June 14, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



377 



reared thruoiit the season, he thinks success can not be at- 

 tained without having full colonies on the same kind of 

 frames used in the nuclei. 



Mr. W. H. Pridgen furnishes the prize article, which 

 occupies (including illustrations) nearly nine pages. Mr. 

 Pridgen is a genius. He has carried to great perfection the 

 producing of Doolittle cell-cups, making them by wholesale 

 so rapidly that some one with the proper apparatus should 

 furnish them ready-made at a comparatively low price. 

 Probably Mr. Pridgen is the man for this. One way of 

 malting them grinds them out with a crank ! The forming- 

 sticks project from the circumference of a wheel, and re- 

 volving the wheel allows each stick to dip in order in the 

 melted wax. He goes into full details of the queen-rearing 

 business, and any one intending to rear queens for the mar- 

 ket will find this one article worth much more than a year's 

 subscription to the Bee-Keepers' Review. 



The Dr. Miller Honey=Queens. — Owing to the fact 

 that Dr. Miller is receiving orders for queens which he can 

 not fill, and also to avoid possible disappointment, he sends 

 the following for publication : 



Mr. Editor : — To save disappointment on the part of 

 some who have written me ordering queens, I desire to say 

 that I have no queens at disposal, having engaged them all 

 to the publishers of the American Bee Journal. I hope no 

 more will send orders or money to me, as I can only fill or- 

 ders that come thru the American Bee Journal. 



In reply to some who have askt that advance notice be 

 given when a queen is to be sent, I may say that in all cases 

 notice will be sent a day in advance of mailing the queen. 



I am a little afraid that some will be disappointed in 

 getting queens that are not handsome, nor the mothers of 

 yellow bees. They are bred for work, and not for color. 

 Some will be as good as the stock from which they are bred, 

 and no doubt some will fall much below. Those who get 

 untested queens must take the chances. The only thing I 

 can be entirely sure about is that the mother of the queen 

 sent out has proved to be the mother of workers that have 

 given unusually good results in their performance. 



C. C. Miller. 



When it is remembered that the main requirement of 

 bees to-day is that they shall gather much honey, rather 

 than be noted principally for their beauty of color or purity 

 of blood, we have no doubt those who get a Dr. Miller queen 

 will be well satisfied. The only fear we have is that he 

 may not be able to rear them fast enough to meet the 

 demand. 



The Doctor expected to have begun to mail the queens 

 on advance orders before this number of the Bee Journal 

 is sent out. 



A Honey-Bee's Load. — A member of the American 

 Bee Journal's family writes us as follows on this subject : 



" That report of Prof. Lazenby, on page 336, is a val- 

 uable contribution to our bee-literature, and he is not justi- 

 fied in saj'ing his observations are not important in them- 

 selves. He is perhaps the first who has said that bees do 

 not collect both honey and pollen on the same trip, and it is 

 to be hoped that others will confirm or refute his conclu- 

 sions. Some of his conclusions confirm the saying : ' Bees 

 never do anything invariably.' He says, ' Strawberries are 

 infrequently visited by bees.' If he had been in this re- 

 gion at the time of strawberry-bloom he might have said : 

 ' Bees work busily upon strawberries.' They were at work 

 on strawberries and raspberries at the same time, altho 

 they were more plentiful on the raspberries. There were 

 perhaps twice as many bees on the raspberries as on the 

 strawberries; certainly not eight times as many, as the 

 Professor's table shows. 



" In view of the fact that an item is at present going 

 the rounds of the papers (not the bee-papers) to the effect 

 that a bee carries a load three times as heavy as the weight 

 of its own body, it is interesting to note that Prof. Lazenby 

 makes it only one-twelfth as much, or one-fourth as much 

 as its own weight. But I can not figure it out so large as 

 that. Taking the Professor's figures, the average weight 



of an outgoing bee is .079 of a gram, and its weight is .09+ 

 as it returns with a load of honey. This, he says, leaves 

 .022 as the average honey-load, or 27 percent of the average 

 weight of the bee. I figure the difference to be .01.5 gram, 

 or 19 percent of the weight of the bee, or less than one-tifth 

 its own weight. Is there something wrong in my figuring, 

 or is there something askew in the figures of our good 

 friend in Ohio?" 



