(Entered as secoDd-clasa matter Jnly 30, 1907, at the Post-Offlce at Chicago, 111., nnder Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, 117 North Jefferson Street, 



GEORGE W. YORK. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Associate Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH, 1911 



Vol. LI- -No. 3 



Reciprocity With Canada 



The taritT on honey brought from 

 Canada into the United States is 20 

 cents a gallon. The Canadian tariff on 

 United States honey is 3 cents a pound. 

 If 12 pounds are figured in a gallon, 20 

 cents a gallon is equivalent to I-3 cents 

 a pound. If 2 bee-keepers live on op- 

 posite sides of the line within a mile of 

 each other, the Canadian has I'j cents 

 the advantage over his yankee neigh- 

 bor. Suppose Jones, the Canadian, 

 brings honey across the line, and sells 

 it at 10 cents a pound. The tariff being 

 deducted, he will net S'i cents a pound 

 net. If Smith, on the United States 

 side, sells north of the line at 10 cents, 

 the -J cents tariff will make his honey 

 net him 7 cents. 



If the efforts of President Taft and 

 Secretary Kno.x prevail, it will not be 

 so very long before this will be changed 

 and honey will pass free of duty from 

 one country to the other. 



Size of Honey-House 



It is a little difficult to decide upon the 

 best size for a cellar and bee-house, but this 

 much I do know, that I never heard a bee- 

 keeper conii)lain that his honey-house was 

 too large— I have often heard him complain 

 of lack of room. For an apiary of 100 colo- 

 nies I think a house ijxiij would be none loo 

 large, and I would have an attic or upper 

 story at that. About 14 feet is sufficient 

 hGieht.~/tef-AW/'t'rs' f^evietc. 



All of which is good ; but might it 

 not go just a trifle farther? With 

 "more bees" constantly dinged into 

 his ears, how does the owner of loO 

 colonies know he will never go beyond 

 that number? A house 24x18 feet ivill 

 hold Is more than one 24x10, without 

 costing ',ii more. Still less in cost will 

 be added by increasing the height. If 

 the building be 14 feet high, one or 

 both stories will be less than 7 feet 

 high. A foot or more higher than that 

 will be very convenient very often to 

 pile high supers and other things, the 

 convenience greatly overbalancing the 

 cost. 



A Beeswax Explo.siou 



About a pound and a half of wax being 

 heated in a deep wash-dish over an ordinary 

 stove. The dish had a rounding bottom, was 

 about a foot in diameter at the top. and per- 

 haps 6 inches deep. The melted wax occu- 

 pied not more than ij-i inches space at the 

 bottom of the dish. When fine bubbles of 

 wax commenced coming to the top. showing 

 that the boiling-point had nearly been 

 reached, about half a pint of water from a 

 tea-kettle was poured in. the idea being to 

 cool the wax and prevent it from boiling. 

 Without any warning, however, there was a 

 sudden explosion, all the hot water and wax 

 being thrown violently into the face of the 

 one who was performing the experiment; 

 and. as the wax had to be scraped off with a 

 knife, it caused some quite severe burns be- 

 fore it cooled 



Now, did this wax. like nitroglycerin or 

 gunpowder, simply explode of its own ac- 

 cord ? There was no exposed flame or lire 

 at any time. and. fortunately, nothing 

 caught fire afterward. Our explanation of 

 the trouble is as follows: Wax boils at a 

 much higher temperature than water: 

 hence, although the wax in the dish on the 

 stove had not quite reached the boiling- 

 point, its temperature must have been con- 

 siderably above the boiling-point of water. 

 When the hot water from the tea-kettle was 

 poured in. its tendency was to go to the bot- 

 tom of the dish because the wax is lighter: 

 but the high temperature immediately vola- 

 tilized the water: and as the steam had no 

 exit except through the wax. it fairly lifted 

 the wfiole contents of the dish into the air. 

 — (UciinhiKs in lice (.'rdliire. 



It is well that this warning is heeded. 

 The result would likely not have been 

 the same if cold water had been poured 

 in, instead of hot water from the tea- 

 kettle, but the safer way would be to 

 have at least some water in the bottom 

 of the vessel before allowing the wax 

 to be heated above the boiling point of 

 water. 



Oi.sinfection of Hives 



D. M. Macdonald says in the British 

 Bee Journal regarding disinfection of 

 hives that have contained foul brood : 

 " 'The McEvoy treatment is an effec- 

 tive cure Txihi-n properly carried out.' 

 That includes disinfection" 



Mr. Macdonald is too intelligent to 

 think that Mr. Mclivoy advocates dis- 

 infection, and too honest to misrepre- 



sent. But for once he has been un- 

 fortunate in expressing himself. The 

 McEvoy treatment emphatically does 

 not include disinfection, and Mr. Mac- 

 donald's idea probably is that an effec- 

 tive cure of foul brood maybe secured 

 by the McEvoy treatment plus disin- 

 fection. 



Bees Carryiug Eggs 



Every now and then a report is made 

 that bees have carried an egg from one 

 cell to another. W. Abram, editor of 

 the Australian Bee Bulletin is very cer- 

 tain that not one of these reports is re- 

 liable, for the simple reason that it is an 

 impossibility for a bee to do anything 

 of the kind, and he establishes that im- 

 possibility in this way: 



When the bee lays an egg it is coated with 

 a glue-like substance, which makes the egg 

 adhere to the bottom of the cell. It very 

 soon hardens, and once hard nothing but the 

 use of a paste-brush or such like utensil can 

 make it stick in another cell, not to mention 

 that the shell of the egg may be damaged if 

 removed from its place of deposit in the cell. 

 Now, as the bees have no means of fastening 

 the egg to the bottom of the cell, they can 

 not transfer them from one to another. 



This seems quite conclusive; for if a 

 thing is impossible it can not very well 

 be done. But it would not be' strange 

 if some who think that bees carry eggs 

 should reply somewhat in this strain: 



"How does Mr. Abram Itnon' that 

 when the glue-like substance hardens 

 it can never be softened again ? It is 

 the drying out that hardens it, and if it 

 is moistened why will it not be soft 

 again ? And if bees can moisten candy, 

 why can they not moisten a glue-like 

 substance ?" 



Breecliug' for Iinprovemeut in 

 Bees 



In a letter I have received from E. S. 

 Miles, he says : 



Pardon me if I tell you where I think you 

 made a mistake in breeding your bees in 

 times past? I may be mistalten. but I be- 

 lieve one should avoid hybrids for breeders. 

 1 believe instead of breeding from the col- 

 ony that gives you the greatest yield, you 

 would do better to select the best of your 

 pure— or as near as one can judge pure- 

 stock. 



My experience and observation lead me to 

 think that the progeny of mixed or grade 

 stock of all kinds is rather variable and un- 

 certain. And so I think that if we find most 

 of the dcsirrble qualities in a pure stock of 

 bees, they are more apt to transmit them 

 than a mixed stock. And, further, it seems 



