43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 9, 1903. 



No. 28. 



( 



Editorial Comments 



) 



The Value of a Purchased Queen is not a thing always 

 readily determined. It you get a queen represented to be of the best 

 stock, and you do not find her to do as good work at laying as your 

 average colonies, do not be in haste to condemn her. Rear queens 

 from her, and see what their worth will be. Sometimes it happens 

 that a queen, which has been doing excellent work, turns out after a 

 journey in the mails to be a very poor layer. That, however, may 

 have no real bearing on her value as a breeder, and young queens 

 reared from her may be as good as if she had never been in the mail- 



Self-Spacing Frames may and may not be a good thing. As 

 in other things, something depends upon the purpose for which they 

 are used, and the management. In the present number Leslie Burr 

 enters an earnest protest against them for use in extracted-honey pro- 

 duction. In his case the exception is well taken. Whether to be 

 used in Cuba or further north, frames that are to be used part of the 

 time at one distance and part of the time at another, should not be 

 self-spacing. For the term " self-spacing " may be considered prac- 

 tically synonymous with " fixed-distance," and such frames are not 

 desirable to be used except at the one distance suggested by the ar- 

 rangement for automatic spacing. For those, however, who use the 

 same spacing in the extracting-super as in the brood-chamber, or 

 whose extracting frames are distinct from the brood-frames, as welj 

 as for comb-boney producers, fixed-distance frames offer advantages 

 not lightly to be esteemed. 



Something About Average Yields Per Colony.— There 



is no question that there is such a thing as overstocking, and that in 

 general the yield per colony will be increased by decreasing the num- 

 ber of colonies kept. In a place where white clover is the chief pas- 

 turage, there might be enough to keep a hundred colonies busy while 

 the white clover bloom lasted. Suppose each colony should store 100 

 pounds from white clover. Under the supposition that each colony 

 had all it could do, the yield of white clover honey would not he at all 

 increased per colony if any smaller number than 100 colonies were 

 kept. Whether 100 colonies be kept, or only a single colony, the 

 number of pounds of clover honey gathered by each colony would be 

 the same, although the total crop would be decreased in proportion to 

 the decrease of colonies. 



But on the supposition that 100 colonies could keep all the clover 

 nectar licked up, then 101 colonies could not average as many pounds 

 as 100. Not only that, but there would be an actual falling off of the 

 total crop, by the amount of honey used by the additional colony tor 

 its own consumption. If, now, we keep increasing the nunjberof 

 colonies, we will keep decreasing both the total yield and the yield 

 per colony, until we reach that point where there will not be a drop 

 of surplus, the bees requiring all they gather for their own consump- 

 tion. 



But another factor comes in to be considered — the scattering 

 honey-plants aside from the clover. Under some conditions these 

 will make so little difference as to be scarcely worth considering, while 



under other conditions they may make such a notable difference as to 

 mislead the novice greatly. Suppose these scattering plants give a 

 continuous yield throughout the whole season — say five months — but 

 suppose the yield so small that two colonies can take care of the whole 

 of it. If these two colonies are all that are on the field, then instead 

 of being limited to about five weeks on the clover, they will have five 

 months in which to store, or tour times as long. Each one ought 

 then to store four times as much as it confined to the clover, or 400 

 pounds. 



Right here is where the novice is misled, for he is pretty sure to 

 figure that with ten times, or fifty times, as many colonies he will have 

 ten or fifty times as much surplus. Whereas, as soon as his apiary of 

 two colonies is increased to six, he will find his average yield per 

 colony just cut in two, and constantly diminishing with further in- 

 crease. 



Bees Poisoned by Yellow Jessamine. — C. S. Harris has a 

 location in Florida where this plant is abundant, in several places 

 covering nearly an acre of ground, and he says in the American Bee- 



When I began keeping bees here and discovered, in the spring, 

 great numbers of bees dying and dead in front of the hives, I sup- 

 posed they were stricken with paralysis, and yet the symptoms did not 

 appear exactly like those of that disease. Most of the affected were 

 the just-hatched, downy ones, and they had no trembling motion, but 

 seemed stupefied or intoxicated. The old bees affected had the dis- 

 tended, shiny appearance of bee-paralysis, it is true, but ordinarily 

 they were few, except in queenless colonies, or where, for any reason, 

 but little brood was being reared. Very fortunately the queens are 

 seldom affected. 



After a few seasons I found that this trouble made its appearance 

 with the jessamine bloom, from which the bees stored some honey and 

 considerable pollen, and disappeared entirely with the end of that 

 bloom. One point that made this more noticeable was that the blos- 

 soming of this vine is a movable period, varying with the season from 

 December to March, and even April, remaining in bloom from four 

 to six weeks. I have discussed this trouble with several physicians, 

 and all of them say it is undoubtedly jessamine poisoning, having 

 almost the same action upon the bee as the poison extracted from the 

 root of the vine has upon the human system. 



Formaldehyde. — An al-de-hyde isan«?-cohol (Zf-/ij/rfrogenated, 

 and, as a rule, an alchol is transformed into aldehyde when it loses 

 two atoms of its hydrogen. Methyl alcohol (C H3 O H) when de- 

 prived of H becomes C H O H, called formic aldehyde, because it 

 very readily changes to formic acid (C H O O H). Shortening the 

 term "formic aldehyde,'' we have f'trmaldehyde. It is largely used 

 under the name of formalin, which is a 40 percent preparation put up 

 by the Schering Chemical Works. It is probably the most destructive 

 germicide known, although having little effect upon animals or man, 

 the fumes being breathed, it is claimed, with little inconvenience. 

 Yet it can hardly be a wholesome article of diet, tor the doctors of 

 Chicago object bitterly to its use in milk to keep it from souring, say- 

 ing that such milk is death, slow but sure, if continuously fed to 

 babies. 



It must not be understood that formalin is a cure for foul brood. 

 All that is claimed for it is that by its use foul-broody combs may be 

 disinfected so that they may be safely used in a healthy colony. Even 

 this is a very important matter, as thousands of dollars have probably 

 been heretofore lost by the burning of such diseased combs. 



The combs are submitted to the effect of the gas, and the most 

 convenient way to use it is probably by means of formalin pastils 



