

43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, DEC. 31, 1903, 



Ne, 53. 



C 



Editorial Comments 





A Happy New Year to All! 



May liXH be the best and sweetest year ot all your bee-keeping 

 lives. May many good new resolutions not only be formed, but 

 sacredly kept throughout the year. Again, we say, A Happy New 

 Year to all ! 



The Index to Volume XLIII. 



This, as usual, occupies several pages in this the last number ot 

 the old American Bee Journal for 1903. It seems to us it shows a 

 much larger variety and number of apiarian subjects than ever before. 

 It is a record of a great year in the history of this journal. But we 

 trust it is but an indication of what it will be during the year that is 

 just beginning. 



Few realize what it means to compile an index like the one appear- 

 ing this week, unless having had the experience of getting up an in- 

 dex. We have had it to do almost every year for twenty years. It is 

 a task that is not eagerly looked forward to. It is a tedious one. It 

 is not at all interesting work, but when properly done it is of very 

 great value to all who preserve the complete volume of the Bee Journal. 



And what a volume a year's copies of the American Bee Journal 

 makes'. Over SOO good-size pages ! And all for only one dollar ! 



Clipping Queens Not a Ppeventive of Swarming. 



For the sake of new members of the American Bee Journal family 

 it seems necessary to say this once in so often. A writer in the British 

 Bee Journal, speaking of clipping queens' wings, innocently says: 



"I tried this American plan but the swarm issued the week 



following." Now, be it known to all and sundry that clipping a 

 queen dues not in the sliglittsl degree prevent the ixsnmi/ of a smirm. 

 Clip the wings of a queen, and a swarm will issue from that colony at 

 precisely the same time it %vould have done if the queen had not been 

 clipped, whether that time be a day or a year later. 



The value of clipping consists not in the prevention of swarming, 

 but in the fact that a clipped queen can not go with the swarm if it 

 attempts to abscond, and the swarm will not abscond without a queen. 

 But a little intelligent management is needed with clipped queens, for 

 there is nothing to prevent the swarm leaving with a virgin queen a 

 week or more after the issuing of a prime swarm. 



Curing Foul Brood Witli Fopmaldehyde. 



Geo. E. Hinckley, foul brood inspector for Santa Barbara Co., 

 Calif., claims to have cured foul brood in a very simple manner by 

 means ot formaldehyde, merely spraying the liquid three times upon 

 the floor of the hive. He says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



At first I did not have the success that I desired; but I did a little 

 differently each time, and finally have come to the conclusion that it 

 will cure foul brood and black brood if rightly used. It has done the 

 work all right, as I have used it of late. I have treated several api- 

 aries, varying from two to over a hundred colonies in each, and have 

 cured all that 1 have treated under my present system. Now, for my 

 mode of treatment. „ / , , ,j ^ , 



I use a Goodrich atomizer No^-1, and formaldehyde, ecjual part 



with water. Go to the hive to be treated and raise the body ot the- 

 hive in front enough to work so as to spray the liquid onto the bote 

 tom-board. The bottleful will be enough for about six hives for one 

 application, which I make three as a course of treatment. I make the 

 applications about two weeks apart, and apply it cold, and do no more 

 than to spray it onto the bottom-board. If it is sprayed onto the 

 combs it will kill all that it touches. The gas dries up the diseased 

 matter in the cell, and the bees clean it out and make everything shine, 

 and the colony soon becomes strong and prosperous; but the hive 

 must have ventilation, or the gas will asphyxiate the bees, and that 

 makes a bad matter worse. It the hive is tight the cover must be 

 raised by placing something between it and the top of the hive, about 

 I4 inch thick. After spraying the liquid on the bottom-board, set the 

 hive back in place, and the work is done. 



That a cure can be effected so easily seems almost past belief ; yet 

 it is possible. Coming from one in an official posittion, it is at leasj 

 worthy of consideration, and it it should prove equally effective in 

 other hands it will be a boon. 



Extracted Honey vs. Comb Honey. 



The editor of Gleanings in Bee-Culture says: "When sections 

 become more scarce and expensive, and when there are pure-food 

 laws in State and Nation, extracted honey will to a great extent sup- 

 plant comb honey, an d its production will become more general." 



That pure-food laws will increase the consumption of honey there 

 can be little doubt; that they will have a tendency to make extracted 

 honey supplant comb may be questioned. The fear of adulteration 

 in extracted honey is at present against its sale; but is there not in the 

 mind ot the public just as much fear of adulteration in comb honey? 

 Certainly more has been said in that direction in the public prints. 

 Take away the fear of adulteration in each, and will there be any 

 change whatever in the relative demand? 



When the material for one-piece sections becomes scarce, four- 

 piece sections can take their place, increasing the cost a fraction ot a 

 cent on a pound. Consumers are now willing to pay several cents a 

 pound more for comb honey ; would the addition of a traction of a 

 cent on a pound make any material difference in their preference? 



Bees Stinging a Returning Virgin Queen. 



Dr. A. W. Smyth says, in the Irish Bee Journal, that " it a young 

 queen returns to the hive, after leaving with a swarm, the workers 

 will sting her at once." Is that so in all cases? 



Rules for Grading Honey. 



In the Bee-Keepers" Review, K. L. Taylor pays his compliments to 

 the rules for grading honey, after the following vigorous fashion : 



Bee-keepers are further hampered by the set of artiticial and im- 

 possible rules now in vogue for the grading ot houey, which seem 

 framed for the purpose ot giving unfair purchasers of honey some- 

 thing about which they may complain with some show of reason ia 

 order to mulct the seller in a cent or two a pound, in that he claims to 

 see stain on cappings of fancy honey, and more than the prescribed 

 amount on grade No. 1. Strange to say. these rules entirely ignore 

 quality ; and thin honey, with an unpalatable tang, other things being- 

 equal, marches fully abreast with the rich, thick, well-ripened article. 

 They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Every comb-honey pro- 

 ducer knows that not one section in a thousand can be found that 

 will not show some stain, and that a degree of stain that does not dis- 

 figure the honey is no detriment, but rather a guaranty of ripeness. 



I shall not discuss these rules here, further than to say that any- 

 set of rules made to govern the grading of comb honey ought to insist- 

 on high quality tor the higher grades. Such a rule would at least 

 have a tendency to disseminate a knowledge ot the conditions neces- 

 sary to tbe thorough ripening ot honey, as well as to put honey under 



