138 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feh. 27, 



Suppose I go to a colony and find that it is queenless. Is 

 the record-book now of any use to me ? Of course it is. I can 

 take the book and look and see if there is any colony I can go 

 to for queen-cells, tell how ripe they are, tell whether it's a 

 colony I want to breed from, whether it's gentle or cross, 

 whether they are good workers or not; in fact, tell all about 

 them. 



With a record-book you can sit down and map out your 

 day's work, and know just what you're going to do before- 

 hand. In fact, I don't see how any one can get along without 

 one. If we should forget ours when v*e go to the out-apiaries, 

 we should have to go tjack after it, and it would be a difficult 

 thing to keep a record-boo'k without having your colonies 

 numbered. — Emma Wilson, in Gleanings. 



Emptying Honey-Cans. 



No doubt, most bee-keepers have at times had experience 

 in emptying honey from five-gallon cans into smaller recepta- 

 cles, and know that to till the can up each time a jar is filled, 

 and again lower it, is quite some work. The honey-gates 

 made of tin and leather, such as the Roots sent out some years 

 ago, were quite handy, but just about the time one has a sup- 

 ply of these on hand, he will have to have some new cases, 

 and the chances are that these will have a different-sized screw 

 cap, and his gates will not fit them. Now, let me tell you how 

 to manage it without a gate : 



Stand the can on a box, chair or table, far enough from 

 the edge so that when you lay the can over on its side it will 

 project four or five inches over the edge of the table, unscrew 

 the cap, take a smooth piece of section that is not warped, (any 

 other small piece of board will do), place it over the mouth of 

 the can and lay it (the can) down on its side while you hold 

 the piece of section firmly in its place. Now you want an as- 

 sistant to hold the jars or cans, or at least someone to hand 

 them to you ; hold the jar under, and slide the section-piece 

 up until the honey flows out as fast as desired. Usually it will 

 not flow too fast, if opened entirely. When the jar is full, 

 slide the piece down and cut off the flow while you take away 

 the full jar and put an empty one under, and so on. If the 

 honey is not too thick, it will take you less time to fill a num- 

 ber of jars than it has taken me to write this. Try it. — S. E. 

 MiLLEB, in Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Longevity of Bees. 



C. Davenport says in Gleanings : " One summer I had a 

 strong second swarm issue from a large box-hive. I do not 

 remember the date, but it was just before basswood blossomed. 

 The queen of this swarm was lost, on her mating trip, or in 

 some other way, for I am certain that they did not have a lay- 

 ing queen at any time during the summer. I thought I would 

 let them do without one, to see what they would do. They 

 were hived on combs that contained considerable honey, so 

 they did not have much room to store below ; but they filled up 

 what room there was, and then, instead of working much in 

 the sections, they took the world easy. 



"In the fall I thought I would unite what few of them 

 were left, with some other colony ; but on coming to examine 

 them I was surprised at the amount of bees there was left. 

 There seemed to be nearly as many as when I hived them ; so 

 in order to experiment further they were put in the cellar, 

 where the rest were. They came out in good shape in the 

 spring. A queen was given to them ; and although they dwin- 

 dled away very fast, they pulled through all right. 



"Now, in this case the workers lived at least 10 or 11 

 months, not ouly a few, but thousands of them. But they 

 would not do so every year. If the same thing had been tried 

 the past summer I do not think there would have been a live 

 bee left after they had been in the cellar a month." 



Using TJnfinislied Sections. 



Says B. Taylor in Gleanings ; " Now I will try to answer 

 pointedly Dr. Peete's questions. You, see, Doctor, the sec- 

 tions which I use for extracting and using again were got 

 from the supers I must necessarily use in saving the honey- 

 crop, and not only without extra work or loss, but with au ac- 

 tual saving in both, for we avoided the swarming trouble, and 

 did not curtail, but ijicreased, the general surplus crop, and 

 even the crop of finished comb honey, so there was no waste of 

 work here. After the honey is extracted from the sections 

 they are returned to the T supers, and on a warm afternoon 

 are all set out at once in the open air ; and by dark every sec- 

 tion will be cleaned of every particle of honey by the bees, 

 ready for the comb-leveler. Two hours' work will accomplish 

 all the work of having thousands of combs cleaned ; but the 

 leveler must be used on every comb. Surely that will be a big 



task. No ; it is but little more work than to properly fill sec- 

 tions with full sheets of foundation, especially where two 

 pieces of foundation are used in each section ; and the comb- 

 honey producer who does not use two pieces has not yet 

 learned his trade ; so there is but little if any extra work or 

 loss in leveling or using the drawn combs again." 



