January, 1913. 



American Hee Journal 



A Michigan Girl in Cuba. 



know that they were two separate 

 swarms — bees often do freakish things. 

 In that case, one of the queens would 

 be killed as soon as they united. 



1. If there is brood in both stories, 

 she may be in either story. If in only 

 one story she will be with the brood. 



2. Yes, but one part will be queen- 

 less. By looking for eggs after three 

 or four days you can tell which is the 

 queenless one (there will be no eggs 

 in that one), then a queen may be 

 given, or, if you prefer, you may let 

 them rear one for themselves. Instead 

 of killing part of your colonies better 

 unite. 



3. Yes, even if it is somewhat candied. 



4. Any time after bees are flying 

 freely in the spring. 



5. No, unless the honey is burned in 

 heating, then it would be unwholesome 

 for winter stores. 



(5. Yes, pollen is gathered from the 

 flowers, and after stored in the hives it 

 is called either pollen or bee-bread. 



7. When honey mixed with bee-bread 

 is heated the flavor of the honey is 

 likely to be affected — the greater the 

 heat the more the honey will be af- 

 fected. 



The best way is to extract the honey. 

 If this is not possible, the combs may 

 be broken up and the lioney strained 

 out through cheese-cloth. 



Yes, it takes all sorts of folks to 

 make a world, and some are surely odd. 



moved the brood-chamber of a strong 

 colony to a new location, leaving the 

 honey super on the old stand, from 

 which one frame was removed, and the 

 frame inserted as shown in the photo- 

 graph, with 28 empty cells made of 

 pure wax, by dipping a rounded stick 

 in it while melted, and repeating this 

 dipping and cooling until you get just 

 what is wanted. 



In the evening these cells were 

 grafted without royal jelly, and for the 

 first and only time, with me, the entire 

 28 were accepted and sealed. The 

 morning that the last one was capped 

 over, a visitor happening along wished 

 to see the cells, and the first thing I 

 saw, on removing the frame, was a 

 queen dodging around among the cells, 

 and one cell torn open. I thought I 

 recognized the queen as coming from 

 another hive, and sure enough it was 

 the same lady. She was a young queen, 

 and had been laying nicely for about 

 a week, and had plenty of honey in her 

 home, so why she should leave it I do 

 not know. She was captured and 

 dropped into a queenless colony, was 

 accepted, and is still there doing good 

 work. 



The frame was then photographed as 

 shown, and afterward the one cell re- 

 grafted and accepted. Taking the find- 

 ing of the queen just when I did. to- 

 gether with the number of ripe cells I 

 got from this batch, I think the whole 

 operation is my luckiest. In trying to 

 have the queen, mother of the larvje 

 in the cells, shown in the photograph, 

 most of the bees were driven from the 

 frame the lady is holding, and even 

 then it is impossible to pick her, with- 

 out knowing just where she is. The 

 lady is a Michigan girl, and it was her 

 first association with bees — some 

 nerve, hey! D.W.Millar. 



Yes, the lady surely does show nerve 

 to sit quietly without sign of veil or 

 gloves while her picture is being taken. 

 Is it not possible that this is at least 

 partly owing to her confidence in the 

 man who stands close by ? 



Even though the scene be laid in far 

 away Cuba, a home touch is given to it 

 by that copy of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal on her lap. 



E\R Western w Bee-I^eping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



Queen-Rearing in Cuba 



Although rather disappointed in the 

 two pictures enclosed, I am sending 

 them on account of the luck I had 

 with the batch of queen-cells shown 

 therein. The picture is taken in an 

 orange grove, where I have my queen- 

 rearing outfit. At 10 o'clock a.m. I re- 



Spraying and Bees 



The bee-keeping industry has been 

 seriously injured in nearly all the com- 

 mercial fruit districts of Colorado the 

 past season. In the Canon City dis- 

 trict the loss was the greatest on ac- 

 count of the fruit men spraying during 

 full bloom for the leaf roller. Some- 

 where from 600 to a 1000 colonies and 

 their increase were destroyed, as well 

 as the honey crop. 



The effect on the bee-industry will 

 be to drive the bee-keepers out to the 

 alfalfa districts. The losses from spray- 

 ing were so general this year in all the 

 fruit sections of Colorado that bee- 

 keeping was a loss to those engaged 

 in it. 



It is possible to move the bees three 

 or four miles away from the orchards 

 during bloom and bring them back for 

 alfalfa bloom, if alfalfa is not grown 

 for a cover crop in the orchards, in 

 which case the later sprays will poison 

 the bloom beneath the trees. This can 



be remedied by cutting the alfalfa or 

 clover before blooming. It is practi- 

 cally impossible to get all to do this, 

 however, and I have recommended for 

 all bee-keepers to leave the fruit dis- 

 tricts. 



The effect on the fruit crop will be 

 revealed later. It is probably true that 

 other insects do some of the cross 

 fertilizing, but where thousands of 

 acres of orchards are grown, the 

 bees are most necessary. It is my opin- 

 ion that fruit-men and bee-men will 

 have to get together, and I hope they 

 will soon. 



The bee-men secured a law several 

 years ago forbidding the spraying of 

 fruit trees while in bloom with any 

 substance injurious to bees, but the 

 fruit-men seem to resent this, and the 

 clause in the law was changed so the 

 bee-men have no protection except to 

 move out of flight range of the or- 

 chards. 



Spraying fruit during full bloom is 



