296 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 7, 1903. 



a good queen and plenty to eat, is to tuck them up as 

 warmly as you can and let them alone until the weather 

 gets down to business. Yes, I know it is a big temptation 

 to the beginner to want to see how they are progressing. 

 You want to look them over about every day — better not. 

 You would not enjoy being pulled out of bed in the cold, 

 now would you ? 



A Bee-Keeping Sister in Texas. 



My bees are in better shape than they ever were at this 

 time of year ; they are storing honey and rearing brood, 

 and preparing to swarm. We are hoping and looking for a 

 great honey crop in dear, old Texas this year, and I trust it 

 will come up to our expectations. We have had so many 

 failures. 



I have received Dr. Miller's book, and must say that I 

 am delighted with it, and think every bee keeper should 

 have a copy. I wish to tell Dr. Miller how much I think of 

 his book ; it is a little gem, full of good things. If he has 

 any more that he is going to put on the market I want them. 

 I can read his book and feel as if face to face with the 

 writer. Bless him, what a struggle he had to get his college 

 course. How many of the young men of to-day would go 

 through such an experience for an education ? Lots of 

 them will not embrace the opportunity when everything is 

 paid for in advance. 



I am farming on a small scale, having about two acres 

 under cultivation. I am planting everything I can get seed 

 for. I get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and am out with 

 my bees by daylight. How I love to see them at work, and 

 the hum of the little bee is the sweetest of music to me. 



I have an acquaintance in Waxahachie who has about 

 15 colonies of bees, and I have tried so often to get him to 

 take some bee-paper, but he says, " My father had bees, and 

 he never read any bee-paper, and he was a good bee-man." 



I am 54 years old, and regret that so much of my life 

 had been spent before I went into the bee-business ; but I am 

 trying to get all the pleasure out of it I can. 



Ellis Co., Tex., April 6. Mrs. C. R. West. 



Glad to hear from you again, Mrs. West. I hope and 

 trust that you will not be disappointed, and that Texas will 

 give you a booming crop this year. I would not feel badly 

 if Illinois would do the same. 



Just talk about Southern people being lazy, will you ? 

 If they all follow Mrs. West's energetic example they surely 

 can never be accused of laziness. Up at 4 o'clock in the 

 morning ! Mrs. West, that's too early. You don't keep 

 that up as a steady diet, do you ? 



I * The Afterthought. ^ i 



SirT!rTr'trT«'TrT*'*r>rT!r*ri«'T«n!fTrT!r*r>?^ 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlassea. 

 By B. B. HASTY. Sta. B Rural, Toledo. O. 



DRONE-LAVING IN A QDEENLESS COLONY. 



When an idea is once established it is natural (perhaps 

 to some extent proper) that it should not disestablish itself 

 right at the word, " Simon says, ' Thumbs down.' " Only a 

 few years ago most of us thought that drone-laying in a 

 queenless hive was done by one bee masquerading as a 

 queen. Now, the opposite idea seems to be well supported — 

 laying by many workers at once. But I see Gleanings still 

 eats a grain of salt, to the effect that in some rare cases 

 there may be only one. Still, I guess we should mildly re- 

 press and reprove the old language, and get rid of it in due 

 time. Page 195. 



GETTING POLLEN OUT OF COMBS. 



Soak It half a day 



And wash it out with spray — 



To-wit, the surplus pollen encumbering combs. Presumably 

 there would be lots of little kinks of detail to be mastered, 

 but I guess the plan would work nicely when you got the 

 aforesaid kinks — unless it was consolidated (as I think old 

 pollen is very apt to be) by some organic growth working 

 through it. As to partly damaged pollen, I guess one 

 would have to tind out for himself in each individual case 

 whether it could be got out with spray fast enough to be 

 practical. In time past repeated soakings and waitings in 



warm weather, provoking the pollen to ferment and foam 

 itself out, have been mentioned, if I remember aright. 

 Page 196. 



