:>G6 



September, 1912. 



American ISee Journal 



iiinisual. As soon as the victim is dead, the 

 philauthus beitins a most elaborate system 

 of massaee. manipulating the abdomen of 

 the Ijee until, drop by drop, all the honey 

 that was in the abdomen is squeezed out of 

 the mouth of the corpse, the murderer 

 eagerly sucking up every drop of the sugary 

 juice. The process is continued until every 

 (irop is sciueezed out of the body of the bee. 

 It is an atrocious meal, but it clears up one 

 mystery— the honey eating philanthus is not 

 an eater of flesh, only of the nectar that has 

 already been collected by the bee. 



" But the philanthus does not need to re- 

 sort to this theft in order to obtain nectar; 

 it is as well provided for as the honey-bee 

 itself. Scarcely would it risk death from 

 the bee's sting in order to secure that which 

 could be obtained without danger. The 

 mother insect has other duties beside food: 

 slie has to provide for her offspring. When 

 an investigation into the habits of the larva 

 was made, it was ascertained that, like 

 many other insect larva?, it must have flesh 

 to feed upon. Experiments made by Fabre. 

 proved that even the very smallest amount 

 of honey is poisonous to the larva? of the 

 honey-eating philanthus. and that the brutal 

 slaughter of the honey-bee and the elaborate 

 precautions made to exude every drop of 

 honey fr.^m the abdomen were the only 

 means whereby the insect mother could 

 provide food for her little ones. 



"All sorts of insects prey upon others to 

 provide food, not only for themselves, but 

 for their larvK. but as far as known this is 

 the only insect which prolits in this peculiar 

 manner, securing food for itself by means 

 of the stores of nectar while it is preparing 

 the body of its prey for its young." 



devoted to the report of the lecturer in 

 apiculture, Mr. Morley Pettit. The 

 college apiary contained 4.5 colonies, 

 and the student membership of the 

 "apiculture club" was over 100. 



Producing, Preparing, Exhibiting and 

 Judging Bee-Produce.— We have upon 

 our desk a book with the above title, 

 by W. Herrod, Esq., junior editor of 

 the British Bee Journal. It is a splen- 

 didlv composed work, with 131 illus- 

 trations, exhibiting the best methods 

 of preparing bee-produce for Fairs. 



As the publisher avers, " The show 

 bench is the best means of creating a 

 market for the produce of the apiary." 

 It has been used to the utmost in Eng- 

 land. It should be used more here. 



The book treats of all the products 

 of the apiary, both comb and extracted 

 honey, vinegar and mead, cakes, coii- 

 fectionery, medicines. A chapter is 

 devoted to observatory hives and ap- 

 pliances, anotlier to packing, etc. 



The book has 168 pages, and sells at 

 2 shillings. We believe it would be 

 well worth the money to many of our 

 readers. Copies could be secured 

 through this office, if desired. . 



Bee-Stings for Rheumatism.— Mr. John 



Bachmann, of Bass, Mo., some 20 years 

 ago suffered acutely with inllammatory 

 rheumatism in both arms and hands. 

 His doctor had told him that he could 

 never be cured. He read in the St. 

 Louis Globe-Democrat about bee-stings 

 being a cure for this trouble. So he 

 bought some bees and went to work 

 with them, and secured plenty of stings. 

 He was cured in a few days, and al- 

 though the disease has a tendency to 

 reappear, he can always stop it with 

 bee-stings. He was present at the 

 Missouri meeting, and was as able- 

 bodied as any man of his age. He is 

 6') years old. 



M. E. Darby, the State Inspector, re- 

 ported a similar e.xperience, although 

 with him the disease was not so acute, 

 as he is a much younger man. 



Ontario Experimental Farm. —The an- 

 nual report of this farm is on our desk. 

 It contains 278 pages, and is replete 

 with information. Some li pages are 



An English Apiarist Appointed in 

 Canada.— Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, F. H. S., 

 of Ripple Court, near Dover, has been 

 appointed Assistant in Apiculture to 

 the Dominion Entomologist. Mr. Sla- 

 den is the author of a booklet entitled, 

 " The Humble-Bees," written when he 

 was only 1(1 years of age, and it is said 

 that this work shows an acquaintance 

 with the subject " far beyond his years." 

 His work on " Queen-Rearing in Eng- 

 land " originally appeared in the British 

 Bee Journal in liH)4, and was published 

 in book form 100.5. Mr. Sladen is 36 

 years of age. We welcome him to ac- 

 tive work on the Western Continent. 

