(Entered as second-class matter at the Post-office at Hamilton. 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Nonthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR C. C, MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., AUGUST, 1915 



Vol. LV..— Ho. 8 



Editorial 



Comments 



The Front Cover Picture 



The picture on our front cover shows 

 that basswood trees may be planted by 

 young beekeepers with expectation of 

 results, both in shade and honey yield. 

 This tree, planted byE. J. Baxter, presi- 

 dent of the Illinois State Beekeepers' 

 Association, in front of his home, in 

 1884, is now 66 inches in circumference 

 at the trunk, and has been for a number 

 of years producing abundant bloom. 

 This summer it was profusely loaded. 

 The Baxter home is surrounded with a 

 number of similar trees. 



Flight of Bees 



Did you ever spend time in watching 

 the bees returning to the hives in a 

 thick stream on a day when a honey- 

 flow is on ? It's a bit fascinating when 

 you have in mind the thought that 

 every bee that passes means another 

 little drop added to your crop of honey. 

 Another question. Did you ever notice 

 whether the number of outward bound 

 bees was equal to the number inward 

 bound ? The writer has opportunity to 

 watch bees where those going north 

 pass between two buildings, condens- 

 ing the stream. They seem to fly a bit 

 slowly, and not very high, many of 

 them not more than 8 or 10 feet from 

 the ground. But they seem to be all 

 returning, seldom one going. If an 

 occasional bee is seen going, it flies 

 very swiftly. Do the bees, as they 

 leave the hive, fly higher than when re- 

 turning with their loads, do they fly 



around some other way, or do they fly 

 so swiftly that they are not seen ? 



While watching their flight, one is 

 very likely to ask, " How many trips 

 do they make in a day ? How long 

 does it take for a trip ? How long does 

 it take for a bee to unload in the hive? " 

 Various estimates have been made in 

 reply to these questions, by no means 

 all alike. Indeed, one would naturally 

 suppose that a trip would take a good 

 deal more time with a sparse yield at a 

 considerable distance than with a 

 heavy yield close by. The time of un- 

 loading ought notto vary much. About 

 a year ago an interesting account was 

 given in Praktischer Wegweiser of the 

 patient observations of a Mr. Walter. 

 He marked several bees, each a differ- 

 ent color: white, yellow, orange, green, 

 blue, and red. With a timepiece and 

 tablet before him, and pencil in hand, 

 patiently he sat beside the hive from 6 

 o'clock in the morning until 7 in the 

 evening ; his meals brought to him, and 

 carefully registered the time of depart- 

 ure and return of each bee. As a re- 

 sult of his observations he reports that 

 a bee makes in a day, not 40 trips, as 

 some have said, nor yet 25 ,but only 10 ; 

 that each trip takes from half an hour 

 to two hours, averaging an hour; and 

 that the time spent in the hive between 

 trips is from 5 to 10 minutes. 



Probably most beekeepers will pre- 

 fer to accept his figures rather than to 

 attempt to verify or disprove them by 

 a like watch of 13 long hours beside 

 the hive. 



Obituary 



L'Apicoltore, in its June number, an- 

 nounces the death of Andrea De 

 Rauschenfels, its former editor, whose 

 autobiography we published in our 



The Late Andrea De Rauschenfels 

 August, 1913, number. We reproduce 

 the photograph of this eminent api- 

 arist and writer. Besides ably filling 

 the editorial chair of L'Apicoltore for 

 25 years, he pulished "The Bee and Its 

 Culture," with an atlas of bee anatomy, 

 a reproduction of the lithographic 

 work of Barbo and Clerici. 



Mr. De Rauschenfels retired from 

 active life at the end of the year 1012. 

 He died at his home in Noceto. Italy 

 May 21, 1015, aged 87 years. 



More About the Sulla 



Since the publication of the article 

 from D. Barone in the June number of 

 the Bee Journal, page 190, concerning 



