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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 2, 1905. 



run in starting the bees to robbing and in chilling the 

 brood. Therefore, I do all the manipulating for the year 

 before the supers go on, and use only the honey from the 

 supers, never taking it from the hives. Usually only one 

 or two colonies die in the cellar, though I sometimes lose 

 quite a number from spring dwindling. I even up the food 

 in the spring, and do not find that any honey is wasted. The 

 period from fall to spring bloom is a long one, and the 

 weather much of the time, even then, is unfavorable for 

 flights. 



I had a rather strange experience in our apiary the past 

 fall that I will try to describe, and get your advice about, 

 when I write again. I wish you individually, and our sis- 

 ters collectively, a Happy New Year, and many of them. 



Clinton Co., N. Y., Jan. 5. Frances E. Whbelbr. 



Thank you very much for your encouraging words. I 

 assure you they are most thoroughly appreciated. 



Your suggestion about the use of a pad is an excellent 

 one, and I sincerely hope that many of the sisters will put 

 it in practice. While reading jot down a memorandum of 

 this or that, and then, when you have the leisure, write out 

 the thoughts and send them in for our department. 



It is true localities differ, but I never knew before that 

 there are localities where there are no warm days after 

 buckwheat frost. 



m I ^ 



A Champion for " Our Sister Bee-KeepeFS ". 



My sister Mary's bees is asleep in the cellar. They 

 don't try to sting, nor even buz. She gives us honey on our 

 bred insted of that rancid packt buter. My, but it's sweet ! 

 I like it. Mary used to say we needed a " Woman's Bee 

 Magazine ", until one column of " Old Reliable " donned 

 the femal atire. Now she wishes so many more women 

 with ether scientific or practical education would write for 

 Mis Wilson that you'd hav to enlarge her space. Pa's ben 

 readin' it, too. He says in thes days when so meny men 

 refus to suport a family, lots are mean enuf to find fault if 

 a woman takes the job ; and meny wimen are ferful of hav- 

 ing bond-chains riveted on them by matrimony, so worthy 

 wimen are compelled or choose to ern their own living, and 

 it is plesing to see some one come to the front and advocate 

 woman's rites in apicultur with so much practical ability as 

 Mis Wilson is doing it. 



I'v ben reading all the papers, too, and I think pa's 

 rite. She keeps her field clear of pretentius " weeds ". Not 

 only us little boys does she lug out, but if a big " Hasty " 

 man, not easy caut, gets in she gets after him with her 

 pointed cane, and big bitin' and " Eaton " dog, with his 

 doggies and " Doggetts ", and chases him back into his own 

 big field. Ha a-a ! as he gits over the fence with his ears 

 hangin' he glances back and thinks aloud, " I'm lickt ". 



Womantown, Dec, 1904. Joly Jo. 



ViXi\ f)astij's 



=\ 



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

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



NEW "heads" make his head swim. 

 My " head " swims, Miss Ayebejay. Hardly got recon- 

 ciled to the one you gave me last before you whisked away 

 my honey-knife and dealt me a new caput. Hence, this in- 

 clination to " put a head " on somebody. Momentarily ex- 

 pecting to open the Journal and find myself reading up and 

 down like a Japanese conundrum. 



selecting larv^ for queen-rearing. 

 Only about IS of the experts seem to be competent on 

 Ques. 19. It is quite important to know whether there is 

 serious danger of too old a larva being chosen queen by a 

 colony suddenly made queenless ; yet few of the respondents 

 cover exactly that point. At least 9 of the IS allude to the 

 great variability of the age chosen. Only about S out of the 

 15 express confidence that newly-hatched larva; will be 

 chosen usually. More would have done so had they covered 

 that point perhaps. The true inwardness of this difficult 



question depends upon another question still more difficult. 

