February, 1910. 



American "Bee Jonrnal 



£ C(?LDEN APIARY- 



,si V. ""^ .<«..■......• - KftPER^ SUPPLIES. 



I 



No s.-ExHiBiT OF The Golden Apiary (J. C Frank. Mgr.) at the Oklahoma State 



Fair.— See page 42. 



lars. for it seems that I am about the onlj- 

 one in Vincennes who is wearing celluloid 

 collars. 



They tell me tliat at the option election 

 this county voted so' wet that some of the 

 people are actually (retting to be web-footed. 



My love to ma. and to Steve and Eva. 

 Your son. Samuel Ragweed. 



Dear Sammy;— Tell your friend to go slow 

 about shaking bees. In a good season excel- 

 lent results can be obtained, while in a 

 poor season the more they are " shook *" the 

 poorer the results. Tliose who undertake 

 it should be thoroughly familiar with all de- 

 tails, and your friend could profit by read- 

 ing tiie excellent articles that appear in the 

 bee-publications from time to lime. 



Perhaps the most practical method of 

 shaking is where one produces both comb 

 and extracted honey, and permits swarming 

 with his comb-honey colonies. When a 

 swarm issues, hive it on the old location, 

 using starters onlv in brood-frames, a queen- 

 excluding honev-board. and the super from 

 the parent hive, and then brush every bee 

 in with the new swarm. The set of combs 

 containing brood should then be placed over 

 a honev-board on another hive for extract- 

 ing. This method is thoroughly practical, 

 and permits swarming without increase. 

 Such newlv-hived swarms will give better 

 results than any normal hive in the same 

 yard, for obvious reasons— storing goes right 

 ahead in the super.no brood requiring the 

 attention of workers, no danger of second 

 swarms. , ,, , ,, 



Sammy, I enclose two 5-dollar bills, and 

 your ma says to ask you if linen collars are 

 not pretty high in Vincennes. 



JiMsoN Ragweed. 



Its Quality Sells Honey. 



Dear Brother-in-Law; — Knowing that 

 you dispose of your honey by soliciting from 

 house to house. I would like to ask what the 

 tricks are in doing this kind of work. I will 

 solicit French Lick and West Baden, and it 

 will be necessary to go over the same ter- 

 ritory about every 3 weeks. 



I want to come over and visit with you a 

 week or two about the first of the month, 

 just to talk bees, and I want to go to Ma- 

 rengo. III., for a couple of weeks tor the same 

 purpose. Let me hear from you. 



WiNFIELD S. FeSLER. 



Sir;— There are no /rids in the work 

 which you outline, but there is one secret, 

 and I will confide it to you. /uc/- t/fi ///<■ 

 ijualily. I think most honey salesmen fail 

 because they try to increase their profits by 

 putting out inferior goods. 



Thursea and I are to be away from home 

 during the forepart of the month. 



Ji.mson Ragweed. 



(To be continued.) 



Shaking Not a Stimulus to Bees 



liy LEO E. gateley. 



Without questioning the accuracy 

 and good intent of the many recent 

 reports seeming to show where bene- 



ficial results emanated from shaking 

 sleepy colonies of bees, I wish merely 

 to draw attention to a prevailing error 

 many are spreading through an erro- 

 neous belief in some mysterious cause, 

 while all such benefits really spring 

 from conditions brought about during 

 such manipulations. Let us lay aside 

 preconceived notions, tradition, and 

 prejudice, and examine this subject 

 with a desire to know the truth. 



From the start the mistake in con- 

 cluding that benefit can be derived 

 purely through the act of dislodging 

 bees from their combs into a pile in 

 front of the hives, is obvious by the 

 claim that such proceedings bring col- 

 onies into the same psychological con- 

 dition characterizing newly - hived 

 swarms. While newly-hived swarms do 

 generally display a degree of energy 

 impossible to be secured from old col- 

 onies, it has been conclusively shown 

 that such energy is not the result of 

 having swarmed, or the handling re- 

 ceived through hiving, but wholly from 

 certain conditions under which the 

 bees labor in their new environments. 

