September. iQii. 



American Hm Joarnal j 



cept bees, improvement is sought 

 through a new sire. The bee-keeper, 

 instead of paying any attention to the 

 sire, gets a new dam. Even if he has 

 in his apiary one or more colonies of 

 superior stock, nine times out of ten 

 he does nothing to encourage drones 

 in these best colonies, and to discour- 

 age drones in other colonies but leaves 

 the matter of drones entirely to the 

 bees. 



Swiss bee-keepers do better. They 

 have their mating-stations, as men- 

 tioned, and they are so isolated that 

 drones of only one particular strain 

 are to be found at each. To one of 

 these mating-stations a virgin may be 

 sent in a fertilizing-box and returned 

 after being mated, parcels post making 

 the matter of transportation inexpen- 

 sive. The present outlook is that par- 

 cels post will be established in this 

 country before very long, and surely 

 isolated localities may be found in this 

 country as well as in Switzerland. 

 Even supposing it should be desired 

 to have a mating-station in a place 

 where bees of all kinds already exist, 

 if the matter were in the hands of the 

 Government or a considerable com- 

 pany of bee-keepers, it would not be so 

 very difficult to obtain control of all 

 drones within a proper radius. 



Non-Sitters and Non-Swarniers 



Referring to the first editorial on 

 page 1!I7, Mr. C. P. Dadant writes: 



"The point made in the first editorial 

 concerning the eliminating of swarming by 

 comparing it to hens sitting is a tiling that 

 had never occurred to me. and I think it is 

 very ingenious. If it was possible to carry 

 it to that point, it would be a great victory. 

 However, there is no suffering for hens that 

 do not sit, and there would be a great deal 

 of inconvenience for bees that would not 

 swarm unless their owner was constantly 

 relieving them by giving them room. But 

 there is a good argument to be made, never- 

 theless." 



Yes, there is no doubt that no slight 

 victory would be achieved if we could 

 have a strain of bees in which the in- 



clination to swarm would be just as 

 little as is the inclination to sit in the 

 so-called non-sitters among hens. 



Mr. Dadant thinks there is a lack of 

 parallel, in that bees suffer inconven- 

 venience when they do not swarm, and 

 there is no such inconvenience for 

 hens that do not sit. It is true that in 

 many cases — probably in most cases 

 where swarming occurs — possibly in 

 all cases — the bees suffer from being 

 crowded, and swarming gives relief. 

 Is it not possible that there is equal 

 suffering on the part of the biddies, to 

 which suffering sitting gives relief ? If 

 we should put a broody hen on the 

 witness stand, her testimony might be 

 something like this: 



" After having laid a nice lot of eggs. I was 

 seized with a strong desire to sit on them. 

 My mistress took them all away from me. 

 I could sit just as well on the empty nest, 

 and I did. Then she put me in cold water. 

 I don't know what for. I wanted to sit as 

 much as ever, and went back to my nest. 

 Then she tied a string to my leg and tied me 

 to a post. It was torture to me not to be 

 able to get to my nest, but I did the next best 

 thing and sat on the ground. Her little boy 

 came along and let me loose, and you may be 

 sure I was soon back on my nest. Oh. how 

 good it did seem to be able to * cuddle doon ' 

 and just sit and sit! If my mistress knew 

 what real suffering it is not to be permitted 

 to have my 'sit' out. I don't believe she 

 would try to stop me." 



But admitting all the discomfort 

 there may be for the bees when lack- 

 ing room, is not Mr. Dadant putting it 

 rather strong when he talks of "con- 

 stantly " relieving them by giving them 

 room ? It may be well to inform him 

 that at Hamilton, 111., there are bees 

 which do not swarm — or at least !'•') 

 percent or more of them do not swarm 

 — and it has never been made public 

 that their owner spent much time in 

 giving them more room. If enough 

 room were all that were needed, that 

 could be given once for all, enough 

 and more than enough for the season. 



It will hardly do to admit that poul- 

 try-men are so much ahead that they 

 can to a large extent breed out a nat- 

 ural instinct, and that bee-men can do 

 nothing in that line. 



