1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



211 



about it from Mr. Aikin, especially what part the changes of 

 temperature may play in the matter. 

 I will quote yet another paragraph : 



" Mr. Getaz is evidently wrong in his theory that a surplus of 

 larval food causes the building of queen-cells. Take from the 

 most prosperous colony all its brood, and you at once take away 

 its swarming; yet such proceeding o«i/7if to leave the colony with 

 a sitperabumlaiice of larval food and nowhere to use it." 



I think Mr. Aikin is certainly wrong in this, or I do not 

 understand him. In a colony ready to swarm, we find quite 

 an amount of sealed brood, only a limited amount of young 

 brood to feed, and a still more limited amount of space to lay 

 eggs in ; nurse-bees also in quantity, and more of them are 

 " horning" dally from the sealed brood. 



Wo remove all the brood — what is the result ? By the 

 operation we at once give the queen plenty of room to lay, 

 and in a day or two there will be plenty of larvas to feed. At 

 the same time the daily increase of nurse-bees from sealed 

 brood is taken away, and with them the surplus of larval 

 food. Does not that show that the withdrawal of brood has 

 increased the amount of larval food needed, and decreased the 

 source of supply, and therefore there is more suplus to put in 

 the construction of queen-cells ? Knoxville, Tenn. 



Some Subjects Reviewed and Commented Upon 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Unkind Flings. — "Now that we have for the first time a 

 Southern journal, devoted to our favorite pursuit, ought we not, 

 as Southern men, come gallantly to the support of the brave lady 

 who has dared to undertake the enterprise of editing a Southern 

 ."journal ? It seems that her spirit of enterprise, or something she 

 lias said or done, has so provoked the spleen of a contributor to 

 one of the above-named periodicals, that he was not long since 

 moved to make the charge that this lady has been cribbing from 

 the files of the American Bee Journal in order to make the col- 

 umns of her journal more interesting. Later, he says in explana- 

 tion, that she has been using in the Southland Queen, some articles 

 that she wrote for the Bee Journal. Reading these unkind flings, 

 I was moved to wonder if the writer had never felt, from mother, 

 sister or wife, that love and devotion that, once experienced, ren- 

 ders the very name of woman sacred to a gentleman." 



The above is said by " Novice " in the Southland Queen, 

 and it seems a little strange that that paper should allow it to 

 pass without comment. I suppose I am the contributor re- 

 ferred to, and I never made any " unkind flings " in the case, 

 nor made any charge of cribbing. I said the articles were 

 copied from the American Bee .Journal, and in saying that I 

 said just what the Southland Queen itself said. Knowing the 

 facts in the case, the Southland Queen will please do the fair 

 thing by making the proper correction. 



That "Fallacy." — After reading what J. H. Martin has 

 to say on page 179, I smole a quiet smile and said to myself, 

 " Mr. Martin's reasoning machine is somewhat out of gear." 

 Just shake yourself awake, Mr. Martin, and see how it looks. 

 You say less than one pound per capita is used, and because 

 so little is used the bringing of a lot of California honey North 

 doesn't make competition. Say, J. H., were you really awake 

 when you said that? No, I don't believe I use the word 

 "competition " " rather loosely " so long as a heavy shipment 

 of honey from California brings down the price in the Chicago 

 market. 



Amalgamation.— On page 178, Manager Newman says 

 the expressions so far given are mainly apainst amalgamation 

 of the North American and the Union. I can hardly believe 

 a square vote of the Union would show a majority against 

 amalgamation. It certainly didn't look that way at Toronto, 

 and at the last Chicago convention the vote of the Union mem- 

 bers there was all in favor of amalgamation. 



Now, friends, will those of you that are opposed to amal- 

 gamation please give us your reasons ? I don't remember see- 

 ing any reasons given except those based on a misunderstand- 

 ing. 



I was one of the first members of the Union, and have 

 always been loyal to it. I want to see it continue and in- 

 crease. As matters stand at present the prospect is that it 

 will go out of existence. There's no use blinking the fact 

 that it is now on the down-grade as to members. Give the 

 members the additional advantage of the North American for 

 the same money, and are they not more likley to stick by ? 



Marengo, III. 



^W See "Bee-Keeper's Guide" ofifer on page 221. 



No. 1 — Producing Comb Honey in Michigan. 



