February, 1908. 



American ?ae Jonrnal 



up a strain of those bees, I should have 

 obtained a bee that would have been a 

 record-breaker. This is a line of work 

 the Government might well take up at ' 

 its experimental station at Chico, in the 

 northern portion of the State. I believe 

 I wrote briefly on this matter some years 

 ago. I am sure it would pay any one 

 who has the time and inclination to 

 make a study of bee-breeding. 



Some years ago a Mr. D. H. Johnson, 

 of San Diego County (this State) came 

 out strongly in print in favor of the 

 common bee as a honey-gatherer. He 

 held that the black bees and their cross- 

 es, gathered fully as much honey as the 

 most thoroughbred races ; that the honey 

 was fully as fine in quality, and that "no 



bee on earth builds such delicate combs 

 and caps the honey with more virgin 

 whiteness than the poor, despised black 

 bee." Others have so held, too. 



While the Italians have some good 

 points, the blacks, when as carefully cul- 

 tured as the others, will be as good 

 honey-gatherers ; they will commence 

 to breed earlier in the season, and there 

 is no doubt about their being more im- 

 maculate cappers of honey. I believe the 

 proclivity they have of rushing to the 

 lowest e-xtremity of a comb when they 

 are undergoing examination by the 

 apiarist, can be bred out of them. 



Who will give us Apis Californica, to 

 put it somewhat unscientifically? 



'BeedoMV^ 

 'Boiled T>owivJ 



-JT" 



A Kink in Heating Honey. 



The following is from The Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, page 338 : "The heat- 

 ing of honey prevents granuation, and 

 I believe that the higher the tempera- 

 ture to which the honey is brought, 

 the more effective the treatment ; and, 

 it is very important to add, the greater 

 the danger of injury to the honey. The 

 length of time that the heat is con- 

 tiniied also has a bearing upon the dan- 

 ger of injury. Keeping these ideas in 

 view, Mr. Wm. A. Selser heats his 

 honey to a higher temperature than is 

 usually done (168 degrees), bottles the 

 honey, and then immediately cools it by 

 immersing the bottles in ice water. The 

 honey is brought to this high tempera- 

 ture by the use of steam heat, and 

 great care must be exercised that the 

 honey be not injured. Two persons are 

 kept constantly busy stirring the honey 

 in the tank; otherwise that next the 

 outside would be ruined before the 

 honey in the center was hot enough. 

 It might be thought that the immersing 

 of bottles of hot honey in ice-water 

 would crack the bottles ; so it will, un- 

 less a certain ratio is preserved between 

 the temperature of the bottles and the 

 ice-water." 



Speed of Bees and Rate of Gathering. 



The question is not infrequently 

 raised as to how fast they gather, and 

 any facts tending toward the answer are 

 always of interest. Rev. J. G. Digges, 

 the able editor of the Irish Bee Jour- 

 nal, has made the following valuable 

 contribution toward that end: 



"The following experiment carried out 

 at Lough Rynn in 1904, has a certain 

 amount of interest: — Three bees that 

 had delivered up their burdens were 

 taken, one each from hives A, B, and 

 C; they were marked white, red and 

 green, respectively, and were placed in 

 a match-box. The operation was twice 

 repeated, the nine bees being confined 

 in three match-boxes. Then the owner, 



having set his watch with watches of 

 two friends left at the hives, cycled a 

 mile on a straight road, opened the 

 first match-box and threw out the bees. 

 This he did, at intervals of ten min- 

 utes, with the two remaining trios. 

 The time was marked as carefully as 

 possible. The average time for hives 

 A, B, and C were, respectively, 4 min- 

 utes, 8 seconds; 5 minutes, 11 seconds; 

 and 3 minutes and 2 seconds ; from 

 which it was calculated that the bees 

 of hive C traveled 20 miles an hour, of 

 hive A IS miles, and of hive B 12 miles 

 an hour. The results cannot be said 

 to be absolutely accurate, but the un- 

 fortunate queen of hive C was kept 

 breeding like fury in the following sea- 

 son, and her progeny gave the best re- 

 sults right through to closing down 

 time in October. 



