March 22, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



183 



ing and eating young' raspberry shoots have it cure me of 

 my troublesome oblivious and forgetful spells — that's a 

 good Uncle. 



IMPORTANCE OF DRONB PARENTAGE. 



I shall have to keep on barking, I plainly see, about the 

 important matter of drone parentage. C. P. Dadant, in his 

 otherwise excellent article, page 82, leaves out the few words 

 for lack of which the beginner following directions will be 

 somewhat likely to get more of his queens mated with un- 

 desired drones than he would if he let the whole matter run 

 itself. Drone parentage is not a matter of numbers, but of 

 readiness. A dozen drones ready count immensely more 

 than five hundred that need a few minutes to get ready. By 

 preventing drone-rearing in a hive we greatly increase the 

 readiness of the few they rear in spite of us. By securing 

 the rearing of many hundreds of drones in a favored col- 

 ony, we decrease their readiness. The few words I would 

 have Mr. Dadant add are : Select drones should be secured 

 homes a few in a place, if they are to have a fair chance in 

 the struggle for parentage. 



BEE-CAVES AND THEIR ROOFS. 



I think E. D. Ochsner has given us a valuable hint 

 about rooting bee-caves. One foot of sand and two feet of 

 leaves better than three or four feet of sand — which will 

 sooner or later cave the whole thing in by its own weight. 

 Presumably chaff would do just as well as leaves where it 

 is handier — ah, no, not quite as well ; for chaff will entice 

 and breed mice much the worse. I take it that the great 

 besetting sin of bee-caves, take them as they run (they do 

 run, gentle reader, into the hill) is leaky roof. Any old 

 rattle-top of warpt and split boards seems good enough for 

 a bee-cave, when it really deserves as good a roof as the 

 owner's kitchen. The apiary in front of which he stands 

 so respectfully businesslike seems to be the much maligned 

 rank and tile, with medium spacing. What signs has he 

 got posted on that shanty ? No admittance ? Beware of 

 the dog ? Don't spit on the floor ? or all three ? Page 81. 



APIARY BASEMENTS, ETC. — SOME OF OLD GRIMES' IDEAS. 



How doctors do disagree ! Our O. G. says never on any 

 account face an apiarj- basement to the north ; while the ' 

 last man, onlj- the page before, recommends the north 

 facing of his bee-cave. Heat doesn't get in so bad in the 

 spring — certainly a very comprehensible advantage. But 

 the Grimes arrangement in full keeps the spring sun ofl' all 

 right; so there is no real conflict. But I'm not going to 

 subscribe to the Grimes honey-tank down in a basement. 

 Better have it where there will only be a light roof between 

 the surface of the honey and the sun. Separate structures 

 on a side-hill; else a lean-to next the Grimes building. This 

 matter is rather important; and the mere sentiment of 

 having everything snug as a bug in a rug in one big cubical 

 building should yield, 1 think. The Grimes shanty, made 

 in sections to take down with a wrench, is tip-top for jjer- 

 ambulating out-apiaries. Page 82. 



SELF-SEALING HONEY-PAILS. 



Self-sealing honey-pails bad because we can't wash 'em 

 and drain the water out properly. Rusting ensues, and 

 damage to the next lot of honey put within. Chance for an 

 inventor. Page 84. 



TREATMENT OF EXTRACTED HONEY. 



I don't know how much there may be in it, but perhaps 

 a whole bushel — for which we must thank H. Rauchfuss, of 

 the Colorados. The idea is to heat all honey immediately 

 upon being extracted. Retards granulation somewhat, and 

 prevents foaming when the honey is reliquefied, to the cus- 

 tomer's peace and confidence of mind. If it will prevent 

 foaming I think it will also retard deterioration with age, 

 which is a great matter with the poorer grades of honey. 

 The best honey goes thru the next summer with but little 

 damage ; while poorer grades, quite tolerable at first, are 

 apt to be nearly spoilt before the next winter. Perhaps a 

 a light is dawning as to how to obviate this difficulty. 

 Page 85. 



A LITTLE DOUBTFUL ABOUT EUCALYPTI. 