BY' W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The first thing to be considered is the bees. As to variety 

 of bees I know of nothing superior to a cross between the Ital- 

 ian and German. Italians are better foragers than the black 

 or German bees. When the pasture is near, and the flow 

 good, the blacks will gather as much honey as any bees ; but 

 when the nectar must be sought for far and wide, the Italians 

 will be found the more industrious. If the Italians are better 

 field-bees, they are excelled by the blacks as " house-keepers." 

 They (the blacks) keep the brood-nest more compact, are bet- 

 ter comb-builders, enter the supers more readily, and cap 

 their combs whiter. The Italians are the .bees to bring in the 

 honey, the blacks the ones to handle it to the best advantage 

 after it is in the hive. The Italians might be compared to the 

 man who goes out in the field to labor — the blacks to the 

 woman who stays in the house and manages to the best ad- 

 vantage the products of the man's labor. Of course, we can- 

 not make any such arrangement with the black and Italian 

 varieties of bees ; at least, not any permanent arrangement. 

 By introducing a black queen to an Italian colony of bees 

 there would probably be a short time when the majority of 

 the field-workers would be Italians, and most of the nurses 

 and wax-workers would be blacks, but such a division of labor 

 would not last long — the Italians would soon be gone and the 

 blacks in their place. Such a plan would not be practical, 

 but a cross between the Italian and German is eminently so. 

 A cross between these two varieties is not one whit behind the 

 Italians as workers, and comes pretty well up to the blacks as 

 " house-keepers." If such cross-bred bees are lacking in any 

 respect it is in those characteristics possessed by the black 



Possessed of the right kind of bees, the next step is to see 

 that they are present in sufficient numbers at the time the 

 surplus is to be gathered. Each bee-keeper must understand 

 his locality and work accordingly. In those localities where 

 the main harvest comes in the fall, but little attention is 

 necessary to have the colonies strong in numbers by the time 

 the harvest is ready ; but when it begins in June, or the last 

 of May, and lasts only six weeks, or less, where there is no 

 basswood, it is of the utmost importance that the colonies be 

 populous at the beginning of the season. Not only must they 

 be populous, but the combs must be full of brood. As a rule, 

 I don't believe it is profitable to change about combs in the 

 brood-nest for the sake of getting them more completely filled 

 with brood. By this I don't mean that more honey per colony 

 might not thereby be secured, but it takes too much time. If 

 the number of colonies is limited, and it is not practical to in- 

 crease the number, and their owner has nothing else to do, 

 such work might be advisable. When possible, it is better to 

 have more colonies, up to the capacity of the field, and do 

 less work per colony. In the early years of my bee-keeping I 

 did a great deal of "fussing" with the bees. Latterly, in 

 producing comb honey, the bees have almost managed them- 

 selves. They have been taken from the cellar, the sections 

 put on and taken off at the proper times, the swarms hived, 

 the bees put back into the cellar upon the approach of winter, 

 and that has been about all there has been to it. I Tinoio I 

 have never produced honey so cheaply as by what some would 

 call slipshod methods. With the sectional Heddon hive it is 

 all riglit to transpose the two sections just before the opening 

 of the honey harvest. This is a sort of wholesale, short-cut 

 method of inducing the bees to more completely fill the combs 

 with brood, that I endorse it. But don't do it too early. Bet- 

 ter let the brood-nest remain entirely undisturbed than to chill 

 some of the brood. 



Perhaps all do not understand how transposing the sec- 

 tions of a Heddon hive will act as a greater inducement. Bees 

 aim to keep their brood-nest in a globular shape. Cut this 

 globe in two horizontally, and place the upper half below the 

 lower one, and it will be seen that the two spherical sides are 

 brought together in the center, while the broad, flat surfaces 

 are brought to the top and bottom. In their endeavor to 

 again bring the brood next to a globular shape, the bees fill 

 cells with brood that would not have been filled had the brood- 

 nest been left undisturbed. 



There is one more thing that can be done to induce a safe 

 extension of the brood-nest early in the season, that is, sur- 

 rounding the hives with some packing material. In ordinary 

 seasons this may not be of much benefit, and I believe it is 

 possible to so apply it that no good will result — possibly harm. 

 The packing must not be too thick ; if it is, it will deprive the 

 bees of the benefit of the sun's rays Strong colonies may be 

 able to take care of themselves under such circumstances, but 

 it means death or disaster to a weak colony. The packing 

 should be of such a thickness that the warmth from several 



