43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 16, 1903, 



No. 29. 





Editorial Comments 



J 



The Growth of Clover in northern Illinois this year is un- 

 precedented. A correspondent sends a head of ordinary white clover 

 measuring a full inch across, with a stem more than 15 inches in 



length. 



The Economy of Using Foundation, says Adrian Getaz in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, is not so much in the saving of honey that 

 would be used in secreting the wax as in the greater amount of stand- 

 ing room for the laborers. If a full sheet of foundation is given, 

 work may be commenced at once over its entire surface, while if no 

 foundation, or only a small starter be given, no work can be done on 

 any part of the comb till all above is built down. 



An Improvement in Smokers that will be appreciated by 

 many is worth mentioning. It is a common thing for the nozzle of a 

 smoker that has acquired some age to get to be something of a nui- 

 sance by becoming difficult to fasten on, and easy to tumble off. The 

 A. I. Root Co. are now making the nozzle, lid, or cover, to the smoker 

 something like the cover to the ordinary baking-powder can, the 

 cover tjeing hinged to the bellows-hoard. 



This makes a much more secure covering than the ordinary flaring 

 arrangement. Of course, however, it must be kept cleaned or there 

 will be trouble about the lit; but no amount of cleaning will make the 

 old flaring kind work to entire satisfaction. 



Young Queens and Swarming. — It is agreed on all hands 

 that a colony with an old queen is more likely to swarm than one with 

 a young queen, other things being equal. Whether the mere presence 

 of a young queen is sufficient entirely to prevent swarming is quite 

 another question, and upon this point opinions are divided. Editor 

 Hutchinson says: 



" Year after year have I proved the truthf uless of the theory that 

 the giving of a young queen before the swarming fever has developed, 

 will prevent swarming." 



On the other hand. Dr. Miller says that one year about the begin- 

 ning of the honey harvest, and before the development of the swarm- 

 ing fever, he supplied all the colonies of one apiary with youcfr 

 queens, but they swarmed. Some of the highest European authori- 

 ties hold that a colony will not swarm if it contains a young queen 

 reared in the colony itself. This, probably, may be generally relied 

 on, but some have reported exceptions. It would be interesting it 

 one could know what conditions or circumstances make such dilTt-r- 

 ences in results. 



Forming N'uolei. — H. L. Jones, the bright Australian queen- 

 breeder, gives in the Australasian Bee-Keeper the following plan : 



On the ninth day after preparing a batch of queen-cells I go to 

 the colony I wish to divide and remove the queen along with a frame 

 of bees and brood and make a nucleus of this. On the following day I 

 go to uiy batch of ripe queen-cells and place each one in a West queen- 

 cell protector, and then each cell-protector in a West spiral cage, first 

 securely closing the opening at the bottom of the spiral cage with 

 wax. Then I place say fovir of these in the queenless colony, one 



cage to each frame of brood. The next day there will be four young 

 queens in the hive, and all I have to do is to take away each frame of 

 ijees, brood, and queen, and a frame of honey placed in a nucleus, 

 release queen, and practically every bee will stay there as contentedly 

 as it they had swarmed there. I have made thousands of nuclei in 

 this manner, and it is far more satisfactory to me than any otberil 

 have ever tried. 



The essential feature in the case seems to be that the bees, on be- 

 ing moved to a new location, are accompanied by their ((ueen. Prob- 

 ably the same result would be obtained if the maturing cell were 

 caged in any kind of a wire-cloth cage. 



Abdouienless Bees is the strange heading of an editorial in 



Gleanings in Bee-Culture. At first thought it would hardly seem pos- 

 sible that by its own act a bee would actually tear itself apart, but 

 there seems no chance for mistake. The editor says : 



About the first of May, when spraying was being carried on by 

 some of our neighbors, I noticed hundreds and hundreds of our bees, 

 which had lost their abdomens, dropping down on the sidewalks, or 

 on bare spots of ground. In fact, such bees were scattered all over 

 everywhere, but they showed up more plainly, of course, on the side- 

 walks. These wriggling creatures, without their hinder parts, crawl- 

 ing around, keeling over and over, were, of course, very much out of 

 balance. They appeared greatly distressed. They would rush around 

 in circles, or tug with their hind legs at their abdomens as if there 

 were some pain or distress in that portion of their bodies. I was non- 

 plused. 



I watched the bees flying overhead, aud noticed the fact that they 

 were coming from the fruit-bloom, and I began to surmise that the 

 trees off in that direction had been sprayed with poisonous mixtures, 

 and that the trunkless victims on the sidewalk had come from them 

 direct. After watching in the air for some time I saw a bee suddenly 

 drop down, without its abdomen, and strike the sidewalk with a bound 

 and a whirl. I looked up again, and finally saw a bee Hying toward 

 me suddenly drop, whirling over and over, and land on its back, with- 

 out its abdomen. That this bee had been flying was very plain. When 

 I first saw it it was rolling over and over in the air. From some cause 

 or other it had lost its abdomen while on the wing; and at the precise 

 moment of losing it, it went keeling heels over head until it landed at 

 my feet. 



I then called the attention of our apiarist to the matter, and we 

 both got down on our hands and knees and watched. Finally, I saw 

 a bee tug away at its hind quarters until it actually, by the power of 

 its bind legs, tore its abdomen asunder at one of the segments or rings. 

 But in this case the separation took place, not at the waist, but mid- 

 way along the abdomen. A further search showed that other bees 

 were tugging away at their bodies, and had torn them loose in the 

 manner described. 



My theory was, the bees that had just come from the field were 

 suffering from poison, and that, while on the wing, they would tug 

 away at their bodies with their legs, and finally effect the separation 

 of the parts. We picked up a number of the victims with and without 

 the abdomen, and all of them apparently suffering. These were sent 

 to Prof. Frank Benton, Apricultural Expert at the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Washington. 



Dr. Wiley, the government chemist, made an examination to see 

 whether any trace of arsenic was present, as the presence of arsenic 

 would confirm the suspicion that the bees were poisoned by Paris- 

 green used in spraying fruit-trees when in bloom. Dr. Wiley reported 

 that arsenic was not present, but small amounts of copper were. This 

 points pretty plainly toward poisoning by Bordeaux mixture, the 

 principal ingredient of which is copper sulphate, or blue vitriol. Bor- 

 deaux mixture is used very commonly in spraying, perhaps more gen- 

 erally than Paris-green. 



The dying in such torture must have been a pitiable sight for one 

 who loves the busy little creatures, and makes one feel that there 

 should be a more determined effort than ever to have laws made ia 

 every State to prevent spraying fruit-trees when in bloom. 



