370 



November. 1914. 



American T^ee Journal 



there are not as many set subjects this 

 year as usual. We have always found 

 that to giv.i time for discussions, our 

 programs have been too full, and im- 

 portant questions in the question boxes 

 h ive had to be left over to be an- 

 swered in the Bee Journal. The effort 

 this year is to give more time than 

 usual to the question boxes, which 

 form such an important part of the 

 program of any beekeepers'convention. 

 The following is the program : 



PROGRAM. 

 Tuesday Evening. Nov. io--'.3o i'.m. 

 Meeting of Officers and Directors. 

 Wednesday Morning, Nov. ii-q:3o a.m. 



Minutes— Morley Pettit, Secretary-Treas 

 urer. Guelph. Ont. 



President's Address— J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, 

 Ont. 



ist Vice-President's Reply— F. W. Krouse. 

 Guelnh, Ont. 



2d Vice- President's Reply— Jas. Armstrons. 

 Cheapside. Ont. 



Experiences of the Season of 1014— O. I^. 

 Hersliiser, Kenmore. N. Y. 



Discussion— John A. Lunn, Fingal, Ont. 



Wednesday Afternoon— 2:00 p.m. 



Specializingin Beekeeping, Its .advantages 

 and Disadvantages— \V. A. Chrysler. Chat- 

 ham. Ont. 



Discussion — K. W. Krouse. Guelph, Ont. 



Report of .'Apiary Inspection for the Sea- 

 son— Morley Pettit. Guelph. Ont. 



Question Box— John A. McKinnon, St Eii 

 gene, Ont. 



Thursday Morning, Nov. 12— q:,ioa.m. 



Putting Up a Honey Exhibit— H. G. Sib- 

 bald. Toronto, Ont. 

 Question Box— J. F. Dunn, Ridgeway. Ont. 



Thuksday Afternoon— 2 p.m. 



Address-W. Bert Roadhouse. Deputy 

 Minister of Agriculture. Toronto. Ont. 



Election of officers. 



Reports — Directors, Treasurer, Honey 

 Crop Committee. Representatives to Exhi- 

 bitions. 



Friday Morning, Nov. 13— 0:30 a.m. 



Sweet Clover. Its Culture and Uses-Wm. 

 Linton, Aurora. Ont. 



Good Combs and How to Obtain Them— 

 Geo. F. Kingsmill. B. S. A., Assistant Api- 

 arist, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 



Discussion — J. D. Evans. Islington, Ont. 



Question Box— Wm, Couse. Streetsville, 

 Ont. 



Friday Afternoon— 2 00 p.m. 



Simple Method of Rearing and Introduc- 

 ing Queens — F. W. L. Sladen. Apiarist, Cen- 

 tral Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 



Unfinished Business. 



F. Phillips, of Washington, D. C. Sub- 

 ject, " Temperatureand Moisture of the 

 Hive in Winter." Come prepared to 

 help make it a good meeting. 



Jas. a. Stone. Sec. 



Akron, N. Y., Meeting. — Beekeepers 

 take notice! There will be a meeting 

 held at Akron, N. Y., Tuesday, Dec. 15, 

 1914, at the American Hotel, commenc- 

 ing at 10::iO a.m. Several prominent 

 beekeepers will be there to speak and 

 to help form a branch of the National 

 Beekeepers' Association. Akron is cen- 

 trally located in western New York, 

 and has good accommodations. 



Mr. Chas. Humphrey, proprietor of 

 the American Hotel, feives the hall to 

 the beekeepers for the day, and also 

 special rates to all who attend the 

 meeting. Secretary. 



Illinois State Meeting. — The 24th an- 

 nual meeting of the Illinois State Bee- 

 keepers' Association will be held at the 

 State House in Springfield on Thurs- 

 day and Friday, Nov. Ill and 20. 



Mr. N. 1'^ France, of Wisconsin, will 

 be with us. His subject will be " Short 

 Cuts." Prof. J. G. Mosier, of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, will speak on the 

 subject of "Sweet Clover." Mr. C. P. 

 Dadant, of Hamilton, 111., and Dr. E. 