"A subsequent series of experimen's 

 showed that the bees of colony C occu- 

 pied an average of 7 minues in col- 

 lecting the nectar, and 5 minutes in dis- 

 gorging it and fussing around the hive. 

 Assuming the distance of the supplies 

 to be I mile, the load one-fifth of a 

 drop, the proportion of water 50 per- 

 cent, and the rate of flight as stated 

 above, and making a liberal allowance 

 of 6J/2 hours per working day, the re- 

 sult of one bee's daily labor proved 10 

 be two drops of honey. The honey 

 dealt with was from clover, and when 

 extracted, ripened, and bottled, it 

 weighed J4 grain per drop. If, there- 

 fore, required 4,667 bees working 6yi 

 hours on clover i mile distant, to pro- 

 duce I lb. of honey. The honey was 

 sold in bulk at sd. per lb., net return, 

 and the produce of one bee's active 

 labors for one day came out at less 

 than i,oooth part of id. Such rough 

 and ready experiments cannot be put 

 forward as in any sense co.iclusiv? If 

 they teach any useful lesson it is that, 

 for profitable bee-keeping we require 

 (i) a vigorous race of bees, (2) mul- 

 titudes of field-bees during the honey- 

 flow, and (3) the strictest economy in 

 every direction all through the year. 



Plurality of Queens in the Hive. 



Speaking of this in the British Bee 

 Journal, G. W. Avery says : 



"Since the system was announced in 

 the American papers, I have been try- 

 ing to solve the difficulties connected 

 with it, and must frankly admit with 

 not very encouraging results. It is quite 

 possible, I have found, to introduce 

 several queens to a colony in more ways 

 than one, and quite easy to keep them 

 there so long as food is supplied with a 

 liberal hand, or while a honey-flow is 

 on. When the income is withdrawn all 

 queens but one disappear, and the col- 

 ony settles down to its normal condi- 

 tion." 



Langstroth and the Removable Frame. 



It is amusing, and a bit sad, that 

 such an error should find its way into 

 print as one appearing in the Aus- 

 tralian Bee Bulletin, page 129. It is 

 iliere stated that about 1872 Rev. Mr. 

 Langstroth visited a foreign land and 

 brouglit back the bar-frame hive ! No 

 doubt, when his attention is called to 

 it, the editor will be glad to make the 

 correction by saying that 20 years prior 

 to the time mentioned Langstroth in- 

 vented the movable frame hive. Very 

 likely only a typographical error. 



Depth of Honey Tanks. 



I. Hopkins advises that tanks for 

 storing extracted honey should not be 

 more than 20 inches deep, and as big as 

 you like superficially. The shallower 

 the tank the more rapidly the small 

 bubbles of air will rise to the surface, 

 and to facihtate this and ripening, the 

 surrounding atmosphere should be 

 warm and dry. — Australian Bee BuUe- 



Item About the Bee-Moth. 



"When the moth is disturbed it moves 

 with a jump and a flit, making it hard 

 to catch." Yes, hard to catch after it 

 gets to jumping and flitting, but very 

 easy before. Move the fingers slowly 

 till within an inch or so of where the 

 moth is sitting, then quickly make a 

 dab, and you have it. Now something 

 interesting to youngsters. When you 

 catch a moth, pull off its head; and if it 

 is a female — nine times out of ten it will 

 be one — it will almost immediately be- 

 gin feeling around with its ovipositor. 

 Shut together your thumb and finger, 

 and let the ovipositor feel its way into 

 the crack between them, and a very lit- 

 tle round white egg will be laid there — 

 perhaps several. — 'Stray Straw in Glean- 

 ings. 



"Tasted liike Honey." 



A Maryland brother sends the follow- 

 ing, which may be characteristic of his 

 "locality" : 



'What in the world have you got on 

 your lips?" asked the young man, after 

 the struggle was over. 



"Nothing," said the young lady, in- 

 didnantly; "what did you think?" 



"Tasted like honey," replied the frank 

 young man. 



He didn't have to fight for the next 

 one. — 'Nashville American. 



