Oct. 1, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



6-ii 



Ionian city once called " the light of Asia." The Ephesian 

 coin engraved in Humphrey's " Coin Collector's Manual " — 

 representing the stag on the obverse, and the bee on the re- 

 verse — belongs, we are told, " to the finest period of the 

 monetary art as practiced at Ephesus, probably soon after 

 the invasion of Alexander, when the Greek cities of Asia 

 Minor were relieved from the thralldom of Persia." 



How one's fancy pictures forth the progress of that 

 ^Egean fleet ! What a dainty and delicate theme for poet 

 and painter ! A theme, indeed, to be expressed in the softest 

 and most exquisite of touches! And then, too, how the 

 mind pictures the end of that bright voyage, and fain would 

 believe that — 



" The melodies of birds and bees, 



The murmuring of summer seas, 



And pattering raiu and breathing dew, 



And airs of evening,''^ 



voiced their welcome to that Athenian band, who were 

 divinely led under the sweet guise of bees, by the daughters 

 of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. KaTK V. Austin. 



Wayne Co., Ind. 



( 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 



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

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





LATB CnRING OF FOUL BROOD. 



McEvoy's assertion that foul brood can be cured in 

 October by simple substitution of the combs, appears on 

 page 517. It helps a bad situation to the extent of giving 

 an alternative method. He thinks the new combs given 

 should be entirely full and capped, lest the bees store some- 

 where a patch of brought-along honey, and omit to use it out 

 again. 



He sometimes succeeds in increasing the total number 

 of colonies at the same time that he is effecting a cure. But, 

 say, I guess he ought not to encourage hopes in that direc- 

 tion on the part of the ordinary bee-keeper. O. b.-k. will 

 damage his prospects of curing in his lust for increasing, if 

 that flea is cultivated in his stocking. 



LAMBOTTE'S FOUL BROOD IDEA HIT HARD. 



Thos. Wm. Cowan's knockdown argument to Dr. Lam- 

 botte will bear repeating. Bacilius Mesentericus is every- 

 where. If it were the cause of foul brood we should hear 

 of foul brood wherever bees are kept. The fact is, that there 

 are many regions and countries which are clear of it. Page 

 519. 



RIGHT DRESS FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



" Eyes right, right dress 1 " Somebody shout that same 

 to some of the Brothers — considering the efforts the Sisters 

 are making to arrive at right dress. Page 520. 



BURNING OUT THE MOTH-WORM. 



So "Illinois ■' set fire to one of his hives in his vehe- 

 mence to be rid of the moth-worm. Ruefully admits that it 

 was hard on the bees, but seems not to consider that dous- 

 ing the establishment with lye would be a little hard, also. 

 When I hear of such strong measurers I think it most prob- 

 ably a case which had got beyond all remedial measures. 

 There is a time when the concern should be closed out. 

 Shake the remnant of poor, old, queenless bees into an 

 empty hive. Burn the rubbish in a fire, not in the hive, but 

 near by. Put the salvage in tightly closed quarters — which 

 must be looked over frequently, or it won't continue salvage 

 long. Page 521. 



HOME-MADE GRAPE-NUTS AND POSTUM. 



So bread soaked in honey and toasted brown in the oven 

 is Grape-Nuts ; and crust soaked in honey and toasted extra 

 brown is Postum. No danger of the former being worse 

 than the Grape-Nuts I tried to eat lately. I found Grape- 

 Nuts good when it first came out : so I guess it spoils quickly 

 with age (insoluble, and too hard), and that the grocer gave 

 me some that was too old. If we can make it ourselves we 

 can have it perfectly fresh ; and, perchance, that's about the 

 only way we can have it fresh in many cases. As I am a 

 regular health-food fiend, I should enjoy reading lots of 



actual experiences on this line. Guess the average reader 

 would tolerate some. Thanks to Mr. S. Trowbridge for 

 his lead-off in the matter. Page 524. 



THINKS ONE BACHELOR CAN'T COUNT. 



Near relation to the boy who saw 500 cats in the back- 

 yard, is Brother Beverlin, if we read him correctly on page 

 526. His lis swarms of bees at one time need counting by 

 a man who didn't have his hands in the single-blessedness 

 bread at the time. Thus, might we have a more cool, sober, 

 and reliable census. 



SPRING KILLING AND BALLING QUEENS. 



A. G. Young is right to caution about getting queens 

 balled and killed in early spring. (This last queer spring 

 seems to have cap-sheaf for such work.) We have most of 

 us practiced and recommended an early looking over of the 

 frames and a cleaning out of the' bottoms. I don't know 

 now whether that practice is to be recommended or repro- 

 bated. Page 526. 



REPRESSING THE SWARMING IMPULSE. 



Will foundation or comb do the more to repress the 

 swarming impulse ? Which, indeed 7 We know that abun- 

 dance of clean worker-comb right at hand is a strong re- 

 pressive. Can we quite say that we know that thing of foun- 

 dation ? I kind o' guess that for a few hours after being put 

 in foundation is />r(7Z'oca/zV^ — to become a repressive later 

 on when worked out. Half enough of either one thrust in 

 the heart of the colony — 'spects we don't quite know that 

 that is repressive at all. Page 531. 



THE UNCERTAIN DOINGS OF BEES. 



I've seen somewhere a vivid account of the interior of a 

 hive when bees were fanning and roaring by night. Each 

 bee full of nectar, and gently protruding a minute drop en 

 the end of the ligula and then drawing it in again, and so 

 on indefinitely. (May be it's romance I've picked up.) Sup- 

 pose there could be, by novel-writer's device, a hungry Lee 

 in such a hive. Then, suppose the hungry bee should flour- 

 ish her liquid and knock off one of those little protruding 

 drops — and, in defiance of all new laws, appropriate it her- 

 self. That would be bad, Mr. Arthur C. Miller. Bees are 

 so enterprising, so multiplex, so do-nothing-in variably, so 

 sure to be breaking out in a new spot, that I, for one, dec line 

 to take the risk of saying they never do a thing when that 

 thing is manifestly not impossible. Page 535. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





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

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



ReduclHS Number of Colonies. 



On page 573, Sept., 1902, you tell " Pennsylvania " how lo redu;e 

 the number of colonies in the fall. When you place the queenleis 

 colony on its own bottom-board over the " breeder," do you close up 

 the entrance of the top hive? Iowa. 



Answer. — No; the idea was to leave the entrance so the old b^es 

 could go back to their old place, leaving the younger bees in the naw 

 place. If, however, you wanted to have the older bees al>o used for 

 strengthening, it would be all right to shut up the entrance, of course 

 guarding against sulTocation. 



Slotted Sections— Bee-Keepers' Associations — Manage- 

 ment for Extracted Honey. 



1. Is there any advantage in the sections open four sides, or open 

 top and bottom only, or only on bottom? If there is any, what is it? 



2. Do you think a bee-keepers' association would help us any? 

 and how? 



3. What do you think of putting the extra story under the main 

 brood-hive to prevent swarming when running for extracted honey? 



4. Do you think they store any less honey? Virginia. 

 Answers.—]. I don't know whether sections open four sides are 



much used now, but at onetime it was claimed that with the four sides 

 open the bees would have more freu communication, and would fill out 

 the capping to the wood better. The few that I tried did not seem to 

 have this advantage. A section open top and bottom is absolutely 



