1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



335 



lall and early winter. Stocking early 

 will insure relatively (iiiick deliveries 

 .ind will enable the beekeeper to as- 

 ^Linble his hives and other goods. 

 during the fairly slack time in the 

 \s inter. 



Winter Losses in British Columbia 



The article by Mr. Sheppard on 

 this subject is of value to all bee- 

 keepers of northern countries, for it 

 describes conditions which may pre- 

 vail as well in the United States as 

 in the Provinces of Canada. We 

 learn one additional fact about 

 honeydew, the light color of that 

 which is produced on the birch. We 

 thought all honeydew was dark in 

 color. Nearly every sample we have 

 seen was produced on the oak and 

 the hickory. 



Rev. Francis Jager in Europe 



Professor F. Jager, instructor in 

 beekeeping at the University of Min- 

 nesota, has left for Salonika, to serve 

 with the Red Cross. Professor Jager 

 is a Slav by birth and is in full sym- 

 pathy with the Allies, although he 

 is, or was, an Austrian subject. The 

 Central States have gained nothing 

 by tyranny over the small Balkan 

 races. 



Men like Professor Jager, who is 

 also a Catholic priest, and of very 

 extensive education, are a credit to 

 the cause which they support. 



Professor Jager is president of the 

 National Beekeepers' Association 

 and is very desirous that it should 

 not suiifer by his absence at the front. 

 He has therefore written to a num- 

 ber of leading beekeepers to ask 

 them to do all they can for a suc- 

 cessful meeting the coming winter. 



Large Brood-Chambers 



Large brood-chambers have been 

 used and recommended for years by 

 the Dadants. But the large hives are 

 expensive and they have been op- 

 posed by many. 



The September number of Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture contains two 

 valuable testimonials on this subject. 

 On page 678, Mr. Byer, the exten- 

 sive Canadian beekeeper, writes : 



"Answering the question as to 

 what hive I would use if starting all 

 over. I can say that my preference 

 is for the 10 or 12-frame Jumbo 

 size." 



The Jumbo hive is the Dadant- 

 Quinby hive with top bars of Lang- 

 stroth length. The 10-frame hive of 

 that kind contains as many square 



inches of breeding surface as the 12- 

 frame Langstroth size. 



On page 689 of the same magazine 

 the Jumbo hive is described as the 

 "ideal hive for southern beekeeping" 

 and on page 690 Mr. L. E. Webb 

 writes: "The Jumbo colonies peg 

 along with their tremendous force of 

 workers throughout the season, ask- 

 ing only for super room, requiring no 

 fussing other than to keep them with 

 good queens." 



There you are. The large hive is 

 thus presented as best for the far 

 north and for the far south. We can 

 testify to its being best for a coun- 

 try which is between those two ex- 

 tremes. 



thus deprived of its force of bees, he 

 places it on the stand of another boX- 

 hive which he moves to a new spot. 



Obituary 



We arc sorrj- to announce the 

 death of Mr. Geo. L. Cary, president 

 of the Adirondack Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation, whom we mentioned on 

 page 51 of the February number, in 

 the series "Among Eastern Beekeep- 

 ers." Mr. Cary was only 60 years old 

 and was an influential man in his 

 community. He kept about 100 colo- 

 nies and his crop was about 1,000 

 pounds. His widow wishes to dis- 

 pose of everything, honey, bees and 

 farm. 



We are indebted for the above in- 

 formation to Mr. H. E. Gray, our 

 good friend of Fort Edwards, who 

 reports the crop in that section as 

 about 25% of normal, with a poor 

 prospect for buckwheat honey. 



Transfer of Crop From Box-Hive or 

 Skep 



In the May-September number of 

 "L'Abeille Bourguignonne" (French), 

 L'Abbe Total gives a method which 

 he uses to secure honey from skeps 

 or box-hives into modern hives. 



In the spring he places a skep 

 within a short distance of a hive of 

 bees in movable frames. When the 

 crop is on, he removes the skep after 

 having shaken all its working force 

 in front of the movable frame hive. 

 He, of course, adds a sufficient number 

 of supers to accommodate this dou- 

 bled colony. In this way he secures 

 more than double the average crop, 

 for the working force of the skep is 

 thus added to that of the movable 

 frame colony. The honey is also se- 

 cured in extracting frames, instead 

 of in a common box. Those who have 

 a part of their bees in gums or boxes 

 might try this method if they dislike 

 the idea of transferring their bees. 



In order to strengthen the skep 



Damage to Bees by Heat 



The Western Hoiuy Bee in its July 

 number reports a large number of 

 losses in California from extreme 

 heat, the combs breaking down and 

 the honey being lost. 



We had a number of such instances 

 in Illinois in the seventies. These 

 were caused by either direct sunshine 

 on the hives or by too little ventila- 

 tion, or both. In one case, our loss 

 in a single apiary amounted to hun- 

 dreds of dollars. Since that time we 

 have always taken care to shade the 

 hives and to raise them in front from 

 the bottom-board an inch or more, 

 according to the population. The 

 straw mats which we use under the 

 cover, over the brood chamber or 

 over the supers, as the case may be, 

 have been of great help in preserving 

 the hive from the great. heat of the 

 sun. They are serviceable both sum- 

 mer and winter, for they retain the 

 heat in winter as efficiently as they 

 keep it off in summer. We did not 

 yet use them at that time. 



Kazan Beekeeping 



We acknowledge receipt of the first 

 number of the "Journal of the Kazan 

 Society of Beekeepers." This maga- 

 zine compares favorably with any 

 other publication on bees. We wish 

 its promoters success. 



Kazan is in Russia, approximately 

 450 miles east of Moscow. It is on 

 the great Volga river, some 200 miles 

 east of the well-known Nizhniy-Xov- 

 gorod. It is a trifle north of the 55th 

 degree of latitude, therefore as far 

 north as the south end of the Alaska 

 Peninsula, the south part of Hudson 

 Bay, the southern counties of Scot- 

 land, the northern edge of Ireland or 

 northern Prussia. On the Western 

 Continent, there are probably no 

 bees kept as far north. 



Insect Studies 



We acknowledge receipt from the 

 Entomological headquarters of Indi- 

 ana, of studies with figures of in- 

 jurious insects, potato beetles, 

 aphides, cabbage worms and cut- 

 worms, by R. E. Snodgrass, the al- 

 ready famous scientist who gave 

 anatomical descriptions and figures 

 of the honeybee in the U. S. Bulletin 

 "Technical No. 18" of the Department 

 of Agriculture. Men like Dr. Snod- 

 grass are a credit to the institutions 

 which employ them. 