UNITING A OUEENLESS COLONY WITH A WEAK ONE. 



J. A. Green is a brother of the O. K. brigade, and when 

 he says he learned long ago not to unite in spring a queen- 

 less colony with a weak colony having a queen, we wonder. 

 He ought to tell us some more about it — as that is one of 

 the things the books specially exhort us to do. 



The observation of queenless bees that lived over win- 

 ter and then on through nearly all that part of the year 

 when life is usually short, is an interesting observation. 

 Wonder what they did when Sept. 5 was passed — go off in a 

 company, or go out one by one to die, or individually try to 

 get themselves into some other colony and get killed ? 

 There is some possibility that this long life does not after 

 all represent the extreme of which they might have been 

 capable. Page 197. 



BUYING COMB HONEY TO GET THE PURE. 



So there are people who buy comb honey to be sure of 

 getting the real thing, and then melt it up to be rid of the 

 wax. Effective performance. More cash than faith they 

 seem to have. Still, if I was out of the business, longed for 

 a little liquid honey, couldn't get at an actual producer of 

 it — I believe I'm just fussy enough to do so, too, rather than 

 eat the running-at-large article. Page 200. 



BEES DOING THE OPPOSITE OF EXPECTATIONS. 



Bees always doing the opposite of what the keeper 

 wants them to do — and that's the reason Mr. Broderick 

 views Cuban bee-keeping as a terrible nightmare he has 

 just escaped from. Well, our bees swarm when we don't 

 want them to, and refuse to swarm when we do want them 

 to — and oft omit the little matter of storing surplus, con- 

 cerning which our feelings are decidedly strenuous. 'Spects 

 the " hoss " is of the same breed as here, only the pace a 

 little more rapid. Page 204. 



BEES HANGING OUT WHILE SWARMING. 



Rather queer and exceptional for bees to hang on the 

 front of their own hive and let a swarm come out from 

 within without joining it. Usually the swarming rush is 

 very communicable indeed. Likely they had been right 

 there for days, had a queen with them, and were playing 

 that they were an out-door colony in Java — and these things 

 may partly account for their abstention — terminated by the 

 queen's refusing to play any longer, and going inside. 

 Page 204. 



THE AIKIN "HONEY-BOLOGNA." 



Yes, we must stand by Mr. Aikin's honors in the mat- 

 ter of the honey-bolognas. Whenever any new thing makes 

 a stir in the world the fellow always turns up who invented 

 all that and more, too, long, long ago — but we'll turn him 

 down. Of what use, pray, might a paper package of honey 

 be in the dreamy brain of somebody ? The man who works 

 things out, and tights them out, and trots them out, he's 

 the fellow. Presumably, hundreds of people before Fulton 

 invented steamboats ; but what good did their steamboats 

 do? Page 211. 



ALFALFA AND BEEF PER ACRE. 



Aha ! It's not after all the most beef per ton, but the 

 most beef per acre that the farmer wants to get out of the 

 alfalfa. (Juite an important turn in our favor. When the 

 growth is cut in the first glint of bloom a lot of the beef is 

 left down in the bowels of the earth yet. Hay nice, but too 

 little of it. Page 211. 



Honey as a t1ealth°Food is the name of a 16- 

 page leaflet (3,!^x6 inches) which is designed to help in- 

 crease the demand and sale of honey. The first part is 

 devoted to a consideration of " Honey as Food," written 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller. The last part contains " Honey-Cook- 

 ing Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey." It should be 

 widely circulated by every one who has honey for sale. It 

 is almost certain to make good customers for honey. We 

 know, for we arc using it ourselves. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample for 2 cts.; 10 for 10 cts.; 25 

 for20cts.; SO for 35 cts.; 100 for 65 cts.; 250 for $1.50; 500 

 forS2.75: 1000 for $5.00. If you wish your business card 

 printed at the bottom of the front page, add 25 cts. to your 

 order. 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth working 

 for. Look at them. 