 Men like him are needed everywhere. 



of the American Bee Journal, as well 

 as all who knew Mr. Walker, goes to 

 the family in their bereavement. 



^ 



Meeting of Kansas Bee-Keepers. — Mr. 



J. J. Measer, in charge of the honey 

 and bee exhibit of the Kansas State 

 Fair at Hutchinson, Kan., has arranged 

 for a bee-meeting to be held on Sept. 

 19, immediately after the awards are 

 made. All bee-keepers in attendance 

 at the fair, or who can possibly arrange 

 to be present on Sept. 19, should not 

 forget this meeting. It is hoped there 

 will be a large attendance. 



Death of Mr. Walker. — We regret to 

 report the death of Mr. Byron Walker, 

 of Cicero, 111., formerly of Clyde, 111., 

 which occurred July 2.5. He had been 

 in failing health for some years. Mr. 

 Walker, when in his prime, was a very 

 large bee-keeper, raising both comb 

 and extracted honey. The sympathy 



A Distinguished Apiarist Mr. Anto- 

 nio Biaggi, of Fedevilla, Switzerland, 

 on the Italian slope of the Alps, has 

 been successfully rewarded for exhibits 

 of bees in Berne, in Liege, in Geneva, 

 in St. Louis, and later in Frankfort. 

 Surely, very few men can boast of such 

 a record in bee-exhibits. 



-^ 



Death of Dick Lankenau. — Missouri 

 bee-keepers will be sorry to hear of the 

 death of Mr. Dick Lankenau, of Seda- 

 lia. He was accidentally killed while 

 supervising the repairing of a well 

 pump on his farm. Death occurred 

 almost instantly. 



BEE-t^EPiNG ^ For W0I4EN 



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



She Can Keep Bees, Why Not Let Her 

 Vote? 



In the columns of the Country Gen- 

 tleman is reported "the case of a smil- 

 ing, white-haired old lady who lives 

 away up in the mountains of western 

 North Carolina, in that country which 

 the railroad people call the ' Land of 

 the Sky,' and who has kept bees for the 

 past 20 years. Despite the fact that 

 she has been making from $2000 to 

 $.3000 annual income from her colonies 

 for years, the little, old lady will tell 

 you that if she were not (15 years old 

 she would show folks what real bee- 

 keeping is. She has never had a case 

 of foul brood, and but little bee-paraly- 

 sis, which she quickly stamped out. 

 She has had but two honey failures 

 during her experience, in one of which 

 she still managed to pull out $450 

 ahead; and she generally puts on the 

 market between 0000 and 12,000 pounds 

 of honey a year from her 120 colonies. 

 Last season, she stated, was a fair one, 

 her colonies averaging 7.5 pounds of 

 honey each, with several producing as 

 high as KiO. Prices usually range 

 about 20 cents a pound, a figure which, 

 she says, could be greatly increased if 

 she were able to go into the marketing 

 end of the business properly." 



Now, isn't that an argument for the 

 suffragists? Why shouldn't a woman 

 vote that can do things after that fash- 

 ion ? Is there any mere man who ever 

 secured $3000 for a crop of honey from 

 120 colonies? If there is, please trot 



him out. "Prices usually range about 

 20 cents a pound," but there must have 

 been one year wlien the honey brought 

 25 cents, for it would need that price 

 to make 12,00o pounds amount to $3000, 

 But there's no need to quibble about 

 getting 25 cents a pound from the na- 

 bob neighbors of those North Carolina 

 mountains. Fortunately the name and 

 exact address are not given, else that 

 locality would surely be overstocked 

 by the rush of bee-keepers to locate 



there. 



♦-•-^. 



Swarm Prevention by Dequeening~Re- 

 queening by the Paper Plan 



Here is one of the ways that the 

 swarming nuisance is dealt with in 

 this locality. 



When a colony swarms, or seems de- 

 termined to swarm, tlie queen is re- 

 moved, and it is left queenless for a 

 period of 10 days, then its own queen 

 may be returned — if it has an unusually 

 good queen it probably will be returned 

 — but, in that case, we are not sure 

 that it will not swarm again during the 

 season, and it must be looked after. If, 

 however, in place of its own queen we 

 give it a queen of the current season's M 

 rearing, we feel safe as to its swarm- H 

 ing again. After the queen is safely 

 introduced the word " I'.sss" is written 

 in the record book, and that colony 

 needs no further attention for the rest 

 of the season except to attend to its 

 supers. 



A common plan of procedure has 



