344 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 11, 190S 



every alternate one, and the bees will not re- 

 new the bulges. 



You naay mean, however, that the bees have 

 built crooked, making a comb from one frame 

 into another frame. Even that case may be 

 managed as above directed, providing the 

 work is not too crooked. 



If you can not possibly get out any frame 

 for a starter, you would better proceed another 

 way. Get a frame of brood from another col- 

 ony, put it in an empty hive, fill up with 

 combs, foundation, or empty frames, and set 

 this hive over the faulty one. Now drum the 

 bees up into the empty hive, pounding good 

 and hard on the sides of the hive below. 

 When nearly all the bees are in the upper 

 hive, set it ois, then move the old hive ofl the 

 stand, put on the stand the new hive into 

 which you have driven the bees, put over it a 

 queen-excluder, and the old hive over that. 

 In four days look for eggs in the lower hive, 

 and if you find none you may know you 

 failed to drum the queen up, and you must 

 drum again. Twenty-one days after getting 

 the queen into the new hive the worker- 

 brood will be all out of the cells in the upper 

 story, when you can remove it if you like. 



Another way is open after you get the bees 

 drummed out. Take a knife with a long 

 blade, or a hand-saw, and cut down at each 

 side, so as to sever any comb fastened to the 

 sides. Now turn the hive upside down, and 

 with a little jarring you can jar all of the con- 

 tents out of the hive and lift the hive off. 

 Then you can cut loose attachments so as to 

 get one frame after another separate from the 

 rest, and it the bees have not made too 

 crooked work you may be able to crowd each 

 comb back into its own frame. 



2. Summer heat is the best temperature, 

 but as that is hardly practicable, keep it as 

 much above freezing as you can. 



3. Don't be in too much of a hurry about 

 condemning that queen. She may be as 

 good as any other, and not to blame for the 

 weakness of the colony. If she keeps filled 

 with brood and eggs all the comb the bees 

 can cover, that's all you ought to ask of her. 

 If after a reasonable time you find that she is 

 not bringing up the strength of the colony. 



and decide to give a cell from another colony, 

 dispose of the queen a day or two before giv- 

 ing the cell, or the bees may destroy it. 



A Place for Stimulative Feeding 



The country here is perfectly lovely after 

 the unusual rainfall, and all prospects for 

 bees and honey seem good. Anyway, the bees 

 are swarming. Five swarms of bees settled 

 in the garden of a friend of mine in San Diego 

 in less than two weeks. My bees in Colorado 

 never swarm till June. 



By the way, a few weeks ago it was asked 

 whether there were many localities where bees 

 could fly out and rear brood for a month be- 

 fore they could get flowers to work on. They 

 certainly seem to do so with us in Western 

 Colorado. We are over 6000 feet above the 

 sea, and the vegetation depends upon ex- 

 tremes of cold or heat, of course. The nights 

 are bitter cold well on into the spring, and 

 there is seldom anything for the bees before 

 the middle of March, when they are thick on 

 the elm trees. The sun, however, is usually 

 strong even in midwinter, and the bees get 

 frequent flights, and begin to take bran or 

 flour early in February. 



Rbbecoa Hallet. 

 San Diego Co., Calif., April 8. 



Here seems to be a place where, if any- 

 where, stimulative feeding ought to be a 

 benefit. Please tell us how that is. 



Honey-and-Salt Croup Cure 



canis would fit the dachshunds, and Micro- 

 canis the little pocket poodles, and MegacanU 

 the St. Bernards and Danes, and Vdocianis 

 the hounds, and Mordeocanis the bull dogs. 

 If we ever do get our science of bee-names 

 right, the largest possible specimen of Mordeo- 

 canis sebitem should be set to stand off the 

 meddlers. Page 214. 



LONGEVITT or WORKEBS AND DK0NE9. 



With positive evidence that work shortens 

 the lives of the worker-bees, one would think 

 that the " idle drone '' should live the longer 

 for his idleness. It seems, however, that the 

 queen-breeders do not succeed in keeping 

 them quiet 45 days, when they put a supply 

 of them in a queenless hive. That seems con- 

 clusive, or nearly so. Riotous bumming in 

 search of sexual service shortens life a little 

 faster than honest labor does, apparently. 

 Page 215. 



DARK AND MEALY BEESWAX. 



So the localities where the beeswax inclines 

 to be dark are simply the localities where 

 there is iron in the water ; and it would be a 

 simple cure if rain-water were always used in 

 rendering. Sounds sensible. Mr. Dadant is 

 likely right, that too much boiling turns wax 

 into meal ; but 1 feel pretty well assured that 

 too much honey in the water is also one cause 

 of the mischief. Page 216. 



EVAPORATING HONEY IN THE HIVB. 



For insisting on the real modus operandi of 

 evaporating honey in the hive, in place of a 

 venerable but non-existent one, Arthur C. 

 Miller is to be commended. Page 217. 



The following is gifen in the Herald and 

 Presbyter ; Give frequent doses of salt and 

 honey, giving at each dose a teaspoonful of 

 salt mixed with a tablespoonf ul of honey. 



It may be said here on general principles 

 that it is not always advisable to give honey 

 in connection with other Ingredients so as to 

 make a very disagreeable combination. The 

 temporary benefit may be overbalanced by the 

 distaste acquired for so wholesome an article 

 as honey for daily food. 



=^ 



VTiv. i)asi\i's aftertt?ougt?t5 



=/ 



The 



'Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

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



CANADIAN BBK-WINTERINO EXPERIMENTS. 



