4IstYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, NOVEMBER 14, 1901, 



No, 46. 



i ^ Editorial. ^ l 



The Cold Snap. — Did it catcli 3-ou ? No 

 doubt it did a good many. The latter part of 

 October was so summer-lilie that it was easy 

 to think that freezing weather might be far 

 away, and so some last preparations for cold 

 weather were put off from day to day with 

 the thought that there was no immediate need 

 for haste until the weather became at least a 

 little colder. But that " little colder " weather 

 never came. From summer weather there 

 was a sudden jump right into winter weather. 

 Here in northern Illinois we had in the last 

 end of October a temperature of SO degrees. 

 All at once a cold west wind set in the night 

 of Nov. 3, afld by morning the thermometer 

 registered 12 degrees. 



Now, don't you wish that colony short of 

 stores had been attended to in September ; 

 Well, look out another year. 



Long Smellers. — A clipping from the 

 Belfast Blaze, which has been received, con- 

 tains among other things the following: 



Mr. Ballard says that a honey-bee can smell 

 clover honey two miles away. He cites an in- 

 stance that once the nearest clover to his bees 

 was over a mountain in the Hell Hollow dis- 

 trict two miles away, and his bees all went 

 there to gather honey. He says if you go out 

 in the woods half a mile from a hive and 

 burn some honey-comb that within ten min- 

 utes the bees will be attracted there froiu the 

 hive by the sense of smell, if the wind is 

 right. But some of the ways of the honey- 

 bee are past finding out. 



This isacaseof correct prjmises,witha false 

 conclusion drawn therefrom. It is true that 

 bees will find a clover-Beld two miles from 

 their home, and that in a few minutes they 

 will find burning honey-comb within a half 

 mile; but it by no means follows that they 

 can smell anything two miles, or even half a 

 mile, away. It would be just as reasonable 

 to say that when a man went hunting and 

 shot a squirrel two miles from home he saw 

 the squirrel when two miles away. Bees are 

 good hunters rather than long smellers. 



Profits of Bee-Keeping are sometimes 

 painted in rather bright colors, even when 

 there is no real intention to mislead. Refer- 

 ring to some remarks on page b79 of this 

 journal, in which some very bright painting 

 in the August number of the American Bee- 

 Keeper was commented upon, the editor of 

 that journal says; 



There can be no doubt that the glowing 

 pictures sometimes painted of bee-culture and 



its profits are open to criticism. The begin- 

 ner — especially the youthful beginner — may 

 in this way be led to expect too much; yet, 

 with reference to the question in hand, we 

 think no bee-keeper of experience would be 

 inclined to regard ^.00 per colony as big re- 

 turns. It should always be borne in mind 

 that any business enterprise is subject to 

 adverse conditions and casualities. Then, 

 there is a limit of one's personal capabilities 

 to be taken into consideration. One apiarist 

 can not properly attend to several apiaries ; 

 expense increases in proportion with the 

 stock ; forage must also be afforded in equal 

 ratio. One colony might easily produce 100 

 pounds of comb honey. This might readily 

 find a market at $16.00; though one does not 

 often hear of an apiary of 100 colonies yield- 

 ing 10,000 pounds of honey, and that selling 

 for $1,600. We do not think it has occurred 

 in recent years, that any apiaries of 1000 

 colonies have yielded $16,000 worth of honey 

 in one season, for reasons intimated above. 



This is very appropriately said, and might 

 well have been said in the August number, 

 all except the part in which Editor Hill seems 

 to support the statement: "It is a conser- 

 vative estimate of the bee-keepers generally, 

 however, that each colony should bring in at 

 least five dollars a year." Does our esteemed 

 fellow editor really believe that >. If it be 

 true, then it could be hardly out of the way 

 to say to the would-be beginner: " It you 

 have 50 colonies, you may be sure of $2.10 at 

 h^aat in the very poorest year, and much more 

 in a good year."' Would he say that ? 



