778 



AMERICAN BEE jOUENAL 



Dec. 6, 1900. 



from other hives for full frames of honey, so that now the 

 hives average about 25 pounds of honey each, enough to 

 carry them over into June. 



The two hives at the right are full of honey, and I 

 will take the supers off in a day or two. 



This year our honey is scarce, on account of the alfalfa 

 bloom producing no honey at all this year, and many an old 

 bee-man has lost half his colonies. This is the first time in 

 years that such a thing has happened. Next year we look 

 for something choice. 



I hope to see more views of California apiaries in the 

 American Bee Journal in the future. 



San Joaquin Co., Calif., Oct. 25. 



reason for letting alone, I would suggest the reading of 

 Luke 14:31. Page 693. 



RUBBING IN AN IMPORTANT QUEEN-MATTER. 



J. L. Gandy, on page 695, is rubbing in once more an 

 important matter which may probably be regarded as about 

 settled. Young queens just beginning to lay, suffering 

 much less from a journey thru the mails than those which 

 have come to the full of their powers. A wise previous 

 treatment to check laying can do something toward putting 

 a valuable old queen in traveling condition ; and we might 

 politely hear more on that point. 



\ ^ The Afterthought. ^ 



The '^Old Reliable" ^een thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By e. B. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



BEES AS A WEAPON IN WARFARE. 



In ancient warfare a colony of bees was a most excel- 

 lent weapon against enemies undermining your wall. The 

 situation was a very common one, and roofing the assail- 

 ants in, so well that stones and hot water from above were 

 no good, was the usual recourse — and the wall itself would 

 protect them against these after a big hole was once made. 

 The modern counter-move would of course be explosive. 

 The ancients, not having explosives, could find a tolerable 

 substitute by throwing down hives of bees. In fact, in- 

 furiated bees have a hold-the-fort quality which powder 

 notably lacks. Modern war works at such long range that 

 bees have little opportunity. Still, I think an opportunity 

 might occur. A retreating army might desire to keep the 

 enemy from occupying with artillery a certain hilltop 

 about to be abandoned ; and a few dozen hives of bees 

 wisely placed and dissected would establish an unwhole- 

 some climate there decidedly warmer than Gedrosia. Page 

 676. 



CURING SWEET CLOVER HAY. 



Perhaps most farmers know in a general way how to 

 cure sweet clover hay ; but just how to manage all the de- 

 tails is no doubt a fine art. Mr. Abbott is "shouting" 

 when he says for us not to get the leaves killed early in the 

 process, but to utilize them as pumps to draw the water 

 from the thick, succulent stems. Avoid blazing hot days. 

 If you can't do that, cut in the afternoon. Know just when 

 to make the windrows — and see to it that they are wind- 

 rows in reality. Also know just when to cock it up (slender 

 and high), and when, and how many times, to spread it out 

 again. These fine points pay well with ordinary grass, but 

 with some out-of-ordinary hay-plants they are quite indis- 

 pensable. Page 678. 



MAKING HONEY-VINEGAR. 



So it saves a year of time in making honey-vinegar to 

 have the wood of the barrel thoroly vinegar-soakt ? Quite 

 an item. And many of us wouldn't know that vinegar 

 mother will decay and break up in time, spoiling the looks 

 bf the vinegar, and damaging its quality. Looks reason- 

 able, when the mind is turned to it once, and " better we 

 looks a little out." But what shall we say of that endless 

 drawing out and pouring in — robbing Peter and paying 

 Paul ? Well, if a lady finds it a moderate task to shift sev- 

 eral pails of fluid all down the line, one step at a time, 

 thru a row of twelve barrels ('twas a lady that watered 

 Abraham's camels, wasn't it?) well, then, an epizoot on 

 the lout of a man who thinks it too much work and fuss ! 

 Do we produce good queens (or good honey, either, for that 

 matter) without fuss ? Interesting to find customers pre- 

 ferring honey-vinegar to cider-vinegar. But it was store 

 Cider-vinegar. Possibly some store vinegar, like some store 

 honey, is " all right, of course " — and the rest of the words 

 unspoken. Page 681. 



