456 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 16, 1903. 



c 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New aod rnreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo. Ohio. 



PLACING COLONIBS IN THE SPRING. 



Uaexpected to me that a majority of the Wisconsins 

 favor taking^ the care needed to return bees to the same 

 stand as previous year, when taking them out of the cellar. 

 Pleasant surprise, however. I think the greatest advan- 

 tage of this is a personal and scientific one — get acquainted 

 with the individualities of the individual colonies better if 

 you always have them in the same place. Page 340. 



ODD FIXTURES IN THE APIARY. 



A. M. Gill strikes well for uniformity of fixtures when 

 he says : " O the exasperating bother, if a man wants a 

 super, and the first four or five he comes to belong in some 

 certain place ! Still this would apply mainly to keeping 

 hives that will not agree i}i numbers. Let the boys who 

 hanker after that sort of experience experiment with odd 

 ones, one or two of a kind. The odd fixture and no others 

 might be kept in a corner wholly their own. " Page 342. 



HIVING SWARMS FOR THE DEAR WOMEN. 



Dire situation to be in — and all mankind except we'uns 

 are liable to get into it ! Nice lady with a nice daughter, 

 and they beseech him to get down their swarm of bees from 

 an ugly place and hive it. Pause here, flippant bee-man, 

 and consider once such a fellow mortal's feelings. He would 

 rather participate in a battle ; but there stand the ladies. 

 Sweetly they stand in the unreason of womanhood. He 

 knows they are thinking, "Men hive bees and consider it a 

 mere trifle ;" and what man has done surely such a nice gen- 

 tleman ought to be able to "can do." He is afraid, to the 

 heart-sinking point; honestly has a right to be afraid, con- 

 sidering his ignorance, yet without any fault of his own he 

 must be cat's-paw to get the chestnuts out of the fire — or 

 say, get the little fiery, flying chestnuts down from the tree. 

 Page 345. 



THE FLOUR-MILL A CURSE TO BEES. 



And SO the Mill-Flower which flours night and day, 

 winters and all, is largely a curse when it flours neighbor 

 to an apiary. Must be allied to the Venus' Fly-Trap botau- 

 ically, seeing bees go into its flours and don't come out 

 again. Page 350. 



THOSE NON-SWARMING, FOUL-BROOD-PROOF BEES. 



Sad that Dr. Miller should have to lose his new strain 

 of non-swarming, foul-brood-proof bees I When florists 

 have a nice, new thing that will not produce seed they 

 propagate it from slips. Tell Dr. Miller to take those scis- 

 sors (well accustomed to such work) and snip ofi' one of the 

 queen's legs. Plant the leg in a tiny pot of royal jelly, and 

 try hard if influences can not be found stimulating enough 

 to make it grow. Faith says that when one mode of 

 propagation is denied another is supplied. Page 355. 



BEE-EXCRETIONS ON THE HIVE-VV.ALLS. 



I don't believe that poisonous excretions from bees ac- 

 cumulate from year to year in the wall of a hive. No 

 more in a board that has been a hive side for ten years than 

 in one only in use two years — my doctrine. However, the 

 idea may not be, so utterly absurd as at first it seems. 

 Seems at first like the alarm of anon-practical, professional 

 bogy-hunter, desperately hard up for a live bogy. Page 



THE VARIOUS STAGES IN BEE KEEPING. 



Yes, Mr. Morley Pettit, it's an era in the bee-boy's life 

 when he can first get stung without crying. Who knows 

 but we have seven eras, a la Shakspeare ? First, the fool 

 baby, escaped, and scooping bunches of bees into its mouth. 

 Second, the fool boy, on warpath, throwing clubs, or hero- 

 ically making a dash at the entrance with a shovel filled 

 with dirt. Third, the wise boy — reclaimed savage — anxious 

 to help, puffing at the smoker, and taking stings with 

 philosophy. Fourth, the youth, full of exploits, chasing 

 runaway swarms, and bringing difficult ones down. Fifth, 

 the fool man, inventing hives, and turning the bee-world 

 upside down. Sixth, the enlightened man, planting out- 



apiaries, and shipping his car-load of honey. Seventh — 

 same as all the other " lean and slippered pantaloon " 

 sevenths, except that in his whining he whines that the 

 younger generation are using all his wise ways and inven- 

 tions, and giving the credit all to somebody else. Page 

 356. 



\ ALUE OF REPORTING CONVENTIONS. 



The habit of attending conventions and reporting the 

 main points of value for some paper which may wish a re- 

 port, is praiseworthy. Especially wise is the reason — get a 

 clearer idea one's self what the really valuable things were 

 — and remember them far better. Page 355. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Brood Capplnss Gnawed Off. 



In looking into a colony of bees to-day, I found a good 

 many cells of sealed brood with caps gnawed off. Some of 

 the brood was nearly ready to hatch, but a good deal of it 

 was white. Fully half of the brood was thus gnawed. What 

 was the cause ? Can anything be done to stop it ? 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — Hard to tell without seeing it. Possibly it 

 is the work of the wax-worm. If so, the easiest way to pre- 

 vent it is to have strong colonies of Italian bees, for they 

 will keep the wax-worms out. 



Moving Bees 250 Miles on a Wagon. 



Desiring to move about SO colonies of bees some 250 

 miles by wagon, I would like to have you tell me whether, 

 in your opinion, they would go through all right if moved 

 in the month of October, when the weather is beginning to 

 get cooler, and when they are properly prepared with wire- 

 cloth over the entrances. At that time of the year the 

 brood would be nearly all gone in this locality. 



Colorado. 



Answer. — Yes, they ought to go all right. If just as 

 convenient, the spring-time would be better, because the 

 combs are lighter at that time, and spring is naturally a 

 better time to recover from the journey. But if the combs 

 are wired, or if they are old and tough, there ought to be no 

 trouble about their breaking out when heavy with honey in 

 October. Even in the cool weather of October, the shaking- 

 up of so long a journey may make it advisable to sprinkle a 

 little water on them once or twice during the journey. 



Queenless Bees— Queen in Supers. 



1. I have a colony that sent out a very small swarm 

 May 17. A few days ago I noticed the parent colony did 

 not seem very strong. I looked into the hive and found a 

 small amount of bees, and I think nearly half were drones 

 with no sealed brood or eggs. Do you think they are 

 queenless ? If so, what shall I do ? 



2. I have a colony that is strong and is working in the 

 supers. It sent out a swarm June 22, and after the swarm 

 went out I looked into the hive and found about one-half of 

 the sections filled with honey and the rest with brood. Now, 

 what was the cause of the queen going into the super ? and 

 what shall I do to prevent further trouble in that way ? 

 What can I do with the sections that have the brood ? 



Maine. 



Answers.— 1. They have been pretty certainly queen- 

 less five weeks or more, and having only a few workers, the 

 best thing you can do is to break up the colony, giving the 

 combs and bees to other colonies. 



2. The queen may have been crowded for room to lay 

 in the brood-chamber, or she may have gone into the super 

 to lay in drone-cells, if drone-comb was scarce in the brood- 

 chamber. A queen-excluder would prevent the queen from 

 going up into the super, but that is hardly necessary. If 



