Jan. 19, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



39 



locality " there are many who would scorn to aim at the 

 bull's-eye at so short a distance as SO feet, as a test of their 

 marksmanship, and they would by no means consider his 

 aim as beyond parallel. You think " he must have tele- 

 scopic vision to be able to give the dimensions of a twig 50 

 feet from the ground", but you forget that all he would 

 have to do would be to pick up the said twig and measure it 

 after it had fallen to the ground as the result of his good 

 aim. 



It doesn't look as if you or I could squint at a swarm 50 

 feet in the air and make a correct guess first time as to 

 ■where the swarm would fall, but by standing straight under 

 it a fair guess might be made. The secret of Mr. StoUey's 

 correct guessing, however, he explains in that phrase, " By 

 taking the proper bearings at right angles ". I've seen Dr. 

 Miller do that. He would stand off a little distance, and, 

 looking up at the swarm, would then drop his eye to the 

 ground and estimate where a line would fall that would pass 

 through the point directly under the swarm. He could 

 guess pretty well where that line would be, but he couldn't 

 guess closely how far from him the point should be. How- 

 ever, he'd set the hive somewhere in the line, then he'd go 

 off to one side and estimate a line at right angle to the first 

 line, moving the hive accordingly, and after going back- 

 ward and forward from one line to the other, he could pretty 

 soon determine just about the right point. 



We sisters might sight and cross-sight as well as a man, 

 but when it comes to firing the gun most of us would rather 

 call a man. 



2Tlr. :^a5ty 5 

 Clftcrtl^oixo;I?ts 



J 



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

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



INVITATION TO YOUNG BEE-KEEPERS. 



Here's a gold eagle going a-begging — or, say, a roast 

 pig running around squealing for somebody to eat him. 

 Many young people like to write letters, I believe ; and they 

 mostly know they are not welcome to write to persons of 

 note and station. If they should do so their letters would 

 receive a hurried glance or two from a secretary, and then 

 be pitched into a big waste-basket ; and that would be the 

 last of it. But here is a man of note that asks as a favor 

 that young bee-keepers would write to him. Looks as 

 though he has an attack of bee-fever. He has plenty of 

 chance to read the wisdom of bee-doctors ; but he wants to 

 hear the experiences of other patients, especially those who 

 know a good deal less than himself. So if you are under 18, 

 and have been doing something with bees, write and tell 

 him all about it. If nothing new or strange occurred to 

 you that is no bar. The just-what-might-be-expected things 

 are about as welcome as exceptional things are. He re- 

 proves us for neglecting the common things of Nature and 

 running all the time after exceptional things. The man is 

 Dr. Edward F. Bigelow, Stamford, Conn., editor of the 

 Nature and Science department of the St. Nicholas Maga- 

 zine. If he should not have time to write individual an- 

 swers to all his young correspondents never mind about 

 that. Have faith to believe he reads and enjoys what he 

 has asked for, until a wholesale answer comes in his depart- 

 ment of the magazine. Page 804. 



LOSS OF YOUNG QUEEN IN MATING. 



Young queens at mating-time often turn up missing 

 from the place where they ought to be. The credit of this 

 is usually given to birds, to dropping into trouble of some 

 kind, water for instance, or to entering the wrong hive. As 

 to the latter, the almost universal assumption has been that 

 they do so by mistake. Adrian Getaz suggests that often 

 there is no mistake about it — ^hives they try not the ones 

 they would blunder into, if that was it, but distant and 

 manifestly not-like-home places. If I may piece out a hint, 

 they hover near the entrances of one colony after another 

 until they find one where the smell, and the absence of Hos- 

 tile motions on the part of the guards, encourage them to 

 make an attempt ; and there they try it for live or die — 

 often killed, occasionally accepted. How is this ? I sus- 

 pect there is a good deal in it. It assumes, of course, that 



the queen has, from some cause, a deep-seated dislike to her 

 own proper station. " Baby nucleus " too-muchee, hive too 

 open and drafty, too much syrup and too little honey, bees 

 all of one age instead of properly assorted, nation with no 

 national spirit, are some reasons that occur why a queen of 

 high ambition might want to change. It is quite imagin- 

 able that the odor of a queenless colony might be percepti- 

 bly different from that of a colony with a queen. But when 

 she doesn't find a queenless one she seems to try the next 

 best one. 



I hardly agree with him that a comb of honey pre- 

 sented, in a bucket or otherwise, is always attractive to a 

 swarm. If the bees of the swarm are in a hungry condition 

 (and that often happens) then they are very ready to climb 

 onto a comb of honey. When they are distended with honey 

 already (condition according to that usually described in 

 the books), it has seemed to me that they regard a comb of 

 honey poked at them as a sort of an insult. Pages 807, 808. 



A LONG-TIME OUT-OF-DOORS BEES. 



Ten weeks is a long time for a clipped queen and a few 

 dozen volunteer bees to remain homeless out-of-doors. 

 Still, it is possible that Wisconsin is right as to the origin 

 of the little cluster that he found. If so, those bees were 

 miracles of faithfulness and persistence in their attempt to 

 make something out of a hopeless situation. We may well 

 take off our hats to them. They keep one another warm 

 part of the time, and grin and bear the cold and the wet the 

 rest of the time. They take turns at bringing temporary 

 lunch from the fields when there is any to be had, and suck 

 their paws when there is none. Doubtless they often tried 

 to move the dismembered queen to some other location by 

 that bee-panacea, the process of "swarming", but always 

 went back to her when she proved immovable. Page 810. 



X)octor Zrtiller's 

 Question = ^ox 



J 



Send Questions either to the ofhce of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



Depth of Supers on Langstroth Hive. 



What should be the exact depth of supers used for both comb 

 and extracted honey on Langstroth hive? Iowa. 



Answer. — Supers varj' in depth for the same hive, the depth 

 depending entirely upon what the super is to contain. A super for a 

 tall section will, of course, be deeper than for one not so tall. The 

 depth should be about one-fourth inch more than the depth of the 

 extracting-comb or of the section, together with any addition that 

 must be made for any top or bottom bar that may be over or under 

 the section. 



* ■ » 



Effect of Putting: Bees on Drone-Combs. 



If eight brood-frames were tilled with foundation of drone-size, 

 placed on a strong colony during a flow, and after the combs are com- 

 pleted and the honey extracted, and a strong colony with a fertile 

 queen placed on the combs, would the queen lay only drone-eggs, or 

 would the bees change part of the combs or rear workers in drone- 

 cells! Onio. 



Answer. — I don't know what your bees would do; but I'll tell 

 you what mine once did. I put a colony on drone-combs, and the 

 queen wouldn't lay at all — the bees just swarmed out. It is possible, 

 however, that in some cases they would stay and work ; if so, I should 

 expect them to contract the mouths of the cells to worker size and 

 rear workers in them. I've known them to do that when part of their 

 comb centrally located was drone-comb. 



Runnins an Out-Apiary. 



I have run an out-apiary of 100 colonies of bees for the last 10 

 years in connection with a farm, but I am giving up the farm and 

 want to go more extensively into the bee-business. I intend to keep 

 the 100 colonies on the farm, but I have a village lot about 2 miles 

 away on which I wish to Iteep 50 colonies. Would it do to have one 

 with queen guards on all through swarming-time, keeping all queen- 

 cells cut out and all brood well spread — that is, for producing ex- 

 tracted honey J I would probably not be able to go to the yard more 

 than twice a week. Canada. 



Answer.— It you cut out all queen-cells twice a week and keep 

 brood spread, withcolouies run for extracted honey, there ought to be 