 The underlying cause, generally, will 

 be found to lie principally in the brood- 

 less condition of such swarms, permit- 

 ting a greater force of bees to engage 

 in nectar gathering. Also, the honey 

 old colonies are compelled to use for 

 breeding purposes, newly-hived swarms 

 store in the supers. That increased 

 energy never arises simply through the 

 act of swarming is manifest from the 

 equally great energy displayed by 

 brushed swarms. Such energy, then, 

 is not the result of mental conditions, 

 but of surrounding circumstances and 

 influences. 



Colonies during a good flow, that re- 

 fuse to ■ do super-work for reasons ap- 

 parent only to themselves, can be often 

 led into so doing by arranging more 

 favorable conditions under which bees 

 are naturally inclined to do such work — 

 never through shaking alone. Good 

 colonies that will ignore the surplus 

 receptacles while others are busy in 

 the sections, are occasionally of infe- 

 rior stock, but are more often laboring 

 under adverse circumstances. Wiiile 

 shaking may correct the unfavorable 

 conditions through breaking up and 

 disarranging the order of tilings, what- 

 ever the cause may be, it is the bee- 



master's business to locate the trouble, 

 and remedy it effectually and intelli- 

 gently. Certainly the mere manipula- 

 tion of shaking bees on the grass and 

 of shaking the bees out of their hive to 

 causing them to crawl back into their 

 hives is of absolutely no value, unless 

 connected with a change of hive or of 

 combs. Though it would be illogical 

 and inconsistent to anticipate beneficial 

 results from indiscriminate sliaking, 

 intelligent manipulation is imperative 

 and indispensable to successful honey- 

 production. 



With sectional hives the purpose of 

 shaking can, by the transposing of 

 brood-sections, be accomplished scien- 

 tifically in .5 minutes time. To create 

 increased activity it is necessary only 

 to interchange the two divisions of the 

 brood-chamber. This operation prac- 

 ticed at the time of supering will cause 

 the bees to begin work in the sections 

 without delay. 



Sebastian Co., Ark. 



Are Bees " Wild " Animals? 



Translated from the Bohemian in the ' ' I 'cela 

 Moravska.^' 



BY REV. ALOIS J. KLEIN, V. G. 



In the village of Nemcice, near Ne- 

 tolice, in Bohemia, the principal teacher, 

 Mr. Francis Jaros, an acknowledged 

 authority in matters apicultural, keeps 

 16 colonies of bees in the school-gar- 

 den, chiefly for educational purposes. 



One day he was accosted by Mr. 

 Schuster, the chairman of the village 

 board, to present him with one of the 

 hives. The principal having declined, 

 the chairman issued a restraining or- 

 der, enjoining the teacher from keeping 

 bees within the limits of the village. 



The captain of the political district 

 overruled the prohibitory order, be- 

 cause, being unconstitutional, and in 

 abeyance with certain school laws pre- 

 scribing explicitly that school yards be, 

 as far as possible, provided with hives 

 as expedients of instruction. 



This decision was upheld by all in- 

 stances. 



The chairman then resorted to some 

 other mode of wreaking his anger upon 

 the principal. 



On an August forenoon, when bees 

 were busily flying to the fields, he sent 

 his son to plow the ground adjoining 

 the school yard. As soon as the plow- 

 man got stung by a bee, a neiglibor was 

 sent for, and both men stationed them- 

 selves close to the fence on the divide, 

 in order to be able to give optical tes- 

 timony that the flying bees were com- 

 ing exclusively from there, and from 

 nowhere else. It so happened that the 

 neighbor, too, received a sting, and the 

 village chairman indicted the case to 

 the county court in Netolice. 



The county attorney, however, did 

 not feel in the least inclined to insti- 

 tute proceedings in such an odd com- 

 plaint, and hence conferred witli the 

 State's attorney at Pisek. 



By order of a deputy State's attorney, 

 Mr. Sebanek, action was brought 

 against the principal, charging him 

 with the alleged violation of article 388 

 of the Penal Code (keeping " wild " 

 animals without the governmental 

 license), and with violating article 388 

 of the Penal Code (failing to render 



