Oct. 31, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



697 



The trouble with bee- books seems to be that either they 

 tell everything- except what you want to know, or they pre- 

 suppose that you know all about it and merely want the 

 book to see how much better we know it than the authors. 



Mississippi. 



Answer— I enjoyed your letter with a broad smile, and 

 am thankful that you could not answer all your own ques- 

 tions. Yours seems such an intellig-ent sort of ignorance, 

 if I may be allowed the expression, that it is a pleasure to 

 answer your questions, and I may say to you that whenever 

 you reach the point where you can answer all your own 

 questions I have a whole lot that I'd like to have you an- 

 swer. But it is to be a secret between yoa and me that I 

 don't know all about bees. 



Now I'll see what can be done toward reconciling- the 

 apparent contradictions that seem to trouble you. " Keep 

 your colonies strong- " is Oettl's golden rule, and if any one 

 of the four words in it should be emphasized, it should prob- 

 ably be the first, making it read •'Keep your colonies 

 strong. " Now, if you keep all colonies strong there will be 

 no need of uniting at any time. But the best you can do 

 will always be likely to have some colonies that are not 

 strong. If you use the nucleus plan of building up colonies, 

 of course they will be weak at the start, building up as the 

 season progresses, and there will be some that fail to build 

 up satisfactorily ; some colonies will become queenless and 

 weak: indeed, there are different ways in which good bee- 

 keepers may have, each year, colonies so weak that they 

 should be united. But you must try to prevent having weak 

 colonies late. " Beware of having- weak colonies to be 

 united in the fall. " Better unite not later than August, 

 while bees are gathering and not inclined to quarrel, and 

 while brood-rearing and other work is going on, so that the 

 united colonies will have plenty of time to be fully settled 

 into one harmonious whole before cool weather comes. 

 "Much safer to have them all united long before 'winter 

 comes. " 



But through carelessness, ignorance, or, perhaps, for 

 some entirely satisfactory reason, October may come and 

 find you with some colonies so weak that thev will stand a 

 poor chance of getting through the winter. It doesn't do 

 any good to say reproachfully that they ought to have been 

 united in August. They were not united in August, and the 

 question is what to do now. They are not gathering and so 

 are inclined to be quarrelsome, and if united at a time when 

 very active a good many may be killed. A few days' wait- 

 ing will make no material difference, for everything is at a 

 stand-still: so " I would advise deferring the uniting of bees 

 until we have several cold, rainy davs in October. " Then 

 the bees will be inclined to be somewhat dormant and little 

 inclined to fight ; and, besides, they will be more likely to 

 cling to any new location without flying back to the place 

 from which they were taken. Now, don't you think I have 

 made a pretty good job of reconciling what seemed to you 

 contradictions ? 



But when it comes to the matter of queen introduction, 

 I'm afraid I can't satisfy you so well. All the different 

 ways of introducing queens, with various modifications and 

 adaptations, would make a book of itself; and constantly 

 new plans are being given that are said to be infallible, 

 which, upon further trial, are not found to be always suc- 

 cessful. I know of only one way that may not fail one time 

 in a hundred, or oftener. Take two or three combs of just 

 emerging brood (no unsealed brood, which would only die of 

 starvation ), close them in a hive with the new queen,'so that 

 no strange bee can enter, keep the hive in a warm place if 

 weather makes it necessary, and, after five or six days, open 

 the hive on the stand which it is to occupv. You will see 

 that there is no chance for the queen to be 'molested, for not 

 a bee is present which has ever formed allegiance to any 

 other queen, and, of course, every worker born in the hive 

 will be loyal to the queen present. Other plans have their 

 exceptions. You tried two plans, each of which had suc- 

 ceeded 99 times in a hundred, and in each case you happened 

 on the one time in a hundred, or else there was some little 

 thing in which you did not minutely follow out instructions. 

 One plan may put the new queen in the hive at the time of 

 removing the old one; another may leave the hive queenless 

 several days: and one plan may be as successful as the 

 other, providing the proper instructions for each are fuUv 

 carried out. 



