American Hee Journall 



March, 19 lo. 



who is interested in comb honey alonet 

 does not care to read through an entire 

 article only to find when through with 

 the article that it is of interest only to 

 the man who works for extracted 

 honey. Especially in a crowded time 

 it would be a convenience if the comb- 

 honey producer could have a depart- 

 ment to himself, and also the producer 

 of extracted honey. But when it comes 

 to putting such a plan into actual prac- 

 tice, it is not so easy as might be sup- 

 posed. In reality, the number of arti- 

 cles that are of interest only to one or 

 the other class of producers is very 

 small, and it is to be feared that if all 

 the other articles in any one number 

 were to be assigned to one or the other 

 departments the one who did the as- 

 signing would have a rather impossible 

 task. 



Take the January number of the 

 American Bee Journal. About 88 per- 

 cent of the items and articles are of 

 equal interest to both classes of pro- 

 ducers, and it would be impossible to 

 say whether they should go under the 

 head of production of comb or of ex- 

 tracted honey. Of the remaining mat- 

 ter, the bulk of it refers to bulk comb 

 honey, and while this belongs to comb 

 rather than extracted, still there is 

 some extracted honey in the case. 

 Only one article can fairly be said to 

 belong exclusively to the extracted de- 

 partment, and although a larger num- 

 ber refer to comb than extracted, they 

 are not entirely without interest to ex- 

 tracted men. 



This leads to a question whether 

 really more attention is given to ex- 

 tracted honey than to comb. Possibly 

 the January number is exceptional, but 

 the likelihood is that there are not 

 lacking those who think comb honey 

 gets the lion's share of attention. 



The foregoing count is without ref- 

 erence to the Question-Box, which 

 stands in a class by itself, there being 

 no rejections, but all questions sent 

 being answered, and these questions 

 ought to show pretty clearly in what 

 the questioners are interested. It so 

 happens that only two of the letters 

 could be assorted as belonging exclu- 

 sively to one department, and they both 

 belong in the comb-honey department. 



On the whole, it is perhaps not prac- 

 ticable to do more than to indicate so 

 far as may be by the heading, to which 

 class an article belongs. This has gen- 

 erally been done, but it may do no 

 harm to have it even more especially 

 in mind hereafter. 



Delayed Fertilization aiitl Lia.viiis: 

 Workers 



A bee-keeper reported in Praktischer 

 Wegweiser a case in which a virgin be- 

 gan work as a drone-layer, and then 

 when () weeks old began laying worker- 

 eggs. From this he concluded tliat 

 after she failed to be fertilized promptly 

 she began laying drone-eggs, and after 

 laying thus for a time she was then 

 fertilized. Herr Dobbratz explains 

 that a wrong conclusion was drawn 

 from the facts. Under special circum- 

 stances fertilization may be long de- 

 layed. He has known cases in which 

 virgins were still capable of fertiliza- 

 tion when (I weeks old. Only in the 

 rarest cases will a virgin become a 

 drone-layer under that age. If within 



his time one finds drone-brood pres- 

 ent, and then later — say at the end of 

 the (i weeks — the queen turns out to be 

 laying worker-eggs all right, it is a 

 clear case that the drone-eggs were 

 not laid by the queen. He and others 

 have had cases in which workers laid 

 eggs while a virgin or a queen-cell 

 was present, and these laying-workers 

 continued until the queen was fertilized 

 and began laying. 



Comb-Honey Production 



EorroR York;~Do you think it would be 

 of sufficient interest to enougli of those who 

 read the American Bee Journal, to have an 

 article by some suitable person telling how 

 he handles his 'comb honey from the time 

 it is taken off the hive luitil it is sold? In 

 other words, how he cleans the sections, 

 grades the honey, what kind of shipping- 

 cases he uses, who buys the honey, etc. 



Most of my honey is sold to people that 

 come here to spend the summer, and I want 

 to know how to prepare it in the best way 

 for market. 



The American Bee Journal is all right, 

 and I value the articles by G. M. Doolittle 

 enough to take it for those articles alone, 

 even if there was nothing else. 



Benzonia, Mich. John A. V.\N De.man. 



