October, 191? 



American Hae Journal 



out the frames. If less than the full number 

 of frames is in the hive, one or more dum- 

 mies are placed next to the exposed frame. 

 2. There would be no great difference ex- 

 cept that with a sliorter distance the queen 

 would be a shorter time out of the hive. 



The Dzierzon Theory 



The tollowine was copied from a daily 

 paper. Is the doctrine true? I have never 

 heard of it before. 



"The stranuest thing that Mr. Watts told 

 the Review reporter was that the drones are 

 produced from unfertilized eggs. One with 

 experience with poultry would expect such 

 eggs to fail to hatch. Scientists both by 

 microscopical examination of the eggs found 

 in drone combs and by studying the life his- 

 tory of the bees, have proven that the drone 

 actually has only one parent, the queen 



mother, and every observing apiarist has 

 seen convincing evidence of this fact." 



Illinois. 



Answer.— Of all the bee journals of any 

 language in the world, the one that I have 

 valued most is the first volume of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. That was published in 

 1861. Its chief valueconsists in the fact that 

 it gives a full discussion of the Dzierzon 

 theory, the kernel of which is that the queen 

 is fertilized once for life, laying fertilized 

 and unfertilized eggs, and that the unferti- 

 lized eggs produce only drones. In the half 

 century since then there has been some 

 attempt to controvert the Dzierzon theory, 

 especially by Ferdinand Dickel. but intelli- 

 gent bee-keepers quite generally accept it; 

 so that the clipping is all right. 



A Report from Nebraska 



In February. IQ12. 1 purchased 4 colonies 

 of bees. They were in rather a weak con- 

 dition, but durini; the summer they gave me 

 175 pounds of honey and 2 swarms. l"o these 

 I added 3 more swarms, thus having q colo- 

 nies the beginning of the present season. 

 Ip to July 25. I have taken off 445 pounds of 

 what our merchant pronounces A No. i 

 honey. Only one swarm has issued from 

 the hives this season; but I securedanother 

 to the great relief of the telegraph operator 

 at our station, as they had settled on the 

 signal pole at the door of the depot, and a 

 passing through train had angered them un- 

 til they were vicious. The manipulator of 

 the "ticker" was a prisoner until I had 

 coaxed the bees into the hive. This gives 

 me II colonies for the winter. 



I have always been a lover of honey, but 

 was never situated so I could care for bees. 

 I had never seen a swarm hived, and did not 

 know a worker, drone or queen, except that 

 a few times in my life worker-bees had 

 stung me; and a bee-sting on my person is a 

 thing not to be forgotten, as tlie swelling and 

 itching is something terrible to endure. 



I have always been a reader and student 

 of literature on bees, and much interested 

 in them; hence, had some of the theory, and 

 by the knowledge thus gained 1 was able to 

 recognize each variety of the colony, and to 

 hive unassisted the first swarm I ever saw 

 clustered, and also captured the first queen 

 I ever saw. 



it seems strange to me that more people 

 do not keep bees; for all the sweets to be 

 found none can equal honey, both for flavor 

 and healthfulness. Thousands of gallons of 

 manufactured .syrups, made of various 

 questionable materials, are consumed, and 

 ofttimes to the detriment of those eating 

 them; when the purest sweet gathered 

 directly from Nature's own "factory" can 

 be had for a little care and attention to the 

 "busy bee." 



I take no chances in getting stung, fori 

 fortify myself with covering tor my head. 

 It is made by taking common window screen- 

 ing 10 inches wide and form it into a circle 

 amply large to set out from face and neck; 

 put a lop to it madeout of muslin, and a cape 

 of the same; wearing under this a small cap 

 to hold the top off my scalp. Then with a 

 common pair of lo-cent cotton gloves that 

 have been well oiled in linseed oil. to which 

 have been added gaunlet sleeves with rub- 

 ber elastics to hold them tight on the arm. 

 and my smoker in hand. I am ready to go 

 among them as bold as you please. 



It is a pleasure to work with bees, and in 

 some way I seem to have a sympathetic 

 feeling for the little fellows, so industrious, 

 so cleanly and methodical. I am amazed at 

 their apparent intelligence, yet we do not 

 know whether it is intelligence or what force 

 it is which makes them such wonderful 

 creatures. 



It is with reluctance that I leave off watch- 

 ing them in their busy flight, coming home 

 and goine a-field; and then when the lid is 

 off the hive, to see them so intent on their 

 work, with no confusion amidst the thou- 



sands of them, eacli busy with his own part 

 in the hive. 



Many town and city people could, if they 

 only knew it. keep several colonies of bees 

 to their pleasure and profit, affording a 

 study of Nature, and supplying their table 

 wich what is now a costly luxury to them. 



Besides, the multiplying of bees in the 

 country adds to the productivenessof fruits 

 and flowers by the sureness of pollinization 

 of tfieir bloom. Of course, they require j 

 certain amount of care. Everything that is 

 worthwhile requires care; but the work is 

 of that light kind that either man or woman 

 can attend to it without great effort. 



I hope to increase my number of colonies 

 to two or three dozen, for I find a ready mar- 

 ket at good prices for more than I can pro- 

 duce, my 445 pounds being now nearly all 

 gone, and no search has been made for a 

 market at all. W, D. Stamfaugh. 



Richfield, Neb. 



