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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 28, 1900. 



quickly and easily done, does not harm the bees, and no 

 robbing- will be attempted until the honey in their honey- 

 sacs has been put backs in the combs, and they will be some 

 time doing: this, but it is only under exceptional conditions 

 that robbing- in the spring- is likely to be started. What 

 these conditions are I would be g-lad to explain for the 

 benefit of the inexperienced, but I fear I have already gotten 

 outside the space I am allowed in one article. 



Southern Minnesota. 



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

 By E. E. HASTV, Richards, Ohio. 



KEEPING TOADS OUT OF HIVES. 



Mr. Brown, I fear it will make us tired eventually to put 

 on wire toad-protectors every night and take them off every 

 morn. Lest we should some of us get exasperated and com- 

 mit the repulsive crime of bufocide, I will suggest to have 

 the toad hitcht to the brandy-bottle on which the hive 

 stands, and the string so short he can not quite reach the 

 entrance. Page 315. 



BLEACHING SECTION HONEV. 



The bleaching of section honey which may from any 

 cause be off color, by direct sunshine, is an attractive idea, 

 but beset with difficulties. The propolis varnish will hardlv 

 bleach. Pollen may, one would say. Who knows but that 

 dark honey itself may sometimes bleach ? Sunshine will 

 not raise the capping which touches hone.v — but may it not 

 accomplish a little of the same thing sometimes b)' lowering 

 the honey beneath till it no longer touches? If there is a 

 bad look which is caused by a microscopic surface fungus, 

 sunshine would be a hopeful thing to try for that. I judge 

 that the danger of getting a big lot of honey melted down 

 would, in some climates, be serious. Outdoor sun would be 

 a little safer than behind g-lass ; but the other danger of 

 robbers would mostly forbid that. On the whole, I guess 

 we must wait for the philanthropic individual to experi- 

 ment, and bear the experimental losses, and we fall in onU' 

 after he has reported decided success. Page 311. 



GRAPE-VINE SHADE FOR BEES. 



The grape-vine shade was a particularly precious fad of 

 A. I. Root's, and it's almost sad to see it ill bespoken on the 

 spot of its birth. Sometimes there is a little of unconscious 

 predisposition to see all the faults and more in our predeces- 

 sors' pet things — but perhaps nothing of the kind has oper- 

 ated in this individual case. Page 311. 



PUTTING SECTIONS ON EARI.V. 



It is generally supposed that putting on the sections 

 early decreases swarming somewhat — certainlj- adds room, 

 and the wise heads all say, give 'em room ; but I have some- 

 times had my doubts. Mr. O. O. Belden, page 310, gets in 

 line with these doubts where he thinks that sections that 

 the bees are not ready for encourage swarming if they have 

 any effect. 



WAX-EXTRACTOR CLAIMS ALMOST TOO GOOD. 



As to the Ferris wax-extractor, I would await reports 

 from those who have bought and used it. It looks a little 

 too good — like some of the double-acting and self-righteous 

 hives that used to be offered us. Page 307. 



AIKIN'S BBE-BRUSH— BEES TEARING CAPPINGS. 



The Aikin bee-brush, size and length of one's arm, for 

 rough-and-ready wholesale brushing of the whole bottom of 

 a super, as nearly as may be all at once, is worthy of a place 

 and a name, I reckon. He would have it made of coarse 

 marsh-grass, not too stemmy, but rank and wild enough to 

 stand weeks of sun and many wettings up with water to put 

 it in condition. It is a golden rule — not only for taking off 

 supers, but also for pretty much all bee-operations — not to 

 let bees either turn back or stagnate after having started 

 them once. Just keep 'em " gittin' furder " right straight 

 along. I never thought before about there being an impor- 



tant difference as to the time of the day in the matter of 

 bees tearing open the cappings of sections. Now he calls 

 our attention to it I can see it. Not likely to tear cappings 

 when they are carrj'ing honey already ; and that state of 

 things is more likely to exist well along in the forenoon 

 than at dawn. Have your supers of sections peel off clean, 

 with no burr-combs and no drip whatever. Just hear a 

 strong man shouting once as Aikin says that. Page 322. 



