December, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



ony has producL'd a thousand pounds of first- 

 class honey in a season. Although the yield 

 of honey in California is enormous and every 

 year increasing, there is always a steady de- 

 mand at a good price." 



Isn't that painting the thing in rather 

 high colors, both as to average and 

 maximum yield? For years the only 

 yield of 1000 pounds reported from a 

 single colony was from a Texas colony; 

 and even that has been accepted with 

 a grain of salt. At any rate the edi- 

 tor of Gleanings lately gave consider- 

 ably less than 1000 pounds as the high- 

 est yield on record from a single col- 

 ony. 



Speaking of the queen, there is the 

 following admirable passage : 



"There is not the slightest danger of not 

 knowing royalty among bees. Once beheld, 

 the queen can never he mistaken for either 

 oi her plebian subjects, the drone or the 

 worker. Not only is she far more elegant 

 in shape and brilliant in coloring, but she has 

 the distinctive habit of crossing the tips of 

 her wings. It always reminds me of the help- 

 less manner which some women have of dis- 

 posing of their hands." 



Isn't that last sentence a really femi- 

 nine touch ? How many of those who 

 have handled queens by the hundred 

 would tell you offhand that their wings 

 were disposed in an exceptional man- 

 ner? 



Foul Brood — Best Size of Hive — 



Wheu to Put on Supers — Smoker- 



Fnel — Superseding Queens — 



Age of Queens. 



Dear Miss Wilson: — i. How can you tell 

 when foul brood is among the bees? 



2. What size boxes or hives are best to 

 keep bees in? And what make is the best? 



3. How soon do you put on the supers in 

 the spring? 



4. What is best to put in the smoker for 

 smoking the bees? 



5. Is it best to remove the queen at a cer- 

 tain age, or let her remain with the bees until 

 she dies or is killed by a queen-bee? 



, 6. How long does a queen-bee live if not 

 killed? 



I have 3 colonies of bees. I got no honey 

 for ourselves but have an abundance for the 

 bees. Our hives were too large. 



I am taking the American Bee Journal, and 

 like it very much. Mrs. C. P. Day. 



Bloomington, 111-, Oct. 19. 



1. Look at the broqd. If there is 

 coffee-colored, rotten brood, stick a 

 toothpick into it, and if there is foul 

 brood it will string out an inch or so 

 before it breaks when you withdraw the 

 toothpick. The smell is very disagree- 

 able — called a gluepot smell. If you 

 have the least suspicion of foul brood, 

 better get a pamphlet on the subject, 

 also send a sample to N. E. France, 

 Platteville. Wis., General Manager of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 If not a member, better send a dollar 

 to him and become one. 



2. For extracted honey the lo-frame 

 dovetailed hive. The same for comb 

 honey unlfess you expect to give the 

 closest attention to your bees, in which 

 case the 8-frame hive may be better. 



3. About 10 days after the very first 

 white clover bloom is seen. 



4. There is such a variety of good 

 smoker-fuels that it might be hard to 

 say which is best. One that is very 

 good and easy to obtain is hard-wood 

 chips from the chip-pile. Use a piece 

 of saltpeter rag to start the fire, then 

 fill up your smoker with rather small 

 chips, and you will have a smoke that 



will be good, and last for some time. 

 If you have no chip-pile, cotton rags 

 are good. Cotton-waste from machine 

 shops is greatly hked by some. Planer 

 shavings are also used — in fact, almost 

 anything that will burn slowly, and make 

 a good smoke. 



5. If the queen is poor or in any way 

 objectionable, better remove her at once, 

 without regard to her age ; on the other 



hand, if you have an exceptionally good 

 queen, you will want her to live as long 

 as she does good work, or until the bees 

 supersede her. Some think it best to 

 replace queens when 2 years old ; others 

 think it best to leave the matter entirely 

 to the bees. 



6. In rare cases they may live to 5 or 

 6 years old ; generally not more than 

 2 or 3. 



E. W. ALEXANDER. 



A few years ago there appeared on 

 the horizon of beedom a figure that was 

 destined soon to loom larger as the 

 nearer it was approached and the better 

 it was seen and known. That figure was 

 E. W. Alexander, who, we believe, was 

 first discovered by Editor Hutchinson, 

 of the Bee-Keepers' Review, for which 

 bee-paper he began to write, and later 

 for Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



It seems that Mr. Alexander became 

 famous partly from the fact that he kept 

 successfully about 700 colonies of bees 

 in his one apiary. His nectar-sources, 

 his brilliant methods of manipulation 

 and general apiarian management were 

 such that he was able to do, in his lo- 

 cality, what perhaps no other bee-keeper 

 could do in any other place. 



