March, 1908. 



American "Bgc Joarn^^ 



Oliscellaneou 

 flecxjs -If ems 



Death of Mrs. F. Danzenbaker 



We received a letter from Mr. F. Dan- 

 zenbaker, on February 24, saying that 

 his wife was stricken with Bright's dis- 

 ease of the kidneys which ended in 

 death. February 13. We are sure that 

 Mr. Danzenbaker has the sincere sym- 

 pathy of all our readers, in his bereave- 

 ment. 



♦ 



Four Deaths in One Family 



The Medina County fOhio) Gazette, 

 of February 14, contains the notice of 

 4 deaths within a week in the family 

 of W. K. Morrison, assistant editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture. Mrs. Morri- 

 son and a 2-year-old son died of pneu- 

 monia, the other two being twin babies 

 that died at birth. The 3 children were 

 all laid to rest in the same casket on 

 Saturday, while the mother passed away 

 on the following Monday. 



The Morrison family came to Medina, 

 Ohio, two years ago, from Porto Rico, 

 Mrs. Morrison being a native of Ber- 

 muda. Mr. Morrison was born in Ohio, 

 but had lived in the West Indies most 

 of his life. Si.x children between the 

 ages of 2 and 18 are left motherless, 

 the oldest being a daughter, who at the 

 time was dangerously sick with pneu- 

 monia. The sincere sympathy of all 

 will go out to Mr. Morrison in his deep 

 sorrow. 



■* 



A Pair of Corrections 



We have received the following from 

 Dr. Miller: 



Mr. Editor : — While commending the 

 American Bee Journal for having re- 

 ports so generally correct, I want to call 

 attention to a pair of errors on page 50. 

 I am there made to say "that bees 

 should be put into the cellar the day 

 before the last day that is fit for them 

 to fly in the fall." That would be a 

 very foolish proceeding. The advice 

 will be all right if "the day before" 

 is changed to "the day after." 



At the close of the same page oc- 

 curs: "Dr. Miller said the bees ball a 

 queen to protect her." Generally there 

 is no thought of protection, but just the 

 contrary. The whole discussion is mis- 

 leading, because the question reads, 

 "Why Do Bees Ball Queens?" It should 

 have read, "Why Do Bees Ball Their 

 Own Queens?" C. C. Miller. 



We are always glad to correct any- 

 thing that is of importance and that 

 might be misleading to beginners. The 

 American Bee Journal would like to 

 have everything right in its columns, 

 and thanks any one for pointing out real 

 errors, such as Dr. Miller calls attention 

 to in the foregoing. 



A Bee-Keeper's Complaint. 



Winter — cold the wind is blowing, and the air 



is full of snow 

 And the shrouded trees and fences stand like 



melancholy ghosts; 

 And the winter demons shrieking in the roaring 



winds that blow 

 Fill the earth with desolation with their 



chilling, killing frosts. 



Grass and herb and leaf and blossom, fruit and 

 beauty — all are gone; 

 Death now plavs his solemn dirges on the 

 bending leatlcss trees— 

 And our hungry hearts are longing for the 

 glowing summer sun 

 And the song of lark and robin and the 

 humming of the bees. 



Say, you man who lauds the winter, what's the 

 matter with your mind. 

 That its sympathies can leap so ^imbly out 

 to meet the cold. 

 When its icy fingers throttle everything of liv- 

 ing kind. 

 And in frozen sheets of ermine. Beauty's 

 corpse is coldly rolled? 



1.00k upon the bud and blossom, then upon the 

 naked bough, 

 Breathe the perfumed air of summer, face 

 the wintry winds that freeze. 

 Tell me, is the charnal stillness that pervades 

 all nature now, 

 Better than the living summer with its song 

 of birds and bees? 



When we think of the Hereafter, do we think 

 of ice and snow? 

 Of a wintry blizzard traveling forty — fifty 

 miles an hour? 

 (Don't imagine I am planning for the re- 

 gions down below. 

 Where the furnace fires are blazing and the 

 eyes of demons glower!) 



