April, 1908. 



American l^ee Journal 



of agreement which made them one. 



Mr. Langstroth was at the Cincinnati 

 convention, but was not at any time 

 in the chair as presiding officer. He, 

 however, did participate in the discus- 

 sion of some of the questions that came 

 before the convention. This was soon 

 after the demise of his son, James T. 

 Langstroth, on account of which he felt 

 very much depressed. This was the last 

 time I met him personally. He was not 

 at the Cleveland convention. And I 

 never met Mr. Quinby after the Cleve- 

 land convention. I do not now remem- 

 ber who was chosen as president for 

 the following year, but it seems to me 

 that Mr. Quinby was the man. The 

 next annual convention was held at 

 Indianapolis. Ind., and Rev. W. F. 

 Clarke, of Guelph, Ont.. presided m the 

 absence of the president. 



Lyons, Kans. 



Apiarian Rights of Priority 



BY DR. C. C. MILLEE. 



N. P. Anderson, page 81, expresses the 

 kindly hope that I may not lose my loca- 

 tion, yet this hind end of his article is 

 hardly in keeping with the front end 

 which leans in the direction of making 

 me feel I have no solid claim to an abid- 

 ing place. , , . J J , „ 



Mr. Anderson, let s sit down and talk 

 over some of your points in a friendly 

 manner. 



"Why should a bee-keeper enjoy spe- 

 cial privileges not extended to other peo- 

 ple?" Please tell me why a bee-keeper 

 should be denied privileges_ extended to 

 the cattle-raiser, wheat-raiser, and in 

 fact to every other who, like the bee- 

 keeper, depends upon having a certain 

 portion of the soil from which to obtain 

 his support. Don't you see that the bee- 

 keeper is on a parallel with these men, 

 and not with the merchant? 



That "competition." Yes, the up-to- 

 date bee - keeper coming in may — pos- 

 sibly — drive out "the farmer with his 

 25 or 50 boxes of bees (some of them 

 rotten with foul brood, etc.) ;" but 

 there's another side to that story. Sup- 

 pose that same farmer comes in, foul 

 brood and all, and sits down beside the 

 up-to-date bee-keeper. Do you suppose 

 Mr. Up-to-date would thrive on that 

 sort of "competition"? 



"The right of priority as we have it at 

 present, is all the protection any up-to- 

 date bee-keeper needs." Then you do 

 hold that priority gives a man a "right." 

 Thanks, for agreeing that I have any 

 kind of a right to my location. The farm- 

 er who pays good money for 160 acres 

 of land has a right to that land, but what 

 good is that to him if there is no law the 

 prevent a stronger man from coming 

 along and taking away his right? Now, 

 seeing you agree that I have a right to 

 my location, would you not be obliging 

 enough to uUow me a law to protect me 

 in that right? 



As a matter a little aside from the 

 main question, you touch upon a point 

 of intense interest to me. You say an 

 up-to-date bee-keeper "will keep at all 

 times all the bees his locality will sup- 

 port." Now he couldn't do that unless 

 he would know just how many; and you 

 wouldn't make such a statement unless 



you were positive about bis obtaining 

 that knowledge. I'm so anxious to ob- 

 tain the knowledge that you possess, 

 that I'm willing to be humble enpugh to 

 expose my abject ignorance, and con- 

 fess to you that I don't anywhere near- 

 \y know just how many bees my locality 

 will support, although I've been trying 

 all these years to find out. I'm sure 

 others will be glad to learn. Please do 

 me the very great favor to send to the 

 .'\merican Bee Journal full instructions 

 how to proceed to find out. I shall 

 watch with the greatest interest to see 

 the article. And while you are about 

 it, would you mind telling us just how 

 many bees you keep all the time? For 

 then, you being an up-to-date bee-keeper, 

 we would know just how many bees 

 your locality will support. 



Allow me to say that if you are de- 

 pending entirely on bees for your bread 

 and butter, of if you ever get into that 

 position, and some one locates close be- 

 side you with a few colonies rotten with 

 foul brood — well, I promise you my 

 hearty sympathy. 



Marengo, 111. 