 For the first 48 hours of life is the food identical for young 

 worker and young queen ? I suppose a good many would 

 answer : Practically, yes — and therefore it makes no par- 

 ticular difference whether the young queen is " elected " at 

 hatching or at 48 hours old. I take it that another good 

 many (and with some hesitation I will cast my lot among 

 them) entertain doubts about that. Still possible that the 

 young worker 3 hours old, and the young queen 3 hours old, 

 may not be fed exactly the same food. Page 837. 



BEE-CRANKOSITY. 



(Abstract noun.) A disease. Sometimes becomes 

 chronic ; and has been known to persist 30 years. Page 838. 



THE eyes of bees AND HOW THEY WORK. 



Prof. Cook does quite as well for us in giving us the 

 generalities about bees' eyes as he would have done in going 

 into minute matters. As he hints, two kinds of eyes so 

 diverse suggest difference of function. But it seems no one 

 stands ready to prove that yet. And as to what the differ- 

 ence of function is, if any, few even propound a working 

 theory that sounds plausible. That animal eyes are round, 

 and insect eyes much elongated I should guess is merely the 

 natural result of the inevitable smallness of the latter. The 

 laws of optics demand a space between lens and focus that 

 easily can be had in a large eye of any shape, but in a 

 minute eye only by elongation. Interesting to find that 

 general structure, even to the humors, is similar to animal 

 eyes. I had somehow got the idea that the sections of a 

 compound eye were empty like telescope tubes. And so the 

 retina shows more decided differences that the other parts 

 do. Prof. Cook alludes to the apparent fact that bee-vision 

 is not keen. I have often thought of this. The fact .that 

 hungry bees will never rush to food on the sight of it, as 

 pigs or chickens do, seems to be proof positive on that 

 point. On the other hand, a bee on the war-path sees well 

 enough (and quickly) to discriminate between clothed sur- 

 faces and bare skin, and to select eye-lids, and lips, and ear 

 as favorite places to sting. Or will much of this turn out 

 to be super-sensitive smell ? Sight hardly suffices to select 

 the thin places of a glove in preference to the thick places, 

 and bees will do that nicely. It seems the observers have it 

 almost proved that each section of a compound eye has 

 fractional vision instead of operating as an independent 

 eye. Each facet takes a part of the object, and the optic 

 never puts the parts together. Curious. I'll guess that the 

 overlapping of images doesn't do much harm, and that the 

 fractions are not put together quite as sharply as the sec- 

 tions of a patchwork quilt. Page 838. 



SHOOTING SWARMS OFF TREES. 



My inner consciousness tells me, Mr. StoUey, that no 

 man alive can always tell the spot where a shot-off branch 

 will fall. Swings hither and yon before it starts ; and the 

 amount and direction of the swinging depends upon too 

 many things — the completeness of the severance for one. 

 Have the hive all ready and near by. Bring 'em down first ; 

 and then set the hive just at the most promising spot. Of 

 course, Mr. S. is thinking of blowing completely away an 

 inch or so of the branch. Perhaps he can do it — some- 

 times. The tall trees that most bother me are basswoods ; 

 and sometimes the bees break the limbs off themselves and 

 fall. Alas, it's the exceptional and not the usual luck for a 

 cluster to form where it has clear way to drop to the ground 

 without lodging into something 1 Page 838. 



SAWING OFF SWARMS — A CORRECTION. 



My attack on the habit of sawing off swarms has a bad 

 " out " either in my copying or in the printer's work. Not 

 true that so many as several hundred in each thousand cause 

 damage to the neighbors. What I was trying to say was 

 that several hundred cause damage to the trees ; and that 

 several dozens cause damage to neighbors' trees. Page 7. 



Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush, by Prof. A. J. Cook ; 

 44 pages ; price, postpaid, 30 cents. This is by the same 

 author as " The Bee-Keepers' Guide," and is most valuable 

 to all who are interested in the product of our sugar-maples. 

 No one who makes maple sugar or syrup should be without 

 It. Order from the office of the American Bee Journal. 



Why Not send in some new subscriptions'for the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal ? Samples free for the asking. _. 



