November, 1913. 



S67 



American Hee Joornal j 



^ee mainly in France. The trees are 

 sparse and scrubby. The pines are all 

 blazed for their sap, with a cup of some 

 sort at the stump to receive the flow, 

 which is poured into barrels and taken 

 to the turpentine distillery, which I 

 will describe in some other number; 

 for it is also a honey and wax estab- 

 lishment. 



The oak trees (cork oaks) are strip- 

 ped of their precious bark once in 

 about 10 years. Those which have 

 been stripped this year have a reddish 

 appearance, as if they had been painted. 

 The bark removed is only the epider- 

 mis, so to speak, and the tree does not 

 suffer much from its removal. In fact, 

 after a year or two, when the bark has 

 grown on again, the trunk looks 

 smoother and cleaner than the upper 

 limbs, for the old cork bark, which 

 is never removed from the limbs, but 

 only from the lower 10 or 12 feet, 

 looks like the hide of a crocodile, or 

 worse. This cork bark is hauled to a 

 cork factory, a short distance away, 

 and enters from there the channels of 

 commerce. I was informed that the 

 cork oak did not orignally exist in very 

 large numbers in this region. It was 

 planted there. In many places this fact 

 is evidenced by the rows of trees which 

 could not have grown so regularly in 

 the natural way. 



So the " landes " of France, which 

 were once useless and barren, are now 

 giving three crops which are quite 

 profitable, turpentine and rosin, cork 

 and honey. 



We reached the out-apiary, situated 

 away from the village, and surrounded 

 simply with a high screen fence. I en- 

 quired whether they did not think the 

 place rather in danger from thieves, 

 but they explained that bees are plenti- 

 ful all through the heather plains, that 

 they are mostly in wicker baskets cov- 

 ered outside with cow-dung and clay, 

 and that no one needs be afraid of 

 honey thieves when honey is so plenti- 

 ful. An hour or two later, at dusk, we 

 rode to a primitive apiary, also located 

 in the midst of the heather, containing 

 about 100 hives (or rather baskets), 

 and the bees had evidently harvested a 

 good crop that day, for each hive was 



emitting a low roa.-ing sound of venti- 

 lation and contentment, such as our 

 own people have heard when white 

 clover is in full bloom and the day has 

 been fair. 



This seems to me the ideal spot for 

 bees. The .peasants, who do not know 

 anything about modern systems, still 

 brimstone the old colonies every fall, 

 keeping only the swarms, for they 

 think they are thus keeping "the young 

 bees." It is useless to tell them that 

 the old queen goes with the swarm. 

 They know better, and shrug their 

 shoulders. Each brimstoned colony 

 brings a return of about $20 at the fac- 

 tory above mentioned. As to the bees, , 

 if you want them, they will drive them 

 out for you, and give you the naked 

 swarm for 50 centimes, 10 cents of our 

 money. 



The Couterel out-apiary has two very 

 interesting features, the hive-stands 

 and the hive-roofs. The stands are 

 round slabs of re-enforced concrete, 

 25 percent concrete mixed with 75 per- 

 cent river gravel, with 4 wire hoops 

 and 8 crosswise on the inside. The 

 dimensions are 4 inches in thickness 

 and 3 feet in diameter. 



The roof is another slab of cement. 

 But this is only about '4 inch in thick- 

 ness, and made of cement and asbes- 

 tos (amiante in French). If any of our 

 readers have ever seen the artificial 

 slate manufactured by the F. W. John's 

 Mfg. Co., in our States, they will have 

 an idea of the strength and lightness of 

 this sort of roof, which is made in 

 sheets about 25 inches square and very 

 fine. They cost here 17 cents each de- 

 livered at the station by the factory. 

 One can have no idea of the neat ap- 

 pearance of an apiary thus supplied. 



During our visit, a friend of our host, 

 an amateur photographer, was kind 

 enough to come and take our photo- 

 graphs in three different spots. We do 

 not know whether these will reach 

 home in time to be published with this 

 letter. But the reader will lose noth- 

 ing anyhow, for we expect to publish 

 dozens of views which have been taken 

 by friends in different parts. 



We are getting badly spoiled, for we 

 are welcomed and feasted, and invited 



and complimented everywhere. We 

 did not realize that we could find so 

 many friends in Europe. c. p. d. 



In the Land of the Heather— -Another View of the Pusocq. 



Plurality of Queeus 



We call the readers attention to the 

 articles in this number by Mr. Hand, 

 Mr. Wood, and Dr. Miller, criticising 

 the article by Edward F. Bigelow, in 

 the October number. 



Mr. Bigelow put forth the theory that 

 very probably there was more than one 

 queen that went with every swarm, and 

 that nature had a purpose in supplying 

 a plurality of queens for these swarms. 

 We feel very sure that Mr. Bigelow's 

 experience has been with a limited 

 number of colonies, and we have no 

 doubt but that these colonies cast sev- 

 eral swarms in the same season; that 

 is, they sent forth a prime swarm and 

 several after-swarms. 



He intimates that if a swarm has but 

 one queen, and this queen were lost, 

 the swarm would perish. He loses 

 sight of the fact that this swarm would 

 have the alternative of perishing or 

 returning to the hive from which it 

 issued. 



All well-informed beekeepers will 

 agree that sotne swarms have more 

 than one queen, while the most of us 

 will also agree that there are many 

 swarms which have but a single queen. 

 Especially is the latter true where 

 swarming is well controlled. 



Where, then, is the dividing line be- 

 tween the swarms with a single queen 

 and those with many. Almost invaria- 

 it\ prime szvarms issue icith a single 

 queen. Exceptions may be allowed as 

 pointed out by Mr. H?nd. Secondary 

 and last swarms may be accompanied 

 by more than one queen. The writer has 

 in mind one instance when not less 

 than seven virgin queens were found 

 in one cluster. There are of course 

 many instances where even the secon- 

 dary and later swarms have but one 

 queen. One of these is where the par- 

 ent colony provides but two or three 

 queen-cells to take the place of the old 

 queen, which issued with the prime 

 swarm. 



The photographs given in the Octo- 

 ber number evidently are those of a 

 last swarm. These often cluster in 

 different places, and each cluster is 

 usually so small that the whole, when 

 put together, is too weak to form a 

 good colony. 



The articles in this number give a 

 very good reason why drones go with 

 a prime swarm. Any one at all ac- 

 quainted with the habits of the drone 

 recognize his fickleness, his aptness to 

 make friends with any cluster of bees. 



