634 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 7, 190S 



2Tti\ pasty's (Iftcrtl^ou^l^ts 



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

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



J 



OLD COMBS FOR WINTERING BEES. 



The importance of old comb and long es- 

 tablished colony when winter conditions are 

 hard is strongly brought out by Mr. Becker's 

 experience. The old colonies in old hives 

 mostly went through in good order ; while of 

 10 in new hives (presumably new colonies 

 also) only one saw spring, and that perished 

 before spring was over. Between the layers 

 of silk in the bottom of a cell are films of 

 dried stuff that can be used as a sort of food. 

 Although honey is the main food in winter, 

 there still seems to be need of a small amount 

 of nitrogenous food different from honey — 

 and the bees get it by chewing up these films. 

 I think that more than half the reason why a 

 new colony and hive is apt to fare poorly 

 when wintering, is because the number of 

 films in a cell is small, and in too many of the 

 cells none at all. Page 4',I0. 



COMB FOUNDATION IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. 



Mankind can give bees several laps and yet 

 beat them in the "locality" queerness. 

 Locality Europe and they won't have Weed 

 process foundation. Locality America and 

 they won't have anything else. Perhaps they 

 know more about the Weed process than 

 most of us are allowed to — else know less, and 

 fib against it. Let's see— were we not told 

 once that the Weed process did not work with 

 impure wax? If that is the fact, naturally 

 those European makers, who mostly adul- 

 terate, would feel inclined to lie it down. 

 Fifty-seven and a half tons of foundation in 

 one year is certainly a grand record for the 

 Dadants. Page .502. 



OLD AND TOUNG BEES IN THE COLONY. 



In his article on page 504, Mr. Doolittle 

 starts ideas that are not as familiar to' the 

 most of us as they ought to be. We can take 

 away all the old bees of a colony without de- 

 stroying it. Younger bees will go the fields 

 jn their stead. But will they not bring 



smaller loads and fewer of them — and so the 

 damage to the colony be much greater than 

 we thought? We can take away all the 

 young bees and make the field-bees stay at 

 home and nurse brood. But will it not take 

 twice as many of them to digest pollen enough 

 for a given number of young? Presumably 

 they quit breeding and went to the fields 

 partly because their pollen-digesting powers 

 were failing. And it is known to conduce to 

 poor queens to be reared by old bees. 



" SHOOK " SWARMING AND DIVIDING. 



The Northwesteners seem to have gotten 

 dreadfully mixed when they tried to discuss 

 " shook " swarming — majority of them talk- 

 ing about some form of dividing. Dividing 

 is dividing; and "shook" swarming is 

 " shook" swarming. Nothing is entitled to 

 the latter name unless it is a tolerably close 

 counterfeit of natural swarming. I guess we 

 shall have to be broad enough to admit that 

 there are two kinds. In the closest imitation 

 we manufacture a cluster in a bos or elsewise 

 and then carry it away and hive it just as we 

 would a natural swarm. In the less close 

 imitation we carry away the combs and some 

 of the bees, and let the " shook " continue to 

 occupy the old stand. Page 505. 



TIME OF BABY-BEES' DINING. 



There's a laugh hid in Missouri's Ques. 5, 

 on page 505. What the innocent child really 

 wants to know is the meal hours for bee- 

 babies — whether they dine at 12, like working- 

 folks, or at 5 like aristocrats, or at 9 like the 

 public celebration dinner. 



QUEENS LAYING SEVERAL BGGS IN A l^UBEN- 

 CELL. 



And so a good queen has been known to 

 lay three eggs in a queen-cell — consequently 

 it isn't always laying workers that do that 

 sort of thing. Thanks for the evidence. Miss 

 ■Wilson. Page b07. 



r 



K. 



®ur BecKcepincj Sisters 



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J 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Bee-Keeping for Women— When 



Not Advisable— Success and 



Failure 



But while I thus advocate bee-keeping for 

 certain classes of women, as intimated in a 

 preceding article, I do not advocate it for all 

 women under any and all circumstances. 

 The woman whose time is already taken 

 up with other work should not take upon 

 herself in addition the care of an apiary. 

 This is for both her own and her family's 

 sake, for should she do so she will surely 

 overtax her strength and unfit herself for her 

 higher mission, or she \s\\\ neglect either her 

 family or her bees. Kau^ily and home were 

 meant to, and should, occupy the first place 

 in every woman's heart, therefore she is not 

 justiflea, unless actually compelled by need 

 or lack of health, tu undertake anything 

 which will absorb lime and strength needed 

 indoors. For these reasons I do not advocate 

 bee-keeping for women with large families, at 

 any rate unless the various members are able 

 and willing to assioi i;... ■•ially. 



: say " willing,'' s.;, 11 as able, for it 

 scuetimes happens the; a woman who is 

 favorably situated in evtiiy other way, and 

 who has an earnest am' 'on to engage in 



sponsible. Any one who has attained any 

 measure of success in any line of work, has 

 gained increased confidence in, and greater 

 respect for, his or her ability, and is therefore 

 better able to cope with the problems of life. 

