September, 1912. 



American ?ae Journal 



tnre. Here 1 visited a bee-keeper who 

 keeps both straw-skeps and movable- 

 frame hives of the Dadaiit pattern. 

 Strange to say, although he considers 

 the frame hive as much superior, from 

 its greater capacity and the manipula- 

 tions it permits, yet like most other 

 European apiarists, he thinks best to 

 keep straw-skeps to furnish increase. 

 His movable-frame colonies swarm 

 but very little, for they have all the 

 room they can fill in large e.xtracting 

 supers. In spring, empty combs are 

 placed in the middle of the brood- 

 chamber to increase the laying of the 

 queen by furnishing her a surplus of 

 empty cells. 



This gentleman is also a "cirier;" 

 that is to say he is a manufacturer of 

 wax candles. He buys the old combs 

 from bee-keepers and renders them. 

 He bleaches the wax and makes can- 

 dles, very fine ones, with all sorts of 

 wax ornaments, fringes, etc., shaped by 

 the use of pincers while the wax is 

 malleable. His honey is sold in pails, 

 from one kilo (2.2 pounds) up to 10. 

 The pails are friction top, like ours. 

 These are used everywhere. 



Although we are anxious to reach 

 Switzerland and Italy as soon as possi- 

 ble, we still have to visit a number of 

 French spots. France and Switzer- 

 land are having a very damp and cool 

 summer. It has been cloudy every 

 day, and it rains often. But the roads 

 and byways are so exceedingly line 

 that we rarely dampen more than the 

 sole of our shoes. In spite of the very 

 cool weather, considerable honey is 

 harvested. I see many bees on white 

 clover. They are all the common bee. 

 We have not found any foul brood. 

 But we have heard of the May disease, 

 which is described exactly as the Isle 

 of Wight disease. 



JOURNEYING TOWARDS SWITZERLANU. 



We are slowlv wending our way 

 among friends and bee-keepers towards 

 Switzerland and Italy. For the past 

 week we have visited the old haunts of 

 Burgundy, the greatest grape growing 

 districts of Europe. The apiaries are 

 located either in the golden hills above 

 the vineyards, or in the plains where 

 the sainfoin grows. There is white 

 clover in profusion in every pasture, 

 and it is in full bloom: nevertheless 

 the bees are chasing their drones. But 

 in almost every apiary there is a fair 

 crop in the supers. We have found 

 only one apiarist, Mr. Rapinat, who 

 raises honey in sections; everybody 

 else uses either our extracting supers 

 or what they call the horizontal hive, a 

 movable-frame hive containing from 20 

 to .30 brood-frames, 13x14 or there- 

 about. The entire crop is thus har- 

 vested from the hive-body, no supers. 

 In this instance, the bees are kept on 

 the house roof, in the heart of the city 

 of Chalon. 



This Mr. Rapinat has a system of 

 Miller super of his own. Instead of a 

 T he uses a strong, smooth strip of 

 steel, rigid enough to support the sec- 

 tions at each end without bending. He 

 will supply us with a photograph of it. 

 He has very fine honey. They are try- 

 ing the Italians for the first time. They 

 hesitate in buying them because of the 

 large number of common bees seat- 



In Mr. Champion's P.uk— the Experimental Apiary, with rive different systems on trial, 

 Dadant. Del-ayens, Voirnot. Cowan, and Cylindrical hives. 



tered in the villages and hamlets, 

 which will cause mismating. 



Thus far, however, I have not heard 

 any criticism of the Italians. Every 

 one seems to acknowledge their supe- 

 riority if they can be kept pure and 

 peaceable. This latter virtue is of im- 

 portance in so thickly settled a country. 



GERC.Y. 



Before arriving here, where we were 

 welcomed by Mr. E. Champion, whose 

 guests we are, we visited Dijon, and 

 saw there the ancient place of the 

 dukes of Burgundy, containing the 

 marble sculptured tomb of Jean Sans 

 Peur, of the loth century, a most deli- 

 cate piece of architecture which baffles 

 description. The palace is now the 

 Hotel de ville museum (city hall). 



The past two days we visited, in com- 

 pany with 8 or 10 bee-keepers, two fine 

 castles, with apiaries in each adjoining 

 park. The last visited, that of Darcy, 

 contains in its cellars, as well as in its 

 old armory, tens of thousands of gal- 



lons of both champagne and Burgundy 

 wines. It seems strange to one accus- 

 tomed to the prohibition ideas of some 

 of our American cities to see wine 

 served on every table. He who would 

 want to eat his meals in a total absti- 

 nence hotel, would have to go hungry. 

 It is but just to say that the French 

 wines, slightly mixed with water, make 

 a very safe and palatable drink on ac- 

 count of the very small proportion of 

 alcohol they contain. 



In the apiary of Mr. Seger, at Beaune, 

 I saw a feeder made of two wooden 

 troughs, rounded on the inside, instead 

 of the perpendicular walls of our Miller 

 feeder. The inventor says that the 

 bees get into this feeder and climb out 

 again more easily on account of the 

 slanting inner walls. There is some 

 truth in the argument. 



Our host, Mr. Champion, is a retired 

 business man, who spends his time 

 among his bees, or in watching his 

 crops, fishing in the Saone, or hunting 



