Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, First National Bank Building 



C p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., JUNE, 1912 



VoL Lll -Ne. 6 



Editorial 



Comments 



Affrieiiltural C'ollege.s and Bee- 

 Keeping 



We call the attention of our readers 

 to the articles of Messrs. Wesley Fos- 

 ter and L. V. France in this number, 

 on the above subject. They are both 

 young men, and both see the necessity 

 of educational courses in bee-keeping. 

 The time for urging apiculture upon all 

 our State Agricultural Colleges is at 

 hand. 



Already in 1011, when the bee-keep- 

 ers of lUinoiscalled upon Gov. Deneen 

 for his consideration of the foul brood 

 bill, he made the remark that the State 

 Agricultural College ought to have a 

 teacher of apiculture and an experi- 

 ment station. The Illinois State Asso- 

 ciation was unprepared for a step of 

 this kind, hence nothing was done out- 

 side of securing the foul brood law 

 and State bee-keepers' appropriation. 

 But the work is before us, and we must 

 unite and put our shoulder to the 

 wheel. We will get the apicultural 

 schools without much difficulty if we 

 use our energies in that direction. 

 The next 10 years ought to see a revo- 

 lution in methods among the masses, 

 in this industry. . 



Oeniaree Plan of Swarni-Preven- 

 tion 



Geo. W. Rich writes that a non- 

 swarming race of bees is against Na- 

 ture, since everything is created to in- 

 crease, and that the only thing that can 

 be done is to keep bees from getting 

 into a condition that gives them the 

 desire to swarm. This he accomplishes 

 by raising half the brood above an ex- 

 cluder, when 4 to •') frames of brood are 

 in the brood-chamber, inserting empty 

 combs into the brood-chamber in place 

 of the brood that is raised above. 



This is a variation of the Demaree 

 plan. Some years ago G. W. Demaree, 

 a Kentuckian, gave to bee-keepers a 

 plan for prevention of swarming that 

 with many has proved an entire suc- 



cess, although with a few the success 

 has been only partial. The plan is 

 simple. When a colony becomes strong, 

 and before it has started too far on the 

 road to swarming, put all the brood 

 into an upper story, having an ex- 

 cluder between the two stories, the 

 queen being left below the excluder in 

 the lower story, which is filled with 

 drawn combs or frames filled with 

 foundation. That's all ; the bees do 

 the rest. 



The bees have an empty brood-cham- 

 ber, and are thus left in much the same 

 condition as a natural swarm, while 

 the brood over the excluder will be 

 hatching out, and as fast as the brood 

 hatches out the empty cells will be 

 filled with honey, thus gradually chang- 

 ing these combs into extracting combs. 



In some cases the bees have shown 

 some aversion to occupying the empty 

 brood-chamber, and on that account it 

 may be well to leave in the lower story 

 one of the old frames, perhaps one with 

 little or no brood. 



University Kecognizes Bee-Cul- 

 ture 



The Wisconsin Agricultural College 

 has decided to introduce an elective 

 course in bee-culture, to begin about 

 Feb. 15, 1913. It is to be under the 

 direction of Prof. J. G. Sanders, of the 

 College of Agriculture. This informa- 

 tion is supplied to us by Mr. L. V. 

 France, son of the well-known N. E. 

 France. The Frances have evidently 

 been influential in securing recogni- 

 tion for bee-culture. 



A Bee Journal for the National 



We are informed that the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association has purchased 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review, which will 

 hereafter be published as the official 

 organ of this corporation. In this, 

 America only follows the lead of other 

 National bee - associations. France, 



Italy, and Germany have their National 

 organs, as well as other minor associa- 

 tion journals. With E. B. Tyrrell as 

 editor, the new departure will surely 

 be a success. Mr. Tyrrell is young, 

 capable, and wide-awake. 



We have been asked whether we did 

 not think that this new arrangement 

 would be injurious to other bee-papers. 

 We see no reason why it should be. 

 The publisher of a bee-periodical ought 

 to make his paper worth more than $1 

 to its readers. If we can not make 

 the American Bee Journal sufficiently 

 interesting to make it worth twice its 

 cost, we ought to quit. 



Regulations Concerning the Mail- 

 ing of Queens 



On March 23, 1912, the following 

 ruling was made by thePost-Office De- 

 partment concerning matter that could 

 be accepted in the mails: 



"Queen bees, and their attendant bees, 

 when accompanied by a certificate from a 

 State or Government inspector tiiat they 

 have been inspected and found free of dis- 

 ease." 



Realizing that this ruling was im- 

 practicable, since it is impossible for 

 any one to know by examination of a 

 queen whether her brood would be 

 free from disease, and also since there 

 are no provisions made by the Govern- 

 ment, or by many of the States for in- 

 spection of bees throughout the coun- 

 try, we wrote to Dr. Phillips, In Charge 

 of Apiculture at the Department of 

 Agriculture, who answered at once 

 that they were taking steps to have a 

 more practical ruling substituted. This 

 ruling, just received, is now in force; 

 it reads ; 



"Queen bees, and their attendant bees, 

 when accompanied by a copy of a certificate 

 of the current year from a Stale or Govern- 

 ment apiary inspector to the effect that the 

 apiary from whicli said queen-bees are 

 shipped is free from disease, or by a copy of 

 a statement by the bee-keeper made before 

 a notary public or other officer havine aseal 

 that the honey used in making the candy 

 used in the aueen-mailine case has been 

 diluted and boiled in a closed vessel." 



Dr. Phillips deserves the thanks of 

 the queen-breeders for securing this 

 change promptly. 



Until an efficient and entirely equit- 

 able method of inspecting every queen- 

 dealers' apiary can be devised, the 

 above ruling is certainly the most 



