(Entered as second-class matter at the Post-office at Hamilton. III., under Act of March 3, 187').) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT, Kdilor. 



DR. C. C. MILLbiR, Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL, JANUARY, 1914 



Vol. LIV.— No. 1 



The National Meeting 



The National Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion will meet in St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 

 17, 18 and 19, 1914. We have no details, 

 as this information came to hand at 

 the time of going to press. We hope 

 that only a part of the time will be 

 spent in discussing the affairs of the 

 association, and that at least one day 

 will be devoted to a general discussion 

 of apiary subjects. Otherwise the in- 

 terest of the meeting would be con- 

 fined to the authorized delegates of the 

 affiliated associations. 



Our Front Cover Picture 



Our front cover picture shows the 

 original apiary of Mr. Emile Cham- 

 pion, of Gergy, France, before he un- 

 dertook to use movable frame hives. 

 Our visit to this progressive apiarist 

 was described on pages 295, 297, Sep- 

 tember, 1913. More details will be 

 given in future " Notes from Abroad." 



Beeswax for Leaky Joints in 

 Feeders 



In this number Mr. Wilder advises 

 that leakage of wooden joints may be 

 prevented by running very hot bees- 

 wax around those joints. Let us em- 

 phasize those words "very hot." And 

 as wa.x often expands and shrinks so 

 as to crack, there would be some ad- 

 vantage in mixing a little tallow with 

 it for that purpose. Another splendid 

 preparation for preventing leakage or 

 stopping cracks in barrels, wooden 



troughs, tanks, etc., is made with a 

 mixture of hot beeswax, rosin and fine 

 wood ashes. Such a preparation should 

 be used at once, for as soon as it cools 

 it becomes exceedingly hard. 



Are Italian Bees in Tessin Im- 

 mune to American Foul Brood? 



We receive from a reliable Swiss 

 apiarist a protest against the statement 

 made by Mr. Biaggi, and inserted in 

 the October number of the American 

 Bee Journal, page 344, that the bees of 

 Italian-Switzerland are immune to foul 

 brood. 



This man encloses a pamphlet pub- 

 lished at Bern in 1910, in which it is 

 stated that an apiary was found in Tes- 

 sin, in 1909, which had 13 healthy colo- 

 nies, 36 diseased, and 54 dead. This 

 pamphlet was published by Fr. Lauen- 

 berger, chief of the foul brood inspec- 

 tion, and states that there was so much 

 disease in the Canton of Tessin that a 

 qnarantine was placed at that time on 

 the bees of that district. 



Fair play compels us to insert this 

 correction. 



Odor and Scent in Bees 



The reader will find in this number 

 an article from the pen of Mr. Arthur 

 C. Miller in reply to Dr. Bruennich on 

 the introduction of queens. The two 

 antagonists in this discussion are most 

 able and fully equal to the occasion. 

 It would therefore be a mistake to step 

 in. There is, however, one point upon 

 which it is as well to inform the novice 

 who reads the discussions. There is 



>io doubt that colonies and swarms 

 queens, bees and drones have personal 

 odor, just as much as human beings or 

 wild fowls or game. We all know how 

 easily a good dog will fol.ow the trail 

 of his master by scent. But because 

 two strange dogs may act friendly to 

 each other at their first meeting, it 

 does not follow that they are unaware 

 of the fact that they are strangers. 

 And if two dogs from the same kennel 

 happen to fight over a bone and keep 

 up the fight even after the bone has dis- 

 appeared, we will not deduce from this 

 that they have suddenly become stran- 

 gers to each other. 



We open a hive of bees and scatter 

 the combs, with the bees hanging to 

 them, against neighboring objects, a 

 tree, a hive-body, etc. In lU to 20 min- 

 utes, if there are no robbers about, we 

 return them and our bees will still be 

 calm. If robbers come, they may be 

 angry, not only at the robbers, but at 

 their keeper, and if the thing is carried 

 on far enough, they may in rare in- 

 stances become angry enough to fight 

 among themselves, like the dogs above 

 mentioned. Is this an evidence that 

 they do not know that they belong to 

 the same hive ? 



No beings in the world, that we 

 know of, show a better scent than bees 

 do. They can trace honey through the 

 key-hole of a grocery store. We have 

 known them to come down a fireless 

 chimney, to a room where honey was 

 kept, crawling in through a space in 

 the chimney-board. And as to having 

 and recognizing a hive odor, we have 

 seen two swarms fight on being hived 

 together in a dearth of honey. We 

 have seen bees craw! over our hands, 

 because, a few minutes before, we had 

 handled their queen. We have seen a 

 deserted hive robbed quietly as long as 

 one colony was doing it, but with a 



