October, 1908 



American "Bee Journal i 



the largest number can go together. 



The fare from Chicago to Detroit 

 will be $5.50, and the same returning. 

 The Monday night train leaves Chicago 

 at 10 o'clock, arriving at Detroit at 7:15 

 the next morning. If going on this 

 train sleeping-car berth-rate is $2.00. 

 Those wishing such accommodations 

 should communicate early with Mr. L. 

 D. Hcusncr, General Western Passen- 

 ger Agent of the Michigan Central Rail- 

 road Co., 236 Clark St., Chicago, 111., 

 being sure to state the number in the 

 party so that he can make the necessary 

 reservations. 



Those who wish to go on other trains 

 than those mentioned above can do so 

 as per schedule shown in the Michigan 

 Central advertisement on another page 

 of this issue. 



For the information of those coming 

 from the East a condensed time table 

 is also shown in the same advertisement 

 via the New York Central Lines in con- 

 nection with the Michigan Central. 



Detroit is always an attractive city 

 in which to hold a convention, and es- 

 pecially so at this season of the year. 

 Those going from the West will have 

 ample opportunity for side-trips by 

 water routes as well as by rail, includ- 

 ing Niagara Falls. Those coming from 

 the East can make attractive side-trips 

 to Western cities, including Chicago. 



On page 263 of the September num- 

 ber it was stated that a ticket costing 

 $19.50 could be bought "reading Chic- 

 ago to Niagara Falls ; Gorge Route to 

 Lewiston ; Niagara Navigation Co.'s 

 boat to Toronto, returning Canadian 

 Pacific to Detroit, and Wabash direct ; 

 this ticket good for 30 days from date 

 of sale." We have since learned that 

 such tickets will not be on sale after 

 September 30, so that it was a mistake 

 to have announced it, for which notice 

 the agent of the Wabash Railroad Com- 

 pany is responsible, he having supplied 

 the information to us. 



We now hope that all bee-keepers 

 who can do so, will, in purchasing their 

 transportation, see that it reads from 

 Chicago over the Michigan Central, and, 

 if possible, leave Chicago on the 10:30 

 a. m. train Tuesday, October 13. The 

 Michigan Central is the well-known 

 "Niagara Falls Route." It is splendid 

 in equipment, and first-class in every 

 way. We wish there might be a full 

 carload to leave on the 10:30 a. m. 

 Tuesday train referred to. If it should 

 be so, the Detroit National convention 

 would really begin in Chicago, and con- 

 sist of a "continuous performance" for 

 8 or 10 hours before President Hilton 

 calls the convention proper to order. 



Floating Apiary on tlie Mississippi. 



Floating apiaries on the river Nile in 

 Egypt are things that have been read 

 about for a long, long time, and some 

 years ago quite a little was contained 

 in the bee-papers about the floating api- 

 ary of C. O Perrine on the Mississippi. 

 It looks quite reasonable to believe that 

 if one should have a lot of colonies 

 afloat in some vessel, he might start 

 near the mouth of the Mississippi with 

 the opening of flowers, long before bees 

 farther north could find anything to do, 

 gradually moving northward with the 

 advance of the season, thus extending 



the season many weeks beyond what it 

 would be in any one fixed locality. 



It was never very clear that the Per- 

 rine venture was a great success beyond 

 its value as an advertisement, but any 

 one who desires to read a very full ac- 

 count of 5 or 6 pages from one who has 

 had an extended experience with a float- 

 ing apiary, in connection with a floating 

 photographer's studio, will do well to 

 get the September number of the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review. In a very candid 

 manner, D. Stad Menhall gives his ex- 

 perience, an experience that he seems 

 to look upon with a degree of pleasure, 

 for he says : 



"We certainly enjoy this life, and have good 



health. There is no house rent to pay, with 



plenty of free wood and water, and our back 

 yard is always clean." 



He estimates an outlay of $4,000 for 

 outfit, and the same amount for yearly 

 expense, but seems a little doubtful 

 whether there is big money in the under- 

 taking. At any rate he frankly says his 

 boats are for sale. 



He thinks an apiary following the 

 bloom up the Mississippi river could 

 be made a success if there were a strip 

 of basswood or white clover 3 miles 

 wide on each side of the river. He 

 says further : 



"It is true that the bloom does open gradu- 

 ally, going northward as the season advances, 

 but it is just as true that there are not enough 

 of nectar secreting plants to make a commer- 

 cial success of a floating apiary. Excepting 

 a few weeds, white clover is the only nectar- 

 secreting plant that grows between New Or- 

 leans and St. Paul, and the acreage within 

 reach of a floating apiary is not large enough 

 to furnish a surplus for 300 colonies — only 

 large enough for brood-rearing." 