Bees in War. — "We read in a daily 

 paper the other day that a handful of 

 Belgians who had barricaded them- 

 selves on a bee-farm were attacked by 

 a whole regiment of German infantry. 

 The defenders allowed the Germans to 

 approach within a few yards of the bar- 

 ricades and then hurled the beehives 

 at them. The maddened insects proved 

 themselves valuable allies, for in less 

 than a quarter of an hour they had 

 driven back the Germans, who fled 

 panic stricken. 



" That this is not the first time bees 

 have been employed in war, the follow- 

 ing cutting from the Cheltenham 

 Chronicle shows; while all who have 

 read ancient history will beaware how 

 important honey and wa.x were in 

 those days, bv the fact that a certain 

 amount of these commodities were 

 almost invariably exacted by the vic- 

 tors as tribute from the conquered 

 provinces. 



" Now that our thoughts are occu- 

 pied with the great European war, it 

 may be interesting to notice the part 

 the bees played in the battles of by- 

 gone ages. The following historical 

 reminiscences are of special interest 

 to beekeepers at the present time, and 

 serve to show what effective ' artillery ' 

 bees proved in those far-off times : 



"The idea seems to have originated 

 in our island, when somewhere about 

 908 A. D , a host of Danes and Norwe- 

 gians coining from Ireland laid siege 

 to Chester. Under their leader the 

 Danes set up hurdles beneath the city 

 walls, and thus protected began to un- 

 dermine the fortifications. 



"When the English hurled down 

 rocks the invaders strengthened their 

 hurdles with massive posts. The Eng- 

 lish retaliated by pouring down boiling 

 mead (honey wine) and water, and 

 when the attackers in reply covered 

 their hurdles with hides the English 

 as a last resort gathered all the bee- 

 hives in the city and flung them upon 

 their foes. This plan was successful. 

 The Danes were stung so frightfully 



on the legs, hands, and head that in 

 despair they abandoned the siege. 



"The next use of beehives in mediae- 

 val warfare occurs some 30 years later, 

 in the days when Otto the Great was 

 laying the foundation of the German 

 Empire, .'\bout 940 A. D., Ghislbert, 

 Duke of Lorraine, revolted against 

 King Otto, who was powerless to crush 

 him until assisted by one of the Duke's 

 own followers — Immo the Crafty. 

 When attacked Immo is reported to 

 have collected a large number of hives 

 and Hung them out against the Duke's 

 horsemen. As the bees poured from 

 the hives, stinging thehorses into such 

 madness that the riders could not con- 

 trol them, Immo ordered his men to 

 protect themselves and make a sally.' 

 This stratagem was as successful in 

 Germany as it proved in England, and 

 it resulted in the complete route of the 

 enemy. 



"A remarkable English MSS. pre- 

 served at Oxford, actually pictures the 

 military engines used for slinging bee- 

 hives. And when Acre was being be- 

 sieged, the Christians did but little 

 good until the Bishop of Puy (in Ger- 

 many) caused all the beehives — of his 

 own Low German home at Namur and 

 its neighborhood — to be collected and 

 sent to the ' front,' as well as the wasps 

 and bees that at the brewing season 

 were wont to swarm into the vessels 

 in which the sweet savored beer of the 

 Middle Ages was brewed. ' All around 

 us,' urged the Bishop, 'there is an 

 abundance of beehives. Let us hurl 

 them from our engines over the city 

 walls. So shall we keep the Saracens 

 off while we undermine their fortress.' 

 Twenty-five mangonels then com- 

 menced slinging their hives at the 

 same moment. 'The bees,' we are told, 

 'went swarming into the enemies' ears, 

 stinging them on the eyes, and tortur- 

 ing them until they fled. The Chris- 

 tians broke through the walls, and in 

 this manner was taken and conquered 

 the noble city of Acre. Thus by bees 

 was it tiken and subdued.'" — British 

 flee /ouriial, Sept. 24, 1914. 



We had the curiosity of hunting up 



additional information on the above 



subject, which is timely. We found 



the following accounts in " L'Abeille 



The Joi.lv Crowd at the Rockford Field Meet 