We are prepared to believe that the eucalypti are 

 healthy trees to have about, and that eucalyptus honey has 

 curative properties ; but nevertheless we must hesitate a 

 bit about accepting all that Dr. McLean in his enthusiasm 

 tells us on page 89. That a Light Brigade of 600 (million) 

 grasshoppers would be halted in their charge 40 feet away — 

 well, our faith in that respect isn't exactly like an anchor 

 to the soul. If all he means is that resident grasshoppers 



edge away out of the smell of eucalyptus, may be we can go 

 that ; but may be even that is a little like the power of ash 

 leaves over rattlesnakes. 



BEES WORKING AT LONG DISTANCES. 



I think Ira Barber's contribution to our knowledge 

 about bees working at long distances somewhat valuable. 

 That it largely contradicts prevalent impressions makes it 

 more so. Page 89. 



" BEE-ING IT" ELSEWHERE — FOUL-BROOD SCHEME. 



And so Mr. Johnson would like to go to our newest 

 island possession, Tutuila, and "bee it." Typical Ameri- 

 can. Feel that way myself. But his scheme of foul brood 

 as a "varmint" that eats the holes so characteristically 

 seen in the cappings, escapes thru the holes, and disap- 

 pears ; hope he'll take that scheme with him when he goes, 

 and drop it in the mid-Pacific. Page 95. 



CUBA AND ITS FOUL-BROOD SCOURGE. 



Rockenback's painting of Cuba, rotten from end to end 

 with foul brood, and not a man in it capable of curing a 

 colony by any method whatever, is rather unpleasant and 

 Dante-esque. Cuba not likely to demoralize our honey 

 markets much just now, if that's correct. Were the paint- 

 ing entirely true, without anj- exaggeration, both disease 

 and bees would soon die together, and Cuba would soon be 

 safe virgin territory in which to begin apiculture. This is 

 not likely to happen, more's the pity ; so the truth is prob- 

 ably worse than the picture. Page 99. 



WARFARE AGAINST FENCES AND PLAIN SECTIONS. 



Mr. F. L. Thompson seems to be getting into some- 

 thing like a warfare against fences and new styles of sec- 

 tions ; both his practice and his theory finding nothing of 

 special value in them. If it's well to be " zealously affected 

 in a good thing " I guess it's also well to be zealously af- 

 fected in a fight against novelties that are humbugs. Page 

 106. 



QUEENS THAT EXCEL GREATLY. 



Mclntyre will make us all want one of his queens if he 

 doesn't let up. He thinks that when a queen greatly excels 

 among 600 others it means a deal more than pre-eminence 

 in a small apiary. And sure enough it may, sometimes. 

 But the bigger the apiary the wider the scope for that quiet, 

 silent, sneak-thieving which seems to be the real cause of 

 the seeming excellence in man)' cases. You see, I'm sore- 

 headed on this point, as I have been trying for a superior 

 strain for many years, with scant results to show for it. 

 The strain which I have favored for several years swarms 

 a little worse than the others, which is " pizen." Some- 

 times, I think, a queen gets an undeserved reputation be- 

 cause her bees are hospitable, and will receive kindly lost 

 bees (mainly young and valuable) from all the colonies 

 round about ; her hive being so located as to be the most 

 prominent and eligible one. Marvellous wintering strains 

 are almost always of this sort, I take it. Page 106. 



THAT COMMISSION-SHARK CASE. 



Mr. Theilmann fought a noble fight ; and doubtless he 

 thought that the Union might wisely have contributed some 

 cash toward showing the possibility of bringing one Chi- 

 cago commission-shark up on justice's deck. And doubt- 

 less the Union officers thought that a Supreme Court deci- 

 sion whether one particular sale was a sale outright or a 

 sale on commission would not be of sufficiently general 

 application to justify putting their scanty funds into it. 

 Let each party charitably try to believe the others did the 

 very best they knew. Page 8?. 



INTRODUCING YOUNG QUEENS. 



That a really young queen, soft and not yet fully col- 

 ored, is always received kindly everywhere, and does not 

 awaken antagonism until beginning to " put on the airs " 

 (or at least the smells) of queenhood — well, I guess it's a 

 fact ; but it was not in my mind as it ought to have been, 

 and as I hope it will be now, thanks to page 106. 



THE AIR IN A QUEEN-CELL. 



I think Mr. Bingham, page 109, is entirely wrong in 

 supposing a queen is developt in bad air. Reliable experi- 

 ments show that the amount of air that will in time pass 

 thru a brick or a stone is quite surprising. And the wall of 

 a queen-cell (made purposely ot porous texture in its basal 

 half) is not going to have air much poorer on one side than 

 on the other. 