 On the other hand, those who accept failure 

 are made weaker and less capable. Not only 

 does failure degrade one in one's own estima- 

 tion, but in that of one's neighbors as well. 

 This is possibly more true of women's efforts 

 than of men's, although the same may be said 

 of both. But women, as money-earners, are 

 more conspicuous figures than men, conse- 

 quently results are more marked and more 

 strongly commented upon. Knowing these 

 things, then, let every woman who goes into 

 the field take with her energy, enthusiasm, 

 and a determination to succeed. 



But as said before, success and failure 

 affect the standing of any industry, especially 

 in the immediate locality where it was made. 

 Where one succeeds more will follow, and 

 bee-keeping is an occupation worthy of the 

 efforts of the most capable. Not only is it 

 productive of health, but is capable of bring- 

 ing into any community where it may be fol- 

 lowed extensively, prosperity and compara- 

 tive wealth. Women are not less responsible 

 than men ; let us therefore give to our indus- 

 try our best efforts, and endeavor to win for 

 it, as well as for ourselves, the respect and 

 appreciation of all observers. 



Mrs. Millie Honaker. 



Vernon Co., Wis. 



bee-keeping, is oppostd by husband or some 

 other member of the family because of preju- 

 dice against the bees, or for some other 

 reason. Such a woman should not, until she 

 can overcome all opposition by agreeable 

 means, engage in the work. Domestic peace 

 and harmony are worth far more to any 

 woman than anything she would be able to 

 obtain from bee-keeping without them. 

 Besides, much hard work is involved, enough 

 to make it a hard pull alone at the best, and 

 altogether too hard when it must be under- 

 taken in oppositiuD to one's family. In 

 manipulating and cellaring, in extracting and 

 marketing, and at various other times, a 

 woman will find herself hampered by lack of 

 strength or resources ; whereas, if the mem- 

 I bers of her family stand ready to lend her 

 such assistance as I'^^y can, both mental and 

 physical burden will i^e greatly lightened. 



But while I have placed a woman's duty to 

 her family an J herself above all other things 

 as a barrier to her v aging in bee-keeping, 

 she should also con der that something is 

 due to the enterprise or its own sake, there- 

 fore she shouM -,it mbark in it unless pre- 

 pared to make ii .. v^ess as far as she may. 

 But it should firsr ij , aid that while success 

 or failure affects the : .nding of any industry, 

 it affects it far lets • .n it does the one re- 



Ttae Yellow and the White Sweet 

 Clover 



Dear Miss Wilson: — I have had a sort of 

 guilty feeling for some time as the American 

 Bee Journal came to hand so regularly, to 

 think that it is so long since I have had a 

 word to say to my confreres. There has been 

 no lack of interest on my part, and many 

 things have called for comment of one kind 

 or another. 



I noticed in a recent number that J. A. 

 Green, of Colorado, says that yellow sweet 

 clover blooms 15 days in advance of the white. 

 I am at a loss to account for the difference 

 between his location and mine. Here there is 

 a }ii(,nth's difference in the time of their 

 blooming. The yellow comes into bloom early 

 in .June, with perhaps a scattering blossom or 

 two late in May. Here it is about the Fourth 

 of July when the white may be said to be in 

 bloom. I wouldlike to hear from some others 

 who have both kinds. 



The bees are rushing things here just now, 

 as they always do when the lieartsease comes. 

 They are losing no time, consequently I am 

 rushed, too. 



I have a nice hammock in the shade, but it 

 is empty most of the time. I am glad to see 

 that the editor gets off occasionally so that he 

 can tell us about the " big men," and, inci- 

 dentally, have "a good time." 



(Mrs.) a. L. Amos. 



Custer Co., Nebr., Aug. 16. 



Experiments in Wax-Secretion 



Experiments reported in L'Apiculteur 

 showed that a swarm of '20,000 bees builds 

 about UlOO grams of comb in the first 4 days. 

 Estimating that ^4 of the bees at work secre- 

 ting, that makes each bee secrete .0000376 of a 

 pound of wax in a day. At that rate it would 

 take a bee 26,595 days to secrete a pound, or 

 26,595 bees to secrete a pound in one day. — 

 [These are interesting figures; but another 

 set of experiments might show quite a wide 

 variation from these, owing to different con- 

 ditions. Different experimenters have arrived 

 at widely different results as to the number of 

 pounds of honey it requires to make a pound 

 of wax, the highest figures being 30 lbs., and 

 ihe lowest between 5 and 0. But for all that, 

 the general average of experiments of late has 

 been between 6 and 7 pounds. It would be 

 interesting to know how near the figures you 

 furnish are to the general average. Perhaps 

 the new apicultural department at Washing- 

 ton, with its fine corps of workers, will be 

 able to eliminate many of our guess approxi- 

 mate figures, and substitute therefor those 

 that are reasonably accurate. — Ed.] — Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture. 



