342 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 31, 1900. 



g-ets its green used up, and is too feeble to make more, is a 

 novel way of putting it. And how handy it is that starch 

 and sugar and woody fiber are chemically similar and trans- 

 mutable ! But I believe the scientists do not tell us of a 

 plant ever transmuting woody fiber bachvard into either of 

 the others. The glucose-maker can do it — we'll play that 

 the plant is too honest. How convenient the non-solubility 

 of starch in cold water makes it for keeping supplies on 

 hand for time of need 1 The solubility of sugar makes it 

 difficult to keep — or perhaps the difficulty is rather in keep- 

 ing it restrained to one locality. The sugar-cane keeps its 

 reserves as sugar bj' filling all the cells of the stalk with it 



VARIOUS METHODS OF LEARNING APICULTURE. 



Mr. Whitney reminds me of that learn-to-swim individ- 

 ual who lay down on a big table and went thru the frog 

 motions of arms and legs before going into the water. 

 'Spects swimming can be learned that way quite as well as 

 apiculture. Page 245. 



APIARY FENCED IN WITH EVERGREENS. 



We sometimes forget a lesser advantage in contemplat- 

 ing a greater one. Most of us have in mind the great ad- 

 vantage of having an apiary fenced in by big evergreens 

 during a wind}' winter — but those windy spring days when 

 we want to open hives, and prudence bids us abstain, or 

 imprudence makes us go ahead and realize more harm than 

 the operations do of good — evergreens would be very desir- 

 able then also. Moreover, we often experience discomfort 

 and bpther from wind when no serious damage to brood or 

 bees follows, yet it would be nice to be relieved of the 

 bother. Page 250. 



I TOO MUCHsSOAP IN RENDERING BEESWAX. 



It seems strange that Mrs. Woodmansee. page 251, 

 should with worthy, intent to have things as nice as possi- 

 ble, get so much soap in her beeswax as to spoil it. Am 

 tempted to wonder if there was not an unnoticed something 

 else that did most of the mischief. Mush instead of a cake 

 of wax sometimes results when there is too much honey in 

 the refuse ; but in that case the wax is not really damaged 

 at all, only put into a state from which it is some bother to 

 recover it. 



MR. STOLLEY'S SHED-APIARY. 



Mr. Stolley, your apiary, page 257, seems to be the best 

 looking one of its kind that has been presented to us lately. 

 Kot a very common kind is the bee-house with one side of 

 the house left off. You omitted to state how you get at the 

 hives to manipulate them — whether by removing some of 

 the nuclei, or by slipping a hive to the rear, or by thrust- 

 ing forward from the rear one's nose and paws. Storms 

 can drive under your structure somewhat worse than with 

 the lower and less " scrumptious " little sheds we have con- 

 templated heretofore. Brilliant idea to utilize good-looking 

 and ill-behaving hives as roof ornaments — only perhaps 

 some brethren, of a particular turn of mind, would not en- 

 joy looking upon their own costly foolishness so constantly. 



NON-SEPARATORED HONEY. 



"Control all the necessary elements, and you can have 

 fair sections of honey without separators, but you cayi not 

 control all " — that is a lucid way of putting it, Comrade 

 Aikin. And the man who ships cases of sections which 

 can not be rearranged hit or miss without bumping is sec- 

 ond cousin to the man who ships unripe extracted honey — 

 destroys other people's market, as well as his own, rather 

 than fulfill the conditions of furnishing a really first-class 

 article — too lazy — and greedy. Thunder and lightning in 

 store for you, Mr. A., as a reward for your article on page 

 259 ; but you are right, let 'er thunder ! 



A "queenly" COMMENT. 



Your best girl, if rescued from the ruins of a house 

 wreckt by a tornado, might not look her best just then — 

 and you would not think of demanding it — but when a queen 

 goes thru the round of Uncle Sam's mail-bag C3'clone, 

 straighway you remark that she looks small, unshapely, 

 dark and unpromising g^enerally. 'Spects Henry Alle^' is 

 right, on page 261, that we should hold our maledictory 

 " bosses " until the poor queen has had time to brush up 

 and look in the glass. 



PUTTING ON SUPERS — SWARMING. 



" Put on supers ten days after you see the first clover 

 blossom." Strikes me. Dr. Miller, that is a helpful general 

 maxim for clover territory, if not ridden too hard. Not 

 quite sure I like those big hatcheries five stories high. As 



in other baby-farms, I fear there is much infantile death 

 that comes nigh unto murder. But I am quite sure I don't 

 like swarm-controlling beatitudes when they begin with 

 the words, "When a swarm issues and returns." Page 262. 



REMOVING QUEENS IN SEPTEMBER. 



George W. Riker takes away the queens of strong colo 

 nies in September to keep drones for the early spring. I 

 think that careful observation and report as to what pro- 

 portion of the drones survive the winter, and when the last 

 finally die, would be acceptable information to some of us. 

 Page 268. 



BEES AND STRAWBERRY-BLOSSOMS. 



In these papers heretofore I have spoken quite decidedly 

 about the rarity of bees visiting strawberry-bloom. Per- 

 haps I would better begin eating my words before somebody 

 heaves bricks. This year during cold weather in fruit- 

 bloom bees visited strawberries quite persistently. Perhaps 

 if I had lookt as carefully as I have this year I would have 

 seen it before. Also, I have seen several species of little 

 insects that work at the same business. Some of these are 

 sized about right to crawl under the stamens and get pollen 

 on their backs. Somewhat to my surprise most of these lit- 

 tle chaps are also bees, or insects closely related to the bees. 

 One species seems to be the familiar sweat-bee that visits 

 our sweaty arms and necks, and gives us a tiny sting when 

 we crowd him. The plentiest one is black and very spry, 

 and the " cut of his jib " almost tempts one to call him a 

 winged ant. 



CONDUCTED BY 



r>ie. O. O. MILLER, Marengo, 111. 



[The Questions may be mailed 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.^EDlTOR.l 



Increase by Dividing. 



I have one colony and would like to make two out of it. 

 My idea is to take a few of the frames with brood and fill 

 with frames with foundation the remainder of the hive, and 

 put in a new queen. Is my idea right ? New York. 



Answer. — Your plan will work. Keep in mind that the 

 part put on the new stand will lose all its field-bees, as they 

 will return to the old stand. So you must put most of the 

 bees on the new stand, if you want anything like equal 

 strength in the two parts. 



Wood Splints Instead of Wires in Frames. 



A couple of months ago splints were recommended in- 

 stead of wires, and again recently appeared an answer to a 

 subscriber giving some further directions, but I am still at 

 sea as to how to use them. I judged first that they were to 

 be the length of the frame, so as to fit in between the end- 

 pieces ; that is, they were to lie horizontally ; but later the 

 directions were that they are to be cut an eighth of an inch 

 shorter, and, I would judge, to stand perpendicularly, but it 

 didn't say so ; nor was it told how they are to be fastened 

 in, whether by imbedding slightly into the comb founda- 

 tion, or by sticking with a little wax. 



Again, I am puzzled to know why they should be cut 

 Js inch shorter if they are to be set in perpendicularly ; in 

 fact, the instructions are entirely too meagre, or else my 

 brain is too dull. A great deal of the value of many good 

 things is lost because of the way in which they are written. 



Ontario. 



Answer. — It is an unfortunate thing that room is limi- 

 ted in these columns ; for in spite of trying to condense, it 

 sometimes happens that the printer has hardly room enough 

 for all the answers in this department. Again it happens 

 that when a thing is once given in full it will hardly do to 

 repeat it in full within a short time. Still again, when a 



