January 



i^Amgrican Tiee Journal 



don't know how many of those which 

 were bad the next year were freshly in- 

 fected from outside, any more than I 

 do of the " I-told-you-so " ones of last 

 year. 



" A hive with disease in one cell /.< 

 i/ist-asid." Y-es, so it is ; but there's a 

 big difference between having only one 

 cell and having all the combs rotten 

 with the disease. Besides — and possi- 

 bly this is something you don't know 

 as well as you might — it makes a very 

 big difference whether that one cell is 

 affected with one disease or the other. 

 With the American variety I shouldn't 

 have so very much choice between one 

 cell and a thousand, for I should feel 

 pretty sure it would not be so very long 

 before the one cell would be a thou- 

 sand ; but with the European variety 

 in a strong colony I should generally 

 expect the one to become a zero. Re- 

 ferring to the records of that first and 

 worst year, I find there were 25 cases 

 in which the number of diseased cells 

 were so few that no treatment was 

 given. Only one of these showed any 

 disease the following year. So when 

 the bees of their own accord cleanup 

 HG percent of the very mild cases, "A 

 hive with disease in one cell /.-. diseased" 

 loses most of its force. But if there 

 were 2-5 one-cell cases of the American, 

 and the bees were left to themselves, 

 instead of finding 96 percent of the 

 cases cured, I should expect to find 

 about 100 percent of them growing 

 worse. 



Now, if I've wrongly interpreted 

 your told-you-so, please tell me so 

 again. C. C. M. 



People AVhoni IJees Will Not Sting 



Every now and then one is told of 

 some one who can handle bees without 

 veil, gloves, or smoke, the bees making 

 no offer to sting such a person, al- 

 though other persons may be severely 

 stung at the same time. The bee-keeper 

 who is told of such sting-proof people 

 generally smiles quietly, without taking 

 the pains to contradict such statements. 



considering the whole thing as an in- 

 nocent delusion. But is there no foun- 

 dation for such a belief ? Is it not true 

 that it sometimes happens that bees 

 discriminate, stinging one person worse 

 than another ? And if there be such 

 difference, may not that difference be 

 so great in some cases that one person 

 will be severely stung while another by 

 his side goes scot-free ? 



At any rate, so good an authority as 

 G. !\I. Doolittle says in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture: 



" There are a few men in the world who. 

 for some unaccountable reasons, seem to be 

 stingf-proof. Others can not come near bees 

 without being stung." 



And then, by way of substantiating 

 his belief, he relates the following: 



" An old neighbor of ours, who kept bees 

 when I was a little boy. boasted that he was 

 never stuns by bees, and I could hardly be- 

 lieve him. When I had been in the business 

 4 or 5 years, he came into the apiary as I was 

 takin? off boxhoney just after the basswood 

 bloom, at a time when bees are generally in- 

 clined to resent beine molested. The man 

 who worked the farm was with me. well 

 bundled up. This sting-proof neighbor was 

 then over 8o years old; and as became walk- 

 ing in among the hives, this man shouted to 

 him that the bees would sting him. The old 

 man said, as I had heard him many times be- 

 fore. ' Bees never sting me.' Just about the 

 time he came near us I happened ?i to drop 

 a wide frame of sections on the frames be- 

 low, and did not resort to the smoker. A 

 cloud of angry bees arose in the air. and 

 soon the bundled-up man was beating a 

 hasty retreat, which caused the old man to 

 laugh. I would 'willingly have followed, but 

 I wished to put my neighbor to a test. As I 

 saw no bees looking at him. I requested him 

 to hold a frame of partly-filled sections 

 while I did some reaching down into the 

 hive. In doing this. I drew the next wide 

 frame of sections up past another which 

 was covered with bees so as to mangle and 

 kill scores of the little fellows, making the 

 air so full of the vicious bees that I was get- 

 ting a most unmerciful stinging on my hands 

 and through my clothing. 



" I now looked at him. standing there bolt 

 upright, holding that wide frame of sec- 

 tions, with not a bee hovering about him. 

 any more than they were about a fence-post 

 standing near. 



" I now took the sections from him and 

 closed the hive about as quickly as possible, 

 but not on his account. As we walked out 

 of the apiary my clothes were full of hiss- 

 ing bees, with a swarm of angry ones about 

 my head, while not a bee had looked at him." 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Death of J. B. Hall.— On Xov. 13, 1911, 

 there passed away at his home at Wood- 

 stock, Ontario, Canada, one of the 

 most prominent bee-keepers of that 

 country. His name was J. B. Hall. 

