392 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 1, 1905 



first crop of alfalfa. I got 500 pounds of 

 comb honey, amd increased from 14 to 21 

 colonies. We have a good prospect for the 



season, if all goes right. Success to all bee- 

 keepers. Mrs. Ben Ferguson. 

 Ford Co., Kans.,May 8. 



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

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



AMOUNT or CAPPED SECTION-COMB SURFACE. 



Some of our expert answers to questions 

 are a little depressing to the apicultural 

 student by the amount of disagreement in 

 opinion which they show. The student afore- 

 said m;iy be reassured by the answers to ques- 

 tion 25. Out of 39 respondents 22 either say 

 the whole surface of a section should be 

 sealed, or all except the cells next the wood. 

 None of the other respondents lean in any 

 other direction very strongly. One answer 

 would tolerate 15 percent unsealed in seccmd- 

 class honey ; another would allow 5 percent 

 in first-class; and that's about the extreme in 

 that direction. Page 293. 



CHEAP SECTIONS— FOUL BROOD. 



"Lickin' good, Sal, why don't you get you 

 some?" — as the bumpkin remarked to his girl 

 about the stick of candy he purchased. 

 Greiner's worse than that. Sal could, and 

 probably did, buy the stick of candy ; but we 

 can't buy a nice supply of two-dollar sections 

 to be kept as an emergency reserve. 



Sure enough ! If our appointed eradicators 

 of foul brood at times become distributors of 

 foul brood, and carry it into territory pre- 

 viously unpolluted, it surely becomes us to 

 " look a little out." Page 294. 



A CORRECTION ABOUT PROF. HARRISON. 



Lumber and literature both liable to 

 "nots!" In the former always detrimental; 

 in the latter often beneficial. Vide the not 

 that turned up missing in the first line of my 

 third caption, page 296. Also, when the knots 

 of lumber drop out they always leave a hole 

 to tell the tale ; but no hole is left to hint that 

 Prof. Harrison is not the objectionable bee- 

 doctor he is there alleged to be. 



NOTICING " STRANGE " BEES. 



The phrase, " I have noticed strange bees," 

 seems to suggest that a less careful observer 

 might have failed to notice them. That 

 would hardly be the case with an onslaught 

 of robbers. The peculiar language made me 

 wonder a little it " Illinois " was not mistaken 

 about what he saw. Possible to mistake ex- 

 tra-faithful guards for robbers. Sometimes 

 guards galore get well out on the alighting- 

 board, running at every bee that alights, 

 saying, " Halt, there, and give the counter- 

 sign." And the bee thus rudely collared says. 



" I haven't the last countersign with me; but 

 here's something just as good;" and there- 

 upon uncorks something from the inside 

 pocket. Page 297. 



DAUGHTERS OF BEST QUEENS AND OTHERS. 



The fact Dr. Miller alludes to on page 297, 

 is one of the most trying ones with which we 

 have to deal. Left entirely to herself, the 

 best queen in the apiary will die and leave but 

 one daughter; while the most undesirable 

 one of all will leave a host of daughters. If 

 it wasn't for this one ugly fact one might 

 almost object to breeding queens, and advo- 

 cate systematic letting alone. 



WEAK NUCLEUS BUILDING WORKER-COMB. 



"Curls!" Curious how much we don't 

 know— some of us. Dr. Miller says, on page 

 313, that a queenless nucleus will build 

 worker-comb if weak enough. I wonder 

 greatly why extreme weakness should make 

 such a change— in a rather mysterious thing. 

 In my journeys through the forests of Igno- 

 tum, I don't think I ever encountered that 

 little fact before. Thanks, Dr. Miller ! 



PREPARING FOR SWARMS THAT DIDN'T COME. 



So E. Tucker made lots of hives to be pre- 

 pared for the excessive swarming of his Car- 

 niolans — and not a swarm for two years. I 

 suppose that that quaint proverb, " The un- 

 expected always happens," applies a little 

 more frequently to bee-keeping than to almost 

 any other vocation. Page 317. 



ADVERTISING HONEY IN CANADA. 



The great publications of the United States 

 have many readers in Canada, I believe, while 

 Canadian publications circulate but little here. 

 It follows that when honey comes to be 

 advertised heavily the Canadians will have 

 " a soft thing of it;" can just do nothing, 

 and in so doing get a good share of the re- 

 sults. And if they choose to organize and 

 put some ads. in their own papers, it will 

 come in as additional and cumulative, and 

 count much more than the same would if put 

 in just now. They're all right anyhow. And 

 also our folks were right in not trying to run 

 two nations in the same advertising League. 

 Otherwise they would have speedily heard 

 that the Canadian [newspaper] widows were 

 neglected in the daily ministration. Page 323. 