There certainly .seems to be discrepancy somewhere^ 

 and probably the best thing will be to ask Prof. Lrazenby 



to kindly help us out of the tangle. 



Hauling Extracting-Combs Home Instead of Honey. 



— R. C. Aikin is a revolutionist. No one has before hinted 

 that he had any right to haul home combs full of honey 

 from an out-apiary, said combs to be extracted and then re- 

 turned. But that is exactly what he has been doing, as re- 

 lated in the Progressive Bee-Keeper. He objects to extract- 

 ing at the out-apiary, because the extractor, etc., must be 

 hauled out, tlie " etc." including all the vessels to hold the 

 honey. It is troublesome to have a place to extract the 

 honey without the chance of being greatly troubled by rob- 

 ber-bees some of the time. If unripe honey is thrown out, 

 as will almost surely be the case, it is immediately canned 

 or barreled to the detriment of the good name of the pro- 

 ducer. So he does all his extracting at home, having ar- 

 rangements looking toward securing the honey in the best 

 and ripest form. His extracting-chambers hold 40 to 45 

 pounds when full. Of these he has 25 to SO extra, with 

 which he starts with one horse to the out-apiary, and he 

 gives the particulars as follows : 



" In the morning I drive to the apiary with 25 extras, 

 take oif an equal number of full ones, and put the empties 

 in their place. If it is a time when robbing will not trouble, 

 the full ones are just set about the yard wherever taken off, 

 sometimes set singly and sometimes in piles of from two to 

 four, but always as open and airy as possible. The combs 

 are not shaken singly, but the bees are mostly smoked down 

 and the chamber taken oif without removing a comb from 

 it. The first thing is to get these chambers all off so the 

 bees will be leaving them for home, and while this is going 

 on do such other work as I have to do in the yard. 



" When about ready to start home I load the chambers, 

 and if there are still bees in them the disturbance of load- 

 ing, and when in the wagon the excitment and hum of the 

 many disturbed and lost bees realizing they are away from 

 home and queen, causes them rapidly to leave the combs. 



" When all is loaded, I put a canvas over the horse, 

 covering head, ears and all complete, hitch to the wagon 

 and start off. As soon as out of the yard, if no fighting 

 bees are about, the canvas is pulled off the horse and we 

 move leisurely toward home, and as we go the remaining 

 bees continue to leave the honey, and before out of range 

 of the yard, very few bees are left in it. In this way I go 

 out three miles, take off a load of honey and drive home and 

 into the honey-house before dinner. My house is con- 

 structed with a driveway right into the building alongside 

 of the honey-rooms, and the wagon can be driven in head 

 first or backt in. The wagon stands in this driveway when 

 not out on trips, and the honey can stay in the wagon as 

 long as I please till I get ready to unload, and is free from 

 robbers. Also I can load the chambers that have been ex- 

 tracted and are to go out again at any time, and the wagon 

 is ready to hitch to when I am ready. 



" I anticipate that many will say, 'Why do you haul 

 those combs back and forth ? Why not extract at the yard 

 and save so much hauling?' I have been askt that many 

 times. With just as much propriety might I ask. Where is 

 your thinker and reasoner ? If I do not haul out a set of 

 combs empty and back a set full, I should have to haul out 

 and back barrels, kegs or cans to put the honey into, and 

 all the extracting machinery besides. Which will make the 

 most hauling, the machinery and cans or the super and 

 combs ■? The honey must be hauled whether in barrels or 

 combs. At home the extractor is all ready set, the uncap- 

 ping-box is there, the strainer, too^n fact, everything is in 

 place and ready for business, and not a robber-bee nor flies." 



: < « » 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



