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^ERICA§ 



Entered at the Po6t-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 Published l^ceklj at 91.00 a Tear by Georg^e J/¥. Tork & Co., 334 Uearborn St. 



QBOROB W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, MARCH 16, 1905, 



VoLXLV.— No.ll. 



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(£bttortal Hotes 

 anb (Eomments 



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The Thrrd Double Number So Par This Year. 



Yes, this is the third double nuQiber of the American Bee Journal 

 for this year, making 4S extra pages already, and it is only the middle 

 of March. That is almost one-seventeenih more pages than we agree 

 to furnish during the year for one dollar, for the regular issue is 16 

 pages weekly. But we are glad we can publish these occasional 

 double numbers, for we believe they are appreciated very much by our 

 readers. 



Midwinter Flights of Bees. 



Strictly speaking, when midwinter flights are spoken of in con- 

 nection with cellar-wintered bees, midwinter is not really meant, but 

 February or early March. C. Davenport, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, 

 mentions what may help to account for ill effects of these flights in 

 some cases. He says the bees should be returned to the cellar on the 

 evening of the same day after their being taken out, or, at most, not 

 later than the next day. Left out longer they are likely to start 

 breeding. So the ill effects of midwinter flights may have come from 

 leaving out too long. 



The Contents of the Brood-Chamber. 



In order to judge properly whether all is as it should be inside a 

 hive, the beginner should have some idea what to expect when he 

 opens it. Upon this point the books are to a large extent silent, leav- 

 ing him to gain the desired knowledge through a series of observa- 

 tions extending through one or more years. Indeed, after many years 

 of observations it may not be the easiest thing for him to give any- 

 thing like a definite answer in a few words to the question, " What 

 ought I to find upon opening a hive?" In no two hives will exactly 

 the same thing be found. What is found to-day will be different 

 from what was found in the same hive at the last inspection. But at 

 least an attempt may be made to enlighten the inquiring neophyte in 

 a sort of general way as to what he may expect to find in a bee-hive. 



If the bees have been left to their own devices, there will be found 

 drone-comb in different places, amounting to the half or the whole of 

 a full frame. If the bee-keeper has controlled, there I may be nothing 

 but worker-comb in the hive, or, at most, two or three square inches 

 of drone-comb in one of the outer frames. Drone-cells are not likely 

 to contain brood except in times of prosperity when honey is coming 

 in. At other times they may contain honey, but not pollen. 



The queen in a colony wintered outdoors is likely to begin laying 

 a few eggs in February — sometimes even in .January. If a colouy is 

 cellared, it is not likely to have brood started much, if at all, bBfore 

 being brought out of cellar. The queen begins with a very few , ^gs 

 daily, a compact cluster being in the center, or warmest part (il the 

 hive. By and by eggs and brood will be found in two or three frunres, 

 the whole being no more than would easily go in one frame, v. hich 

 means that the queen maybe laying at the rate of about 300 ef rs a 



day. When she gets to laying 1000 a day, she will have four frames 

 fairly well filled with brood — at least they would be called well filledi 

 although little more than three-fourths of their actual capacity. With 

 1500 a day— many queens will not go beyond this, while some will 

 more than double it — she will have six Langstroth frames well occu- 

 pied, and this a fairly good queen will reach by the last of May in the 

 North. 



Looking into the hive at this time, there will be found a brood- 

 nest of a somewhat globular form, the central frames being a little 

 fuller than the others, a band of honey being at the top and at the 

 two ends, although a good queen may have brood clear to the top-bar. 

 There may and there may not be some pollen in the upper part of 

 these frames, but the frame next them at each side will ha\e a good 

 supply of pollen as well as honey. In a lO-frame hive it is not a very 

 common thing to find brood in the outside frame at each side, but in 

 an 8-frame hive the queen will often insist upon occupying a good 

 part of the two outside frames. 



This amount of brood will be found kept up pretty well through- 

 out the season, but toward the close the sphere of brood will gradually 

 become less and less, the space left vacant by the brood being filled 

 with honey and pollen, and somewhere in September or October all 

 brood-rearing ceases, and all the combs should be found filled with 

 honey and pollen except the lower portions of the central combs. 



Thus a rough sketch is given as to what may be found in a hive at 

 different times, subject to innumerable variations, and no one must 

 understand that any attempt at exactness has been attempted. Dates 

 must be changed for the South. Neither must any beginner under- 

 stand that 8 or even 10 frames make the limit for every queen. If 

 given the opportunity, there are queens which will occupy 12, 14, or 

 more frames. ^^^___^_^__ 



The National Association and Incorporation. 



Dr. C. C. Miller has this to say on the subject of incorporation of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association : 



I am glad, Mr. Editor, to see the matter of incorporation of the 

 National discussed in your columns. I don't know all about such 

 things, but so far as I can judge from what is said on page 115, the 

 weight of argument is on the side of incorporation. After incorpora- 

 tion we would not be obliged to engage in a lawsuit any more than we 

 are now. In the case mentioned, the Ladies' Home Journal, I think 

 there was no lawsuit on the part of the incorporated concern ; merely 

 a request for retraction, the same as was made by the National. 

 Prompt and satisfactory apology was made in the case of the incor- 

 porated concern because it was incorporated, and it was not made in 

 the other case because it was not incorporated. If we had received the 

 same treatment as the incorporated concern, would not this one case 

 have paid for the cost of incorporation several times over ! 



Again I repeat that incorporation does not oblige us to engage in 

 lawsuits. Yet I can not believe it would be so very hard to prove that 

 individual members of the National were damaged a fixed amount by 

 some of the things that have been done. 



The National, in one of its former states of existence, was incor- 

 porated. If it did no good it certainly did no harm. Would it do any 

 more barm now? C. C. Millbr. 



We think the principal question lobe decided before incorporat- 

 ing the National is this ; Will the Association take any advantage of 

 the added power and responsibility >. If not, why not remain as it is} 



There is a committee on incoriic-ation that will report at the next 

 annual meeting of the National. No doubt they wish to get the views 

 of the members. Dr. Miller is on that committee, we believe. 



