282 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 3, 1900. 



THC^^^25^. 



i^S' III 



The '*Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



THE UNCAPPING-KNIFE AND ITS USE. 



Did I hear yoii say, Mr. Grimes, that knife-makers 

 should make the knife hold fast in the handle ? I'm afraid 

 that's a little like saying- that commission men should be 

 honest. Speak to us ajjain when you have devised some 

 vray to make "em do so. No one should be askt to pay a 

 dollar and over for a knife unless it is put together, and put 

 together for keeps. You see (despite the excellent Grimes 

 advice to use the honey-knife only for uncapping) I use 

 mine to clip my asparagus-green shades ; and I have to 

 curl my trigger-finger around it, like I was about to shoot a 

 Boer, or Britisher. Not quite sure we should ahvays cut 

 the comb down to level relentlessly. And he didn't tell 

 about late uncapping, when the combs have been on the 

 hives all summer. Who'll get up a tournament, with a 

 prize for the best and most rapid uncapping, and a reporter 

 capable of describing the different ways of manipulation in 

 which the champions proceeded ? Page 178. 



A COMPARISON THAT DIDN'T COMPARE. 



In the last Afterthought, page 246, there is a bad " out,' 

 in which figures for comparison are given, and nothing to 

 compare them with. The idea was that one colonj' has 

 20,000 field-bees out of a total of 30,000, while another has 

 only 2,000 out of a total of 20,000. The home bees not 

 counting, it is plain that a field which would supply nectar 

 for 50 colonies of the former would supply 500 of the latter. 

 And this element is one usually overlookt in such calcula- 

 tions. 



MR. VAN BLARICUM AND HIS APIARY. 



Mr. Van Blaricum, you look business in your long, sin- 

 gle-line, flight-o'-ducks apiary. But what was the special 

 need of warming your thumb? Did a bee make too free 

 with it ? And is that your remedy for stings? Your ex- 

 tempore shades of sunflower are good — makes them last all 

 the fall, to keep the blossoms cut off. Page 177. 



APIARI.\N STATISTICS OF THE COLORADOS. 



From 65 tons of honey in 1889 to 600 tons in 1899 is 

 rapid growth for Colorado. They are happy in having 

 things in shape out there to know a little more about bee- 

 population and crops than some of the other States can at 

 present. Page 181. 



RELATIVE LONGEVITY OF STRAINS OF BEES. 



H. Rauchfuss, of the Colorados, once more turns our 

 minds to that important (important if true to report) con- 

 sideration, the relative long-evity of different strains of 

 bees. Is it not strange that we should be so sadly lacking 

 in definite evidence on such an important point? A com- 

 rade will tell us that his favorite bee is longer lived than 

 other bees ; but whether they live 15 daj's longer or 15 min- 

 utes longer — he hasn't got so far as that yet. JDefinite proof 

 of how long worker-bees live is not very hard to get. Who 

 will keep some long-lived bees and some short-lived bees 

 side by side under identical conditions, and show us just 

 how many days of difference there is during the honey-flow 

 in June? Ere we spend very much time and cash, let us 

 first be sure we are not pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp. You 

 see it might be that the suppo.sed short-lived ones are really 

 just as long-lived as the others— the real trouble being an 

 unusually large percentage of defective and worthless in- 

 dividuals among the brood. Page 182. 



WAX-SECRETION AND HONEY-GATHERING. 



Mr. Rauchfuss also says he has several colonies in his 

 apiary markt approvingly because they use wax to build 

 the burrs on top, where other co onies use propolis largely. 

 Shouldn't wonder if he were on track of something val- 

 uable. I suppose the idea is that such bees do not use pro- 

 polis because %vax \-i plenty with them — and that plentiful 

 wax-secretion goes with plentiful honey-gathering. Does 

 it always ? Page 182. 



BETTER "SEASON" NON-SWARMING THINGS. 



