March, 1913. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



variety of plants pass under the name 

 of thistle and sunflower. 



It seems better, therefore, to retain 

 the name Spanish-needles, but to pre- 

 fix to it some adjective, such as showy 

 or yellow, to distinguish it from the 

 other Spanish-needles (fiidi-ns bipi/i- 

 nata), which has small heads with the 

 rays short or none. We suggest that 

 the honey-plant {Bidens aristosa) be 

 called large-flowered Spanish-needles, 

 and that bidois bif'innata be called 

 small-Bowered Spanish-needles. This 

 will permit the name to be retained, 

 and yet prevent confusion. 



The tall species of Bidens gathered 

 by Mr. Dadant. and sent to me is B. 

 froiidosa L. The flowers are incon- 

 spicuous because the rays are small or 

 absent. This is a very common and 

 widely distributed species, extending 

 throughout the eastern United States, 

 and from Florida to Te.xas in the south, 

 to Nebraska in the Central States, and 

 northward to British Columbia. Some 

 of the common names of this plant are 

 beggar-ticks, stickseed, beggar-lice, 

 and pitchforks. 



No specimens of Bidens bif'tniiala 

 were received, and this may not occur 

 at Hamilton, 111. It is not found in 

 Maine, and is not given in the list of 

 the plants of Vermont. It extends 

 southward from Rhode Island to Mex- 

 ico and tropical America. It may be 

 distinguished by the following charac- 

 ters : The long achenes are angled, 

 usually 4-awned, the awns very unequal, 

 downwardly barbed, the barbs rather 

 coarse. 



Waldoboro, Maine. 



Sacbrood 



BY MORLEY PETTIT. 



I HAVE just read your editorial on 

 page 41 of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal about dead brood. I can also 

 say that I never saw any of this 

 before starting inspecting, and at- 

 tribute this to the fact that we were 

 always careful to keep our colonies up 

 in good shape at home. On inspection 

 work I have found a great deal of this 

 dead brood, which is neither of the va- 

 rieties of foul brood. It has just been 

 described by a bulletin from the De- 

 partment at Washington, as being of a 

 slightly infectious nature, although the 

 bacterial cause has so far not been 

 isolated. It has been named sacbrood. 

 (See page 47.— Editor.) 



I have found it mostly in colonies of 

 black bees, where no new queens had 

 been introduced for a number of years, 

 and the stock was run out. 



As to bee terms (page 42), I am Irish 

 enough to have adopted the term 

 " beekeeper" without the hyphen before 

 I ever knew that Editor Digges was 

 doing this. I never took the trouble 

 to look it up in the dictionary, but de- 

 cided it was the best way to spell the 

 word, and after considerable struggle 

 with proof-readers in getting out my 

 mailing matter, have succeeded in hav- 

 ing the term used in all publications 

 and bulletins from this Department. 

 You ask, "Has honey advanced with 



other food products in prices ?" I claim 

 that it has not, even in Ontario where 

 the price has advanced -5 cents per 

 pound since the Crop Report Commit- 

 tee started operations about 10 years 

 ago. It is simply wonderful the amount 

 of work that can be done by judicious 

 advertising and holding together on 

 the part of the bee-keepers. 

 Guelph, Canada. 



Reminiscences of Smoking Bees 



M 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



|Y EARLIEST recollections on 

 the above subject date back to 

 the spring of 1876. During the 

 preceding fall and winter we 

 had manufactured and sold to 

 the surrounding bee-keepers with- 

 in a radius of six or eight miles be- 

 tween 175 and 200 hives. Nearly all 

 of these bee-keeping friends were 

 farmers, keeping anywhere from 1 to 

 20 colonies in the old style box hives. 

 For a stipulated fee, we had also 

 agreed to transfer all these bees into 

 our new hives as soon as the season 

 would admit. 



