

^0dB^lCA^ 





43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, APRIL 30, 1903, 



No. 18. 



^ Editorial Comments. ^ | 



General 3Ianager N. E. France, of Platteville, Wis., wishes 

 us to say that he sent to each paid-up for 1903 member of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, one copy of " Bees and Horticulture." one 

 on legal rights of bee-keepers, and a sheet of 25 questions to be an- 

 swered and returned to him ; and to new members also a pin badge. 

 Since then there have been two bags of mail containing a lot of the 

 above lost in a train wreck, so if any paid-up member has not received 

 his package, and will notify Mr. France, he will mail another. 



How to Treat a Balled Queen. — At this time of the year 

 the novice will sometimes And upon opening a hive that the queen 

 is balled, although she has been in the hive tor a year. He is puzzled 

 to know why she is balled, and still more troubled to know what he 

 shall do. The best thing he can do is to do nothing. The bees have 

 balled their queen because disturbed by the opening of the hive — pos- 

 sibly they are balling her to protect her — and if the hive is imme- 

 diately closed there is little danger that any harm will come to the 

 queen. 



But it is another matter when you find a stranger-queen balled. 

 The probability is that the balling will continue till the queen is dead, 

 and your business is to get her out of the ball. Two things iloii'i do : 

 Don't try to pull the ball apart; and don't blow hot smoke upon the 

 ball. Either of these things will generally mean immediate death to 

 the queen. You may blow cold smoke upon the ball, holding the 

 smoker at a good distance, and at tirst it seems to have no effect; but 

 keep steadily blowing for some time, and gradually the bees will 

 loosen their hold and leave the ball, until the queen is left alone. 

 Possibly the better way is to drop the ball into water ; very soon each 

 bee will be trying to save itself. 



Establishing Distant <>iit-.\piaries.— The usual reason 

 for establishing out-apiaries is that without them the home-field will 

 be overstocked, and the nearer home the better so long as there is no 

 overstocking, unless a better field can be reached by going to a greater 

 distance. Of late there seems a tendency to favor the establishment 

 of out.-apiaries at great distances — a hundred miles or so from home — 

 even when the field nearer home is not overstocked. It frequently 

 happens that a certain location will give a fine harvest when a second 

 location at a distance yields nothing, although the pasturage is the 

 same in each, climatic differences accounting for the difference in 

 the yield. Another year the second Held may be the paying one while 

 the bees are starving in the first. If apiaries be established in both 

 places, one or the other will be likely to have its dish right side up. 

 and so if apiaries be established at a sufficient distance apart, and at a 

 sufficient number of points, there will be little danger of a total failure 

 in any given year. 



Possibly this establishment of apiaries at great distances may be ii 

 wise thing, but before acting upon it the question should be carefully 

 considered from all sides. Of course, it will cost much more to run 

 apiaries at greater distances, but if the total harvest be sufHciently 

 increased that will overbalance the cost. Suppose we have a home- 

 apiary and two out-apiaries, and siiiipose afield .50 miles north and 

 another 50 miles south, each exa. tly like the home field, and thai 

 every third year th«re is a total failure in each Held. The first year 



the failure is in the north, the second in the south, and the third at 

 home. Each apiary in a good year yields IU,000 pounds. 



Now, suppose the three apiaries are i)lanted in the home field, say 

 five miles apart. The first year will give 80,000 pounds of honey, the 

 second the same amount, and there will be nothing the third year — 

 altogether 60,000 pounds in the three years. Suppose, again, that one 

 of the out-apiaries is planted in the field ."lO miles north and the other 

 50 miles south. The first year is a failure at the north, but the other 

 two apiaries give 20,000 pounds. The second year gives 20,000 pounds 

 from the north and home apiary, and the third year gives 20,000 

 pounds from the north and south apiaries — no total failure in any one 

 year, but — we have no more in the three years by one plan than we 

 do by the other, just the 60,000 in the three years by either plan. 



Before deciding, the practical question is this: Will the advan- 

 tage of having the crop equally distributed over each year without 

 getting any greater total in the three years be sufficiently great to 

 balance the greater inconvenience and expense of the greater dis- 

 tances * 



Statistics of Bees, Honey, and Beeswa.x, in the Twelfth 

 United States Census Reports, are as follows: 4,109,626 colonies of 

 bees; with a value of 810,186.516. The total production of honey in 

 1900 was 61,196,160 lbs.; of beeswax, 1, "65, 315 lbs., which, together, 

 represented a value of 86,664,904. A grand total of §16,851,420. 



Bee-keeping isn't quite so small an affair as some people might 

 suppose. 



And it is increasing every year. 



The Arthur C. Miller Hive-Cover.— Within the past few 

 years — indeed, within the past year or two — there has been unusual 

 interest in the matter of improvement in hive-covers. Several new 

 ones have been listed by manufacturers, and individual bee-keepers 

 have done no little in discussing what constitutes a good cover, and in 

 experimenting with regard to the matter. Among others, Arthur C. 

 Miller, of Rhode Island, has been thinking to some purpose, and 

 writes : 



I have just made 25 new hive-covers. The top consists of four or 

 more narrow boards Ji' inch thick, tongued and grooved together. 

 These fit into end-pieces or cleats I'^'wide and grooved. Before the 

 grooved pieces are put on four or five thicknesses of newspaper are 

 laid on top, and a piece of thin cotton cloth stretched over all, and 

 held by three or four tacks. The paper goes only to the cleats, but 

 the cloth goes over the ends of the top boards. After the cleats are 

 on they are nailed from top to bottom, firmly fastening the upper and 

 lower parts together and holding the boards firmly. 



Next, the cloth is drawn tight at the edges, held by a few tacks 

 and a cleat nailed on. This makes a pretty stiff cover, which, owing 

 to the narrowness of the boards, can not " twist" much. 



The next step is to give the cloth a good coat of thlek flour-paste, 

 and it is allowed to dry a day, when it receives a coat of thick paint, 

 and later a second coat. This paste business is a trunk-maker's trick, 

 and a good one. The cloth so sized shrinks tight and takes less paint. 

 The paper makes a fine non-conductor, ahead of an air-space, and also 

 keeps the cloth free from the boards, so that no shrinking or swelling 

 wrinkles and cracks it. 



The paper part and the paste part I have tried and know about. 

 The only part I am not sure about is the " twist " element of the nar- 

 row boards. The covers cost me here ( without paint) 11 cents. 



Arthch C. Mii.i.er. 



Whether those 25 covers come up to expectations c«n perhaps be 

 told only after they have been in use five, ten, or more years, but 

 there certainly seem to be several good points worth ponsidering in 

 them. 



The use of paste means an important saving of paint. News- 

 papers themselves have been considered good non-conductors, and 

 several thicknesses of them with the air enclosed between them may, 

 quite possibly, be equivalent to the % air-space in double covers. 



