Septomber, 1912. 



American Hee Journal 



To prepare the sugar, I put the 

 quantity I want to give to a colony in a 

 common tin wash basin, and sprinkle 

 with warm water. I aim to get every 

 cube softened a little, but do not use 

 enough water to produce disintegration. 



When giving the sugar I take out the 

 chafif-cushion, then raise the back end 

 of the cloth covering over the brood- 

 frames, remove one or both of the 

 corn-cobs, dump the basin of sugar 

 right on top of the top-bars, so that the 

 pile shall come in contact with the 

 back side of the cluster, but mainly 

 towards the back end of the hive. This 

 is done to allure the bees in that direc- 

 tion, as the honey is generally in the 

 back end of the combs, if there is any 

 in the hives. One can, if he chooses, 

 put the sugar all over the top-bars, but 

 this, as a general thing, would call for 

 more sugar than is needed in this lati- 

 tude. All I want is enough to carry 

 the bees until the time arrives when it 

 is safe to use liquid feed, but this re- 

 quires more than the bees will actually 

 consume, as there should always be a 

 pile of some depth for them to work on. 



Leon, Iowa. 



The Situation in Iowa 



BY FR.\NK C. I'ELLETT, 

 Slate Inspector of Apiaries. 



Foul brood is now reported in 32 of 

 the 99 counties of Iowa. Both Euro- 

 pean and American foul brood are 

 present in the State, and in some places 

 both seem to be present in the same 

 county. As the legislature failed to 



Mr. I'KANK C. I'ELLETT. 



Iowa State Inspector of Apiaries. 



make a special appropriation for the 

 support of the ollice, and the only fund 

 available is the limited amount allowed 

 by the executive council, it is impos- 

 sible to do much work in the way of 

 actual inspection tiiis season. 



An extended correspondence is be- 

 ing carried on from the ofiice in an 

 effort to get full information as to the 

 extent and location of the disease. 

 Circulars are sent out calling attention 



to the provision of the law, and methods 

 of treating the disease. Where bee- 

 keepers are menaced by careless neigh- 

 bors, it may be possible to render some 

 assistance. 



The inspector, suggested the advis- 

 ability of adding bee-keeping to the 

 other courses at the State Agricultural 

 College, and in the extension work. 

 Both Prof. Kennedy, who is at the head 

 of the extension department, and Prof. 

 Summers, the entomologist, express 

 themselves as anxious to do anything 

 that the interest will justify. The news- 

 papers have given wide publicity to the 

 conditions as reported by this office, 

 and some have given editorial endorse- 

 ment to the proposed plans, so that it 

 now looks like it was "up to the bee- 

 keepers." 



It is hoped and e.xpected that the 

 next legislature will provide the means 

 to make the thorough inspection of all 

 colonies where the disease presents 

 itself. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



[We trust the bee-keepers of Iowa 

 will begin an active campaign to secure 

 help from the legislature as neighbor- 

 ing States have done. The Bee Journal 

 offers its co-operation. — Editor.] 



Improvement in Bees 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



Space in a bee-journal is too limited 

 to properly discuss so complex a ques- 

 tion as improvement of the honey-bee, 

 and I wish to make my position plain; 

 that I do not deny that it is possible, 

 while doubting that it has been, either 

 by lengthening the tongue, altering 

 their shape, decreasing their tendency 

 to attack persons and animals, and, 

 what is of vastly more importance, 

 eliminating the swarming instinct and 

 increasing their tendency to store 

 honey. Different persons have at vari- 

 ous times claimed these improvements 

 for the bee, just as others have followed 

 the dictum that the cellar is the only 

 place for the bees in winter, while at 

 least one prominent bee-keeper in a 

 cold clmiate has discarded a thousand- 

 dollar cellar to winter his bees out-of- 

 doors. I was laughed at because I 

 never liked a cellar; and now there is 

 a great revival of interest in the chaff 

 or protected hive. 



