American Vae 'Journal 



Bee-I^eping ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo. 111. 



Alley Plan of Queen-Rearing 



A. Beatrice Bambaut describes in the 

 Irish Bee Journal the Swarthmore plan 

 of queen-rearing. Then she quotes 

 from a friend in America who prefers 

 the Alley plan, the quotation ending 

 with these words: 



" I fear you will have to remain by them 

 for 24 hours when they are hatching, as the 

 first one to hatch kills all the others if she 

 gets a chance." 



The writer then says : 



" I confess I prefer Mr. Swarthmore's plan 

 to that of my friend, for enthusiastic as I 

 am. I fear that to sit all day and all night by 

 the side of my hive, would be too much for 

 my patience, besides which I would cer- 

 tainly be thought by my neighbors to be mad 

 sa the proverbial hatter or NIarch hare." 



Now what an idea. Did any one who 

 used the Alley plan ever sit by the hive 

 for 24 hours, watching the young 

 queens as they emerged ? And if he 

 did, what could he do with them ex- 

 cept to put them in nuclei, cages, or 

 nurseries ? And this he could do just 

 as well with the ripe cells, and then go 

 take a good night's sleep. 



Bee-Lice and Queens 



Most women bee-keepers are familiar 

 with poultry-lice — more so probably 

 than their associates of the other sex — 

 but very few in this country have ever 

 Seen a bee-louse, or braula coeca, as it 

 is called. In Europe these lice are only 

 too plenty. However, they are not so 

 bad as chicken-lice, for they do not 

 suck the blood of the bees, but are 

 called "table companions," for they 

 come down to take a lunch of honey 

 whenever the bee partakes, and then 

 scurry back to their place on the bee. 

 They are found more plentifully on the 

 queen than on the workers, and Marie 

 Fitter says in a German bee-journal 

 that she has known more than a hun- 

 dred on a single queen, and she thinks 

 this shortens the life of the queen. So 

 far, the bee-louse has never flourished 

 in this country, but something of the 

 kind has been reported in the State 

 of New York, so it will do no harm to 

 be on the lookout, especially on im- 

 ported queens. 



Requeenlng "in America" 



In the Irish Bee Journal, A. Beatrice 

 Bambaut says : 



" In America, where honey is stored by 

 the ton. instead of by the pound, the ques- 

 tion of breeding queens is considered to be 

 of tlie highest importance, and some bee- 

 keepers say two queens should be supplied 

 in a season to each hive. Tlic queen which 

 has supplied the spring workers is sup- 

 planted by a young queen which starts to 

 work at the autumn supply." 



Has not the sister been misinformed ? 

 If any one in this country has seriously 

 considered it advisable to change 

 queens twice annually in each colony, 



it has not been generally made known 

 Indeed the proportion of those who 

 replace their queens once each year is 

 not so very large. Some of our best 

 and most successful bee-keepers never 

 replace a queen because of age, leaving 

 the matter of superseding entirely to 

 the bees. They say that a good queen 

 will do as good work in her second 

 year as in her first, if not better; and 

 the third year of a good queen may be 

 better than the first year of a poor 

 queen. They believe, moreover, that 

 in the majority of cases the bees will 

 supersede a queen just as soon as it is 

 profitable to do so. But they do be- 

 lieve in superseding any queen that is 

 not satisfactory, whether she be 3 years 

 or .3 months old. 



On the other hand, there is one rea- 

 son for requeening annually that has 

 much weight. It is that a young queen 

 is little inclined to swarming. And for 

 the sake of the prevention of swarm- 

 ing it may be advisable for some to 

 cut off a queen in the midst of a useful 

 career. But it would be a difficult 

 thing to do much in the way of im- 

 provement of stock if a// queens were 

 killed at the end of their first year. 



The Lesson of the Bees 



Sometimes when I get a-moping. 



And things all seem going wrong. 

 That is when my thoughts go loping 



Off to join the busy throng; 



And my body fain would follow 

 Where my thoughts have taken wing. 



To the life as vain and hollow. 

 That would often mis'ry bring. 



Then I sit down 'mid the posies 

 Under the'pink-dressed apple-trees. 



To think what poor man loses 

 Who hears not the hum of bees! 



For //it-y lose no time in blaming 



///w who made the world so fair- 

 Not a bee does vain complaining. 