Temperature for. Feeding Back, 



says Adrian Getaz, in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, must be that of hot weather, or there 

 will be loss of honey from consumption to 

 keep up the proper heat. No one has ever 

 made a success of feeding back except in hot 

 weather awl hut niylitx. 



Confinement of Laying Queens. — In 



Gleanings in Bee-Cullure, a foot-note to an 

 article by Arthur C. Miller, reads as follows: 



You may be right; but is it not putting it 

 a little strong when you say, " We do /i'«,o«i 

 that the sudden confinement of a queen when 

 in the full exercise of her natural functions 



almost always works serious injury We 



also knuiK that a queen laying slowly, as in a 

 small nucleus, can be caged with but little or 

 no apparent injury!'" Vou italicize the word 

 kw'ii-' as if the tacts were established. Now, 

 is that true ' There has been a sort of sur- 

 mise entertained by many good bee-keepers 

 that both of these propositions might be true; 

 but has either one of them been clearly and 

 decidedly demonstrated* Understand, I do 

 not deny either proposition ; but I raise the 

 question whether we have so far reported 

 facts sufficient to prove, beyond a perad ven- 

 ture, both statements. In partial support of 

 one statement, I will say that we have sent 

 out sometimes, from our apiary, queens that 

 were in full laying', und yet which on arrival 

 at destination pruviHi to be very unsatisfac- 

 tory, laid a few i<;;,'s,and disappeared. At 



other times we have taken queens from their 

 hives in the height of the season, put them up 

 in mailing-cages, and, later on, had most 

 flattering reports from them. We send out a 

 good many thousand queens in a season ; 

 and, unless I am very much mistaken, the 

 majority of such queens (even when doing 

 full duty) have deported themselves very 

 creditably on arrival at their new home. If 

 there is any queen-breeder, aside from Mr. 

 Alley, who first cages in a small nucleus 

 before sending out queens, I shoald like to 

 have him hold up his hand. Now, under- 

 stand, friend Miller, this is not offered as a 

 challenge, but because I do honestly seek the 

 truth. If it is demonstrated clearly that a 

 queen removed from the hive when laying to 

 her fullest capacity, and caged long enough 

 to make a journey through the mails, is in- 

 jured, then the sooner we prove the fact the 

 better it will be for the breeder as well as for 

 his customer. 



It seems pretty certain that when queens 

 are sent through the mails they are sometimes 

 much the worse after the journey, and some- 

 times as good as ever. This has been ex- 

 plained heretofore, and perhaps satisfactorily, 

 without laying any blame upon sudden con- 

 finement. There is a very great difference 

 between the weight of a queen when laying- 

 two or three thousand eggs in a day and when 

 not laying at all. A light-weight queen, 

 when sent through the mail, has little diffi- 

 culty in maintaining her footing in the cage, 

 no matter what jars or jolts. On the other 

 hand, when very heavy with eggs, a light jar 

 makes her lose her hold, and a heavy jar may 

 make her strike against the wood of the 

 cage in such a way as to be seriously injured. 

 It is a matter of accident, the light weight 

 being little subject to accident, and the 

 greater the weight the greater the danger of 

 accident. Yet a queen very heavy with eggs 

 may go through in safety, the next one may be 

 injured so as to be almost, if not entirely, 

 worthless. 



Ventilating Bees When Hauled. — 



R. F. Holtermann, in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture, recommends as the best thing a sort of 

 portico or cage of wire-cloth at the entrance 

 of the hive. This was in use many years ago, 

 and serves a good purpose. For those, how- 

 ever, who have deep bottom-boards, there is 

 a cheaper, easier, and perhaps better way. If 

 the bottom-board is two inches deep, there 

 will be an entrance of the same depth, and 

 this can be closed very simply with a single 

 piece of wire-cloth. Then there will be under 

 the hive a well-ventilated space in which the 

 bees can congregate when it is too warm for 

 them to stay on the combs, that space being, 

 if an S-franie hive is used, about -ISO cubic 

 inches in volume. 



The Illinois State Convention is to 



meet in Springfield, Nov. 10 and 20. Sec 

 fuller notice elsewhere in thia issue. 