" MIXT VARIETIES AND THE HONEY-BEE." 



This, it seems, is the war cry which Prof. Cook recom- 

 mends for the horticulturist. The too greedy cultivator has 

 been greatly inclined in the past to find out what one 

 variety had the most money in it (often a showy fruit 

 hardl}- fit to eat), and then to plant great solid blocks of that 

 one thing. Nature bost his ear for it. Nature says : Mix 

 your varieties so intimately that comparatively few flowers 

 will have to depend upon the pollen of their own kind. Have 

 this motto printed around your button — and let the bee do 

 the rest. Page 321. 



FALL REST FOR QUEENS. 



W. A. Pryal's idea of letting queens have a short fall 

 rest and then stimulating Ihem to lay again in December 

 may be valuable for locations with balmy winter climate. 

 The object of course is to have a strong colony of young- 

 bees to open spring with. Page 324. 



OUEEN-EXCLUDERS, ETC., FROM FOUL-BROODY COLONIES. 



Human beings are mostly much alike. Most of us can 

 be worried by hostile blows often repeated into taking a 

 violently contrary kink — after which -we are no longer good 

 authority on that particular point. McEvoy with wide ex- 

 perience with foul brood, and great abilities in getting it 

 cured, has been pelted for his easy-going notions about its 

 communicability till he seems to have taken just such a 

 kink. I object quite decidedly to our Dr. Miller's abdicat- 

 ing his own judgment in Mr. McEvoy's favor as he does on 

 page 326. Furniture from a smallpox hospital may be used 

 a dozen times outside and no harm result ; but still it is not 

 perfectly safe — and it would be an outrage for a leading- 

 journal to teach the people editorially that everybody should 

 do so without fear. Same about the queen-excluders from 

 foul-broody colonies. 



A NEW NOTE ON INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



The Ranson method of safe introduction, on page 329, 

 seems to strike a new note where we hardly expected any- 

 thing radically new. Get the queen scented with the scent 

 of her prospective home by causing a lot of very young- 

 bees to crawl over her. Not a bad idea, perhaps. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



The fact, apparently proved by Mr. Doolittle, page 329, 

 that any method of introducing virgin queens that keeps 

 them alone for awhile shortens their lives and possibly 

 damages them othervcise — well, that is an important fact, 

 and one not generallj' in people's minds — therefore, a little 

 "rub it in " in this department is in order. One maj' sus- 

 pect that any restraint, for more than a few minutes, of the 

 propensity to scramble around endlessly may be a damage 

 to a virgin queen's development. Where Nature says so 

 emphatically " Exercise, exercise, exercise," it should 

 hardly turn out well to g-o to the contrary extreme. 



DISTANCE BEES GATHER PROFITABLY. 



And so a mile-wide river, to-wit the Mississippi, close 

 up to an apiary operates to reduce by about one-half the 

 number of acres within actual foraging oversight of the 

 bees, and cuts down the crop decidedly on that account. 

 Bees can go across such a barrier, but mostl3' don't. Mr. C. 

 P. Dadant very ably handles one side of the problem, how 

 far bees may be depended upon to harvest the honey of a 

 piece of territory. How far bees can (and sometimes do) 

 gather, and how far they habitually do it, are two tit'^-j' dif- 

 ferent questions. Have been known to gather at eight 

 miles; and a radius of that length would include over 200 

 square miles of territory. With 10 colonies for each mile it 

 should then be possible to run 2,000 colonies in one apiary. 

 That sort of thing does not work — presumably because bees 

 do not habitually keep in touch with the honey-yield for any 

 such distances. ' My own opinion is that finding the honey, 

 and not the journeying- for it, is the main difficulty. I even 

 dream that great discoveries in our craft may yet be made 

 in the line of helping our bees find distant honey promptly. 

 On this very important practical problem Mr. D. seems in- 

 clined to lead the short-radius end of the class, and to put 



