May 17, lyoo 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



311 



broken-into-the-garden point. Alia matter of "locality" 

 in the almanac. But as years wear on I find the Dr. Miller- 

 ish aspect of the case arrives earlier in the swarming sea- 

 son than it used to do. Don't anybody who finds a sa/is- 

 factory non-swarming- system hide it in the earth to save 

 interrupting my fascinations. I'll intermit often enough 

 to get all the fascination I really need, if somebody'U only 

 give me such a system. Page 217. 



PLAN OF FEEDING A POLLEN SUBSITUTK. 



Dr. Miller's style of making his bees dig corn-oats pol- 

 len from a reversible side-hill is commendable. A similar 

 reversible side-hill can be operated on a big tray of cap- 

 pings. Page 214. 



WATER-CURE REMEDY FOR STINGS. 



The success of the wet-sheet pack narrated on page 218, 

 adds one more reason for thinking that the water-cure 

 remedy for stings may ultimately come to be regarded as 

 the standard remedy both for man and beast. 



LONG-RANGE SMELTER SMOKE AND BEES. 



What E. S. Lovesy saj's on page 223 about the disas- 

 trous effects of smelter smoke seems almost too much for 

 belief; and yet the writer is too reliable a person for us to 

 get away readily thru the gap of incredulity. To kill bees 

 ten miles off is better execution than modern artillery can 

 be depended on for. 



MR. HARTER, HIS APIARY AND EXPERIENCES. 



Mr. Harter, your apiary, page 225, looks like many other 

 apiaries ; but its position with nothing visible between it 

 and boundless infinity, as we look to the horizon, appeals 

 to the imagination somewhat. You didn't say you always 

 walk around in shirt sleeves Jan. 19th out there. That nice 

 Italian queen roasted in the sun was rather a sad payment 

 of experience tuition. Sometimes the sunshine is such that 

 it would have been delightful to the chilly queen and her 

 subjects; but sometimes, as you found, it is deadly. This 

 difference seems to be caused by the difference of trans- 

 parency and amount of vapor in the air. Doubtful if any 

 of us could live an hour tied to a smooth wall in direct sun- 

 shine, if the air was entirely transparent and free from 

 vapor. It is one of the niceties of manipulation in the api- 

 ary to know just when it won't do to leave a queen-cell or a 

 frame of brood where a murderous sun can hit it, even for 

 a little while — and likewise when it would be foolishness to 

 make anj' particular fuss about the sunshine. If you have 

 a solar wax-extractor which you are trying to run, that will 

 tell you. 



MR. AIKIN'S POINTS POINTED OUT. 



R. C. Aikin touches a good point (page 226) where he 

 says that SO pounds of sections stored bj- one colony will be 

 a better lot, and nicer in iinish, than SO pounds stored bj- 

 two colonies. But, Mr. A., you're still a little " oft" " on the 

 swarming question if you think dividing colonies will 

 always prevent swarming. Sometimes increases the total 

 number of swarms. 



THAT QUEEN-REARING FIGHT. 



In the queen-rearing fight (page 226) I don't assuredly 

 know how matters are, but I guess that sometimes Mr. Doo- 

 little's queen, reared by a quart of well impounded bees, 

 would be a tolerably fail one. I somewhat more than guess 

 that the queenless half of a divided colony rears a fairly 

 good queen sometimes. They say " blood will tell;" and 

 even in case a very short-lived queen is reared, if super- 

 seding is then allowed to take place naturally (and soon, as it 

 naturally would), is not the ultimate result a queen nearly 

 or quite as good as any ? But of course what the queen- 

 breeders should go for is a method, not too bothersome, that 

 will bring a good queen every time as nearly as may be. 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH QUEEN-BREEDERS ? 



Those are strong words of Frank Coverdale, on page 

 228, that nearly every one of 50 purchast queens fell short 

 of common stock on the honey-gathering point — said queens 

 not being all from one breeder, but from several. Shall we 

 " edicate " our breeders, or stop buying queens, or what ? 