But, unfortunately, Mr. Alexander 

 was not long for this world. He had 

 only begun to contribute to the literature 

 of bee-keeping, and had he been spared, 

 no doubt from his ripe and extensive 

 experience he would have been able to 

 give to the bee-keeping world many 

 more of his valuable methods used in 

 the production of extracted honey. But 

 he is gone. His good influence, how- 

 ever, will be felt for many years among 

 those who knew him best, and the ex- 

 cellent descriptions of his own methods 

 of bee-keeping and honey-production 

 will forever adorn the pages of the bee- 

 literature of his time. 



Rev. D. Everett Lyon, a personal 

 friend of Mr. Alexander, was requested 

 to speak at tlie funeral service. He did 

 so, and soon afterward wrote the fol- 

 lowing for Gleanings in Bee Culture, 

 which was pul)lishcd in the October 15th 

 nmnber : 



In Memoriam of E. W. Alexander. 



On Saturday, Sept. 10 there passed from 

 earth to heaven in the death of E. W. Alex- 

 ander, of Dclanson, N. Y., not only a prince 

 of bee-keepers but also one of the purest "and 

 most sympathetic of men who ever lived. For 

 many months this kind-hearted man was a 

 great sufferer from an abdominal afHiction; 

 and when the end came it was to him a wel- 

 come release from his untold suffering. The 

 end came not to our brother as a surprise, 

 but was the culmination of his expectation, 

 and the summons found him with his spiritual 



house in order, ready to receive his well- 

 merited reward. 



For a year or more he often expressed to 

 his devoted wife the desire that the writer 

 might oflficiate at his funeral, and preach the 

 sermon ; and when the telegram called me to 

 Delanson for that purpose I felt that it was 

 a sacred duty that could not be ignored. 



Leaving home immediately at the close of 

 my Sunday-evening preaching service on Sept. 

 20, I arrived at Delanson the following morn- 

 ing, and proceeded at once to the house of 

 mourning. Our dear brother had but re- 

 cently purchased a beautiful little home, and 

 it seemed strange providence that he at only 

 63 years of age should so soon be carried 

 from it. 



When the hour of the service arrived, a vast 

 throng of people crowded in and about the 

 home to pay a last tribute of respect to one 

 esteemed, and an honor to the community in 

 which he resided. Though a great sufferer in 

 the last few months of his life, yet in death 

 his face seemed singularly peaceful, with just 

 a trace of that genial smile that made every 

 one feel that he was their friend. 



I felt it a great honor to be permitted to 

 stand beside his cofBn and speak of his many 

 virtues, and refer to his beautiful Christian 

 character. After the service his three sons — 

 Frank, Fred and Bert — and his devoted son- 

 in-law, acted as pall-bearers, at their father's 

 request, and tenderly carried his remains to 

 the waiting hearse. 



A ride of four miles brought us to the 

 beautiful cemetery at Esperance, where his 

 poor tired body was laid at rest to await the 

 resurrection of the just; and as I turned 

 from the grave I felt that the bee-keepers 

 had sustained a great loss in the death of 

 such a friend. 



May I be permitted to say a few words 

 of annreciation concerning one who, as a 

 bee-keeper, was a prince among us — the great- 

 est Roman of us all — a very Gamaliel at 

 whose feet we learned so much? Let me speak 

 of him. first, as a matt. 



E. W. Alexander was every inch of him a 

 man. Everything that was mean and base he 

 spurned with contempt, while every thing high 

 and noble found in him its earnest advocate. 



Like Longfellow's blacksmith, he could 

 "look the whole world in the face," so pure 

 and upright was his character. 



Singularly sympathetic, he had a kind word 

 for every one, and special sympathy for the 

 man who was down and out. 



j\\\ the years of valuable experience as a 

 bee-keeper, much of it the result of costly 

 experiment, he freely gave to his fellow bee- 

 keepers, and nothing delighted him better than 

 to see the success of others. 



As a bee-keeper remarked to me after the 

 service, "He was a great reference-hook for 

 us all." Yet withal he was the most modest 

 of men, and, though deeply touched by Dr. 

 Miller's recent note, that he. as one of the 

 rank and file, saluted him in his triumphant 

 march to receive his crown of rejoicing, he 

 said to his wife. "That was very kind of Dr. 

 Miller, but. really. I don't deserve it." 



Second, as a bee-keeper. Our friend was a 

 truly great bee-keeper, not so much from the 

 fact that he managed with his dear son, 

 Frank, the largest apiary in the world in one 



