April, igii. 



[Merican Bac Jonrnai j 



colonies found diseased, 13.1. In 1909, 

 6036 colonies were inspected, 1431 of 

 which were diseased, or 23.7 percent. 

 That falling off from 23.7 to 13.1 is a 

 very gratifying proof of the good effect 

 of the work done. 



Inspector Demuth is very emphatic 

 in urging the importance of keeping all 

 colonies strong. Instead of favoring 

 the idea of trying to have colonies 

 strong for the harvest and restricting 

 brood-rearing at other times, he says : 



" But somehow a strong colony seems to 

 be better able to make a living between 

 flows than one of medium strength, and 

 probably consumes less honey per bee dur- 

 ing the winter than medium or weak colo- 

 nies." 



Vigorous expression of his view is 

 given in the following sentence : 



" In most of the apiaries visited in Indiana 

 during the past two seasons it would have 

 been better for both bees and bee-keeper if 

 all of the bees had been in half the number 

 of hives." 



■*■ 



Moving an Apiary on Hand-Sleds. — J. 



L. Byer reports in Gleanings the suc- 

 cessful moving of some 80 colonies of 

 bees about lOO yards on hand-sleds on 

 the snow. The work was so quietly 

 done that the bees hardly knew they 

 were being moved. A few colonies 

 were a bit uneasy, but at the first sign 

 of a bee at the entrance a handful of 

 snow thrown in stopped all trouble. 



Death of Mrs. E. S. Miles.— The life 

 companion of Mr. E. S. Miles, a bee- 

 keeper for many years, residing at Dun- 

 lap, Iowa, passed away March 16, 1911, 

 leaving 6 children between the ages of 

 2 years and 19, besides Mr. Miles, to 

 mourn her departure. Surely the be- 

 reaved husband and children will have 

 the sympathy of all our readers. Mr. 

 Miles is now writing some articles on 

 "Improvement of the Honey-Bee," the 

 first of which appeared in our March 

 number. 



Our Denmark Bee-Friends This of- 

 fice is in receipt of a publication that 

 has been examined with no little inter- 

 est, albeit it is printed in a language 

 which is beyond the ability of any one 

 of the office force. It bears the title, 

 "Tidsskrift for Biavl," with the further 

 addition, " Den danske Biavls Tidende." 

 Internal evidence makes it safe to say 

 that it is a bee-paper published at Ros- 

 kilde, in Denmark, and that it was es- 

 tablished in 1866. That shows that our 

 Danish cotemporary first saw the light 

 only 5 years after the birth of the 

 American Bee Journal. Its typograhp- 

 ical appearance does credit to its pub- 

 lishers. 



One article has for its caption " Doo- 

 little on de italienske Bien." Evidently 

 our Danish friends are informed as to 

 leaders in bee-culture of this country. 

 Pictures read the same in all languages, 

 so it is not difficult to read the picture 

 on the first page, even if the name 

 " George W. York " were not printed in 

 plain English. Other English names, 

 together with figures occurring on the 

 page, show that it is a biographical 

 sketch. Although hidden beneath the 

 veil of an unknown language, there is 

 something that has a very kindly look 

 in the closing paragraph. That kind 

 feeling is fully reciprocated, and that 

 last paragraph is here given that our 



readers who hail from that land across 

 the sea may have the benefit of it: 



Vi onsker. at York maa leve laenge, og at 

 det vedblivende maa lykkes ham at foroge 

 American Bee Journals Holderantal til Gavn 

 for Biavlssagen i hans Fodeland. 



That's all right. Thank you. 



An Austrian Bee-Medal The illustra- 

 tions herewith sIkiw the front and back 

 of a medal won by Mr. Chas. Schroll, 

 for exhibiting the finest comb founda- 

 tion, the best comb honey, and a large 

 bowl containing comb honey in the 

 shape of a star; also for showing an 

 improved hive, at the exhibit held by 

 the .Austrian Bee-Keepers' Association 

 of -A-Sch, Bohemia, in 1885. 



