574 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 6 lynu 



siuce. There will not be any fall honey 

 for the tire has burnt up all the bee- 

 pasture for miles around, and it looks 

 pretty dark for next season. I got 

 about 2,500 pounds of section honey. 

 Edward Wilson. 

 Iosco Co., Mich., Aug-. 13. 



EEDOH BOILEI^ 

 4)0>VN $ 



A Cheap but Durable Paint. 



Painted hives look better. The paint 

 keeps the nails from drawing out, and 

 the lumber from warping. The less 

 the lumber warps, the better the cov- 

 ers, supers, escape-boards, etc., fit. 

 Some months ago Mr. F. D. Lacy sent 

 me a description of a cheap but dura- 

 ble paint. It is made of three parts 

 superfine, calcined, land-plaster, and 

 one part of yellow ocher, or any other 

 fine earth-paint costing from two to 

 three cents a pound. For oil, he uses 

 3 quarts of kerosene, U pint of linseed 

 oil, '+ of a pint of spirits of turpentine, 

 and % of a pound of melted beeswax. 

 Before adding the turpentine and bees- 

 wax, the other ingredients are mixt 

 and b'rought almost to the boiling 

 point. The paint should be applied 

 warm. The wax makes up for the lack 

 of fixt oil. This paint is better than 

 any mineral paint mixt with clear lin- 

 seed oil. It is not very brilliant at first, 

 but grows brighter by wear, while the 

 ordinary paint fades by age. 



Mr. Lacey recommends the addition 

 of some coloring-matter to this kind of 

 paint. He would use chrome green, or 

 yellow, or Prussian blue, or something 

 of the kind, painting some of the hives 

 one color, and some another. I prefer 

 to have all of the hives and supers the 

 same color. It greatly simplifies some 

 of the operations of the apiary. We 

 often wish to change one hive for an- 

 other, and, if it is of a different color 

 from the first hive, the bees are con- 

 fused, and try to find some other hive 

 having a color like that of their old 

 home. — Bee-Keepers' Review. 



Drone-Comb vs. Thin Foundation. 



The general belief has been. I think, 

 that bees preferred to build drone-comb 

 as store-comb because it took less wax 

 to store a given amount of honey. 

 That belief must be given up, accord- 

 ing to Prof. Gillette's observations, 

 which showed that it took just a fourth 

 more wax for drone than worker-comb 

 when each was .9 of an inch thick. — 

 [Prof. Gillette's observation proves an- 

 other thing : namely, that it does not 

 follow that comb built entirely by the 

 bees will have less of "gob" than 

 comb built off from thin or extra-thin 

 foundation. The former will neces- 

 sarily be worker ; the latter, probably 

 drone ; and, if so, there will be as large 

 a chunk of wax (gob) to the pound of 

 comb honey eaten in the one case as in 

 the other. If it is an advantage, there- 

 fore, to use foundation at all, in that it 

 induces the bees to build comb faster 

 — that is, to do more work in the sec- 

 tions — it would seem that it would be 

 false economy to give the bees a nar- 

 row starter, on the mistaken assump- 



H. G. Quirin, the Queen- Breeder, 



Is as usual acain ou baud with his 



improv^ed strain of 



GOLDEN' 



ITALIAN QUEENS. 



The A. I. Root Co. tell us that our queens are 

 EXTRA FINE. We obtained thru special cor- 

 respondence a breeder from Doolittle.who says, 

 "If there is a queen in the U.S. worth $1 00, liiis 

 queen is." Queens bred from her, soon as they 

 beg-in to lav, $1 00 each. 



Queens promptly by RETURN MAIL. We 

 guarantee safe delivery. 



Price of Queens after July i. 1 



Warranted 



Selected warranted 



Tested 



Selected tested 



Extra selected tested 



Bees from these Queens all 

 yellow to tip. 



.50 



.75 



1.00 



1.50 



3.00 



$ 2.75$ 5.00 



12 



4.00 

 5.00 

 8.00 



.00 

 9.00 



Address all orders to 

 H. a. QUIRIN, Parkertown, Erie County, Ohio. 



34At»t Please mention the Bee Journal. 



THE WHEEL OF TIME 



lur all tiiiitt lb ilie 



Metal YVheel. 



We make them in all fiz.-w and varl- 



J--*- etit>.TO FITANV axle. Any 

 l\heiu'ht. any ■width of tire def*h-eil. 

 IJOur wheels are either direct or 

 ^^stak'Ererspuke. Can FIT Y«PK 

 W V<ilON ^"tfvei^v without rhangfi. 



WO BREAKING DOWN, 



Nodrvinjout, No resetimg tirra. Cheap 

 becaui«e they endure. Send for cata- 

 logue and (irices. Free upoD reqaeat. 



Electric Wheel Co. 

 Box 16 Qulncy, Ills. 



f least! iiA.,xxi,iun Bee journal ■wlicii wnuiig. 



