ExTRACTixG-CoMBS are better when they are 

 thicker than the ordinary brood-combs. There 

 is less capping for the bees to do, and less 

 uncapping for the bee-keeper — besides, it is 

 easier to uncap a thick than a thin comb. 



Dittmer's Foundation ! 



Retail— Wholesale-Jobbing. 



I use a PROCESS that produces EVERY 

 ESSENTIAL, necessary to make it the BEST 

 and MOST desirable in all respects. Mv PRO- 

 CESS and AUTOMATIC MACHINES'are my 

 own inventions, which enable me to SELL 

 FOUNDATION and 



Work fax Into Fonndation For Casli 



at prices that are the lowest. Catalog giving 



Full Line of Supplies, 



with prices and samples, tree on application 

 BEESWAX WANTED. 



GUS, DITTMER, Augusta, Wis, 



Please mention Bee journal -when ■writine. 



THE WHEEL OF TIME 



Metal Wheel. 



it,'ht, any width of tire desired, 

 „_jr wheels are either direct or 

 S'stapcerspoke. Can FIT YOUK 

 WAGON perfectly without chaDge, 



^ NO BREAKING DOWN. 



No dryia^ out. No lesi^tting tirea. Cheap 



I beco'une they endure. Send for catv 



lo£Qe and prices. Free upon reqnest. 



Electric Wheel Co. 

 Box 16 Quincy, Ills. 



Please mention Bee Journal ■when wnunf 



O J f ' 1 regarding 



bend lor circulars j,-^//;^-? 



improved and orig^inal Biueham Bee-Smoker. 

 FOK :;3 Years the Best ox Eakth. 

 2SAtf T. F. BINGHAM, Farwell, Mich. 



Please mention Bee Journal "when "writing.. 





THE WORLD 

 i SWEETENED 



California Honey g 



^ 



Be 



g PACIFIC BEE JOURNAL, 



?4 Los Angeles, Calif. 



« Special— This year and next, $1.00, 

 •' 6 months trial, 35 cents. 



42A4t Please mention the Bee Journal. 



Queen-Clipping 

 Device Free.... 



The MoNETTE Queen-Clipping 

 Device is a fine thing' for use in 

 catching and clipping Queens 

 wings. We mail it for 25 cents; 

 or will send it FREE as a pre- 

 mium foi sending us ONE NEW 

 subscriber to the Bee Journal lor 

 a year at $1.00; or for $1.10 we will 

 mail the Bee Journal one yeai 

 ind the Clipping Device. Address^ 



QEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



Chicago, IlL 



THE NICKEL PLATE ROAD 



will sell tickets each Tuesday, Thurs- 

 day and Saturday during October to 

 Buffalo Pan-Americau Exposition and 

 return, at S6.(I0, good in coaches, re- 

 turn limit 5 days from date of sale. 

 Tickets with longer limit at slightly 

 increased rates. Three through trains 

 daily. Chicago Passenger Station, Van 

 Buren St. and Pacific Avenue. City 

 ticket office. 111 Adams St., Chicago. 

 36— 41A4t 



With thick combs there are fewer to handle. 

 Most bee-keepers put one less comb in the 

 super than in the brood-nest. With the Hed- 

 don hive Mr. J. B. Hall, of Ontario, uses onlj- 

 seven combs in a super, tacking thin strips of 

 wood to the edges of the end-bars to make 

 them of such a width that seven will take 

 the place of eight ordinarj' frames. If the 

 frames are needed for brood-rearing, it is an 

 easy matter to remove the strips of wood. 



Packing put around the bees in winter 

 simply confines and retains the heat that 

 radiates from the cluster. How it does this 

 is well illustrated by the house that Mr. Jacob 

 Alpaugh, bee-keeper-like, built for himself, 

 in Ontario. The walls are of matched lum- 

 ber, packed between with dry sawdust, and 

 lathed and plastered on the inside. The house 

 is only one story high ; and the spaces be- 

 tween the joists overhead are packed with 

 dry leaves. For all the world, it is a big 

 chaff hive. Storm windows and doors are 

 used in winter. A little home-made furnace 

 in the cellar warms the whole house, with a 

 fire kept only part of the day — none at night 

 — and sometimes it is necessary to open ^ 

 door to cool off the rooms. 



HiVE Faith in your business, and stand 

 by it. If you haven't faith in it, and will not 

 stand by it through thick and thin, better get 

 some business in which you have faith. Mr. 

 Jacob Alpaugh, of Ontario, told me of an ex- 

 perience of his when the season was an entire 

 failure, and colonies not fed died in Septem- 

 ber, Although already in debt, he went in 

 still deeper by getting several hundred dol- 

 lar's worth of sugar to carry his bees through 

 the winter. There was a great loss of bees 

 the next winter from lack of stores, but his 

 bees came through in excellent condition. 

 The next year proved to be one of the l:)est. 

 Prices were good, and there were only a few 

 bees in the Province, and his bees not only 

 put him out of debt, but left him with 

 money in his pocket. 



A Stout String, or even a piece of wire, 

 attached to the end of a stick, is a most effi- 

 cient device for starting a screw-cap on a 

 honey-can, or loosening the cover of a fruit- 

 jar. Wind the string around the cover three 

 or four times, draw up the slack so that the 

 string will not slip, and then use the stick as 

 a lever for starting the cover. Simple, isn't 

 it ? But bad you ever thought of it '! I saw 

 this device at the home of R. H. Smith, of 

 Ontario. 



Equalizing Colonies and contracting the 

 brood-nests of old colonies just at the opening 

 of the honey harvest is something that is not 

 usuall.v practiced, but A. E. Hoshal, of Onta- 

 rio, says that with the Heddon hive he finds 

 it an advantage. He looks over both eases of 

 the brood-nest, filling one case with' combs 

 that contain the most brood, leaving this 

 case upon the stand. The combs of honey 

 are put away to be given the bees again after 

 the harvest is over. The more populous colo- 

 nies will contain more than one case of brood, 

 while the weaker colonies will contain less 

 than one case of brood ; and, by the time that 

 each colony is given one full case of brood, 

 not much of any brood will be left. This 

 method crowds the bees into the sections and 

 curtails the production of bees at just about 

 the right time. 



Pedigreed Queens are something that 

 may be found in the apiaries of Mr. Miller, of 

 Ontario. For the last ten years he has kept 

 a record of each colony, the breeding of the 

 queen, the amount of surplus secured, etc. 

 One colony, this year, made a spurt, and 

 furnished ten supers of surplus He hasn't 

 looked up the breeding of tlie queen yet, but 

 says he can trace it back ten years. 



The Best Colonies devoted to comb 

 honey production, and the others to extracted 

 hone.v, will allow the bee-keeper to requeen 

 his yard from his most desirable stock ; as 

 the bees worked for comb honey will swarm, 

 and thus furnish the queen-cells for use in 

 making increase. This was suggested by A. 

 E, Hoshal, of Ontario. 



Cushions are usually used on top of colo- 

 nies that are wintered out-of-doors, but M, H. 

 Hunt says that he prefers to lay a large piece 



To make cows pay. asf Sliarpli's Orftani Separators, Book 

 'Business Dairying" & Cat,21i; tree, W.Chester.Pa. 



