342 



November, 1910. 



American ^ac Journalj 



off several cold days in winter. Indeed, 

 honey that has been kept through the 

 hot weather in such a place has been 

 known to keep perfectly through the 

 following winter in a freezing tempera- 

 ture. So we might, in a sense, say that 

 the important part of the winter keep- 

 ing of honey is the August keeping. 



A cellar is, in general, about the 

 worst place to keep honey. In summer 

 it is damp, except in such dry climates 

 as Colorado, and the honey becomes 

 thin, oozes through the sealing, and 

 weeps down over the surface. But in 

 winter, luif/i a furnace, it is an excel- 

 lent place. Even if the temperature 

 does not often go above 50, the air is 

 kept dry by the furnace, and the honev 

 keeps well. Of course, a stove in the 

 cellar would also do. 



A few sections may be kept well in 

 the kitchen, the higher up in the cup- 

 board the better. Honey that has been 

 kept through the hot weather of sum- 

 mer in an attic may be kept through 

 the winter in the same place. Where 

 salt will keep dry, honey will keep well, 

 other things being favorable. 



Asprea Introducing t'age 



From sunny Italy is received a new 

 introducing cage, concerning which its 

 inventor, Vincent Asprea, writes as 

 follows : 



I take the liberty to send you an introduc- 

 mi; queen-caKe of my own. 



With this I can introduce queens (and, in 

 tact. I introduced many) without any pre- 

 vious pinching of queen-cells, for the bees 

 gnaw them out in 24 hours after the queen 

 has been liberated. This is ,7 fact. I ob- 

 served it again and again, so that now I never 

 look for queen-cells when introducing. You 

 see, then, that any danger from some queen- 

 cells being overlooked is entirely discarded. 

 I his IS perhaps its best feature, one for 

 which It IS decidedly superior to any other 

 introducing cage. 



But it works well for safe introducing as 

 well. By means of the tin handle I hang the 

 cage with the queen in between two frames 

 III the queenless colony, the tin door being 

 shut. Iwenty-four hours later I open the 

 tin door so that the bees can enter the cage 

 through the queen-excluder. I wait for a 

 while then I observe the interior of the cage- 

 in gtj cases out of 100 I find the queen walking 

 peacefully among the bees, they making no 

 attempt to ball her. An intimate acquaint- 

 ance is made, and the body of the queen is 

 impregnated with their odor. Twelve hours 

 later, or less, the queen can be liberated 

 \yith absolute confidence of a kind recep- 

 ''""■, Vincent Asprea. 



Italy. 



It may be explained that at one end 

 of the cage there is a strip of queen- 

 excluder zinc. This is fastened at one 

 end by a small nail on which it works 

 as on a hinge, the other end of the 

 strip being held in place by another 

 nail loosely pushed in. Over this strip 

 of perforated zinc is a strip of tin of 

 the same size as the zinc, and fastened 

 on in the same way. For the first 24 

 hours the cover remains in place over 

 the zinc. Tnen the bee-keeper opens 

 the hive, swings the tin strip open, and 

 returns the cage. The perforated zinc 

 still holds the queen imprisoned, but 

 allows the workers to enter the cage. 

 For some reason bees will generally 

 not attack a queen in a cage when they 

 will do so if she is entirely at liberty. 

 After another 12 hours, the queen is let 

 out of the cage. 



The special point of difference be- 

 tween this cage and cages in general is 

 that after 24 hours confinement the 

 queen is allowed for 12 hours to be in 



direct contact with the bees in the 

 cage, as they may freely pass in and 

 out through the perforations in the 

 zinc. In this there is certainly an ad- 

 vantage. Mr. Asprea thinks it differs 

 from other cages in that with this cage 

 the bees themselves will destroy any 

 queen-cells present. In many cases 

 they will do so with the use of any 

 other cage, and whether they will do 

 so in all cases with this cage could only 

 be told by long trial. 



An American bee-keeper — was it E. 

 F. Atkinson? — devised an introducing 

 cage that makes use of the same princi- 

 ple, only the American cage acts auto- 

 matically without the need of opening 

 the hive to allow the bees to enter the 

 cage through the excluder, and again 

 to let the queen out of the cage. In 

 other words, the American cage does 

 not require the hive to be opened at 

 all after it is put in the hive, unless it 

 is desired to take the cage out. This 

 automatic action is secured by the 

 usual way of having tubes of queen- 

 candy for the bees to eat through, only 

 in this cage there are two plugs of 

 candy to be eaten through. The one 

 plug is of the usual length, allowing 

 the bees to eat through it in perhaps 24 

 hours. When they eat through this 

 plug, the bees reach the excluder, 

 through which they may freely pass, 

 but through which the queen can not 

 pass. The other plug of candy is 

 longer, requiring perhaps 12 to 24 

 hours longer to be eaten through. But 

 there is no excluder in the way when 

 this longer plug is eaten through, and 

 the queen is thus allowed to pass out 

 of the cage at her leisure. 



