October, 1912. 



American ^Bee Journal j 



299 



as if the next move would be to go off 

 for good. So it was hived, and a frame 

 of brood was given to it. Soon after 

 being put on its stand the swarm came 

 out again and returned to its old liive — 

 all but a few bees which stayed on the 

 frame of brood, making a nucleus to 

 which a virgin was given 3 days later, 

 and today she is busy laying eggs. A 

 few days later a young queen was 

 found laying in No. ID, and she was 

 promptly clipped. 



It would seem that No. I'J had no no- 

 tion of going off any of the time, but 

 was only making believe so as to 

 frighten us. 



No. .'3:! swarmed and its clipped queen 

 disappeared. Five days later a young 

 laying i|ueen was dropped on one of 

 the combs among the bees. A rather 

 reckless way of introducing, but when 

 there is a good flow of nectar it is 

 often successful. Three days later 

 neither eggs nor queen were found in 

 the hive, and a lot of queen-cells had 

 been started. It was marked queen- 

 less in the book, and a virgin was 

 given, When she was old enough to 

 be laying, plenty of eggs were found, 

 and search was made for the queen so 

 as to clip her. But when she was found 

 she was already clipped. Clearly the 

 laying queen that was dropped on the 

 comb had not been killed, but had re- 

 mained in the hive 3 days or more 

 without laying. Was she hidden in 

 some corner of the hive chuckling to 

 herself when the fruitless search for 

 eggs was made ? 



Of course, the virgin queen had been 

 killed, but if the laving queen had not 

 been clipped the mistake might have 

 been made of supposing that the virgin 

 had succeeded in introduction. 



European Foul Brood 



A bee-keeping sister who has a little 

 European foul brood in her apiary de- 

 sires to know whether we still prefer 

 to treat that disease by temporarily 

 stopping brood-rearing rather than by 

 melting up the combs. Yes, we do. We 

 have returns of the disease after such 

 treatment, but so we did when we 

 brushed the bees upon foundation and 

 melted up the combs. But if watched 

 reasonably close no case ever becomes 

 very bad. One of the most important 

 things in the treatment is to make sure 

 that the colony is made slio?iff, either 

 by uniting colonies or by giving frames 

 of sealed brood from healthy colonies ; 

 of course, unless the colony is already 

 strong. No use trying to do anything 

 with a weakling. The queen may be 

 killed, and, at the same time, with 

 proper precautions, a queen-cell or a 

 just-hatched virgin of very best stock, 

 Italian preferred, may be given, and 

 the bees will do the rest. If there are 

 only a few bad cells in the hive, and a 

 vigorous queen is present, the queen 

 may be caged in the hive for 8 or 10 

 days and freed at the end of that time, 

 all queen-cells being killed. 



Last year every case was thus treated, 

 even if only a single bad cell was found 

 in the hive. This year there are about 

 a third as many cases as last year, so 

 the matter does not look hopeless. Of 

 course, we cannot tell how many or 

 which cases came from diseased colo- 



nies outside, and which from'germs 

 within their own keeping. 



It is proper to remark that we have 

 had several cases with only a very few 

 bad cells in the hive where the bees 

 have cleaned it up without any killing 

 or caging of the queen. 



Dandelion 



HV NELLIE .\l. GARAHKANT. 



[To get the full effect of the follow- 

 ing dainty bit of verse, read it aloud: — 

 Editor.] 



There's a dandy little fellow 



Who dresses all in yellow- 

 In yellow with an overcoat of green; 



With his hair ail crisp and curly. 



In the spring-time, bright and early. 

 Atripping o'er the meadow he is seen. 



Through all the bright, spring weather. 

 Is seen his yellow feather. 

 As he wanders o'er the hillside down the 

 road. 

 In mossy hollows damp. 

 Where the gypsy fire-flies camp. 

 His companions are the woodlark and the 

 toad. 



Spick and spandy little dandy. 

 Golden dancer in the dell ! 



Green and yellow happy fellow. 

 All the children love him well. 



But at last this little fellow. 



Doffs his dandy coat of yellow. 

 And very feebly totters o'er the green— 



For he very old is growing. 



And with hair all white and flowing, 

 A-nodding in the sunlight he is seen. 



The little winds of morning 



Come a-flying through the grass. 

 And clap their hands around him in their 

 glee. 



They shake him without warning— 



His wig falls off. alas ! 

 And a little bald-head dandy now is he. 



Oh. poor dandy, once so spandy, 

 Golden dancer on the lea! 

 Older growing, white hair flowing. 

