American Vae'Jonrnal 



September, igii 



that they were united with other colo- 

 nies. But all 3 of these colonies had 

 their combs broken down, and the en- 

 trances were choked with dead bees 

 and honey. Mr. Couper gives his man- 

 ner of packing as follows : 



The bees were confined by means of wire- 

 screen covering the tops and entrances. I 

 did not have enough wire-cloth to pack all 

 of the colonies in this way, so over the last q 

 or 10 hives I stapled a bottom-board, deep 

 side down, with the entrance on the oppo- 

 site end to the lower one so as to give a 

 through draft and an air-space above. These 

 colonies traveled as well as those covered 

 with screen. The first row was packed 

 against the back wall of the car. frames 

 parallel with the rails, and hives as close 

 together as possible. The second row was 

 then put in place on the floor of the car. the 

 back end of the bottom-boards touching the 

 front end of the first row. Then a 6-inch 

 board the full width of the car was laid so 

 that it overlapped both rows of hives, and 

 was nailed to every second hive. Besides 

 fastening all the hives solidly together, this 

 plan had the advantage of leaving a clear 

 air-space between ihe tiers of hives, which 

 were packed j high, each tier being fastened 

 in the same way. Above the hives, supers 

 were piled to the car roof, and were also 

 placed in front, as I wished to exclude the 

 light as much as possible. Boards were 

 nailed across the front end of these supers, 

 held in place by cleats spiked to the sides 

 of the car. I used inch boards here, but 2x1s 

 would have been better, as they sagged con- 

 siderably in the course of the trip, and one 

 pile of supers worked loose and fell on the 

 cow. 



^ 



Finding Queens Mr. J. E. Crane 



gives in Gleanings in Bee Culture the 

 following method of finding queens: 



Some time in the winter I read in Glean- 

 ings of a basket or box made of perforated 

 zinc, to shake bees into for catching or 

 finding queens. Well, I made one with legs 

 to hold the basket a little above the ground, 

 and it is a great success. 1 wouldn't take 

 ten dollars for it if I couldn't make another. 

 How easy to shake a swarm into a basket 

 and let the bees through and find the Queen! 



emptied cell looked like any other 

 drone-cell." Here, the difTerence was 

 easily seen. The mouth of the emptied 

 cell was narrowed to the size of the 

 worker-cell. Editor Abram's bees seem 

 to do differently. 



Worker-Eggs in Drone-Cells The 



editor of the Australian Bee Bulletin 

 quotes this from the American Bee 

 Journal: 



" There have been a good many reports of 

 worker eggs being laid in drone-cells, but 

 probably no case has yet been found in 

 which the bees have not first narrowed the 

 mouth of the cell." 



Editor Abram inquires why the edi- 

 tors of the American Bee Journal have 

 never " thought to put such simple tests 

 to practice," and adds : 



"It so happens that I have made the ex- 

 periment several times, and I had in spirit 

 of wine for years samples of drone-combs 

 with bee-brood in various stages in the cells, 

 some where the bee had hatched and also 

 the bees hatched therefrom, and many per- 

 sons have seen them thus preserved, but 

 though the capped cells looked almost like 

 drone-brood the bees hatching were the 

 usual size, and the thus emptied cell looked 

 like any other drone-cell." 



To Editor Abram's question it may 

 be replied that the writer has more 

 than once put the matter to the test, 

 although generally undesignedly. Gen- 

 erally, when drone-comb has been given 

 only drones have been reared in it, be- 

 cause the bees desired drones. But in 

 some unusual cases, as where a patch 

 of drone-comb was right in the brood- 

 nest, the bees having a vigorous young 

 queen that had been laying but a short 

 time, and no drones desired, workers 

 would be reared in the drone-cells. 



Editor Abram says "the capped cells 

 looked almost like drone-brood." Well, 

 here the capped surface was flat, as 

 over worker-cells. He says " the thus 



California Honey Crops. — In a pam- 

 phlet issued by the California Develop- 

 ment Board, entitled, " California Re- 

 sources and Possibilities," we find the 

 following under the head of "Honey:" 



While honey is produced for the market 

 in all of the principal valleys, the great bulk 

 of the commercial product comes from the 

 San Joaquin Valley and the counties south 

 The crop for igog was the record crop, and 

 nearly double the average. The estimates 

 of the honey product for several years are: 



Year Pounds. 



I8gg 2.822.000 



igoo 2,208.000 



lOOI 8.II2.000 



1002 5.125.000 



IQOi 8,400.000 



IQ04 7.000,000 



IQ05 g.500.000 



IQ06 5,350.000 



1007 8.700.000 



lgo8 5.250.000 



loog 11,532.000 



loio 5.500.000 



It seems the highest estimate was for 

 lyO'.l, when there was about eleven and 

 a half millions of pounds. That would 

 be only about 330 carloads averaging 

 35,000 pounds to the car. We don't 

 think the estimates for the several 

 years are too high, judging from other 

 reports that we have seen from time to 

 time during the past 12 or 15 years. 



We wonder what the estimate for the 

 crop of 1011 will be. 



The Borrowing Habit is thus happily 

 put in a rhyme sent to us by R. L. 