It seems a little strange that this 

 cage with such a strong feature in its 

 favor has not come into use more gen- 

 erally. But many a good thing re- 

 mains in obscurity, later to be resur- 

 rected by some one else. 



What About Long-Tongiie Bees? 



J. L. Byer is heartily endorsed by G. 

 C. Greiner. when he says : " The long- 

 tongue idea, in so far as it refers to the 

 different races, is pretty much a hum- 

 bug," I'm not in the least interested in 

 long-tongued queens, but I like to see 

 the under dog have fair play. Have 

 the long-tongue sellers really been try- 

 ing to humbug their customers ? 



Does the phrase "so far as it refers 

 to the different races " mean that there 

 is no difference as to tongue-length 

 among the different races ? But have 

 not measurements by capable and dis- 

 interested men shown that there is a 

 difference in the different races ? Any- 

 way, what has that to do in the case? 

 Have the sellers of long tongues claimed 

 anything on the score of race. Have 

 they not claimed they had long-tongued 

 queens' without putting any emphasis 

 on the race ? 



Measurements having shown a differ- 

 ence in length among bees, is it any- 

 thing impossible that a colony of bees 

 might be found with tongues longer 

 than the average ? I can endorse Mr. 

 Greiner's good opinion of Mr. Byer, 

 and go him a little better perhaps, for 

 it is very rarely that I do not see things 

 as Mr. Byer does, but in all fairness, if 

 Mr. Byer thinks the long-tongued bees 

 were not what they were represented 



to be he should give us something 

 more than bald assertion, for if I had 

 been selling long-tongued queens I 

 wouldn't feel comfortable to have so 

 good a man as Mr. Byer call me a hum- 

 bug. 



If I may be allowed to express any 

 opinion on the subject, I may say that 

 I believe there have b'en colonies that 

 would do considerably more on red 

 clover than the average, the pity being 

 that no one has carefully bred up a 

 strain that would reliably perpetuate 

 the characteristic. There is still room 

 for some one to do that. But the more 

 hopeful thing is, instead of trying to 

 fit the tongues to the clover, to fit the 

 clover to the tongues. There is a field 

 for some Burbank to produce a strain 

 of red clover with corollas short 

 enough for bees with ordinary tongues. 



Since the foregoing was written the 

 Canadian Bee Journal is received in 

 which Morley Pettit says: "Second 

 crop red clover yields surplus gathered 

 by some strains of Italian and Carnio- 

 lan bees." When next Messrs. Byer 

 and Pettit meet, I'd like to umpire the 

 fight. C. C. Miller. 



Pearce Metho<l of Bee-Keei)iug 



This is an illustrated pamphlet 6x8^ 

 inches, just issued (July, 1910), "which 

 fully explains the plan of keeping bees 

 successfully in upper rooms, house at- 

 tics or lofts, whereby any one either in 

 city or country is enabled with only 

 a small expenditure of labor to get a 

 good supply of honey without coming 

 in contact with the bees, and without 

 having the bees swarm out and leave, 

 or being troubled from stings as you 

 work on one side of the wall and the 

 bees on the other. This method also 

 tells the commercial bee-keeper how 

 he can divide his bees when he wishes 

 to, instead of waiting and watching for 

 them to swarm. It can all be done on 

 the same day, or days if more than one 

 apiary, as the time required for this 

 operation is merely nominal, no swarms 

 issue and go away. These methods are 

 fully explained in this book, and how 

 to care for the bees on the Pearce 

 plan." 



We mail this pamphlet for 50 cents, 

 or club it with the American Bee Jour- 

 nal one year — both for $.135. Send all 

 orders to the American Bee Journal, 

 146 W. Superior St., Chicago, 111. 



" Liangstroth on the Honey-Bee " 



This is one of the standard books on 

 bees. It tells in a simple, concise man- 

 ner just how to keep bees. It was 

 originally written by Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth, who invented the movable- 

 frame hive in 1851. The book has been 

 brought riglit down to date by Dadant 

 & Sons, than who there are no better 

 or more practical bee-keepers in this 

 or any other country. It contains 

 nearly (iOO pages, is fully illustrated, 

 and is bound in cloth. Every topic is 

 clearly and thoroughly explained, so 

 that by following its instructions no 

 one should fail to be successful with 

 bees. Price, postpaid, $1.20; or with 

 the ."Xmerican Bee Journal one year — 

 both for $2.00. Send all orders to the 

 American Bee Journal, 14(j W. Superior 

 St., Chicago, III. 