Mr. Scholl has lived in Chicago for 



20 years. He had 7-") colonies in Aus- 

 tria. The lettering on the medal reads 

 thus: "Austrian Association of Bee- 

 Keepers." 



Bees and Honey in Illinois. — We are 



indebted to J. K. Dickirson, Secretary, 

 for the Statistical Report of the Illinois 

 State Board of Agriculture for 1910. In 

 this the colonies of bees in the State 

 are given at 80,-')44. They produced 

 341,G'21 pounds of honey which sold at 

 an average price of 17 cents a pound, 

 making a total of $.')6,621. (There seems 

 to be something wrong with these 

 figures, as 341,621 pounds at 17 cents 

 figures up $.-)8,07.^.) This is a little 

 more than the value of the apple crop. 



In 5 counties of the State the price o 

 honey was 2.5 cents a pound. From 

 that the price ranges down to 8 cents, 

 the price in Fayette county. 



Hamilton, one of the southernmost 

 counties, stands out conspicuously with 

 28,079 colonies. Next to this comes 

 Livingston county, with 1,925 colonies. 

 Brown coimty has only 20 colonies. 



It is to be feared that the system of 

 collecting these statistics is not very 

 reliable, notwithstanding all the pains 

 taken by Secretary Dickirson. The 

 honey crop of McHenry county, for ex- 

 ample, is reported at 134 pounds, while 

 it is certain that one bee-keeper alone 

 in that county produced more than 50 

 times that amount. 



If 80,544 is anywhere near the correct 

 number of colonies in the State, there 

 does not seem to be any overstocking, 

 as there are less than l^i colonies to 

 the square mile. 



Bee-Talk to School Children.— Miss 



Hill, principal of one of the public 

 schools of Indianapolis, Ind., accom- 

 panied 38 boys and girls about 15 years 

 of age to the bee-supply and honey es- 

 tablishment of Walter S. Pouder, at 

 Indianapolis, March 16th, to listen to a 

 talk about bees. Of course, Mr. Pouder 

 did his best, and before he knew it he 

 had talked for two hours, and then the 

 children came to him with written 

 questions, which made it all the more 

 interesting. He never saw so much 

 enthusiasm in a lot of little faces be- 

 fore, and, of course, it was enjoyed all 

 around. He showed them the different 

 apiarian fi.xtures, and gave to each little 

 visitor a strip of comb foundation and 

 a sample jar of honey, as souvenirs, 

 and when they went out each shook 

 hands with Mr. Pouder, who says he 

 felt for once in his life as if he were 

 President of the United States! Dur- 

 ing the entertainment, who should 

 come in but Mr. Fred W. Muth, one of 

 the big honey and bee-supply mer- 

 chants of Cincinnati, who also seemed 

 to enjoy the interesting occasion. 



The above experience would be a 

 good thing to duplicate all over the 

 country, wherever it is possible. It 

 would also no doubt help increase the 

 consumption of honey, for likely the 

 children would all agree that the sam- 

 ple " tasted like more," and would in- 

 duce their parents to continue its use. 



British Columbia Bee-Bulletin. — "Guide 

 to Bee-Keeping in British Columbia" 

 is the title of Bulletin No. 30, printed by 

 the authority of the Legislative Assem- 

 bly of British Columbia. The author is 

 none other than our old friend, F. Dun- 

 das Todd, and he has good reason to 

 be proud of his job. The bulletin is 

 written in the usual happy style of the 

 author, and the title is appropriate. It 

 contains 48 pages of fine print, with 24 

 illustrations. 



, Quite a number keep bees on a small 

 scale in British Columbia, but no one 

 is reported as having more than .50 col- 

 onies. "There is seemingly one keeper 

 of bees to every 20 people," with a pos- 

 sible average of 11 colonies each. The 

 bees are Italian, with a few blacks. The 

 Langstroth hive is practically the only 

 one in use, the 8-frame and 10-frame 

 being in equal favor. Extracted honey 