Feeding Bees for Winter 



If bees do not gather enough stores 

 for winter use, they must be fed. If 

 fed late, the syrup must be thick, as the 

 bees have not time to thicken it. Feed- 

 ing' early, using half sugar and half 

 water, has been favored, as it allows 

 time for the bees to make the desired 

 chemical changes in the feed, but there 

 seems some tendency toward later feed- 

 ing nowadays, using half as much water 

 as sugar. 



Always there will be some beginner 

 asking, "What shall I feed?" Nothing 

 but the best granulated sugar. In the 

 spring, after bees get to flying, you 

 may feed about anything you can get 

 the bees to take. But for winter stores 

 it is dangerous to feed anything less 

 than granulated sugar. Of course, that 

 does not bar out good honey, but when 

 a man asks, "What shall I feed?" it is 

 safe to conclude he has no honey. 



The wise bee-keeper has provided 

 in advance a store of brood-combs solid 

 with honey, to give to any needy col- 

 ony, cither for winter or in the spring. 



(iradin^ Colonies of Bees 



.'Vbout this time of year, perhaps a 

 little earlier, comes one of the most in- 

 teresting times to the wide-awake bee- 

 keeper. The hurry of getting the crop 

 out of the way is over, and he sits down 

 leisurely to take stock of wliat each 

 colony has done, comparing the yields 

 of different colonies with each other and 

 with the average. Not that he wants to 

 gloat over his success in getting a good 



crop ; he is .past that. He wants to 

 know what each colony has done so that 

 he may lay his plans for the next sea- 

 son. 



Of course he has kept tally through- 

 out the season, and knows just how 

 much honey he has harvested from each 

 colony in his possession. Then there 

 are other things to be considered besides 

 the amount of honey harvested by each 

 colony, and taking all things into con- 

 sideration he must decide which he 

 counts his best colony to breed from in 

 the coming year. Then the second best, 

 the third best, and so on, regularly grad- 

 ing down. There is, of course, the pos- 

 sibility of winter loss, in case of which 

 he will take the highest of those left 

 for next year's breeding. 



Of course this selection might be 

 made next spring ; but it can be done 

 just as well now, and your true bee- 

 keeper will hardly put off such an im- 

 portant and interesting item longer than 

 he must. 



Swarm Leaving Colony Queenles.s 



There has been some question whether 

 it ever happened that a swarm would 

 issue with a virgin queen, leaving the 

 colony hopelessly queenless. While it 

 is probably not a common occurrence, 

 it docs sometimes happen, if there is no 

 mistake in reports made by two cor- 

 respondents in Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture. Yet some of the cases reported 

 look like desertion rather than regular 

 swarming. 



Fuller's Plan of Queen-Rearing 



Mr. O. F. Fuller, a bee-keeper of 25 

 years' experience, has been experiment- 

 ing in the matter of queen-rearing, and 

 by certain modifications in frames and 

 hives, which in good time he proposes 

 to give free to the bee-keeping public, 

 he succeeds in producing queens more 

 easily than by any plan heretofore 

 known. Doolittle cell-cups are used in 

 the same story with a laying queen. 

 Arthur C. Miller endorses the plan as 

 an advance, as also does Prof. W. T 

 Brooks, of the Massachusetts College 

 of .Agriculture. 



As giving some inkling of what he is 

 doing, Mr. Fuller writes : 



"August 10 I produced and had on exhibi' 

 tion ,^4 queen-cells of different ages, from 

 2 to 10 days old, all started in this same 

 lower hive which contains 10 frames and also 

 a laving queen — all in the same lower brood- 

 chamber of a hive. T fully think that by 

 another year I can produce anywhere from 

 15 to 20 or even 25 queens every 10 days, 

 all started and hatched in the same brood- 

 chamber that had a laying queen, and produce 

 comb honey at the same time." 



New Kink in Introducing Qjieens 



Dr. Miller has been making a varia 

 tion in introducing this year that he 

 has named "the lazy plan." Instead of 

 putting tiie caged queen between the 

 combs or on top of the frames, he 

 merely thrusts the cage into the en- 

 trance among the bees. This is an easy 

 matter with his entrances 2 inches deep. 

 The queen is left strictly imprisoned 

 for 2 days. Then the bees are allowed 

 to get at the candy, taking about 2 

 days to release the queen. That makes 

 some .=; days from the lime the queen 

 is cageil unlil she is free on the combs. 