No, we think of endless summer, of a cease- 

 less bud and bloom, 

 An eternity of everything that most the 

 heart can please; 

 Of a paradise of beauty, where cold death 

 can never come. 

 Of a country always filled with joyous song 



"Uncle Joe's" Bee-Keeping Career 



It seems from an article in The De- 

 lineator that the speaker of the U. S. 

 House of Representatives had a career 

 as a bee-keeper that was brief as bril- 

 liant. He had not enough money to 

 begin married life till 1862, and even 

 then was pretty poor. 



"Joe took his mother's advice and be- 

 gan home-making 'in the good old way.' 

 That consisted in building a house for 

 himself and getting a cow, a pig and a 

 colony of bees. The cottage was a lit- 

 tle 3-room affair, and as for the live 

 stock — let him tell it himself, as he of- 

 ten has: 



'There I was, up against a real prob- 

 lem. I went out brave as life and tried 

 to milk that cow. She kicked me off 

 the stool. I tried to feed the calf and 

 got butted into a hedge fence. Then 

 I saw that the bees had swarmed, sc 

 I went to hive them, — the way my father 

 used to do. I got bees inside my shirt 



and inside my trousers until I like to 

 got stung to death. I hired a man, right 

 away, to look after the stock. That was 

 all that I wanted of them.' " 



Two Queens with Clipped Stings 



More than once it has been suggest- 

 1 th:it a plurality of queens might per- 

 tVirce live together if their stings were 

 clipped. In at least one case it has been 

 tried and found not a great success. 

 Eail Bussey thus gives the particulars, 

 in Gleanings: 



"I took 2 queens and cut off their 

 stings by folding the abdomen over my 

 thumb-nail, and pressing, when their 

 stings came out and were amputated. 

 These stingless queens being taken from 

 a double colony, one above the other, 

 with excluder between, did not have to 

 be introduced in the usual manner, so I 

 turned them loose at once, each on an 

 opposite side of the hive. In 2 hours 

 I looked in, and on lifting out the third 

 frame I saw the 2 queens come together, 

 and right there I witnessed one of the 

 fiercest battles I ever saw. The bees 

 stood around like referees, forming a 

 circle around a prize fight, and not one 

 of them offered to interfere. But as a 

 battle it was a bloodless one, so I left 

 them until late in the evening, when, 

 on looking, I found them still fighting. 

 One of them seemed, to be getting the 

 best of the other, for she had gnawed 

 off one wing completely. So I sepa- 

 rated them by putting one of them be- 

 low the excluder, and I may sa\' that 

 they are just as I left them, both of 

 them having done good work the rest 

 of the season, and seem.ing none the 

 worse for the loss of their stings and 

 their battle." 



^ 



Italians and Blacks as to Diseases 



.\s to paralysis, W. D. Wright, one 

 of the New York inspectors, says: "It 

 is more prevalent among Italian bees 

 than blacks, although I have known of 

 an apiary of both races to suffer from 

 it." 



On the other hand, referring to Euro- 

 pean foul brood, he says: 



"For 5 years I have vigorously advo- 

 cated thoroughly Italianizing all stock 

 within or near the line of diseased ter- 

 ritory, as an aid in subduing and pre- 

 vention of the rapid spread of this dis- 

 ease. Some apiarists have naturally 

 supposed that I had an ax to grind, 

 and have inquired of me, if I had 

 queens for sale. The leather-colored 

 or 3-banded stock is the only strain that 

 I would recommend for this purpose." 



A Texas Apiarian Exhibit 



Mrs. A. I. Davis, wife of the mana- 

 ger of the Southwestern Bee Company, 

 of San Antonio, Tex., sends us the fol- 

 lowing: 



Editor American Bee Journal: — 



The picture on first page shows our ex- 

 hibit at the International Fair, at San 

 .Antonio, Tex., Nov. 9 to 24, 1907. 



This exhibit was not only the best and 



largest of any firm ever shown, but was 



the prize-winner, taking the diploma for 



honey, beeswax, and supplies. 



The wall on the right shows row 



