2o6 



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American ^^e Journal 



uncapped brood in the foul-broody col- 

 ony. 



ikly plan of treating foul brood is not 

 exactly a new plan, as it was outlined 

 by me in 1897, page 333, in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review. Since that dale I have 

 treated a number of foul-broody colo- 

 nies by my plan, and always with good 

 success. I am advised that others have 

 done likewise. 



St. Charles, 111. 



[This article is republished by request 

 from the American Bee Journal of July 

 6, 1905. — Editor.] 



Some Bee-Keeping Stray 

 Straws 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



Stray Straws ! Yes, but not by Dr. C.C. 

 Miller. And while I am in no way as 

 good a "stray-strawer" as Dr. Miller, 

 I hope that these few lines will help 

 some of the readers. 



New Plan to Prevent Swarming. 



I begin with one on the Doctor's new 

 plan of preventing swarming — it is mere- 

 ly caging the queen in a hive-body in- 

 stead of in a small cage. And I almost 

 think that he is on the .right side of the 

 fence. After a long experience in that 

 line, I almost think that the caging of a 

 laying queen for any length of time may 

 be at least occasionally injurious. Yet 

 I do not know positively. As a rule, re- 

 queening gives me better results. 



Where to Put the Caged Queen. 



Doolittle says that when the caged 

 queen is placed at a certain place ( I do 

 not remember where), the bees will not 

 start queen-cells. His experiment was 

 merely a coincidence. After he will have 

 caged as many as I have, he will find 

 out that the place has nothing at all to 

 do with it. What has to do something, 

 is the amount of unsealed brood pres- 

 ent. If there is only a little, the queen- 

 cells will be started quite soon. If there 

 is plenty of it, enough to keep the nurse- 

 bees busy, they will not think of build- 

 ing queen-cells for some time. And 

 when they eventually realize that some- 

 thing is wrong, the remaining larvae 

 are too old to admit queen-rearing. 



Heat of Insects. 



In a contribution sent to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal several months ago, 

 I stated that the body of an insect is 

 warmer than the surrounding atmos- 

 phere, and the thorax somewhat warmer 

 than the abdomen. Very likely many 

 readers of this paper have wondered 

 how the temperature of an insect's body 

 can be ascertained, and what kind of a 

 thermometer was used. An explanation 

 might not be amiss here. 



Suppose a copper wire of which the 

 two ends arc exposed to different tem- 

 perature, then a flow of electricity will 

 take place from the warmest and toward 

 the coldest, and the greater the differ- 

 ence of temperature is, the stronger will 

 be the flow. 



Everybody knows what a magnetic 

 needle is. It is a long, flat piece of 

 steel pointed at both ends, which always 

 turns when free with one end toward the 



North and the other toward the South. 

 Now let the aforesaid copper be wound 

 around the needle a great many times 

 from end to end, but not touching the 

 needle, held up say 2 inches or more 

 away from it by any suitable con- 

 trivance, the ends of the wire remaining 

 free. Let one end be warmer than the 

 other, then a current of electricity will 

 flow toward the colder end. But that is 

 not all. The electric current will, so to 

 speak, pull the magnetic needle toward 

 a position right across the ring formed 

 by the wound wire. The stronger the 

 current is, the more the needle will be 

 deflected. The deflection will furnish us 

 means to ascertain the strength of the 

 flow, and this in turn, the difference of 

 temperature between the two ends of the 

 wire. If one end of the wire is sharp- 

 pointed and thrust into the body of an 

 insect, the difference of the temperature 

 between it and the surrounding atmos- 

 phere will be ascertained at once. For 

 full details and explanations, see the 

 text-books on heat and electricity. 



Queen and Hat. 



We were informed some time ago that 

 while working in the apiary Miss Wil- 

 son found a queen on her hat. The Doc- 

 tor tells us that he "don't know" how 

 the queen got there. Neither do I. But 

 I guess that while working with some 

 colony, Miss Wilson scared the queen 

 so badly that she flew away (I mean the 

 queen, not Miss Wilson) for safety. Be- 

 fore hiding somewhere, she marked the 

 locality, of which at that time Miss 

 Wilson and her hat were the most con- 

 spicuous landmarks. When her scare 

 was over, the unfortunate queen started 

 for home, and of course, went for the 

 "landmark" she had noted, and was un- 

 doubtedly very much disappointed in not 

 finding her home on the other side of 

 the "landmark." Not knowing what to 

 do she climbed to the highest point, 

 whether to get a better view or what, I 

 don't know. 



