41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, NOVEMBER 7, 1901, 



No, 45. 



I ^ Editorial. ^ I 



The Chicago Convention, — One of our 



correspondents, who evidently is interested in 

 the next session of the Chicago Bee-Keepers" 

 Association, writes us as follows : 



"Mr. Editor: — In the notice of the con- 

 vention to be held in Chicago, Dec. 5, it is 

 said that the railroad rate is ' one fare plus 

 ?2.00 for the round trip.' That is given as 

 the reason for holding the convention at that 

 time. But if it is a conveution of Chicago 

 bee-keepers, a rate of that kind would not be 

 any benefit to them, nor indeed to any one 

 living within less than 70 miles of the city. 

 Is it to be understood that Chicago includes 

 all the surrounding States ?" 



Plain Bee-Keepek. 



No, Chicago has not expanded to quite that 

 extent. But there's nothing small about 

 Chicago bee-keepers, and residence in Chicago 

 is not essentially requisite to membership in 

 their society. Indeed, at their previous meet- 

 ings, bee-keepers from a considerable dis- 

 tance have generally taken a prominent part. 

 The live-stock show will bring to Chicago 

 quite a number who are more or less inter- 

 ested in bees, and the low railroad rates will, 

 it is hoped, attract others. There is no rea- 

 son why there sh(mld not be the same gath- 

 ering of bee-keepers in Chicago Dec. b as 

 were formerly gathered at the meetings of the 

 Northwestern Association, so pleasantly re- 

 membered by many as among the most suc- 

 cessful bee-conventions ever held. 

 »■ 



Fastening Frames for Hauling may 

 be accomplished by driving a nail partly in at 

 each end of each top-bar, or by slipping 

 wedges between the top bars at each end. R. 

 F. Iloltermann gives, in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, a plan that may be better, as follows : 



A separator cut into four pieces will do. 

 Lay this across the ends of the frames and 

 drive a small tack through this into the bar, 

 and they will not only keep from moving 

 .sidewise, but the piece across will prevent the 

 frame from swinging at the bottom. 



Glucose Feeding. — A remark in "The 

 Afterthought " calls forth the following: 



Mr. Editor:— On page OSI, Mr. E. E. 

 Hasty, referring to an editorial on page 579, 

 says: " It is somewhat in the line of news to 

 be told that one cm feed a ton of glucose to 

 his bees." Does that mean that it is news 

 that bees will take so large an amount, or 

 that they will take glucose at all ! 



Slbscriber. 



It is hardly news that bees will take glucose 

 at all — sometimes. They are not likely to 

 feed upon it voraciously when good, honest 



nectar is within easy reach. Whether under 

 any circumstances a very large amount could 

 be fed at one time may be questioned. The 

 editorial does not distinctly say what our 

 sharp-eyed " afterthinker" seems to under- 

 stand it to say, namely: "that one can feed 

 a ton of glucose to his bees. It says that a 

 certain bee-keeper tried to feed that amount. 

 That does not say whether the whole of that 

 amount was taken by the bees. Even if that 

 amount was all taken, it would not neces- 

 sarily be such a very large amount for each 

 colony, when it is noted that the colonies 

 were numbered " by the hundreds."' 



Glucose as bee-food Is reported in Le Prog- 

 res Apicole as producing diarrhea in some 

 cases and constipation in other eases. Some 

 across the Atlantic report no inconvenience 

 to the bees from its use, while others report 

 heavy losses by death where glucose has been 

 fed. These discrepancies are accounted for 

 by the inconstancy of the product, some sam- 

 ples being pure, or nearly so, while many 

 others contain free sulphuric and hydrochloric 

 acids, etc., and often traces of arsenic. 



The safest thing for bee-keepers to do with 

 glucose is to let it entirely alone. "Touch 

 not, taste not, handle not,"' is good advice. 