President Aikin is a wise man. He always partakes of 

 a grain of salt when he hears of non-swarming bees. Bet- 

 ter include non-swarming hives and non-swarming meth- 

 ods — and double the dose of salt, and take it every half 

 hour. Page 182. 



THE BL.ACK BROOD SCOURGE. 



What shall we say about P. W. Stahlmann's report of 

 black brood on page 204? To lose 200 colonies out of 450 in 

 one season is rather a shocking record for a person to make 

 who seems to be reasonably diligent and expert in his craft. 

 Perhaps it's mainly because no one knows yet how to pro- 

 ceed against a new disease ; but again, perhaps — perhaps 

 we have a plag^ue on our shores that's going to sweep the 

 country despite all that can be done. 



"water on the head" for BEE-STINGS. 



Henry White, page 203, is certainly a veteran ; but to 

 sou.se one's head in a tub of water when an army of infuri- 

 ated bees are grubbing it over — that's what some of the 

 veterans would call one of the greenest of greenhorn tricks. 

 You see, wetting does not improve their temper much ; and 

 you fix 'em so they can not leave you when they get ready. 



pure-food LAWS and THEIR ENFORCEMENT. 



Mr. Abbott may be right that the matter of pure food 

 and honej' should be left in the hands of the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture ; but somehow it seems a little to me as if an 

 officer with no other duty to perform would be less likely 

 to neglect duty. A thoroly competent and good man would 

 get to work in either case; but even a rather poor stick 

 (such as the political machine is apt to give us) would do 

 something if wicked obstruction or utter idleness were the 

 only alternatives. Page 199. 



FULL FOUNDATION SHEETS IN SECTIONS. 



The appearance of the thing on page 196 is that five of 

 the Colorados believe in full sheets of foundation in sec- 

 tions, and act accordingly, while 13 more believe the same 

 thing but don't live up to their faith. Still, those who be- 

 lieve in total depravity are all the better for not living up 

 to it. 



FASTENING FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS. 



Keep your cut foundation as cold as ever you can, by 

 some extemporized refrigerating arrangement, if you are 

 going to set it by the hot-plate process. New idea to me, 

 but looks very sensible. They didn't agree as to whether 

 the hot plate should be allowed to warm the wood of the 

 section a little. 



WINTERING BEES IN A "CEMENT CISTERN." 



Bingham's bee-cave looks dreadfully sinister somehow. 

 One would think that, if not actually a den for the commis- 

 sion of crime, at least the slaughter of innocent little lambs 

 must be carried on inside that dark, wigwam-like structure. 

 Am not quite sure I like the idea of wintering bees in a 

 cement cistern — but that feature of the thing could be modi- 

 fied — and " pretty is that pretty does." If this new depar- 

 ture in wintering-repositories does all that is expected of it, 

 it will be as pretty as Annie Laurie herself. Excellent 

 plan to weigh the dead every exact month, so the bee-keeper 

 knows just " where he is at." So far the record is lovely at 

 a loss of about a third of an ounce a month per colony. 

 This would be about 93 bees out of say 14,000— but wait till 

 you hear from the last month. Page 193. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



Mr. Bonney might have carried his safe-introduction 

 plan a little further yet. Of a colony having lots of brood 

 one can not impound all the bees a la Doolittle ; but just 

 previous to running in the queen and the first half of the 

 bees, those left in charge of the brood can also be shaken 

 out and put in "durance vile" for a season. In returning 

 these last, just .set them near the door and let them go home 

 individually, instead of all in a rush. Page 196. 



BLOCKING THE BKOOD-CHAMBER WITH HONEY. 



So according to Mr. Aikin, page 195, a weak colony will 

 always crowd the brood-chamber with honey, if they have 

 the honey to do it with, and the strongest will do the same 

 thing in just the requisite kind of a slow flow. Sensible — 

 but I Are there not some bees with which you'll never 

 have a blockt brood-chamber if the colony is fairly populous ? 