DITTMER'S 

 FOUNDATION 



Wholesale 

 and Retail 



This foundation is made by an absolutely 

 non-dipping- process, thereby producing a per- 

 fectly clear and pliable foundation that retains 

 the odor and color of beeswax, and is free from 

 dirt. 



Working' wax into foundation for cash, a 

 specialty. Write for samples and prices. 



A full line of Supplies at the very lowest 

 prices, and in any quantity. Best quality and 

 prompt shipment. Send for large, illustrated 

 catalog-. 



GUS, DITTMER, Augusta, Wis. 



Please mention Bee Journal when ■writi.pt'. 



Yellow Sweet Clover Seed 



WE HAVE IT AT LAST ! 



We have finally succeeded in g-etting- a small 

 quantity of the seed of the yellow variety of 

 sweet clover. This kind blooms from two to 

 four weeks earlier than the common or white 

 variety of sweet clover. It also grows much 

 shorter, only about two feet in highl. It is as 

 much visited by the bees as the white, and usu- 

 ally comes into bloom ahead of while clover 

 and basswood. We offer the seed as a premium 



A QUARTER POUND FOR SENDING 

 ONE NEW SUBSCRIPTION. 



So long' as it lasts, we will mail a quarter 

 pound of the seed to a legular paid-up subscri- 

 ber who sends us ONE NEW subscriber for the 

 American Bee Journal one year, with $1.00; or Ji 

 pound by mail for 30 cents. 



We have been trying for years to secure this 

 seed, and finally succeeded in getting- it. It is 

 new seed, gathered last season by an old per- 

 sonal friend of ours, so we know it is all right. 

 But we have only a small supply. When nearly 

 out we will mention it. 



GEORGE W. YORK & CO., 



118 Michigan St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



tion that the resultant comb would 

 have the less of wax to chew in the 

 eating. This observation of Prof. Gil- 

 lette was confirmed in our own expe- 

 rience in our own apiary. — Ed.] — 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Introducing Queens 



by confining them against the side of 

 a comb where young bees are hatching 

 out is a good plan in theory. It is also 

 good in practice when the one doing 

 the practicing is an experienced, 

 thoughtful man ; but in the hands of a 

 novice there are failures. 



The plan of taking away the queen 

 and all of the brood, thus making the 

 colony hopelessly queenless, and then 

 allowing the bees to release the queen 

 by eating out the candy from the end 

 of the cage, workt well this season un- 

 til the time of the year came when rob- 

 bers gave trouble. A colony robbed of 

 its brood and queen, altho it has a 

 caged queen, does not put up the fight 

 that a colony will that has brood to de- 

 fend. The disturbance caused by tak- 

 ing away the brood and giving it to 

 other colonies, sometimes incites rob- 

 bers to begin their depredations. I 

 know that the plan of releasing a queen 

 upon combs of just-hatching brood 

 from which the bees have been brusht, 

 and then keeping the hive closed a few 

 days, is an infallible method, but it is 

 considerable trouble, causes a loss of 

 some brood, and may cause robbing in 

 a time of scarcity. I would like to find 

 some easier and better method than 

 these for the novice, and one that is, " 

 practically, infallible. I am looking 

 forward with considerable hopefulness 

 to the use of tobacco-smoke. — Bee- 

 Keepers' Review. 



Feeding Bees With Squirt-Guns. 



In reading Mr. Victor's article on 

 stimulative feeding, it seems to me 

 that to depend on the force of gravitj- 

 to get the feed into the hive would be 

 rather slow work. Why not apply 

 muscular force, getting the same re- 

 sult in a fraction of the time? If he 

 will get a common bicycle-pump, about 

 12 inches long by one inch in diameter, 

 unscrew the lower end, and in its 

 place attach a curved flat nozzle, say 

 2'j inches long by one inch wide, he 

 will have a rapid-fire honey-gun that 

 will do great execution. Dip the end 

 of the gun into the bucket of thin 

 syrup or honey, and then draw on the 

 handle until the proper (juantity is 

 suckt into the gun. then fire it into the 

 hive. If one wisht to feed exactly the 

 same amount to each colony, marks 

 might be made on the piston-rod show- 

 ing the number of fluid ounces the 

 gun would hold if the rod was drawn 

 out up to that mark, etc. In practice, 

 however, I think one would soon get 

 used to drawing the handle out the 

 proper distance, and would pay no at- 

 tion to the marks. 



Three years ago I had occasion to do 

 a little stimulative feeding, and with 

 an implement of this sort I could feed 

 100 colonies in a little less than 12 min- 

 utes. Ordinarily one might take 15 to 

 IS minutes to feed 100 colonies, but 

 even then it would be rapid feeding. 



Another thing, it won't be necessary 

 to spend any time pounding on the 

 hives to let the bees know that supper 

 is read)'. Just insert the nozzle into 