Price of Honey receives further atten- 

 tion in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, without, 

 however, materially adding new light; at 

 least there seems no reason to change the 

 View heretefore given in these columns, and 

 it may be well to repeat that one will not 

 be likely to go far astray if one closes 

 promptly with any offers made at last year's 

 prices. A note from Dr. Miller has some 

 bearing on the subject. He says: 



" I'm sorry to say I had not tirue enough to 

 call on you either on my way to Jacksonville 

 or on my return. I did, however, make a 

 pop call on R. A. Burnett in passing. He 

 promptly introduced the subject of prices on 

 honey. I had considered his theory that 

 rumors of a big crt)p helped to increase sales 

 without lowering prices, and thought it 

 utterly untenable. I do not know that I have 

 entirely changed my views, but I must con- 

 fess that after hearing him give cases right 

 out of his experience that seemed to support 

 his theory, I don't feel so sure of my ground 

 as I did. It seems, however, that in the long 

 run the greatest good to the greatest number 

 ought to be secured by having ' the truth, 

 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." '' 



"The Ijife of the Bee;" by Maurice 

 Maeterlinck, translated by Alfred Sutro, is a 

 unique work. It is not intended to supplant 

 or to supplement any of the text-books as a 

 text-book. The author says: " It is not my 

 intention to write a treatise on apiculture 

 or on practical bee-keeping." The man who 

 has mastered the contents of one of our ex- 



cellent text-books will learn nothing' new 

 from this work. But he will find the every- 

 day facts about bees, with which he is already 

 familiar, painted in such exquisite fashion 

 that they will seem almost new to him. 



The book contains 427 pages, with an undue 

 amount of white paper, for the page measures 

 7'., by 5 inches, while the printed portion is 

 only 4'. J by 2J„'. 



One wonders at such spelling as " labour,'' 

 "favour," "savour," and "waggon" in a 

 book fresh from the press, and still more to 

 find "swarm" used for "colony,'' and 

 " hive ■' with the same meaning. But these 

 are minor matters, and we must remember 

 that the book is a translation. 



The author says: "I shall state nothing, 

 therefore, that I have not verified myself, or 

 that is not so fully accepted in the text-books 

 as to render further verification superfluous. 

 My facts shall be as accurate as though they 

 appeared in a practical manual or scientific 

 monograph.'' Yet the practical bee-keeper 

 will hardly forbear some doubt as to the 

 accuracy of some of the supposed facts. 

 Dzierzon's hive, " still very Imperfect, re- 

 ceived masterly Improvement at the hands of 

 Langstroth;" when, as a matter of fact, 

 Langstroth completed his invention before 

 ever hearing of Dzierzon's hive, and no after- 

 improvement was made. (Page 15.) 



Our author will delight the heart of the 

 Rev. W. F. Clarke, when he teaches that the 

 bees " ensure the preservation of the honey by 

 letting a drop of formic acid fall in from the 

 end of their sting." (Page 43.) 



Sixty or seventy thousand as the number of 

 bees in an average swarm will stretch the 

 credulity of the average bee-keeper, to say 

 nothing of our good friend, the editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. ( Page 46. ) 



In speaking of preparation for swarming, 

 the author says: "The bee-keeper has only 

 to destroy in their cells the young queens that 

 still are inert, and, at the same time, if 

 nymphs and larvae abound, to enlarge the 

 store-houses and dormitories of the nation, for 

 this improfltable tumult instantaneously to 

 subside, for work to be at once resumed, and 

 the flowers revisited ; while the old queen, 

 who now is essential again, with no successor 

 to hope for, or perhaps to fear, will renounce 

 this year her desire for the light of the sun." 

 (Page .56.) Beautiful as is the language in 

 that sentence, and much as the practical bee- 

 keeper would like to believe it, he will hardly 

 believe it a general rule that when prepara- 

 tions for swarming are made, all he has to do 

 is to destroy queen-cells and give more room 

 to secure the abandonment of all further 

 thought of swarming for the season. 



Do swarming bees carry with them " a cer- 

 tain amount of proplis," as stated on page 