Honey in Butter. 



When the butter is salted, add a little sugar or honey, 

 about half a tea-cup full to five or six pounds, and see what a 

 nice flavor it gives to the butter. — Mrs. Hallenbeok, in Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper. 



Apicultural Nomenclature. 



I am glad to see the disposition on the part of bee-keepers 

 to use shorter terms in designating various articles and opera- 

 tions in the apiary. Dr. Miller, in the American Bee Journal, 

 in place of the circumlocution of saying "carrying bees into the 

 cellar" would "cellar them." He does not say what term he 

 would use when he would take them out ; but reasoning from 

 analogy he would " uncellar " them. Perhaps this would be 

 carrying matters a little too far. 



So far the new nomenclature includes the word " cellar " 

 as a verb — to put bees into the cellar ; "queen and unqueen" 

 for " supplying a colony with a queen and taking one away ;" 

 " floor " instead of " bottom-board ;" " queen-bar " instead of 

 "queen-excluding honey-board." I am not sure that the sub- 

 stitutes for the last two terms are sufficiently descriptive to be 

 readily understood. I shall be glad to receive a list of short 

 words that are perfectly plain as to their meaning, in place of 

 the longer circumlocutions we are now using. By the way, 

 in York State I heard the bee-keepers using the term " boxing 

 a colony," instead of the longer term, " putting sections on a 

 colony." They almost invariably used the term " boxes" in- 

 stead of " sections." In the West I have heard the expression 

 "supering " for putting ou sections or extracting-supers. — 

 Gleanings editorial. 



Importance of Longevity m Bees. 



Referring to the article of Geo. J. VandeVord in this jour- 

 nal, page 6 IT (1895), Editor Hutchinson says in the Review : 

 "Prolificness in queens is almost universally desired. In sum- 

 ming up the desirablequalities of a race of bees, or of a queen, 

 prolificness is almost always put at the head of the list. Oc- 

 casionally a bee-keeper has had the insight to notice and the 

 courage to say that there are other points of more importance 

 than prolificness: in fact, some have asserted that prolificness 

 is at the expense of other desirable qualities. Every bee-keep- 

 er knows that it is not always the most populous colony that 

 stores the most surplus. There is certainly a reason for this, 

 and it is possible that Mr. VandeVord has struck it." 



Bees for Australia. 



The present mania seems to be for imported American 

 stock. Though considering them superior to queens reared in 

 Italy, yet those from the Eastern States have one defect which 

 would not occur in those bred from climates similar to our own. 

 In the Northeastern States of America for several months in 

 the winter the bees and queen hibernate and cease from all 

 active exercise. This proves of great advantage to the apia- 

 rist there, as the bees thereby have a large stock of unused vi- 

 tality to start work when the spring opens, This lying dor- 

 mant in winter time will become hereditary and inbred 

 amongst the race, as those which possess this quality have a 

 better chance of surviving the severe winters. We know that 

 all animals have the power of gradually adapting themselves 

 to the changed conditions of their environment, provided the 

 change is not too sudden. Now these qualities which prove 

 advantageous to the American apiarist has the opposite effect 

 here, as over the greater part of Australia the bees can fly al- 

 most any day through the winter. Then we want queens that 

 will lay through the winter as well as summer, for if the work- 

 ers keep flying through the winter, and there are no young 

 bees hatching out to replace them as they die off, the stock 

 will become too weak by spring-time to be of much value as 

 honey-gatherers for the ensuing summer. I believe to this 

 want of hatching brood may be attributed a great deal of 

 what is called spring dwindling. — A. C. Cusack, in Austra^ 

 lian Bee-Bulletin. ' 



The Xatnes and Addresses of all your bee- 

 friends, who are not now taking the Bee Journal, are wanted 

 at this office. Send them in, please, when sample copies will 

 be mailed to them. Then you can secure their subscriptions, 

 and earn some of the premiums we have offered. The 

 next few months will be just the time to easily get new sub- 

 scribers. Try it earnestly, at least. 