THE FOLKS THAT WAR AGAINST SWEET CLOVER. 



J. A. Green struck a bright idea when he suggested 

 that the folks that war against sweet clover be let alone. 

 Likely to help the honey harvest about as much as they 

 damage it, until they know a heap more than they know 

 now. The plant is apparently with us to stay. . As another 



THE 



' WHY " OF BIG VS. LITTLE HIVE A " PERSONAL 

 EQUATION." 



So long as we can not tell why a given locality requires 

 big hives, or little ones, there is room to supect that the 

 why is what the astronomers would call the " personal 

 equation " of some man — and said man having a lot of im- 

 plicit followers. Page 696. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS WITH TOBACCO-SMOKE. 



Henry Alley's introducing with tobacco-smoke SO virgin 

 queens in half an hour is a high grade of work, surely ; but 

 still we must not forget that it is introducing to nuclei, not 

 to old, strong colonies of hybrid bees in big hives. How 

 shall we get the latter ilk of bees all tobacco-civilized with- 

 out pretty nearly killing half of them ? And how keep their 

 new saintliness from backsliding a few hours later ? That 

 both the smoking and chewing "fine-cuts "of the shops 

 are too strong for bee-smoking, is a point not kept before 

 us heretofore, I think. Smoke of knock-'em-down strength 

 would be much more difficult to manage just right, I judge. 

 Page 697. 



EACH TO PAY FOR HIS OWN SOAKT HEAD. 



And so our editor thinks that if a man will soak his 

 (barrel) head he should pay for the soakage. Unanswerable 

 proposition. Page 707. 



WINTERING BEES IN CELLARS. 



Between the intense anxiety to have his bees in the 

 best of ventilated quarters, shown by Daniel Whitmer, page 

 711, and the indifference to the whole matter, or the counter 

 desire to have no ventilation at all, shown by other bee- 

 men of good standing, there is quite a gulf. The situation 

 must be very puzzling to an active-minded beginner. We 

 old chaps long ago had to get accustomed to just such point- 

 blank disagreements. And I can't do the whole of the big 

 job of cleaning the discrepancy up for the benefit of said 

 beginner. But for one thing, in winter, nature ivill venti- 

 late most quarters (even many cellars) in spite of us. For 

 another thing, 247 colonies would try the oxygen of the un- 

 ventilated cellar more than it usually gets tried — quite a 

 different thing from taking thru a quarter hundred or half 

 hundred of colonies. For another thing, any number of 

 colonies roaring and excited require immensely more oxy- 

 gen than if quiet — no quiet lot of bees being likely to suffer 

 in that regard. And for another thing, the quality of the 

 food bees have to winter on is so much more important 

 than everything else put together, that one can indulge 

 mistaken notions and never find it out, if only the food is 

 good. As a compromise, I would suggest this : Have the 

 cellar so you ra« ventilate— but don't do anything of the 

 kind till the need of it appears— until the bees begin to get 

 unquiet, or at least until the air inside impresses you as bad 

 when you breathe it. 



IF IT WERE "FOWL-BROOD" ONLY. 



Yes, it does sound a bit as if the bees that hatch chick- 

 ens must be "fowl-brooders." If that were the only kind 

 of foul-brood abroad we should be happy. Page 714. 



THE BEE-MAN AND THE BALLED QUEEN. 



Interesting to see that so able a bee-man as Dr. Miller 

 thinks it best to let entirely alone, and "make yourself 

 scarce," whenever bees are found to be balling their own 

 queen. It requires some nerve to keep this precept, but 

 may be it is for the best. Page 714. 



WOODEN QUEEN-CELLS— NEXT ! 



Wooden queen-cells— nicely veneered with wax, I pre- 

 sume—but Connecticut wooden-ware all the same 1 If they 

 are not enough to make testy advocates of nature undefiled 

 retire to their graves, or turn over in the same if they have 

 already retired, what would suffice, pray tell ? Page 715. 