Caring for Empty Combs and 

 Ridding Them of Moth- 

 Larvae 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



From the occasional inquiry how best 

 to protect combs and sections against 

 the i-avages of the wax-miller and its 

 progeny, it would seem that more or 

 less trouble is encountered by not a 

 few of the bee-keeping fraternity. In 

 ofifering the following hints on this sub- 

 ject, I do not claim that my ways are • 

 better than anybody else's, but the fact 

 that I have had no occasion to sulphur 

 or fumigate combs of any kind, or sec- 

 tions either, for 10 years or more, is 

 sufficient guarantee that there must be 

 a little something in management. My 

 success in having so little trouble, while 

 others are annoyed, is due mainly to 

 the persistent and untiring application of 

 the old saying, "An ounce of prevention 

 is better than one pound of cure." 



When spring opens, we often have 

 quite a number of depopulated hives on 

 hand, which contain sets of desirable 

 brood-combs too valuable to be wasted 

 or destroyed by the wax-larvae. As soon 

 as we discover the demise of a colony, 

 the first step should be to clean the hive, 

 sweeping off combs and removing all 

 filth and rubbish. .At the same time 

 one of the combs should be taken out 

 and the rest spaced at equal distances 

 to take up the vacancy. LarvK are not 

 very apt to work in spread combs. 



Then the hive-entrances should be en- 

 larged to the full width of the hive, 

 and if the hive has both a flat and a 

 telescope cover, the former should be 

 removed. This gives the combs air, 

 and in some degree light — both being 

 distasteful to the comb-destroyers — and 

 at the same time allows the bees free 

 access to the inside of the hive, where 

 they act as a sort of police force in 

 protecting the combs. 



With the advancing season, when Na- 



ture attracts and draws the bees to the 

 field, spiders generally find these hives 

 to be desirable hunting-grounds. They 

 spin their webs at or near the entrances, 

 which is the best protection of our 

 combs Nature provides. 



It is with many persons a perfect ma- 

 nia to kill everything in the line of 

 insects and other useful creatures of 

 the lower animal life — snakes for in- 

 stance — but I never kill a spider know- 

 ingly. They are, to use a common 

 phrase, the best friend a bee-keeper has. 

 If they become a nuisance in one place 

 or another, as they do occasionally in 

 the honey-house, I drive them away by 

 sweeping down their webs. 



Combs prepared as above stated, are 

 comparatively safe from the inroads of 

 the wax-miller. I have kept them in 

 this way many times all summer with- 

 out serious trouble. But our vigilance 

 must not cease here, we have to keep 

 our eyes on them all the time, and 

 make regular examinations say once a 

 week. This may seem like a tedious 

 job, but it is not, although it is a per- 

 sistent one. It is so easily and quickly 

 done, that hundreds can be examined 

 in a few minutes. All we have to do 

 is to lift one end of the cover, and 

 one glance will tell whether our inter- 

 ference is needed. If no webs are spun 

 between the combs, the cover may at 

 once be replaced, and the combs con- 

 sidered safe. But if they are connect- 

 ed by those fine, silky threads, imme- 

 diate action must be taken, for we 

 may be sure that moth-larvae are de- 

 stroying our combs. 



Fortunately, this does not happen very 

 often, but when it does, the next question 

 is. How to rid the combs of these pests? 



In former years I have spent quite a 

 little time picking out worms with a 

 nail, sharpened stick, piece of wire, or 

 whatever came handy, the same as I 

 read not long ago that some of our bee- 

 keeping brothers advised doing. This 

 is all right for the want of anything 

 better, but late years I have used an 

 automatic worm-destroyer in the shape 

 of a flock of Plymouth Rock chickens, 

 that beat hand-picking all out of exis- 

 tence. Whenever I have an infested 

 comb, I simply lay it flat on the closely 

 mowed lawn near the honey-house, and 

 before I have time to straighten up, 

 half a dozen or more of my chickens 

 are pulling Mr. Larva out of the comb, 

 and consider it a great treat. 



By the time the one side is cleaned 

 out, and that is done in a hurry, the 

 larvae that were not in sight are fright- 

 ened by the disturbance and try to es- 

 cape on the underside, and when the 

 comb is turned bottomside up, almost 

 all the larvK, that are not on the ground, 

 are on the outside of the comb, and 

 are in the chickens' stomachs before 

 they know what has happened. 



And how are chickens taught to per- 

 form this part of bee-keeping? The 

 easiest and simplest thing in the world. 

 As the season advances, and the time 

 draws near when their service may be 

 required, I sprinkle a handful of wheai 

 on the ground where I wish to operate, 

 and call them. The first time they may 

 be a little slow in making their ap- 

 pearance, but a few will see what is 



