328 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 24, 1900 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



118 Michigan Street, Chicago, Hi. 



[Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



EDITOR: 



"^"Oi^is:. 



DEPARTMENT EDITORS: 



C.C.MILLER, E.E. HASTY, 



" Questions and Answers." ** " The Afterthought." 



LEADING CONTRIBUTORS: 



G. M. DooLiTTLE, C. P. Dadant, Prof. A. J. Cook, 



F. A. Snell, R. C. Aikin, " Old Grimes." 



IMPORTANT NOTICES: 



The Subscription Price of this journal is $1.00 a year, in the United States, 

 Canada, and Me.xico; all other countries in the Postal Union, SO cents 

 a year extra for postage. Sample copy free. 



The Wrapper-Label Date of this paper indicates the end of the mouth to 

 which your subscription is paid. For instance, "DecOO" on your 

 label shows that it is paid to the end of December, 1900. 



Subscription Receipts. — We do not send a receipt for money sent us to pay- 

 subscription, but change the date on your wrapper-label, which shows 

 you that the money has been received and duly credited. 



Advertising Rates will be given upon application. 



VOL. 40. 



MAY 24, 1900. 



NO. 21. 



Note— The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthographv of the follow- 

 ing Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philolog- 

 ical Association and the Philological Society of England: — Change 

 **d" or "ed" final to "t" when so pronounced, except when the "e" af- 

 fects a preceding sound. Also some other changes are used. 



Shipping Bee-Supplies Promptly It seems from 



statements made by several of the larger bee-supply manu- 

 facturers, that they are not having much trouble so far this 

 year about filling orders promptly. Doubtless there is 

 scarcely a dealer vpho would from choice delaj^ filling or- 

 ders. "We believe that almost invariably the present-day 

 bee-supply dealers are prompt and reliable. 



It doesn't take long to find out that delays and any- 

 thing but up-to-date methods must inevitably bring on fail- 

 ures in these days. Buyers are fast learning whom they 

 can trust, and who will serve them best. It is well that it 

 is so. Honorable and conscientious dealing will always 

 prove to be the best in the long run. Careless and dishon- 

 est methods will soon bring on heart-failure and quick dis- 

 solution to any business, as properly should be the case. 



Bran for Bees — Mr. A. I. Root, in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, tells in the following how the bees "go for " bran 

 as a substitute for pollen : 



" Our neighbor across the way, a grain-dealer, got in a 

 carload of bran in bulk ; and on this beautiful 16th day of 

 April they began shoveling it up to store it in their ware- 

 house. But the bees from our apiary just across the way, 

 in consequence of the cold March and April so far, were 

 lacking in pollen, and they pitcht into the bran with such 

 vim that the men who were shoveling beat a retreat. Why, 



it made one think of a leaky carload of honey, only the bees 

 seemed to be very happy and civil in their rejoicing over 

 their big find of pollen. I got one of our biggest wheelbar- 

 rows, loaded it up with bran, and wheeled it out into the 

 apiarj' as a ' counter-irritant ;' I think that is what the doc- 

 tors call it, don't they ? Well, just now (about three in the 

 afternoon) it makes me feel like old times to hear the bees 

 humming and rejoicing over that big wheelbarrow full of 

 bran. I tipt it up edgewise so the coarser particles would 

 run down over the side, and that seems to be just the thing 

 to suit them." 



Comparative Weight of Sections. — Altho the editor 

 of Gleanings in Bee-Culture is by no means a figure-head, 

 he seems to have quite a head for figures, and gives a be- 

 wildering array of figures with regard to the weight of sec- 

 tions of difi'erent sizes. In one lot of honey the average 

 weight of 4'4x4'4'xl>'s bee-way sections was 14.94 ounces ; 

 of 4>4x4'4'xl'2 plain, 13.83 ounces. A 4'4 plain by Ij-s holds 

 a plump pound. The 4x5 is supposed to run more nearly a 

 pound than any section on the market. A whole lot of 

 figures is given, showing the cubical contents of the sec- 

 tions of different sizes, but the actual amount of honey is 

 by no means always in the same proportion. 



Granulated Honey is having much said in its favor 

 nowadays. G. M. Doolittle says in the American Bee- 

 Keeper : 



"If the bee-keepers of the land had tried as hard to 

 educate consumers regarding the merits of granulated 

 honey as they did to put only liquid honey before the pub- 

 lic, the call for liquid honey would have been changed to 

 that of granulated honey long ago. My customers, for the 

 past five years, have all called for the granulated article, 

 nearly all of them preferring to use it that way, while the 

 convenience of carrying it home in a paper sack, or a box 

 lined with paper, with no leaking or daubing of things with 

 liquid honey, adds to the popularity of honey in its granu- 

 lated form." 



rianagement in the Extracting=Season. — In the dis- 

 cussion of this topic at the Toronto convention (reported in 

 the Canadian Bee Journal), the point was made that in 

 locations where the weather turned cool at the close of the 

 honey season it was better to extract before the bees began 

 to shrink away from the upper combs, for this would allow 

 the honey to become thin. Care should be taken to keep 

 white clover and linden honey separate, especially if the 

 honey is to be shipt to England. Bees will go to work more 

 promptly upon combs that have just been extracted than 

 they will on dry combs. Where there is danger of foul 

 brood ill some colonies, it is safer to give back to each col- 

 ony its own combs after they are extracted, but it take& 

 more time. Some did not find it necessary to have ex- 

 cluders under extracting-supers on establisht colonies. 



Young Queens to Prevent Swarming. — It is a com- 

 mon belief that a colony with a queen of the cuirent year's 

 rearing will not swarm. The belief has been held for many 

 years, and for a long time was left undisputed. Then when 

 Italians came upon the field, it was said that the rule did 

 not always hold true with them, but was still valid with 

 blacks. Possibly there is not so much difference as sup- 

 posed between the two kinds of bees, the difference in re- 

 sults being rather owing to treatment than to difference in 

 bees. As a matter of fact, when other conditions are all 

 favorable for swarming, the introduction of a young queen 

 will not prevent swarming, even if she has been laying only 

 a day or two. But when a young queen is not introduced, 

 but reared in the hive, then it may be expected to prevent 

 swarming. Gravenhorst gave this as reliable, and said he 

 could not explain why there should be the difference be- 

 tween a queen introduced and one reared in the hive. In 

 the American Bee-Keeper G. M. Doolittle gives what is 



