18d 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 22, 1900. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. ailLLER. afareng-o, 111. 



(The Questions may be mailel to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor. 1 



Hives in the Shade or Sun. 



Which do you think is the better, to set hives under 

 trees, or out in the hot sun ? Nebraska. 



Answer. — I would very much rather have my bees iti 

 the shade of trees, both for the comfort of the bees and for 

 the comfort of the bee-keeper ; and I suppose the same rule 

 will hold in vour State. 



Queen-Breeders' Terms— Veil Injuring Eyes, Etc. 



1. Looking- over queen-breeders' advertisements, I 

 notice such terms as "golden Italian," "dark Italian," " 3- 

 band Italian," and " 5-band Italian." Now, which one is 

 pure Italian ? 



2. I believe wearing a bee-veil is injuring my eyes. The 

 veil is black tulle. How wide should the hat brim be so as 

 not to injure the eyes ? 



3. What do you think of the Johansen extension hive, 

 described on page 129 ?" Missouri. 



Answers. — 1. They may all be pure. Dark Italian and 

 3-banded are terms applied to those that come direct from 

 Italy ; golden Italian and 5-banded after they hive been 

 changed in this country. I believe G. M. Doolittle thinks 

 none of them are pure because not of fixt characteristics. 



2. You can probably have nothing better than black 

 tulle. If the veil is attacht to the edge of the brim, it makes 

 little difference how wide the brim is, the difference being 

 in favor of the narrower brim, for you can see a little better 

 ■with the veil close to your eyes than when farther away. 

 But the better way is to have a wide brim, say 8 inches, and 

 then have the veil sewed on as close to the face as possible 

 without having the veil touch the face. Then the outer 

 part of the brim shades the veil ; for the sun shining on the 

 veil makes it hard on the eyes. Of course the tulle should 

 be the geniiine article, of fine silk. 



3. It seems to suit the inventor well : whether others 

 will see advantages enough in it to make them adopt it, re- 

 mains to be seen. 



Some Actions of Bees— Alfalfa as Stock Forage. 



Dr. Miller :— I think I can help you to answer " Mass- 

 achusett's " questions, on page 6. I will first state what I 

 have seen, and then draw conclusions. 



Some years ago I set some combs out at the west of the 

 apiary for the bees to clean, and after they had gotten well 

 to work I concluded to move the hives of combs to a more 

 sheltered place, and so carried them to the north of the 

 apiary. The bees were continually leaving these hives 

 while I was carrying them, and after I had set them in the 

 new place, and it amused me to see them all start directly 

 east, as the)' should have done from the old stand. Some 

 of them would fly 10 steps and others nearly as far as I 

 could see them, then they would circle a little and turn 

 towards home. 



Again, last summer, I carelessly left a hive of combs 

 just extracted, near the door, just east of the apiary, and 

 they were soon covered with bees. I carried the hive away 

 from the house to the southwest of the apiary, and the bees 

 all started west on leaving the hive. The wind was pretty 

 strong from the west so they could make but little headway 

 against it, but they would struggle a short distance and 

 then turn to the northeast for home. 



If you " want more reliable testimony," I hope you will 

 try it yourself in the spring. 



The bees evidently did not realize that they had been 



carried since alighting on the combs, and so started in the 

 directions in which they supposed home was, till they saw 

 a familiar object. Their ability to recognize objects is 

 doubtless very acute. 



I notice you did not entirely endorse the story of a cat's 

 finding its way home. I am glad of it, for it is all bosh. A 

 few years ago a certain bee-keeper, in trying to prove that 

 mankind only had reason, wrote some wonderful stories 

 about cats, but bees and cats have no more a sixth sense 

 than we have. To be sure, one will sometimes, bj' chance, 

 start in the right direction, and so find home, and these 

 cases are exaggerated and reported. 



Regarding " New York's " question on the same page, 

 I will say that alfalfa does frequently kill cattle, and that, 

 too, when they are accustomed to eating it, especially when 

 it is young and tender, or when wet with rain or dew, or by 

 drinking immediately after eating. My son lost two on 

 this place last summer, and several others bloated badly, 

 but were discovered in time to save them. I have had no 

 experience with sheep, but am told that they are more sub- 

 ject to bloat than cattle. It is not usually pastured except 

 the old stubble in the fall. It does not produce honey in 

 this locality, but where I was in Colorado it furnisht nearly 

 all the surplus. I. W. BeckwiTh. 



Fremont Co., Wyo., Jan. 10. 



Answer. — This is interesting, and shows it is not well 

 to be too skeptical when so many close observers are on 

 hand with " reliable testimony." The point emphasized is 

 that when bees are freed after being carried a distance, they 

 fly in the same direction they would have done if no moving 

 had taken place. 



♦-»-* 



Who Should Pay the Freight ?-Wax-Worms. 



1. Do )'ou think it is right for the producer to pay trans- 

 portation charges on what he has to sell, and also what he 

 has to buy ? To illustrate : Suppose I have some honey 

 and wax to sell. I send it to some supply dealer to exchange 

 for his goods. I have to pay freight both ways — on his goods 

 and also on mine. Now be candid, and give an unpreju- 

 diced answer. 



2. I also send a clipping from a coutitry paper. Please 

 give your opinion on the kind of bee-worms the writer had 

 reference to. The clipping reads as follows : 



Weak Colony of Bees.— When a colony of bees is found at the close 

 of the season lijjht in weight, it is generally better policy to destroy it 

 than to try to lieep it thru the winter. The weak colony is probably al- 

 ready infested with bee-worms, and the sooner the propagation of these 

 is arrested the better, as their increase makes greater danger for all the 

 colonies ne.xt year. If the weak colony is destitute of a queen its bees 

 may be transferred to a larger and stronger colony with advantage to 

 both, tho in some cases more food must be provided for the strong colony 

 after this addition, to enable it to winter without loss. III. 



Answers. — 1. Whether it be that the editor prefers to 

 have the question as to who shall pay freights answered by 

 one who is not prejudiced in favor of the supply dealer, or 

 whether it be that with a wicked chuckle he sends the ques- 

 tion to me as a poser — in any case he has turned it over to 

 me, and I can hardly say the answer is difficult. It is sim- 

 ply a matter of fairness, agreement, and convenience. 



Suppose I sell honey to a dealer. He says to me, " I can 

 get all the honey I want of the same grade as yours, deliv- 

 ered here for 15 cents a pound." I saj' to him, " But I don't 

 want to pay the freight, and I don't think I ought to." "All 

 right," he replies, "I'm willing to pay the freight, but as it 

 will cost half a cent a pound to get it here, I can afford only 

 14>2 cents a pound if I pay the freight." Then suppose I 

 want to buy a thousand sections. He asks for them $3.50. 

 But I tell him I want him to pay the freight. "Certainly. 

 But the freight to your place will be 25 cents, so if I pay the 

 freight I shall have to charge $3.75 for the sections." Cer- 

 tainly there can be nothing that I see wrong in that. So I 

 make both trades, selling honey at 14 '2, and buying sec- 

 tions at $3.75, and he pays freight both ways. Or I may 

 sell honey at 15, buy sections at S3. 50, and pay freight 

 on both. 



I think you will find the dealer willing to pay freight 

 one or both ways, but certainly you cannot expect the price 

 to be the same whether he or you shovild pay freight. 



2. The item is not nearly so wide of the mark as manj- 

 an item written by those who know little or nothing about 

 bees. The " bee-worms " mentioned are no doubt the com- 

 mon wax-worms. In these days of Italians, one smiles at 

 the great danger from the propagation of "bee-worms" 

 to " all the colonies next j-ear." 