But I do knew that careless manipula- 

 tion will occasionally scare the queens 

 out of the hives for a time. I have 

 occasionally failed to find the queen and 

 made a thorough investigation, such as 

 left me absolutely certain that the queen 

 was not there at all. 



When to Requeen. 



Mr Dadant, in his last contribution on 

 the subject, "When to Requeen," quotes 

 several of our best writers, saying that 

 queens are usually good until 4 or 5 

 years old. None of them says, how- 

 ever, that they are as good at that age 

 as they were when only one or 2 years 

 old. In fact they do not seem to have 

 even considered that question. 



Dr. Miller is then quoted as saying 

 that the majority of them begin to fail 

 during the fhircj year. And I think that 

 the majority of our extensive bee-keep- 

 ers who have paid any attention to the 

 matter will agree with him. I think that 

 they will also agree that the majority, 

 even nearly all, are as good the second 

 year as the first. This being the case, 

 the best way would be to requeen 

 throughout every second year. A fail- 

 ing queen means a falling off in the 

 strength of the colony, and a corre- 

 sponding diminution in the amount of 



surplus olitained, and we want to avoid 

 that. 



Waiting until the bees find out that 

 the queen is not laying as much as she 

 ought to do, and then requeen them- 

 selves, is even worse, for by that time 

 the loss might be considerable. 



The apiarist who requeens himself, has 

 the advantage of being able to select the 

 best of his stock, while the one who 

 lets his bees do the requeening has to 

 take his chances. 



If I were an extracted-honey man, I 

 do not think that I would requeen more 

 often than every 2 years. But for a 

 comb-honey man the case is altogether 

 different. The object sought is to con- 

 trol swarming. It can not be contested 

 that a year-old queen is far less liable 

 to swarm than one 2 years old or more. 

 I will not atteinpt to explain it now. 

 There is something else, too. A great 

 drawback of comb-honey producing is 

 the tendencv of the bees to crowd honey 

 in the brood-nest, with the result that 

 more swarming follows, less honey goes 

 into the sections, and the whole is ag- 

 gravated by a reduction in brood-rear- 

 ing. So many causes influence the work 

 of tlie bees, that it is difficult to say 

 whether this, that, or the other was the 

 cause of a reduction in the surplus. 

 Nevertheless, after 2 years of experience 

 in bee-keeping, I feel satisfied that a 

 year-old queen will keep the honey out 

 of the brood-nest better than her 2-year- 

 old sister, and thus gain the advantage, 

 though she may not be any better other- 

 wise. 



Kno.xville, Tenn. 



Pure Food Law— New Meth- 

 ods in Bee-Keeping 



BY GRANT STANLEY. 



The bee-keepers of this country cer- 

 tainly have soiTiething to feel proud of in 

 the passage of the National Pure Food 

 Law. I greatly doubt if there has been 

 any other law passed in the history of 

 this country that has benefited bee-keep- 

 ing so much. In fact, the way it looks 

 at present, there is nothing left for the 

 bee-keeper to do, but to see that all the 

 honey he or she offers for sale shall be 

 of the highest quality. 



Just prior to the passage of this law, 

 the editors of the various bee-papers 

 were extolling its value so high, and 

 what it would do for bee-keepers, that a 

 great many thought, if only a part of 

 what was being said would come true, 

 it would certainly be a great move in the 

 interest of honey-production. 



Well, the law was passed only a little 

 over a year ago, and the result at this 

 period is even more than we expected. 

 In fact, I can scarcely realize that 

 the passage of the law would have such 

 a decided effect on our business in such 

 a short time. In all luy bee-keeping 

 experience, I never saw such a dciuand 

 for honey as last season. This demand 

 was not solely willi tlie consumer, but 

 the merchant as well. Merchants and 

 consumers alike seemed to have so much 

 confidence in honey, and the former 

 were anxious to buy in any quantity they 

 could, and not hesitate a moment in pay- 

 ing an advanced price over former years. 



Now, this is not all; but my! what 