 Always living on the square! 



Back again to daily duties 

 Go I. then, with happy heart; 



More awake to Nature's beauties- 

 Willing, quick, to do my part. 



Oh. may you. you men of cunning. 



Learn a lesson from the bees. 

 As you listen to their humming 



In the fragrant-blossomed trees. 



So may we find much of beauty. 



As through life a smile we wear. 

 Passing by all tainted booty — 



Always living on the square! 



Mks, Irma True Soper. 

 Jackson, Mich. 



Requeening to Reduce Swarming 



Miss Ethel Kobson. conductur of the 

 Woman's Department in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal, says : 



Docs requeening every year tend to re- 

 reduce swarming ? This is somelhing which 

 1 should like to know. The greater propor- 

 tion of my queens were reared last season, 

 and the number of swarms this year was 

 wonderfully small, considering the care the 

 bees received. The clover coming on early, 

 and being absent on Institute work. 1 got be- 



hind, and practically all that was done to 

 prevent swarming was to give plenty of 

 room. Yet. while getting a good crop o* 

 honey from my 75 colonies, considering the 

 season. I had only some half dozen swarms. 

 Years ago. when no requeening lyas prac- 

 tised, with much the same number of colo- 

 nies, we used to have many times more 

 swarms. The weather may have had some- 

 thing to do with it. A few cold days always 

 followed the days of intense heat, and these 

 seemed to check any rising desire to swarm. 

 But this can not be entirely the explanation, 

 neighbors who keep a few according to old- 

 fashioned methods have had swarms from 

 every colony, but here again the question is 

 complicated, as they run mainly for comb 

 honey. Would some one who knows about 

 the matter be good enough to let us know 

 what he thinks ? 



It is pretty certain that changing the 

 queen of a colony will reduce the 

 chances of swarming, always provided 

 that the new queen be much younger 

 than the old one. This for the simple 

 reason that there is much less inclina- 

 tion to swarm with a young queen than 

 with an old one. In this locality, with 

 very rare exceptions, if a laying queen 

 be replaced by a ripe queen-cell or a 

 virgin, and the young queen succeeds 

 to laying, that colony will not swarm 

 before the next year. The same result 

 will be obtained if early in the season 

 the old queen be replaced by a young 

 queen that has just begun laying, if the 

 young queen gets fairly settled down 

 to laying before there is any thought 

 of swarming. If a young queen be 

 given to a colony that already has the 

 swarming fever, that colony will go 

 right on with its swarming, even if the 

 new queen has but just begun laying. 

 But if the young queen be introduced 

 a week or io days after the colony has 

 been made queenless (queen-cells of 

 course being removed), then the colony 

 will be just as safe from swarming as 

 would be a natural prime swarm. 



Arthur C. Miller thinks that with 

 plenty of hive-room and good ventila- 

 tion a colony is practically safe from 

 swarming that has received a young 

 queen the previous August. 



Some advocate requeening each year, 

 and there are advantages in doing so. 

 But if that be followed up strictly, away 

 go your chances for much improve- 

 ment of stock. 



A New Dish— Tomato and Honey 



Miss Wilson :— This may not be a new 

 dish, but it is new to me: 



Trim and slice sound, ripe tomatoes; put 

 into cold water with salt and cayenne pep- 

 per to taste. Stew slowly until tender. Now 

 break in as many fresh eggs as you had toma- 

 toes, and stir enough to break the eggs into 

 small chunks; put in a liberal supply of 

 butler, and set off the stove: when some- 

 what cooled sweeten to taste with extracted 

 honey, and then put in crisp crackers, and 

 eat hot. 



I have a good crop of honey again, although 

 other bee-keepers about me h.ive none. 



I am still strong in the belief that salt will 

 prevent and cure foul brood, 



Wheeler Co.. Nebr. W. H. Mii.i.s. 



Thanks for the recipe, which has 

 probably never been in print before. 



Don't put too much faith in salt for 

 foul brood. 



Tomatoes and Ants .>\nts like to 



make their nests over the brood-cham- 

 bers of hives, where it is warm, and 

 where they are somewhat troublesome 

 to the bees. Franz Richter says in 

 Bienen-Vater that for years he has 

 made a practice of driving the ants 

 away by the use of tomato-leaves. 