It may be some comfort to you to know that you are not 

 the only one who has made a failure. " There are others. " 

 But as you gain experience your failures will become less 

 in number. Yet, unless you do better than I have done, you 

 will fail occasionally in introducing a queen as long as you 



\ ^ The Afterthought. ^ \ 



*Old Reliable" seen througrh New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By B. e. H ASTV. Sta. B Rural, Toledo. O. 



LONG TONGUES AND LONGEVITV. 



Having duly " banged " the long tongues, I begin to think 

 we must choose some big gun and bang him against " longev- 

 ity." 'Pears like certain brethren approve the work of cer- 

 tain colonies in the yard and credit it to longevity, when they 

 have never tried to know anything definite about it beyond 

 their own imagination. Has any careful, scientific-minded 

 brother ever published any set of experiments showing two 

 side-aud-side colonies as differing much in longevity "? We 

 may not find all bees rigidly alike in term of life, but at pres- 

 ent there is too much possibility of it for such jumping at con- 

 clusions. Perhaps what is usually credited as short-livedness 

 in a colony is really such a lack of constitutional health that a 

 large percentage of the young bees emerge alive but worthless. 

 Page 59y. 



MR. DADANT AN EXE.MPLAR YACATtONIST. 



For bee-keepers on vacation bent, C. P. Dadant is an ex- 

 cellent exemplar. Go to some nice town which has not been 

 spoiled by tourists. Page 597. 



EDITORS AND CORRESPONDENTS THAT " SPAT-TEK. " 



And so our editors must not " spat " so much, but just fol- 

 low Paddy W. T. S., and hit every head in sight. Page 598. 



A PACE FOR GUESSERS. 



Thank you. Comrade Miller, for setting a good pace in the 

 matter of guesses. We don't agree to replace them with new 

 ones in case they fail to give satisfaction. Page 6u2. 



SETTING MULBERRY CUTTINGS IN JULY. 



Mulberry cuttings to be set in .luly, Dr. Peiro says. Some 

 of us so dull as to think that all cuttings should be set in the 

 spring, of course. And we would make a total failure of it, 

 very likely — and then scold the man who said mulberries could 

 be raised easily from cuttings. Page 605. 



A NEW "BEE-SOCIETT." 



I'm afraid that the bee has a life-membership in the Got- 

 your-name-up-and-lie-abed-till-noon Society — this in respect lo 

 accurate mathematics, and in respect to neatness, and possi- 

 bly in respect to some other things. Page 605. 



BEE-ESCAPE IN CORNER VS. CENTER. 



I am no authority at all on bee-escapes, but my conjecture 

 is that escape in corner is a great improvement on escape in 

 the center of the hoard. With a quiet mass of bees above and 

 below, which feel in communication with other — why should 

 they do anything special to change so satisfactory a situation? 

 Looked at theoretically we should suppose that the main thing 

 is to make them want to get out, which they will not do until 

 they feel isolated. Page 605. 



FLAX-WASTE AS PACKING MATERIAL. 



In my boyhood I saw flax-waste, and my memory is 

 (nicely prodded up by page bdfi) that it does repel water 

 somewhat. If we could only turn the wheels of time and civi- 

 li'/iation backward, and again have a flax-patch on each farm 

 and fiax-waste in each barn, how nicely we should pack bees 

 for winter in an improved material ! But mv impression is 

 that some materials which take water reluctantly will take it 

 in the course of a few weeks, and then be as stubborn about 

 drying out as they were about getting wet. How is that 

 with flax? 



TU.VT CAN.\DI.\N WINTERING-BOX. 



As Mr. Alpaugh (page 606) has not yet put his wlntering- 

 bot to test, only invented it, we are quite in order if we tell 

 our minds as to how it will turn out. I'll say that the joint 

 heat of the colonies will keep up the temperature inside quite 

 ^ bit— when there is no need of it— also in severe weather be- 

 fore the bees hav(> got to worrying, and much of the mischief 

 has been already done: but when there is the most need of its 

 working— in severe weather before the bees begin to worry — 

 perchance he will find a thermometer in an empty box and one 

 in his ten-colony box just about the same. 