Miscellaneous <®) News Items 



The Minneapolis Convention We can 



not attempt in this number to say very 

 much about the Convention of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association held 

 in Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. :^iith and 

 31st, further than that there was a good 

 attendance, and it was a live meeting 

 from beginning to end. In addition to 

 a great deal of very valuable discus- 

 sion, a new Constitution was proposed, 

 and recommended for approval to the 

 membership at the November election. 

 At that time a full copy of the new 

 Constitution will be mailed to each 

 member, and also the nominations for 

 officers and directors to be elected. 



Next month we hope to give a brief 

 review of the Convention, and also tell 

 somewhat in detail of the generous en- 

 tertainment accorded to the visiting 

 members by the Minnesota Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, after the Convention 



was over. We regret the lack of room 

 and also time in this number for a 

 fuller report of the meeting. But it 

 will keep all right for another month. 

 We might add, however, for the en- 

 couragement of the National member- 

 ship who read the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, that plans were made for a dele- 

 gated organization, which, when car- 

 ried into effect, will give something 

 very much superior to anythi'ng we 

 have ever had in this country in the 

 line of a National organization of bee- 

 keepers. 



Decline in German Bee-Keeping. — 



— Frnm the publisher, Alfred Michaelis, 

 Leipzig, Germany, has been received a 

 pamphlet of 14 pages, written by Prof. 

 Reinhold Michaelis, with the expressive 

 though not very brief title, " Warum 

 stehen auf den Doerfern so viele Bien- 



enhuetten leer ?" (Why do so many 

 apiaries in the villages stand empty ?) 



The author says that statistics show 

 that in the past 7 years there has been 

 a falling off of 10,650 in the number of 

 colonies of bees in Germany. When 

 asked why their hives are empty of 

 bees, farmers are likely to reply that 

 they have no luck with bees, and that 

 they have died off. The author tells 

 them that they have no luck because 

 they have no knowledge oi what is 

 going on in the hives, and especially 

 that they never have seen a queen, and 

 allow each queen to live so long as she 

 likes. Old queens and drone-layers 

 are at the root of the trouble, with box- 

 hives to make matters worse. 



The author makes requirements of 

 the common bee-keeper that would be 

 considered rather exacting for the 

 specialist in this country. He says that 

 one with a considerable number of 

 colonies should keep books and write 

 down the birthday of each queen, the 

 day of her fertilization, the beginning 

 of her egg-laying, her prolificness, 

 color, size, and other characteristics. 



Instructions are given as to preven- 

 tion and cure of drone-rearing colo- 

 nies, and instruction as to other mat- 

 ters to raise bee-keeping from its de- 

 clining condition. 



Bee-keepers in this country would 

 be inclined to put a question-mark 

 after the statement that a young queen 

 is fertilized after 3 days, and that no 

 colony swarms so long as it builds 

 comb or has open brood to nurse. 



Unusual Sensitiveness to Stings. — K. 



Koch says in substance in Prak. Weg- 

 weiser: In 1909 a teacher in East 

 Prussia wrote me that he would have 

 to give up bee-keeping because a sting 

 always caused coughing, difficulty of 

 breathing, palpitation of the heart, and 

 vomiting. In such cases the patient 

 has within hitiiself the seat of disease, 

 the sting being merely the exciting 

 cause that makes the hidden disease 

 assert itself. I advised a cold bath 

 every morning, the avoidance of coffee 

 tea, or anything else to excite the 

 nerves, recommending Kneipp-coffee 

 (roasted barley) instead. He continued 

 the cold baths for 3 months, and if he 

 was stung any time after this he at 

 once plunged his feet in cold water and 

 the disagreeable symptoms failed to 

 appear. The working of this last 

 means is this: Through the cold water 

 the blood, which otherwise would call 

 forth the irritation and oppression in 

 the chest, flows downward to the feet 

 to restore there the loss of heat caused 

 by the cold water. 



Moving 100 Colonies 1200 Miles.— 



Wm. L. Couper reports in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture that he moved lOo colonies 

 of bees from Manor, Saskatchewan, to 

 Hatzic, British Columbia, a distance of 

 about 1200 miles, taking about (i days 

 for the trip. The hives were packed in 

 such way that water could not be given 

 on the wav, but the weather was so 

 cold that the first night of the trip the 

 water in the water-barrel was frozen 

 so hard that the ice had to be chopped 

 out with an ax. One colony was a total 

 loss, the bees being practically all dead, 

 while two others were so decimated 