 Poor little bald-head dandy now is he '. 



— Canadian Bcc Journal. 



A Swarmy Season 



In nurtliern Illinois the season of 

 1!I12 has been perhaps the swarmiest 

 on record. No doubt the heat coupled 

 with the great dampness had something 

 to do with it. When a young queen is 

 reared in a hive and begins laying, we 

 figure that there is no need to count on 

 any swarming from that hive before 

 the ne.xt year. 



Well, this year we had two cases in 

 which a young queen was reared in the 

 hive and began laying beside her 

 mother, and yet those young queens 

 issued with swarms. It was not be- 

 cause these two queens were reared so 

 early, for a queen reared very early 

 may be counted somewhat as a queen 

 reared the previous year. In No. 7 the 

 young queen did not begin laying until 

 after June 11, In No, G4 the young 

 queen did not begin laying until after 

 July 11. And yet that miserable young- 

 ster came off with a swarm Aug. 26. 



It seems that there has been trouble 

 elsewhere with swarming. In the 

 British Bee Journal is given the follow- 

 ing case of one of the British sisters: 



" A lady began bee-keeping with a 4-pound 

 swarm, hived on May 20 on eight sheets of 

 foundation. As the queen was not fertile a 

 week later, two frames of brood were given 

 to the colony. By June 28 the queen had 

 filled every available cell with brood and 

 the bees began a case of sections. On July 

 12 a 5-pound swarm issued from the hive, 

 and as the honey season was considered at 

 an end it was not returned, but placed in a 

 new hive on six sheets of foundation and 

 one frame of brood. 



The next day, the 14th. was very hot. and a 

 splendid honey day. and. strange to say. the 

 bees of this last swarm must have made up 

 their minds to give off a swarm for this is- 

 sued on the iQth, leaving three frames of 

 bees, an abundance of eggs, and four queen- 

 cells, some of them containing larvce appar- 

 ently two days old. This small colony was 

 given a frameof broodand a ripe queen-cell 

 and will doubtless soon become a vigorous 

 colony, 



I need hardly say. perhaps, that the 

 queens which have played these "pranks" 

 and their relatives will be dethroned before 

 the winter. 



Emi Western W) Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



More About Co-operation and the Middle- 

 man 



In my small article on beekeeping and 

 accounting in comment on Mr, Foster's arti- 

 cle in the .June issue of the Bee Journal, 1 

 seem to have started something. 



I had no idea I was so far behind the times. 

 In my simplicity I had taken for granted 

 that the principles of accounting applied 

 equally to all other business as well as the 

 retail lumber business. But, according to 

 ^Ir, Foster, it can not be fairly applied to 

 bee-keeping. Again I learned that I was en- 

 tirely wrong in figuring the labor account in 

 bee-keeping. Instead of charging the bees 

 with only the actual time for the work of 

 caring for them. I should have followed the 

 example of the "Professional Snow Shov- 

 eler," who, on account of making a living 

 for himself and family, insisted on charging 

 prices accordingly for the few days he did 

 have work at his trade in this climate. 

 There is one matter mentioned by Mr. Fos- 

 ter on which we seem to agree, that is where 

 he marketed his honey direct to the con- 

 sumer, and made him pay an additional 

 price for the completed service, a thing 

 which, when done in part by the middle- 

 man, is quite generally regarded as a seri- 



ous offense against morals, and the vested 

 rights of the producer and consumer. 



But these few cases of getting the goods to 

 the consumer mentioned by Mr, Foster 

 were easy. Take the case of the Iowa 

 farmer, wanting a couple of boards from 

 Washington to repair his hay-rack, or one 

 piece of oak from Arkansas to repair his 

 machine, or one thin poplar board from 

 Tennessee to fix something about the house. 

 Even that panacea for all the ills of the 

 markets, the parcels post, with all its possi- 

 bilities of graft and subsidy, would do no 

 good. .After working the telephone to all 

 the neighboring towns, in the hopes of salv- 

 ing a nickel, he would still have to knuckle 

 to the conscienceless " lumber trust." in the 

 person of the retail dealer, as the cheapest 

 source of supply. 



This question of doing away with the mid-t 

 dleman is as old as the oldest recorded 

 human history. It seems to be one of the 

 unsolved problems comingdown through all 

 recorded time. If there is any cheaper way 

 to accomplish the services oerformed by the 

 middleman, it surely would have been found 

 by this time. To all appearance he will be 

 with us up to the time when the producer 

 and consumer shall have no further occa- 

 sion to produce and consume In the mean- 