Experiences With Foul Brood 



I will give you my experience in dealing 

 with foul brood. 1 had 30 prosperous colo- 

 nies in 1012. In May of last year I examined 

 my bees and found several very weak and 

 quite a quantity of dead larva; in many. I 

 thought it was from fruit spraying, so I 

 changed good frames of brood from strong 

 colonies with the weak, and gave the dis- 

 ease to all the bees I had. Some time in 

 June I examined them and found no improve- 

 ment. It then dawned on me that it was 

 foul brood. 



In May, ivi3, I shook 2 and 3 colonies to- 

 gether, and reduced to 11 in all. I made a large 

 zinc vat that would hold 3 hives, and boiled 

 the hives, and used care not to let the bees 

 getanyof the honey. Now. the 11 gathered 

 about 600 pounds of honey during June, but 

 on examination I find some have foul brood 

 yet. i am wondering if the bees will get 

 rid of it before they all die. I have read 

 about foul brood all my life, and I am S3 

 years old. but to have the experience it is 

 quite different. 



I will say for the benefit of those who have 

 never had foul brood, the half has never 

 been told; how sneaking and hard it is to 

 get rid of it. It seems with all the care and 

 caution of the bee journals, it would be easy 

 to cure; but reading about it is one thing 

 and curing it is quite another, 



Exeter. Mo. W. P. Browning. 



Another Poor Report from California 



We have had two poor years; this year is 

 the poorest of all. No doubt we will have to 

 feed some the latter part of the winter. We 

 live in tiie mountains. 2h miles from the 

 coast in \'entura county, in a small valley 

 called Casitas. Our honey-plants are differ- 

 ent kinds of sage, som-e mustard, wild buck- 

 wheat and wild alfalfa, but when the sage is 

 in bloom and yields nectar the bees will 

 leave everything for that. 



We have been here three years. The first 

 year we secured 130 pounds per colony. 



spring count; the second year. 20 pound 1 

 per colony; the third year nothing. We are 

 permanently located here, and can raise all 

 kinds of fruit. The elevation is '.<» feet 

 above sea level, and on this account apples 

 do well, much better than at sea level. We 

 also have the finest climate imaginable. We 

 do not irrigate. We have one month of open 

 season on deer, and the boys have already 

 killed two. Mountain quail, bobcats and 

 foxes are also plentiful. A. I,. Dl'PRAV. 

 Carpinteria, Calif.. Sept. 2. 



Prospects Better 



The fine rains we have been having lately 

 will insure us something of a fall flow of 

 honey. I believe. The bees are building up 

 fine now. and some are storing a little. 



Salem, Iowa. Aug, iq. J. W. Stine. 



Good Clover Flow in Ohio 



Bees did fine this season, and we had a 

 very good flow from clover, but basswood is 

 nil. J. C. MOSGROVE. 



Medina. Ohio. July 13- 



Bees and Honey in the Far East 



I saw bees in many places at Jericho, near 

 the Jordan river, north of Jerusalem, on the 

 way up to Nazareth; again at Haife. near 

 Ml. Carmel. and later in Greece and Italy. 



Honey was offered us regularly at the 

 hotels in Jerusalem. Jericho. Nabalus. Naz- 

 areth and Tiberias. It was of g(fcd quality 

 everywhere. It reminded one of the de- 

 scription of the land as one that flowed with 

 milk and honey. T. J. Naoei.. 



San Rafael. Calif 



Good Average for Iowa 



We have a heavy honey-flow here even yet 

 some days from clover, and bees have aver- 

 aged about 150 pounds up to date per colony, 

 spring count. Crops are also good, espe- 

 cially corn. J.O.Kramer. 



Hospers. Iowa. July 28. 



Clover Very Abundant 



My wife and I have just extracted a little 

 over 30P0 pounds of the finest while clover 

 honey, and the supers will soon be full 

 again manv of our colonies will average 

 over 100 pounds. Never since I kept bees 

 have I seen clover so abundant as this year. 

 G. A. Barbisch. 



La Crescent. Minn.. July 22 



No Surplus at All 



Not one pound of surplus from over 100 

 colonies this season. B. W. Brown. 



Moreno. Calif,. Aug. 11, 



A Ton from Nine Colonies, Spring Count 



Had a good season here this year, I had s 

 colonies last fall. They all wintered nicely. 

 I bought one more colony this past spring, 

 which made me Q. I have increased to 10 

 this season, and all are in fine condition. I 

 will get over a ton of honey this year; 1500 

 pounds is in sections4'»xiS, and the balance 

 in extracting frames. The combs were built 

 this season Geo. H. Elskamp. 



Maurice, Iowa. Aug. li. 



Praise for Dr. Phillips 



I do not agree with Dr. Bonney. page 238. in 

 reference to Dr. Phillip's investigations of 

 the cause of winter losses. If we followed 

 Dr. Bonney. would it not be better to go 

 back to the old box-hive or gum ? The mod- 

 ern hive is an advantage over the old meth- 

 ods; vou really receive more, and abetter 

 quality of honey by the modern methods of 

 bee-keeping. 



It must be understood progressive bee- 

 keeping assists Mother Natureoccasionally. 

 If Ihereis a shortage of natural food sup- 

 plies the beekeeper steps in and supplies 

 the shortage to his bees. If the winter is 

 severe the progressive bee keeper has not 

 waited to find the intent of Mother Nature 

 for that winter. He has early in the fall, 

 and every fall, given his bees protection in 

 some manner. It may be cellaring, chaff- 