RENDERING OLD COMB INTO WAX. 



Sad to hear that none of the high and mighty methods 

 of rendering old comb into beeswax satisfy Mr. Doolittle. 

 He just puts the old comb into the solar, rubs it up with a 

 trowel once when nice and hot, and takes the consequences. 

 Probably right for small quantities. If the quantity is 

 large, I'm suspicious. If vinegar will do even almost as 



well as sulphuric acid in cleansing processes, that is quite 

 important. My idea is that bees hate sulphuric acid, and 

 rather like vinegar. Page 22H. 



DR. miller's "little HATCHET" — BASSWOOD GROWING. 



And it's a hatchet instead of a knife that the good Doc- 

 tor scrapes a hive with when he wants to get the propolis 

 out of it 1 Never should have thought of it. 



My idea of basswood is that it grows better self shaded, 

 or even shaded by other trees, than it does in the open. So 

 I think Dr. Miller's answer (page 231), to thin the young 

 basswoods to 30 feet apart, rather rank. The clumps of five 

 I mostly wouldn't thin at all at present, and the clumps of 

 15 only to 10 feet or less. 



BEES WORRYING IN SHIPMENT. 



That bees will worry themselves to death on a long 

 journey unless they have either a queen or some unsealed 

 brood to maintain the home feeling, is a point of bee-nature 

 and practical apiculture that some of us might forget if not 

 reminded of it. Presumably, Editor Pender is right 

 about it. Page 234. 



Ripe or Unripe Honey for Extracting. — R. C. Aikin 

 takes the ground in the Progressive Bee-Keeper that it is 

 cheaper to extract honey after it is ripened and sealed. 

 G. M. Doolittle combats this, but finally joins hands with 

 Mr. Aikin that honey should never be extracted till well 

 ripened in the hive, because of the all-important matter of 

 flavor, no honey ripened out of the hive being equal in 

 flavor to that ripened by the bees. 



To Bleach Pollen-Stained Sections. — Some time ago it 

 was said Byron Walker had a scheme to accomplish this, 

 but he never seemed to have time to tell how it was done. 

 Editor Root Ijas finally learned that the plan is to put the 

 sections in the sun in a window for 2 or 3 days. Sunlight 

 has no effect on travel-stained and greasy sections, the only 

 ones affected being those that appear pollen-stained or have 

 a yellowish coating over the cappings. 



Difference in Candying of Honey from Same Lot.— 



The question has been askt, " Why is it that two jars of 

 honey may be drawn from the same tank of honey, one of 

 them remaining liquid a long time and the other candying 

 almost immediately?" S. T. Pettit says in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture it is because in the tank the watery part of the 

 honey rises to the top, the most dense being in the bottom. 

 That drawn first from the tank will differ in density from 

 that drawn last, hence the difference in granulation. 



Early Swarms Not Desirable. — A. E. Hoshal says in 

 the Canadian Bee Journal : 



"No doubt some will be bragging next month in our 

 bee-journals about their early swarms in May ; we read 

 such accounts almost every year. This does not necessarily 

 mean that their colonies are any stronger than those of 

 many other bee-keepers, who understand their business 

 better, and whose bees consequently have not swarmed ; 

 they are simply advertising their failure to prevent them 

 swarming, and proclaiming their ignorance." 



The Qrape=Vine Apiary was formerly recommended in 

 A. I. Root's A B C of Bee-Culture, and Mr. Root practiced 

 what he preacht by planting a grape-vine for each hive. 

 But it does not seem to be a thing that bears acquaintance, 

 for Editor E. R. Root now sa_vs : 



"The grape-vines, our people all voted as a nuisance. 

 The young shoots with their tendrils will sprawl all over, 

 catching in clothing and veils while one is working the 

 hives. While vines afford fairly good shade they need a 

 great deal of care, and then it is practicall.v impossible to 

 work with bee-tents, which we consider so necessary in 

 queen-rearing, during the robbing season.' 



