Jan. 15. 1912 



until a frantic mother or wife gets up suffi- 

 cient courage to approach near enough to 

 make her voice heard; for, persuade as you 

 will, she never will believe that the combi- 

 nation of hum and veil can make other 

 noises pass unnoticed. 



DOUBLE SUPER WITH EXCLUDEK BETWEEN 

 FOR FINDING QUEENS. 



But, to touch on the point Mr. Byer has 

 so ably handled, viz., the best process of lo- 

 cating' the queen of a populous black colony 

 in order to remove her and replace with one 

 of the Italian strain, it has been the writer's 

 privilege to undertake a like hunt through 

 many hives of blacks; and he, too, has found 

 the plan outlined by Mr. Byer of the great- 

 est assistance. Possibly the following sug- 

 gestion is even more simple, if any thing, 

 and gives good results: Take two ordinary 

 deep supers; and, after placing a queen-ex- 

 cluder between, fasten well together with 

 shipping-staples. Place this before the hive 

 to be operated on, then remove one frame 

 at a time, and, after a quick glance over each 

 to sight the queen if possible before the bees 

 become badly excited, shake into the empty 

 super. Repeat this performance with each 

 frame, placing them either in an additional 

 super designed for that purpose, or leaning 

 them against the hive. Now ply the smok- 

 er on the mass of bees lyingon the excluder, 

 and see them vanish through the perfora- 

 tions until none but frantic drones remain; 

 and, unless fortune is against you, there you 

 will find the queen trying with all her might 

 to reach the heart of the underhanging 

 cluster. A moment's glance will decide the 

 question; and if no queen shows up, trans- 

 fer your attention to the interior of the emp- 

 ty hive, and the chances are you will find 

 her somewhere on the walls or in the corner 

 of the hive. The easiest part of all then 

 (that of pinching her) can be done, although 

 it always seems hard to close down on such 

 very willing servants — at least it has always 

 caused me a feeling of remorse to end so 

 quickly this wonderful organ of reproduc- 

 tion, adored and treasured by her host of 

 followers. Such, however, is the claim of 

 modern bee keeping: and if we want to hold 

 in check that terrible bcourge, foul brood, 

 running rampant through this country, 

 Italian queens, and Italians, too, of only 

 the most vigorous strain, must take the 

 place of the humbler black. 



MOVING BEES FIFTEEN MILE!? ON A FLAT 

 CAR. 



This fall I took in charge a yard of about 

 35 colonics of blacks and transferred them 

 on a fiat car a distance of 15 miles from a 

 territory where foul brood is not yet known. 

 It was my first experience in moving bees 

 by rail, and certainly it has shown me that 

 with little difTiculty a hundred hives or so 

 could be quickly and safely moved to new 

 pastures for the honey-flow. The hives in 

 question were closed over on top with wire 

 cloth, across the front with a strip of lath. 

 They traveled without a hitch — that is, so 

 far as the bees themselves were concerned; 



53 



but the railway agent couldn't get up nerve 

 to weigh each individual hive, so made an 

 estimate, much to the benefit of his nerves, 

 perhaps, but hard on the earnings of said 

 railway; for his tense condition on approach- 

 ing and handling one to get an idea of its 

 approximate weight was so great that the 

 hive must have felt extremely light, for he 

 figured on only 25 pounds When in great 

 stress of mind or body it is claimed man- 

 kind possess abnormal strength. I rather 

 think he was no exception to the rule. Nor 

 was he the only backward man around that 

 station; for when the freight pulled in, the 

 train hands were quite willing to wait sev- 

 eral hours if I would only do the loading; 

 and, in fact, I had to. 



These colonies, as I have already men- 

 tioned, are the real "black as your hat" 

 quality, and next spring it behooves me to 

 do some queen-hunting extraordinary. 



Kirks Ferry, Que., Can. 



THE COLORS OF NORTH- AMERICAN FLOWERS. 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL. 



Beautiful flowers are designed to attract 

 the attention of insects, and they exist only 

 where there are insects to behold them. "In 

 New Zealand," according to Wallace, "where 

 insects are so strikingly deficient in variety, 

 the flora is almost as strikingly deficient in 

 gayly colored blossoms. Of course, there 

 are some exceptions; but. as a whole, green 

 inconspicuous and imperfect flowers prevail 

 to an extent not to be equaled in any other 

 part of the globe, affording a marvelous con- 

 trast to the general brilliancy of Australian 

 flowers combined with the variety and abun- 

 dance of insect life." Very few of the high- 

 er insects feeding on nectar and pollen oc- 

 cur in New Zealand. A few years ago only 

 18 species of butterflies were known, and of 

 bees only 10 species, while at the time of 

 their discovery neither the honey-bee nor 

 bumble-bees were found in these great 

 islands. Flies are here the most important 

 group of flower- visitors. 



All orders of insects are much more abun- 

 dant in both Europe and North America: 

 and in lands where there is an insect fauna, 

 rich both in species and individuals, flowers 

 display an infinite numl)er of brilliant hues 

 and delicate shades which surpass the i)ower 

 of the artist and naturalist to describe. 

 There is a wonderful variety of bicolored, 

 tricolored, and variegated blossoms, often 

 veined and mottled in endless ways. Not 

 only are the prismatic colors— red. orange, 

 yellow, green, blue, and violet displayed by 

 "many species with a iirofusion of inlermedi- 

 ale shades, but rarer colors like black, brown, 

 scarlet, crimson, and lurid jiurple are not 

 unrepresented. Nature has irieil her skill 

 as a colorist in the bright translucent hues 

 of minerals; in the vivid, living tints of 

 corals and sea anemones: in the lights and 

 shades reflected by the scales of the butter- 

 flies' wings; and in the brilliant irridescent 



