June, igii. 



American ^ae Journal 



Correction. — A very grievous error 

 crept in the May number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. Mr. C. P. Dadant 

 translated for us two articles from 

 Foloppe Freres, taken from L'Apicul- 

 teur, of Paris. The cuts which should 

 have accompanied the first article in 

 the May number were left out, and 

 cuts that belonged to the second arti- 

 cle were inserted instead. We here re- 

 produce the 3 cuts which should have 

 accompanied the May number. If our 

 readers will read over that article 

 which describes the use made by bees 

 of foundation containing too much, too 





I 



Fie. I. 



Fie- 2. 



Fig. I.— Thinnest Sheet. (Section of a finisii- 

 ed comb. The cells could not be entirely 

 finished out of the dyed wa.x contained 

 in the foundation. The addition of nat- 

 ural wax by the bees is shown in lighter 

 shade.) 



Fig. 2— Thickest Sheet. A— Cells and cap- 

 pines have been made out of the dyed 

 wax of foundation. The excess of this 

 wax has been carried over to the oppo- 

 site comb B. B— Dyed cappings sealing 

 a naturally-built comb. The wax con- 

 tained in these cappines was gathered 

 from the opposite comb-) 



Fig. ^. — Medum Sheet. The cells were 

 drawn entirely from dyed wax in the 

 foundation supplied. The cappings alone 

 have been supplied by the worker-bees 

 out of natural wax. 



little, or a sufficient amount of wax to 

 build the entire combs, and compare 

 with the cuts accompanying this cor- 

 rection, they will readily comprehend 

 the meaning of them. 



The cuts printed in the May number, 

 and which were unintelligible to our 

 readers, are now re-printed with the 

 second article. 



This essay shows minutely the man- 

 ner in which the bees manipulate the 

 foundation given them. It will be 

 found very interesting, and shows pro- 

 found study on the part of its authors. 

 — The Editor. 



BvR Western ^ Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



Poultry Systems, Bee Systems, Etc. 



We see in all the papers and maga- 

 zines advertisements of poultry systems 

 and various other systems of making 

 a sure thing of the various pursuits in- 

 dicated, and at first one is apt to say it 

 is much too strongly stated ; but 

 whether exaggerated or not, these sys- 

 tems all appear to me to be far in ad- 

 vance of the unsystematic methods of 

 many farmers and gardeners. I believe 

 the "systems" have their chief merit in 

 bringing about an orderly manner of 

 doing the work, and I wish that we 

 might have a half-dozen or more of 

 "sure winner" bee-systems. I think it 

 would make for advancement in bee- 

 keeping by cutting out a lot of false 

 motions that so many go through with. 

 There is so much in knowing all the 

 schemes that will not work, for our 

 success in anything quite largely lies in 

 knowing what not to do. Some of us 

 need to be told just what kind of a hive 

 to use, where to place it, when to 

 spread brood, when to give honey, 

 when to put on supers, and when to 

 take them off, that I really believe some 

 of us could keep bees better by follow- 

 ing a bee-system book than by trying 

 to use our own eyes and brains. 



Advantages of Co-operation 



I wish that we might go to sleep for 

 a hundred years or so, if by so doing 

 we could waken with minds freed from 

 warped conceptions of the righteous- 

 ness of the competitive system. And 

 still we need not go to sleep, either, for 

 we have examples right before us of 

 co-operative associations which are 

 proving the wastefulness of a half- 

 dozen men or concerns running around 

 over the territory after the business 

 that one man could easily attend to. 



On our street are seen the wagons of 

 20 grocers, but we do not have 20 post- 

 men covering the same route. Why is 

 this ? It is simply that competition 

 has been eliminated from the postal 

 business, and it still obtains in the 

 grocery business. In Boulder, a con- 

 sumers' store has been organized, 300 

 families having subscribed for stock at 

 $100 per share. A capable and respon- 

 sible board of directors has been 

 elected, and it appears to be starting in 

 to do the consumers and producers 

 some good in the sale of all merchan- 

 dise. The stock is not to draw any 

 dividends, but the stockholders are to 

 buy goods at cost plus operating ex- 

 penses. This is true co-operation, 

 and will no doubt succeed if carried on 

 honestly and wisely. 



I never heard of a co-operative ven- 

 ture succeeding where the members 

 were not enthusiastic advocates of the 

 P|rinciple of co-operation. If you be- 

 lieve that men can do business better 

 together than independently, and have 



enough others with you who believe 

 the same way, you can make a success 

 of a co-operative honey-marketing and 

 bee-suppjy-purchasing association. It 

 requires a certain mental attitude to 

 make a good co-operator. Such will 

 talk more about "we" than he will 

 about " I." 



If you are a little doubtful about co- 

 operation, get some books telling the 

 story of co-operation the world over — 

 you can find something about it in 

 almost any library — and read about the 

 way the thing is working. Dr. Lyman 

 Abbott, who can not be charged with 

 being exactly a Socialist, said that the 

 "capital and labor" question would 

 never be settled until the man who used 

 the tools owned them. This means 

 that we honey-producers must event- 

 ually own our sources of production 

 of bee-supplies, and our means of dis- 

 tribution — the commission and distri- 

 buting houses. 



The farmer bee-keeper of a few years 

 ago could go to the woods and select 

 his logs and saw them into bee-hives 

 for his own use, and he could sell his 

 honey direct to the consumers, who 

 were generally his neighbors. But now 

 things have become so complex through 

 specialization that such direct contact 

 with the source of hive-supplies and 

 market is impracticable if not impossi- 

 ble. Co-operation has for its aim the 

 return to this direct relation between 

 source of supply and distribution 

 through the means of the co-operative 

 association. Why should the bee-keep- 

 ers be behind the farmers in laying 

 hold of the means of production and 

 distribution ? The farmers own some 

 30 stores in Colorado at the present 

 time, and they are fast multiplying. 



Migratory Bee-Keeping 



Migratory bee-keeping is certain to 

 be resorted to more and more as the 

 progress in our industry is made. And 

 the ease with which bees may be 

 moved will be greatly increased by 

 simplifying our hives and hive parts. 

 We must have a method of securely 

 fastening the frames with one wedge; 

 the cover should not be larger than the 

 top of the hive, and the bottom-board 

 would be better if it was the same. 

 Hand-holes are a nuisance in moving, 

 and should be discarded if much mov- 

 ing is to be done. The sawed-in hand- 

 hole is sufficient for an 8-frame hive. 



We have just loaded two cars of bees, 

 and shipped them a thousand miles, 

 and have learned a few points that may 

 be of interest. If shipping in warm 

 weather the screens must be arranged 

 so that spraying can be done easily on 

 each one. Some of the screens we 

 used were placed over the entrance, 

 and others were placed on top of the 

 hives. The hives with the screens on 

 top were placed on top of the hives 



