Dec. 17, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



807 



pollen not closely related, would not cross with any other, 

 even a variety of the species. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON AMENDMENTS. 



Mr. Marks— On behalf of the Committee on Amend- 

 ments, I beg leave to report the following- amendments to 

 the Constitution, in accordance with Article IX of the Con- 

 stitution : [These appeared on page 595, and as they are of 

 special interest only to members of the Association, and as 

 they will get them in thecieneral Manager's Annual Report 

 this month, we do not give them again here. — Editor.] 



E. T. Abbott also handed to the Secretary copies of 

 some amendments which he desired to have submitted to 

 the membership of the Association at the next election. 

 Owing to strenuous objection being made on account of 

 their not having been presented to the Committee on 

 Amendments, Mr. Abbott relieved the Secretary of them. 

 During this part of the last session there was considerable 

 wrangling, after which a special committee was appointed 

 to determine what action should be taken in regard thereto. 

 A recess was declared, at the close of which T. O. Andrews, 

 secretary of the committee, being called on, said : " We 

 beg leave to report that we recommend adjournment at 

 once." On motion, the report was adopted, and the con- 

 vention adjourned to meet in 1904, at the call of the Execu- 

 tive Committee. 



[ Our Bee-Heepin§ Sisters) 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Sister's Experience With Bees. 



I have had a good deal of experience in keeping bees. I 

 like the Bee Journal very much, and keep them all in a bos. 

 I have never read nor seen any bee-books. I do almost all 

 the taking care of the bees and honey. I had 34 colonies 

 last spring, and increased 16. I prevent my bees from 

 swarming, and run them for comb honey. I have had good 

 sale for all the honey my bees have gathered. I have had 

 a bountiful crop this year. Two years ago a swarm came 

 to my bee-yard from parts unknown, and they gathered 271 

 pounds of surplus comb honey this year. 



I like the Sister's department very much. I think it 

 should be made into a book, so that it will be a record left 

 after we are gone to " the other shore." 



This winter I will give you a correct answer of the 

 humming of the bees in the cellar. 



I have been keeping bees for 20 years. My husband 

 made all the bee-hives and started me in the bee-business. 



Iowa. Catherine Wainright. 



Are you not making a mistake in not having a bee- 

 book ? If you have done so well without a book, might you 

 not do enough better with it to pay the price of a book 

 several times ? Remember that a bee-paper is not intended 

 to take the place of a bee-book, but to supplement it. 



Queen Questions — Italian Bees. 



The Bee Journal is a source of weekly pleasure to me, 

 which I would not care to be without. I enjoy reading the 

 Sisters' letters very much — they are interesting, having so 

 many different experiences. 



I now have S colonies, which are in a very flourishing 

 condition. One is a pure Italian, and the other 4 a first 

 cross, or half-bloods, I think. 



-■^»; I did not get very much honey the past summer, for I 

 was anxious to build up and increase, but next year my 

 bees ought to repay me, as I am in a good locality for them. 

 Here in California the bees are wintered on the summer 

 stands, and there are very few days, the year round, when 

 they are not doing something. Nearly each month of win- 

 ter there are some flowers blooming. 

 I should be glad to have these questions answered : 



1. When a queen is superseded, can the bees rear as 

 good a queen from her eggs as from eggs of a younger 

 queen ? 



2. Are Italian drones always yellow, or are they some- 

 times black ? 



3. Would the journey from New York State to Califor- 

 nia shorten the life of a queen-bee ? 



4. Are Italian bees always yellow ? and do the bands 

 merge, or are they separated by a black band ? 



5. I bought two Italian queens (Doolittle's goldens) ; to 

 one I gave young bees just hatching, and it built up into 

 my most populous colony. The second one I introduced as 

 per directions. Last month she died, leaving a young 

 queen and a hive full of Italians behind her. Do you think 

 the journey weakened her, or that she just simply failed, 

 and the bees threw her out ? I found her outside the hive, 

 nearly dead, one day, but for about a fortnight both young 

 and old queens were to be found upon one frame, living 

 very peaceably together. Why did the bees nearly kill her 

 and throw her out ? 



6. I have reared 3 queens from my choice Italian, and 

 their bees have 3 bands, but are not as yellow as bees from 

 the Italian queen. Would they be pure, or do you think 

 them half-bloods ? Martha White. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif., Nov. 23. 



1. Just as good, if the queen superseded is as good stock 

 as the younger queen. 



2. They vary very much as to color, some being very 

 dark. 



3. Sometimes, and sometimes not. 



4. The first three bands of the abdomen, beginning at 

 the waist, are yellow. 



5. It is very hard to say. For some reason she was 

 superseded. Bees will sometimes supersede their queen 

 when she is quite young, and evidently doing good work. 

 Perhaps they are able to detect signs of failure before we 

 can. It is not such a very unusual thing for the old queen 

 to continue for some time laying in company with her 

 successor. 



6. The queens may be considered pure if their worker- 

 bees have three yellow bands. 



To Soften and Whiten the Hands. 



The Ladies' Home Journal gives the following : 

 Sleep in gloves with the finger tips cut off, and use the 

 following formula : Myrrh, one ounce ; honey, four ounces ; 

 yellow wax, two ounces; rose-water, six ounces. These in- 

 gredients are mixed into a paste, the wax, rose-water and 

 honey being heated over boiling water. 





Contributed Articles 





The Use of Drone and Queen Excluders. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



We have of late been having much about queen and drone exclud- 

 ers between the brood-chamber and super; that the bees till the brood- 

 chamber and keep it full, and what they put above can be extracted 

 without any danger of interfering with sufficient stores for winter, or 

 at any other time. If this is the fact, 1 think it would be a good idea 

 to get a supply of excluders for the coming year. 



Tulare Co., Calif. • A. B. Carpenter. 



The use or non-use of drone and queen excluders de- 

 pends altogether upon the management of the apiary. We 

 have kept drone-excluders for sale for years, but I am quite 

 willing to say that it was not because we think they are to 

 be recommended, but only because some customers think 

 that they can not do without them. Personally, I have no 

 use for the queen-excluders between the stories, neither do 

 I think well of the drone-excluders at the hive-entrance. 

 The drone-traps are not a new thing, though evidently those 

 made now are superior to those used of old, but old Butler, 

 in 1609, recommended what he called a " drone- pot," to keep 

 thedronesout of the hive after they had once emerged from 

 it. L'Abbe Collin, in modern times, was probably the first 

 to use perforated 7.inc between the stories. This was about 

 the middle of the nineteenth century. Yet, the use of queen- 

 excluders has not gone forward as much as that of other 

 more practical implements. 



If the queen has plenty of room for her brood in the 



