Tunc, 1013. 



American Hee JonrnalJ 



Photo by Geo. J. Dii.c. Mokton Gkove. 

 Illinois. Showing Upward Huilding of 

 Comb Over a Crowded Hive. 



any that are loaded in cars and shipped out. 

 I know when they have arrived at their des- 

 tination that the covers had worked off in a 

 similar manner, and if the dealer at the 

 other end had the tools for opening cases, 

 he should not have very much trouble in re- 

 moving the covers nailed w'ith cement- 

 coated nails without splitting them. In my 

 inspection work I have to open a great many 

 cases during the season, and it is not very 

 often that a cover board is split. Of course, 

 the nails we are using for covers are not 

 larger than id." 



Death of Bernhard Rietsche. — In the 



May number we announced the death 

 of a man who has been one of the most 

 important factors in the advancement 

 of bee-keeping in Germany, Bernhard 

 Rietsche. He was the inventor of a 

 number of things of value to bee-keep- 

 ers, but the one thing above all others 

 that has made his name a household 

 word in German bee-keeping circles is 

 the Rietsche foundation press. In Ger- 

 many conditions connected with the 

 manufacture and use of comb founda- 

 tion differ greatly from conditions in 

 this country. In Germany it is the 

 common thing for a bee-keeper to make 

 his own foundation. Here it is the 

 uncommon thing. 



To be sure, some years ago quite a 

 number of bee-keepers made founda- 

 tion for themselves and neighbors 

 among American bee-keepers, but 

 gradually this has disappeared. Foun- 

 dation in this country is now practi- 

 cally all made by the few foundation 

 makers who make it on a large scale. 

 German thrift requires that so far as 

 possible no cent shall be paid out for 

 anything that can be made at home. 

 But that is not the only reason — per- 

 haps not the chief reason — why Ger- 

 man bee-keepers make their own foun- 

 dation. Strange as it may seem, so 

 much of the foundation that is sold 

 there is adulterated, that the purchaser 

 may generally be in doubt about what 

 he is buying. 



Perhaps because less skill is thereby 

 required, foundation in Germany is 

 largely made in a press, the melted wa.x 

 being poured into an embossed plate 

 and an upper plate pressed down upon 

 it. In 1883 Mr. Rietsche began experi- 

 menting with the manufacture of foun- 



dation for his own use, using a press 

 of plaster of Paris. From that, grew 

 by degrees the finished metal press of 

 the present, and the immense business 

 to which it has led. In 18!)(i, Rietsche 

 sent to Dr. Dzierzon as a present, a 

 press that numbered 10,000 in the series 

 that had been manufactured during the 

 previous Vi years. No figures are at 

 hand to say just how many presses 

 have been sent out in the following 16 

 years up to the present time, but the 

 likelihood is that more than another 

 10,000 has been reached, for we are 

 told that the business had grown to 

 such an extent that 1000 a year were 

 sent into all parts of the world. 



Two sons, trained to the business, 

 have latterly conducted it, leaving the 

 father free play to his inventive genius. 

 His last work was upon a cylinder 

 foundation machine to excel anything 

 of American manufacture. C. C. M. 



Driving Bees Out of Supers A. F. £. 



Hind says in the South African Bee- 

 Keepers' Journal : 



" Raise the crate, with a screwing motion, 

 completely off the hive, and place it on a 

 table or bo.\ a few yards away from the hive. 

 Then place an empty candle or soap box up- 

 side down on topof thecrate of sections. If 

 you now start rapping with the handle of 

 your screw-dri\'er, or any other tool, back- 

 wards and forwards on the sides of the 

 crate, the bees will in a few minutes run out 

 of the sections up into the empty candle 

 box, where they will cluster. The box can 

 then be carried back to the hive and the 

 bees shaken out on the alighting-board. 

 The sections will be quite free from bees, 

 and you can take them out of thecrate in 

 comfort, without any fear of crushing a bee. 

 This is simply "driving" the bees, but it is 

 quite unnecessary to invert the crate as one 

 would a skep when driving the bees. In this 

 climate, with our warm nights, the Porter 

 bee-escape often does not act well; the 

 method here advocated has the advantage 

 of requiring only one visit to the hive, and is 

 just as humane as the escape, because not a 

 single bee need be hurt if the operator uses 

 ordinary care." 



For several years he had been presi 

 dent and director of the Washington 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association, and 

 was well known throughout the North- 

 west. 



Ontario College Experiments The 



Ontario .Agricultural College reports 

 co-operative experiments in apiculture 

 on the following subjects: 



1. Prevention of natural swarming in the 

 production of extracted honey. 



2. The same with the production of comb 

 honey. 



3. Experiments with races of bees gen- 

 erally. 



4. The same with refecence to their power 

 to resist European foul brood. 



We can not quote the entire report, 

 but it makes good reading. A notable 

 fact is that they have noticed the 

 greater immunity of Italian bees from 

 this disease. 



Mr, Morley Pettit, the apiarist in 

 charge, is a wide-awake worker. 



Bee-Biscuits and Honey. — Under this 

 heading the Free Masons of Fruitvale, 

 Calif, announced a lecture on bees by 

 John C. Frohliger, for May 7th, with 

 stereopticon views and an explanation 

 of the methods of handling bees. 



The little circular announcing this is 

 very neatly gotten up. It promises a 

 " Hot-Biscuit-Honey Festival," and con- 

 tains some humorously worded moral 

 maxims like the following: 



" Find out about the effect of smoke on bees; 

 better have your boys learn how to sjnokc bees 

 than smoke lisarcttes: more profitable for 

 them to acquire a love for bees than love for 

 booze." 



Balling Queens, the Cause. -In Les 



Abeilles and Les Fruits for March, 

 Maurice Bellot gives his idea of the 

 cause of queens being sometimes balled 

 in their own hive. He says this hap- 

 pens when the hives are too close to- 

 gether, and owing to some disturbance 

 some bees make error and enter the 

 wrong hive. "Those bees," he says, 

 "finding a queen which is not their 

 own, may attack and ball her." He is 

 also of the opinion that when a queen 

 is handled by the apiarist, she may ac- 

 quire an odor which will cause the 

 bees to dislike her. — {Traiisla/cd.) 



Bee-Inspection in British Columbia. — 



Mr. E. F. Robinson, of Victoria, B. C., 

 is bee-inspector for British Columbia, 

 and he lately gave out his route of in- 

 spection, which covered the islands 

 and lower mainland districts, from May 

 6th to May '28th, inclusive. 



Advantages and Disadvantages of Sec- 

 tional Hives.— J. E. Hand, after having 

 had sectional hives in use more than 20 

 vears, gives what appears to be a can- 

 did summing up of their merits and de- 



Death of Geo. H, Coulson. — On Sunday, 

 April 28th, at Cherokee, Okla., occurred 

 the death of Mr. Geo. H. Coulson, who, 

 for many years, has been widely known 

 as a progressive bee-keeper. Mr. Coul- 

 son was also well know-n politically, 

 having been a representative to Con- 

 gress both from Oklahoma and from 

 his old State, Kansas. The bee-keep- 

 ing public has sustained a great loss 

 in the death of Mr. Coulson. Our 

 heartfelt sympathy goes to the family 

 in its bereavement. 



Death of Mr. Thornton — On April 9, 

 1912, at North Yakima, Wash., occurred 

 the death of Mr. Jesse W. Thornton. 



Swarm and Apiary of S. J. Knox, Bower 

 Mills. Mo. 