To the experienced bee-keeper, the 

 fulfillment of these contracts would 

 have been an enjoyable season's work, 

 but with the exception of a few primi- 

 tive hints by a bee-keeping friend, we 

 knew nothing about bees, had never 

 seen the inside of a hive filled with 

 bees and depended wholly upon our 

 prospective experience 'or our bee ea- 

 ucation. Although we had a little 

 inkling that bees could be raanageo 

 with smoke, the existence of a Dec- 

 smoker made especially for this pur- 

 pose, was unknown to us, and wnea 

 we started on our transferring ex- 

 pedition, we expected that a couple of 

 little briar-pipes would furnish us 

 this quieting medium. We were sadly 

 mistaken. Before we had transferrea 

 many colonies, we had found by sor- 

 rowful experience, that smoking to 

 excess, as was necessary to keep bees 

 under control, was not the most en- 

 joyable part of our new venture; it 

 made us deathly sick. The only way 

 to remain master of the situation was 

 to use a little strategy. We would 

 sly up to a hive, close its flyholes and 

 other existing openings with rags, 

 grass or anything handy, set the hive 

 on the ground bottomside up, and be- 

 fore the bees had time to realize what 

 had liappened, would cover the open- 

 ing with our driving box. This driving 

 box was provided with a rim two or 

 three inches wide, and fitted any com- 

 mon box hive in use. 



When this stage of the operation 

 was reached without mishap, we gen- 

 erally had the control. After drum- 

 ming against the hive ten or fifteen 

 minutes, or until the bees had fillecr 

 themselves with honey and had enter- 

 ed the driving box, we would place the 

 latter on the old stand to catch the 

 flying bees, and carry the hive a little 

 to one side, generally in the shade of 



some trees after which the remaining 

 part of the job would be fair sailing. 



All in all, our season's work proved 

 satisfactory beyond our expectations, 

 and with the exception of a few in- 

 cidents of an amusing nature, nothing 

 of great importance transpired. But 

 the details of some of these little hap- 

 penings were so impressive, that even 

 now, after thirty-six years have pass- 

 ed, I can recall them as vividly as yes- 

 terday's transactions. 



One of our customers, living In the 

 suburbs of our village, owned a row 

 of some 18 or 20 colonies, as nearly 

 as I can recollect, which occupied a 

 long continuous platform near to and 

 facing his neighbor's fence. The 

 hives were placed close, with hardly 

 room enough between to allow remov- 

 ing one withoiXt touching (another. 

 The bees were, as all the rest in this 

 locality, of the common black German 

 strain, and this particular lot proved 

 to be, as we afterward had occasion 

 to observe the most ferocious fight- 

 ers we had ever encountered. 



We began the job early in the 

 morning, before many of the bees 

 were flying, and by the application 

 of our usual tactics succeeded quite 

 well in transferring the first two or 

 three swarms. But with the rising 

 sun, bees grew livelier. The disturb- 

 ance at the bench, careful as we tried 

 to be, was felt all along the line, and 

 soon some of the more inquisitive oc- 

 cupants of the hives were buzzing 

 around our heads. It wasn't very long 

 before — bing — one had objected in a 

 very impressive way to our invasion;' 

 pretty soon another followed suit, and 

 still another left its mark, and in less 

 time than it takes to tell it they were 

 giving it to us right and left. Even 

 shirt sleeves and pantaloons were of 

 no account, and they seemed to find 

 sensitive places almost anywhere. To 

 remain there would have been pre- 

 meditated suicide, and an uncondi- 

 tional flight, that landed us behind 

 the closed doors of a nearby shop, 

 was our only salvation. Although this 

 place of refuge was a grimy dirty 

 blacksmith shop it seemed to be the 

 most comfortable place on earth, for 

 everytime we opened the door to as- 

 certain the prospects, a few sharp re- 

 minders from watching sentinels 

 would convince us that they still held 

 the fort. 



For a time terror reigned supreme. 

 The owner of the bees, who had been 

 with us during our early manipula- 

 tions, admiring our skill and heroism, 

 had sought shelter in his woodshed 

 long before the real fun commenced. 

 Neighbors, too, who had come to the 

 fence to witness the great feat of 

 transferring bees from one hive to 

 another, had found it advisable to 

 take an unceremonious departure at 

 an early stage of the fracas, and even 

 cats and dogs had to fly for the cat- 

 hole. 



Just as we were meditating on the 

 probabilities of a life sentence, deliv- 



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