/T 



Doctor irtillcr 5 Qucstion^Sox 



^ 



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

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 Dr. Miller does tiot answer Questions by mail. 



J' 



I 



Starters— Fastening Foundatlon- 

 Palnting Bottom-Boards 



1. In Bulletin No. 133, Department of Agri- 

 culture, telling about the value of foundation 

 in comb-building, only one end of the starters 

 is fastened to the sides of the section. Is this 

 best, or should it come against both ends? I 

 bought some super foundation the other day 

 that measured 14><x3i;j inches, and as I use 

 43^x4}^ plain sections, it will not nearly make 

 4 starters, the width of the section. 



2. How does the Parker foundation fastener 

 fasten one-inch starters to sections, that is, 



are they held by wax or simply pressed against 



the sides! 



3. Is it best to paint the bottom-board all 

 over, or only that part which the bees do not 

 come in contact with? 



4. Does it not need anything to keep supers 

 and covers from blowing o2 of dovetailed 

 hives? Missouri. 



Answers. — 1. If a single starter is put in a 

 section, it must be fastened only at the top. 

 If fastened only at the bottom, the foundation 

 is likely to sag enough to make it bulge out 

 to one side. Your foundation, when cut in 

 four pieces, will leave a space of about half 

 an inch at the bottom. The result will not be 



much different if the sjiace were only half ss 

 much. But the better plan is to have a %- 

 inch starter at the bottom. 



2. Simply pressed hard into the wood. 



3. Usually only the outside part is painted. 

 It would do no harm to paint all, but the bees 

 are likely to paint their part well enough. 



4. In the early spring, when bee-glue is 

 hard, if the hives are in a windy place, it is 

 well to have a small stone on the cover, un- 

 less the cover is otherwise fastened. At other 

 times there is no need. 



Rearing Queens— Keeping Italians 

 Pure 



1. When I wantito rear queens, and I put the 

 prepared cells into Titoff cages, do I put the 

 cages into a queenless colony, or is it all right 

 to put them in the upper story of a queen- 

 right colony? 



2. After the queens are hatched out is it all 

 right to leave the queens in the cages in the 

 queen-right colony until needed? 



3. How am I to keep my Italian bees pure? 

 Suppose I have two Italian colonies, and the 

 queens I rear from one colony are to be mated. 

 Do I have to take the virgin queen some dis- 

 tance away, and the drones of the other Ital- 

 ian colony with her, to be sure she is mated 

 with an Italian drone? Please describe how I 

 am to arrange the matter so as to be sure of 

 pure mating. Ontario. 



Answers. — 1. They are more sure of 

 proper attention in a queenless colony. 



2. No, before they are needed for use they 

 must be kept where they are free to fly out to 

 meet the drones. 



3. You may as well make up your mind 

 first as last that under ordinary conditions 

 you can not be sure of keeping pure blood. 

 Some claim success by confining the queens 

 and drones during the hours of the day when 

 drones fly, and then by feeding to induce 

 flight at a later hour in the day. You can 

 succeed without question if you have your 

 queen beyond the flight of any but the desired 

 drones; but that means, according to some 

 good authorities, that they must be 4 or 5 

 miles away from other bees. 



Indian Turnip 



On page 312, there is a recipe for a cough 

 cure by W. T. Mundy. What is Indian tur- 

 nip? May be it is those roots we call Indian 

 potatoes, the stalks of which grow up to a 

 height of 3 to 4 feet, with yellow flowers on 

 top. Minnesota. 



Answer. — No, it doesn't grow 3 to 4 feet 

 high; it is less than a foot high. It is a 3- 

 leaved affair, and the blossom and fruit have 

 over them a hood which gives the plant its 

 other common name, jack-in-the-pulpit. The 

 botanical name is ArUaema triphytlum. If 

 you bite a little piece of the bulb or root, it 

 doesn't seem just at first to have a very strong 

 taste, but after a second or two it begins to 

 bite and burn your mouth, and keeps it up in 

 quite a painful manner. 



Wintering Bees-lO-Frame Lang- 



strotn Hives—Shaken or 



Driven Swarms 



1. I am greatly interested in using the 10- 

 frame Ideal super as a hive-body for swarms. 

 Do you think I could winter a colony in one 

 of these 10-frame supers in this locality? 



2. Would the 10-frame super full of honey 

 (it I used one super) be enough for them to 

 winter on, or ought I to leave enough empty 

 combs for them to cluster on? 



3. I have lu-frame Langstroth hives. Do 

 you think I would do better with them in this 

 locality? There has been a very poor honey- 

 flow in the last 4 years. 



4. I made a second drive of newly-hatched 

 bees last season, 19 days after making the 

 shaken swarm. After all of the bees in the 

 second drive had entered I placed an entrance 

 queen-excluder to control drones. The next 

 morning I found nearly all of the bees dead, 