People run after crazes in the bee- 

 world as well as in other callings. In 

 the year l(l!H;, Peter the Hermit led half 

 a million women and children toward 

 Palestine to wrest the Holy Sepulchre 

 from the infidels; in the two hundred 

 years succeeding a million men per- 

 ished in the same useless effort. I have 

 only to recall to the mind of the stu- 

 dent the Black Tulip craze, the South 

 .Sea Bubble engineered by Law; the 

 persistent belief in the Divine Right of 

 Kings, and the old belief that slavery 

 was a Divine Institution, to revive 

 memory of an almost endless list of 

 frenzies which have held the minds of 

 people at different times. Now it seems 

 to be 'Improvement of Bees," and 

 while, as wife declares, 1 am prone to 

 trv new things, I hesitate to subscribe 

 to this. 



Man can argue onl> from what he 



knows. He may imagine strange 

 things, but, like dreams, all must be 

 founded on knowledge. We know not 

 how the bees and other insects com- 

 municate information to their kind, 

 though it seems that they do. Aside 

 from the raw fact, we know nothing 

 more about parthenogenesis than we 

 did at first. We are ignorant as to 

 when the male egg of the bee is ferti- 

 lized, while all knowledge of life tells 

 us it must be. It is claimed and de- 

 nied that the poison of the bee-sting is 

 formic acid, but, in all, about habits, 

 mentality, and a disposition to reason, 

 we must ever go back to what we know 

 about man for argument. Man is the 

 only intelli;^'e)itly industrious animal on 

 earth, but there are those who claim 

 that the liahit of industry can be devel- 

 oped in the bee. 



I believe, from present knowledge, 

 that mana};emetil has more to do with 

 surplus honey crops than the breed or 

 color of bees, and a very pertinent 

 illustration of this is a small book 

 issued by Mr. Doolittle a couple of 

 years ago, in which he details how he 

 got 114 pounds of honey to the hive 

 when his neighbors got none. If my 

 memory serves me, there was not a 

 word in the book as to the kinds of 

 bees used. It was all 7nanaffcment. A 

 letter from Mr. Darbishire, author of 

 " Heredity and the Mendelian Discov- 

 ery," confesses ignorance of the sub- 

 ject, but promises to let me know if he 

 finds out anything. 



What have we accomplished toward 

 a fermanenl improvement of this in- 

 sect in the past -Ml years ? A few men, 

 and some professional queen- rearers 

 claim much, but I defer vastly more to 

 the opinion of professional bee-keep- 

 ers ; and few, if any of them, seem to 

 be satisfied that anything has been 

 done. They all seem to hope for re- 

 sults by and by. 



Mr. Wesley Foster, in a recent letter 

 to me used the term, " Hand-picked 

 drones." I think the term original 

 with him, and it expresses better than 

 any other three words the vast diffi- 

 culty of trying to breed bees. 



While we always have had the bee 

 just as it is now, and especially that 

 branch known as the .///.•; family, we 

 can trace the development of some of 

 the domesticated animals through the 

 ages, as the horse, for we find the 

 bones of the original Eqitiis fossilized 

 in the rocks. The horse has devel- 

 oped from a little l!-toed (?) animal 

 about 18 inches high to what we have 

 now, but the knowledge of man goes not 

 back to the time when the bee was dif- 

 ferent from what it is now, excepting 

 that we have yellow Italians. Enthusi- 

 astic breeders of goldens make great 

 claims for them, but the verdict of the 

 bee-keeping world seems to be against 

 them as honey-gatherers and for hardi- 

 ness. 



Before the Langstroth liive was in- 

 vented there was but little talk of im- 

 proving the bee, and I suspect that 

 once more fiVeel is being taken for 

 cause, and that manaf;enienl as a factor 

 in securing a crop is ignored in an 

 effort to prove a claim. I know from 

 persistent observation that a colony 

 which gives a large surplus this season 

 may in subsequent seasons prove to be 

 of little value, and I have letters from 