 Wildman, of Oregon: 



" Don't stop my paper, printer— 

 Don't strike my name oft yet, 



Though times are rather stringent 

 And money hard to get. 



To scrape a little harder. 

 Is what I mean to do. 



And scrape the dimes together- 

 Enough for me and you. 



I hate to ask my neighbors 

 ■To give me theirs on loan: 



They don't just say-but mean it— ^ 

 "Why don't you have your own ?" 



It is a good thing for each person or 

 family to have a copy of any publica- 

 tion, or anything else, for that matter, 

 so as not to borrow from friends or 

 neighbors. Of course, emergencies 

 will arise when it is necessary to bor- 

 row temporarily. 



A Roll of Wire-Cloth as a Strainer.— 



Carey W. Rees, in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review, describes a honey-strainer that 

 is novel, inexpensive, and efficient. He 

 says: 



To makethis strainer, use a half-gallon tin 

 bucket. If the upper edge has a rim, un- 

 solder the rim so that the inside is smooth 

 and even. The bucket or can must be 

 straight and not flaring. Then get a piece 

 of galvanized wire-cloth, the kind that is 

 used for door and window screens. The 

 wire-cloth should be about 12 or 14 inches 

 wide. Roll up the wire-cloth until there is 

 about 7 thicknesses of wire; then place one 

 end inside of the can or bucket you have 

 prepared for it. Now take some cappings 

 and press them into the middle of the wire 

 coil until the can it is in is about half full, 

 or. perhaps, nearly full, when the strainer is 

 ready for use. If one wishes, one can cover 

 the bottom of the wire-coil with a cloth, 

 and tie it by wrapping a string around the 

 wire coil and cloth. I don't often use the 

 cloth because it is a little more work to tie 



it on. When the day's work is done, remove 

 the wire coil, which should have a string 

 around it so it wont unroll. Take a screw- 

 driver and push out the cappings. and so 

 forth, from the inside of the coil of wire. 

 Put it back in the can and press in some 

 more cappings, then it is ready for use 

 again. 



It does not need washing often. 



The honey should fall into the middle of 

 this coil of wire. 



If it does not strain well, use another coil 

 of wire, and roll it until there are thick- 

 nesses of wire enough so it u-ill do good 

 work. . , . , 



It it does not strain fast enough, make one 

 a little bigger around, or higher; either one; 

 it will not have to be very large. 



I set the strainer in a flat-bottomed funnel ; 

 the funnel leads the honey into the honey- 

 can. The can that the coil of wire is in has 

 a tight bottom, and the strained honey flows 

 over the top of the can through the wire into 

 the funnel. Sometimes the honey rises up 

 nearly to the top of the wire coil, and 

 strains all the way up. 



Swarm Control Under this heading 



appears the following from T. Staple- 

 ton, in the British Bee Journal : 



" For many years past I have tried various 

 methods of swarm control, and discovered 

 about 5 years ago a very simple but reliable 

 method that will work in all stages of con- 

 dition. It is as follows: 



Select the method which suits your pur- 

 pose best to supply as many queens as are 

 required for the apiary. When they are 

 hatched and removed from their hives, be- 

 fore they have fed if possible, such queens 

 may be run into any hive that we desire to 

 prevent from swarming; it should be done 

 in the middle of a fine day. when bees are 

 gathering freely; run in the young queen at 

 the entrance. No care need be taken of the 

 old queen, unless she is requiredfor further 

 use "What about queen-cells.'' may be 

 asked If any are present, the young queen 

 will look after them. I have run in from 10 

 to 15 a day. until I have requeened the whole 

 of my apiary without a single failure.' 



After having been tried for 5 years, 

 apparently with a considerable number 

 of colonies, it would seem that the 

 method might be considered reliable, 

 yet it is still possible that it would suc- 

 ceed under some conditions and fail 

 under others. G. M. Doolittle, some 

 years ago, gave practically the same 

 thing, but he by no means made so 

 broad a claim for it. His teaching was 

 that if, toward the close of the season, 

 a virgin be given to a colony that was 

 thinking of superseding its queen, the 

 virgin would be accepted in most if not 

 all cases. Evidently that applies only 

 when the queen is somewhat advanced 

 in age, and at a certain season of the 

 year, while Mr. Stapleton says nothing 

 about the age of the queen or the sea- 

 son of year. No doubt he is right that 

 a virgin directly from the cell will be 

 kindly received' in any hive. She is an 

 innocent baby, and no one thinks of 

 her doing any harm. But wait till she 

 becomes a few days old and begins to 

 "put on airs " as one making preten- 

 sions to the throne, and if the reigning 

 queen be one in vigor, whom the bees 

 have no notion of superseding, an un- 

 timely death will be the fate of the in- 

 terloper. 



^ 



Bee-Keeping in England — We have 

 received the following from Mr. Frank 

 Benton, taken from the London Times 

 of Aug. 1, 1011: 



Bee-keepers will be gratified at the de- 

 cision of the Treasury to make a substantial 

 grant of money to the British Bee-Keepers 

 Association for the promotion of practical 

 and scientific bee-keeping. .■\Uhough the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has 

 done much useful work in furthering this 

 industry, it has long been a grievance 