This letter voices the desire of every 

 ambitious beginner who desires to pro- 

 duce honey of the very best grade. The 

 demand has been met more than once 

 in the past, and will no doubt be met 

 more than once in the future. But in 

 the nature of the case it inust be seen 

 that if an article or a series of articles 

 of the kind should be published each 



time a new member joins the American 

 Bee Journal family, the repetition of 

 such article or articles would be so 

 frequent that there would be serious 

 complaint of room thus used to crowd 

 out fresher matter. Unless something 

 at least partly new can be given, there 

 is hardly justification for the publica- 

 tion of such articles. In reality, their 

 place is rather in bee-books than bee- 

 periodicals. The information desired 

 by Mr. V. is amongst the fundamental 

 matters in bee-keeping — matters that > 

 all bee-keepers are sure to need, and so y 

 are discussed in the te.xt-books on bee- 

 keeping. 



As already said, the likelihood is that 

 something will be given in the desired 

 line whenever anything new is to be 

 had, and in the meantime it may be 

 mentioned that there are at least two 

 books written especially to tell the 

 whole story of the production of comb 

 honey from beginning to end. They 

 are " Forty Years Among the Bees," 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller, and " A Year's 

 Work in an Out-Apiary," by G. M. 

 Doolittle. Our correspondent will find 

 them exactly what he asks for, with 

 such full details as could not so readily 

 be given in the columns of a periodi- 

 cal. Dr. Miller's book is mailed for 

 $1.00, or with the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for one year — both for $1.75; the 

 Doolittle book is mailed for .50 cents, 

 or with the American Bee Journal one 

 year— both for $1.40. 



Our Front Page Pictures 



The picture shown in the upper left- 

 hand corner was sent us by F. Greiner, 

 of Naples, N. Y. It shows his apiary 

 after a heavy snow-storm ; the snow 

 being piled up on the hives, and hang- 

 ing on the trees like so much cotton. 

 It is a beautiful midwinter picture, we 

 think. 



The upper right-hand picture is a 

 view of the apiary of Chas. T. Dennis, 

 of Lake Preston, S. Dak. It was taken 

 from the rear, and does not show the 

 first rows. The hives on the right are 

 "empties." Mr. Dennis reports having 

 had good success with bees at his loca- 

 tion, up to last year. 



The large lower picture s hows Mr. 

 Will. Stolley and his shed-apiary. On 

 another page of this number will be 

 found Mr. Stolley's report for last year, 

 and also something about his experi- 

 ence in using bee-stings as a remedy 

 .or inflammatory rheumatism. 



The hives shown on the top of Mr. 

 Stolley's shed-apiary are decoys for 

 catcliing stray swarms. We understand 

 that he has caught quite a number of 

 runaway swarms in those roof-hives. 

 Mr. Stolley himself seems to be taking 

 it easy in a rocking chair in the center 



of the picture, seemingly to be " mon- 

 arch of all he surveys." Just now, he 

 and his wife are spending a few weeks 

 of the cold winter weather down in 

 Florida, where he reports having a 

 good time. Mr. Stolley is one of those 

 jolly Germans one often meets in the 

 wild and woolly West. We liave had 

 the pleasure of seeing him at one or 

 two of the National conventions of bee- 

 keepers. 



Dr. Lyon's Lecture on Bee.s 



Rev. D. Everett Lyon, Ph. D., of New 

 York, delivered his illustrated lecture 

 on " The Story of the Honey-Bee," be- ( 

 fore the Unity Club of Cincinnati, F^eb. 

 13, 1910. Dr. Lyon is an enthusiast on 

 bees, and while he fills his pulpit at 

 home, he has traveled much to study 

 bees and bee-keeping. His stereopti- 

 con slides are made from negatives of 

 his own taking, and show most clearly 

 the activities and habits of bees. 



Mr. Fred W. Muth. who heard the 

 lecture, and was instrumental in secur- 

 ing Dr. Lyon, has this to say about both 

 Dr. L. and his bee-lecture: 



Dr. Lyon's lecture was everytliing that 

 could be desired; in fact, we have heard 

 lectures on this platform for 10 years, and 



