August, 1916. 



American l^ee Journal 



the end of the month. 



We stayed that night at Mr. Bunt- 

 ing's. Mr. and Mrs. Victor came and 

 spent the evening with us. W. O. Vic- 

 tor will be remembered by members of 

 the National Association as the presi- 

 dent of the Texas association when the 

 National met in San Antonio, in 1906. 

 He is one of the representative bee- 

 keepers of the South. 



Both Bunting and Victor agree on 

 the advisability of using cotton-seed 

 meal as a substitute for pollen, in times 

 of scarcity of bloom. I believe the 

 beekeepers of Texas will do well to 

 keep this in mind. Proba1)ly a great 

 many already do it. 



Paralysis, or May disease, or consti- 

 pation (take your choice), causing 

 dwindling, appears to be, after foul- 

 brood, the most dreaded trouble for 

 bees in warm countries, as well as in 

 damp ones like England, where it is 

 known as Isle-of- Wight disease. Mr. 

 Victor suggests decayed or bad pollen 

 as one of the main causes. Honey-dew 

 from live oaks, honey from dodder and 

 arnica blossoms souring in the hive 

 are all suggested as initial or determin- 

 ing causes for this puzzling epidemic. 

 No particular kind of honey may be 

 blamed, since the trouble appears in 

 countries with entirely different flora. 

 It is the condition of the honey, rather 

 than its kind, that causes the disease, 

 and souring pollen may have a great 

 influence also. The statement is almost 

 unanimous everywhere that it is in 

 damp confining weather that the dis- 

 ease begins. 



The next day, we took the train for 

 our headquarters at San Antonio. Mr. 

 LeStourgeon had gone back there from 

 Hondo, after the Hondo meeting, and 

 Prof. Paddock had returned ahead of 

 us to the college. 



Our next visit has to do with our old 

 friend Louis SchoU and the Texas col- 

 lege. 



[To be continued ] 



Short Catchy Articles About 

 Bees 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



iHAVE tried with many styles of 

 articles to get free advertising for 

 honey, but, as a rule, the editor de- 

 tects my duplicity. However, here is 

 one that stuck : 



If a fat steer sold for what a good 

 queen bee does, what would he bring ? 

 One dollar and fifty cents is a fair price 

 for a pedigreed bee, and her ladyship 

 will weigh about 20 grains. This is 

 $36 an ounce, or $576 the pound. Now, 

 a steer of good family should weigh at 

 least 1200 pounds, which multiplied by 

 $576 brings the tidy sum of $691,200. 



Almost any editor will publish and 

 readers see Ihe statement that : 



Careful study and observation have 

 shown that a bee must visit a matter of 

 60,000 flowers to secure one pound of 

 honey. When it is considered that a 

 colony of bees will consume something 

 like 200 pounds of honey each year in 

 housekeeping, besides yielding a sur- 

 plus of 50 to 3i'0 pounds, it will be seen 

 that they rival the ant in industry. 



The average person is woefully igno- 

 rant of the life and habits of the honey- 

 bee, and I have ready to send out the 



following : 



The honeybee is curious in more 

 ways than one. If a queenbee fails to 

 mate, she still lays eggs which will 

 hatch, but only male eggs. During the 

 busy season a worker-bee lives but 

 about 40 days, but if hatched in the 

 late fall it lives until the following 

 spring The drones live during the 

 summer, but when the honey flow 

 ceases in the fall they are expelled 

 from the hive and left to die. 



This summer I shall print an offer 

 similar to the following : 



To the school child in Washington 

 township who sends me the best letter 

 of 200 words on the subject, " Why I 

 Like Honey," I will give a lOpound 

 pail of Bonney honey free of all cost. 

 The letter must be in by July 15. 



This offer will be sent out on postal 

 cards and in local papers. Of course, 

 any subject can be used, and to save 

 printer bill one can simply send a no- 

 tice to each school in their township 

 for the teacher to post. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Getting Better Filled Sections 



BY THOS. D. BUDD. 



DR. HUMPER, in Gleanings, 1913, 

 told us how he had tried to induce 

 the bees to build perfect sections 

 with only partial success. The remarks 

 of the Editor, reviewing the article, 

 stated that breakage in shipping imper- 

 fect combs or sections, where the comb 

 was not securely fastened to section, 

 discouraged many beekeepers from 

 producing comb honey and turned 

 their attention to the production of 

 extracted honey. At the time I thought 

 what a pity it would be to be deprived 

 of the beautiful sections of comb honey 

 and see this delicious food product dis- 

 appear entirely from the market. I 

 always pay special attention to the ap- 

 pended remarks of the Editor in re- 

 viewing an article. 



When I started to keep bees, my 

 spare time was very limited, so I de- 



cided not to follow the slogan, "Keep 

 more bees," but keep only a few, and 

 see that //ley were well cared for as far 

 as my spare moments would permit. 



I did not intend to keep bees for 

 profit, further than my personal needs, 

 and as I only had one colony to start 

 with, I did not invest much in tools 

 and appliances. 



My first trouble came when I tried to 

 fasten the foundation in sections. I 

 made a device similar to the Parker 

 fastener, but the foundation would not 

 adhere well to the cold section. It 

 would often fall away after the sec- 

 tions were placed over the bees, and 

 the result was very imperfect work on 

 the part of the bees, but my fault. 

 Some time afterward, when cleaning 

 out some sections from which the 

 comb had been removed, I noticed 

 that on the three sides of the section 

 where no wax had been applied, it was 

 an easy matter, but on the side where 

 the wax had been it was far more diffi- 

 cult to scrape the adhering comb from 

 the section. This gave me an idea. 



I decided to make a trial to induce 

 the bees to anchor the comb and foun- 

 dation more securely to all four sides 

 of the section. (Think "induce" is 

 the proper word according to the old 

 saying about leading the horse to 

 water). I decided to do mechanically 

 what the bees naturally have to do be- 

 fore the comb is fastened to the sides 

 of the section or any place that they 

 start to build comb. 



In watching the bees work in sec- 

 tions, I have noted that wherever they 

 want the comb to adhere they apply 

 wax enough to penetrate well into the 

 fiber of the wood. Basswood is a very 

 porous woo I, and the fiber is soft and 

 very absorbing, hence quite a quantity 

 of secretion must be used by the bees 

 in order to get the comb to adhere 

 firmly to the section, and if the outer 

 cells, or those next to the wood, are 

 filled with honey, new wax is used to 

 coat the entire surface, to prevent the 

 honey being absorbed by the wood of 

 the section. 



APIARY OF F K WINKLER. OF STONEHAM. TEX , WHO INCREASED FROM 

 TWO BOX HIVES TO i6o COLONIES IN GOOD HIVES 