 Many years ago he was called the 

 "Comb-Honey King" of Canada. We 

 had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hall 

 many years ago at the meeting of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' .Association in 

 Toronto. He was a delightful man to 

 meet, and also a splendid gentleman in 

 every way. 



Death of James Heddon. — We notice 

 by a local newspaper that James Hed- 

 don, of Dowagiac, Mich., died Dec. 7, 

 1911, of paralysis. About 30 years ago 

 Mr. Heddon was one of the most promi- 

 nent bee-keepers and apicultural writ- 

 ers in America. In later vears he was 



not very much interested in bee-keep- 

 ing. He was the originator of artificial 

 fish-bait, and an authority on fish. The 

 newspaper item enumerated 14 different 

 occupations in which Mr. Heddon had 

 been engaged at different times during 

 his life, which shows he was a most 

 versatile man. The item also says that 

 " he died wealthy." 



The Chicago-Northwestern Convention. 



— The 32d annual meeting of the Chi- 

 cago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation was held Dec. 6 and 7, 1911, in 

 the Great Northern Hotel, which fur- 

 nished free of charge the finest hall 

 that this, or perhaps any other conven- 

 tion, has ever been permitted to meet 

 in. 



The convention was one of the best 

 held in a long time. Among the 



prominent convention people who 

 were present were Dr. C. C. Miller, 

 Mfss Emma M. Wilson, N. E. France, 

 C. P. Dadant, Jas. A. Stone, M. M. Bald- 

 ridge, Gus Dittmer and Jacob Huff- 

 man. The proceedings were taken 

 down in shorthand, and will appear in 

 the 11th Annual Report of the Illinois 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association, which 

 will probably be issued before April 1, 

 11U2. The topics which were discussed 

 were numerous and inost interesting. 



Louis C. Dadant, the secretary, was 

 elected a delegate to the next meeting 

 of the .X'ational Bee-Keepers' .Associa- 

 tion. 



The officers elected for the ensuing 

 vear are as follows : President, George 

 W. York ; Vice-President, Jacob Huff- 

 man, of Wisconsin ; and Secretary- 

 Treasurer, Louis C. Dadant, of Hamil- 

 ton, 111. 



^ 



To Bee-Convention Secretaries We 



are always glad to publish notices of 

 future conventions of bee-keepers, but 

 it so often happens that we receive 

 such notices too late to publish them. 

 We should always have notices 40 days 

 before the meeting, in order to insure 

 their appearance in the columns of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



For instance, we received a notice of 

 a meeting of the Northern California 

 Bee-Keepers' Association for Dec. 27 

 and 28, 1911, just after the December 

 number was printed. We should have 

 had it at least a week or two before the 

 time it arrived in our office. 



We would like very much to co- 

 operate with the officers of all the bee- 

 keepers' associations,especially through 

 publishing their announcements of 

 meetings, but unless they arrive in time 

 to be of any use when published, it is a 

 waste of space to print them. 



We hope that all secretaries will 

 kindly take note of this matter, and in 

 the future be sure to send their notices 

 so that their publication will be of ser- 

 vice to the membership of their asso- 

 ciations. 



^ 



National Legislative Committee — One 



member of this Committee was ap- 

 pointed at the Minneapolis convention 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion— Wm. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, 

 who was authorized to select two other 

 members to act with him on the Com- 

 mittee. The two members selected are 

 J. H. M. Cook, of New York City, and 

 N. W. Saunders, of Rockville, Md. 



As there is frequently much of im- 

 portance arising at Washington, D. C, 

 that would be of interest to the bee- 

 keepers all over the country, it was 

 deemed advisable at the Minneapolis 

 convention to keep a standing Legisla- 

 tive Committee. The wisdom of this 

 move is already being shown, for the 

 Committee met in Washington, D. C., 

 recently, apd had an interview with 

 Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture, Dec. 12th, which, it seems to 

 us, will be far-reaching in its good 

 effects. In fact, there could hardly be 

 any better effort of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association than that this 

 Committee manage to carry on a 

 campaign of education, enlightening 

 the bee-keepers throughout the whole 

 country as to foul brood and other 



