126 



April, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



that obtained in plains like those of 

 Illinois. But since the bees may not 

 enjoy or practice scaling very steep 

 hills, they would probably travel farther 

 up and down the valley. In the case of 

 worker-bees, much depends upon how 

 near the field of blossoms is and 

 whether sufficient in extent. But in the 

 cases of queens and drones there is no 

 such limitation and they fly quite far. 



We have already mentioned one cut 

 accompanying this article. The others 

 are: A portrait of our host taken sev- 

 eral years ago, then a view of one 

 of his apiaries, among the grape- 

 vines, where he and his charming 

 better-half are busy hunting for a 

 queen. Notice the cement pillars, 

 shaped like troughs and supplied 

 with water to keep away the ants. 

 The frame work that supports the hives 

 is of iron and rests upon those troughs. 

 I have never seen anything so carefully 

 arranged. The caps are hinged upon 

 the hive front and rest upon the por- 

 tico when the hive is opened. 



The hive shown in the next cut is 

 what he calls the " Savoyarde." It is 

 made of inch lumber, lined on the out- 

 side with a woven wire straw mat or 

 cushion. Such hives have the advan- 

 tage of straw hives without their dis- 



DiAGRAM OF Removable Shoulders for 



Frames as Used by Mr. Mont-Jovet 



IN His Nuclel 



advantages. They are not very pretty, 

 yet they have a medieval look which 

 pleases many persons. The frames 

 seen in the pictureare used for making 

 nuclei, four nucleus frames to each full 

 brood frame. They are simple square 

 frames which are provided with arti- 

 ficial, removable tin shoulders for sup- 

 port in the nucleus. 



I do not know whether it is of any 

 use to urge our beekeepers to try the 

 straw protection for hives. We have 

 ourselves used a straw mat in the Da- 

 dant hive for 40 years. We find that 

 the placing of this non-conductor over 

 the brood-chamber keeps the hive cool 

 in the summer, warm in the winter. I 

 believe that there would be a great ad- 

 vantage in using an outer coat of straw 

 on our hives, as this able apiarist does. 



On the second day of our stay at 

 Albertville, we went, with our host and 

 his wife, into the mountains and trav- 

 eled some 'K miles. It was on this trip 

 that we saw the potato vines 51 inches 

 tall which were so badly beaten by the 

 giants of Idaho, shown on page 359 of 



our November Journal. We saw big 

 old fruit trees, hundreds of years old, 

 especially pear trees; fine castles, old 

 towers, and electric power plants run 

 by the cascading streams, and furnish- 

 ing cheap light to all the neighbor- 

 hood. We also saw a small hive-and- 



section factory. But this could no* 

 compare with the big plants of our 

 country. 



The following day, Aug. 3, we took 

 the train for Geneva, passing by the 

 delightfully pretty Lake of Annecy. 

 We arrived in Geneva by noon. 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Popular Fallacies 



BY J. F. ARCHDEKIN. 



IT IS ASTONISHING how little the 

 average person knows about bees. 

 I have been amused repeatedly by 

 the queer ideas most people have 

 on the subject. Cases have come 

 to my notice that even border on su- 

 perstition. Let me hasten to add that 

 I don't claim any special knowledge of 

 bees. To disprove any rights I may 

 have to put on airs, the following inci- 

 dent will suffice : An old fellow who 

 has cut a few bee-trees, asserted that 

 it had been proved that bees often fly 

 50 or 60 miles in search of honey. After 

 a few more statements tending to dis- 

 play his superior knowledge of bee- 

 lore, he boldly remarked that I knew 

 nothing whatever about bees. Some 

 jolt? Well, I guess so. 



Should some of my neighbors see me 

 in the bee-yard early in spring opening 

 hives and inspecting the combs, they 

 innocently ask if the bees are making 

 much honey. I am probably feeding 

 with not a blossom in sight. 



Many people are bee-owners who are 

 not beekeepers. Their ignorance is of 

 the densest, considering their chance 

 to learn. Should you mention sub- 

 scribing to a bee-journal or getting 

 some bee-books, they invariably put 

 up some excuse to dodge it. 



A man who is an up-to-date dairy- 

 man says he can understand how honey 

 is produced, but is unable to compre- 

 hend why I rear so many queens. He 

 realizes that each hive has one queen, 

 but the idea of keeping several dozen 

 queens in one hive is past him. It 

 doesn't make any difference if they are 

 in cages. 



A very estimable neighbor of mine 

 kept his bees in big box-hives made of 

 2-inch white pine lumber. These are 

 the largest hives I ever saw. There is 

 as much room in one of them as in 

 three 8-frame hives, probably more. 

 About all his bees ever did was to 

 swarm. Twenty-five pounds of chunk 

 honey each is the extent of his crop. A 

 few of these same colonies, when trans- 

 ferred to modern hives, made a fine 

 crop of section honey. 



.Another neighbor uses frames, but 

 says he likes salmon boxes better than 

 regular hives, so he uses the former. 

 He sold $45 worth of honey from about 

 a dozen colonies last year. Therefore, 

 he feels very much encouraged. 



There is also a firmly established 

 conviction among honey consumers 

 that all honey is adulterated. This ap- 

 plies to comb as well as extracted. I 



had one customer who argued with me 

 to some length that he had bought 

 comb honey which had been manufac- 

 tured. Nothing I could say woiild 

 shake him, not even when I gave him 

 the name of people who would pay him 

 $1000 for a pound of it. About the first 

 question the city customer asksis if the 

 honey is pure, and he has to be as- 

 sured that it is pure country honey be- 

 fore he will buy it. 



By all means let us educate the bee- 

 keepers, the bee-owners and the honey 

 consumers. How shall we do it? By 

 establishing apicultural departments at 

 the State agricultural colleges. This 

 will give the students a chance to learn 

 beekeeping if they desire. When the 

 college runs an alfalfa special, and a 

 dairy special, and a corn special, on a 

 tour to spread knowlege of these crops, 

 let the apicultural department send a 

 man along to talk beekeeping at each 

 stop. The rural schools of our State 

 (Missouri) teach agriculture, and the 

 scholars are required to be proficient 

 in this branch. Couldn't a little bee 

 instruction be included ? It would be 

 a fascinating subject for the children.^ 



Now for the consumers. Couldn't 

 the National Beekeepers' Association 

 arrange a honey exhibit and send it to 

 the pure food shows that are held each 

 year in the principal cities ? This 

 would get at the consumers, and would 

 undoubtedlv create greater demand for 

 honey. At the same time it would 

 operate to set at rest the suspicion as 

 to its purity that is cast upon honey. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



[At the bottom of page 51, January 

 number, our experienced contributor, 

 J. L. Byer, criticizes the instruction 

 given in colleges, by plating liee-cul- 

 ture upon the curriculum, and asserts 

 that it is helping to cause overstock- 

 ing. The preceding contribution, 

 which is only a reminder of the scanti- 

 ness of public information on bees, 

 demonstrates whether it is worth while 

 to extend the knowledge on apicul- 

 ture.— Editor.] 



Foulbrood— A Disease of Nat- 

 ural Selection 



BY IIR. CARTON. 



IN THK STUDY of all infectious dis- 

 eases, there are two factors to con- 

 sider : the microbe special to each 

 of them and the conditions of predis- 