The wintering experiments at the Canadian 

 Experiment Farm seem to show that when 

 the hive is raised by 2-inch blocks on one side 

 it winters better than when bottom and en- 

 trance are left in outdoor style; also, that 

 with 3-inch blocks it does a little better yet. 

 With wet sand below them and a wet sheet 

 over them they were less quiet, but no very 

 great harm seemed to follow. Interesting to 

 see that colonies wintered wholly on sugar 

 syrup, while they did about as well as those 

 wintered on refed extracted honey, used 

 nearly 2 pounds more of it per colony. I 

 should have guessed that they would eat a 

 little less if restricted to syrup of granulated 

 sugar. 



Now as to outdoor wintering. Of 3 colo- 

 nies tolerably well protected with building 

 paper and dead air space, one of them died and 

 one of them went through in moderately good 

 order. We've seen the like of that before. 

 Of 4 colonies packed in a tenement with 6- 

 inch spaces, and the spaces filled with cut 

 straw, all came out in good order. Pages 208 

 and 209. 



SAINFOIN AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



Here's a kick at the Canadians about their 

 sainfoin experiment. The hay-producing part 

 of it was splendid. Incidentally they call it 

 a honey-producer; so I suppose we infer that 

 they saw some bees on it. But, surely, they 

 might have had the grace to tell us how con- 

 stantly and to what extent bees were seen to 

 frequent it. Those points are of decided in- 

 terest, and also in dispute. Give us a little 



more English, brethren— and don't let the 

 taciturnity of the northern Ojibways affect 

 you so. Page 209. 



SPECIES OF BBSS. 



The human disposition to find out about 

 things is on the whole a praiseworthy one. 

 We want to know about the North Pole, and 

 about the South Pole; and quite a good few 

 thousand dollars can be had to spend in ex- 

 ploration almost any time. And it kind o' 

 seems to me that mankind should care as 

 much to know just how many and what 

 species of bees the world contains as they do 

 to know what islands (it any) are adjacent to 

 the North Pole. It the authority quoted by 

 Prof. Cook could be called suflScient and com- 

 plete, we might say the world has nine species 

 of bees. Probably, however, Dr. Ashmead 

 does not claim that his information is com- 

 plete; and very likely some of his nine will 

 have to undergo considerable discussion be- 

 fore their right to stand as separate species is 

 conceded all around. So, for the present, we 

 have to be satisfied to say that the social bees, 

 akin to the domestic bee, are somewhere near 

 nine in number of species. As to dividing up 

 the genus Apis into three genera, I do not at 

 all claim to be a competent judge ; but on cat- 

 look-at-a-king principles I will say what I 

 think. I think that the fact that a man is a 

 great scientist does not save him, alas, from 

 the temptation to indulge in mischievous 

 tom-tinkerlng just because he thinks he can ! 

 How many genera and species of dog should 

 we have, if every dog not only had his day 

 but his Latin titles and credentials? Longi' 



' Feeding Back "—A Distinct Branch 

 of Mee-Keeping 



At the St. Louis convention the matter of 

 the profit in feeding bees sugar that it ra.ght 

 be stored in the sections was quite thoroughly 

 discussed. The position was taken by some that 

 it was folly for people to say that the bees 

 were fed sugar that they might make it into 

 honey, that there was no profit in it. Ur. 

 Miller asked: "If I feed sugar at five cents a 

 pound, how much must I sell the product for 

 to get my money back?" No one could tell 

 him and, if there could have several persons 

 answered him, there would have been as many 

 different answers as there were persons It 

 was finally voted that Louis Scholl, of the 

 Texas Experiment Apiary, should make some 

 experiments and report. 



Let me say that the feeding of sugar or 

 honey, that it be stored in the sections is as 

 distinct a branch of bee-keeping as that of 

 commercial queen-rearing. Mr Doolittle once 

 made some experiments in feeding back honey 

 that it might be stored in sections and re- 

 ported a decided loss. I have fed thousands 

 of pounds in which I secured three pounds 

 of comb honey from the feeding of four 

 rounds of extracted honey; and there you are. 

 It depends upon the weather «he tempera- 

 ture), the strain of bees, the strength of the 

 colonies, the size of the hive, the consistency 

 and temperature of the feed, and a whole lot 

 of details too numerous to mention. An ex- 

 periment in this line will prove little, or noth- 

 ing, as almost any results can be secured. Al- 

 thSugh I have made a decided success of 

 •■feeding back," I am not inclined to advise 

 it for the general bee-keeper.— Beekeepers 

 Review. ^^ 



Bee-Keeping in Bosnia 



.\us- 

 rationat 



The last speaker at the great bee-keepers 

 meeting held in Dornbirn was Franz Gloessl. 

 who reported the condition of apiculture_ "> 

 Bosnia, the extreme southern province of 

 tria bordering on Turkey. He said 

 bee-keeping had made advances only very 

 cently The movable-comb hive had been in- 

 troduced by the immigrants from Germany, 

 Hungary and Tivol. In 1899 he had organized 

 a bee-keepers' society, which had at the end 

 of the first year eight hundred members, most- 

 ly Turks The society soon made an appeal 

 to the government and succeeded in receiving 

 material grants. For instance, no tax was to 

 be levied on such hives as contained movable 

 combs and removable supers. Beekeepers were 

 furnished lumber gratis for constructing their 

 hives. To further bee-keeping, soldiers and 

 policemen were taught bee-keeping, etc., ana 

 were urged to keep bees whenever possible. — 

 American Bee-Keeper. 



