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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 14, 190S 



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TXix. ^asty s aftcrtl^ougf^ts 



The " 0)d Reliable " seen through New nnd Uareliable Glasses 

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



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SHOTGUN METHOD OF GETTING DOWN SWARMS. 



Actual experiences with the shotgun 

 method of getting down high clusters are 

 very welcome. Frank E. Kellogg's seems to 

 open up new possibilities, in that the limb 

 proved a little too big to shoot off. The im- 

 pact of two charges of shot at once gave a jar 

 sufficiently violent to drop them pretty clear, 

 not tailing off the limb. The sequel was a 

 rather improbable one that I guess must not 

 be expected every time. They didn't do the 

 most probable thing—remain crawling on the 

 ground— neither the next most probable, fly 

 up to the same place again, but took a third 

 and unusually kindly course of alighting in 

 an easier place. I kind o' guess that a swarm 

 that happened to be feeling almost ready to 

 start again would be less frantically persistent 

 in going right back to the identical spot than 

 one that has recently clustered frequently is. 

 But that would be a very risky idea to travel 

 on. Page 524. 



HONEY-TANK CABS FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



There are a few customers that use ex- 

 tracted honey in great quantities. The%j don't 

 like tin cans. Too petty and fussy. I wonder 

 if the honey-trade will ever grow to having 

 its own tank cars, and so avoid both the pet- 

 tiness of tins and the everlasting leakage of 

 barrels. The honey-tank car I view as differ- 

 ing from the oil-tank car only in having a 

 bigger man-hole, by means of which a man 

 could go in, and, standing on a big plank, 

 shovel candied honey into a half-barrel bucket. 

 Of course, the honey alioidd be used out 

 while still liquid; but Shouldn't Bees are so 

 plenty in this world that I guess they should 

 be provided against in this case. Page 533. 



ONE SWARM OR NO SWARM PER COLONY? 



As to whether one swarm or no swarm is to 

 be preferred, 3 of the 29 experts do not meet 

 the question very squarely. Of the remaining 

 .ib only 4 decidedly favor the one swarm. 

 About 19— a very heavy majority— desire a 

 *a'u'^ of things in which there is no swarming. 

 About U point out that no swarming is best 

 for a short, early flow with no late surplus, 

 while the colony and iis swarm will exceed 

 where there is a good, late harvest. Page 535. 



HIVES NUMBERED AND IN GROUPS. 



Yes, sir, in Dr. Miller's apiary No. 35 stands 

 right by the side of No. 26, instead of at the 

 opposite corner of the yard as it's " the way " 

 to have them. We can see this in the picture 

 on page ,->34. We can also see that he places 

 his hives in the up-to-date 4-hive group I 



admit that my groups of 9 are not as good; 

 but changing is troublesome, and also my 

 style is better in some things; so I keep on in 

 a way that is not up to date. One minor 

 thing in which my style excels is that it is 

 entirely needless to have any visible figures. 

 Each stand has its number, and I can in- 

 stantly tell it without any numbers posted up 

 to view. This faculty is not any sleight of 

 mine, but any one could quickly learn to do 

 the same thing. 



CYPRIANS AS QUEEN-REARERS. 



I Still hold fast my view that building an 

 extravagant number of queeo-cells is one of 

 the badges of inferiority, and that a disposi- 

 tion to build only three or four represents the 

 highest development. The Cyprians are halt- 

 way back to bumble-beeism, in which state 

 every female is more or less a queen. One of 

 my biggest I-don't-knows is 1 don't know 

 whether it can do any harm to have Cyprians 

 rear queens for more highly developed races. 

 Suspicious. Let the attenuation of the food 

 be carried far enough and the queen wouldn't 

 be a queen at all, but just a worker. I sus- 

 pect that the same thing cirried not quite so 

 far would produce a short-lived queen. Dr. 

 Miller must carefully watch and see whether 

 those Cyp-reared queens live as long as they 

 ought to— and then tell us, " honest Iniun " 

 Page 534, 



THE LEAGUE'S SHIPPING-CASE CIRCULAR. 



For saying just what ought to be said, and 

 leaving out an immense amount of rubbish 

 that does not need to be said, the Honey Cir- 

 cular on page 536 deserves very high praise 

 indeed. But I wish to plead hard for one 

 little change in future editions. In the fourth 

 paragraph read " enforced " in place of "in 

 force." The latter only means on the books 

 and capable of being enforced. A State which 

 has a pure food law and takes no particular 

 pains to enforce it is no safe place to buy ex- 

 tracted honey on the general market. Don't 

 let The Honey-Producers' League begin by 

 retailing flbs to the profit of the honey-man 

 and the harm of the public. Creating confi- 

 dence in extracted honey where it is not 1 

 worthy of confidence is just doing the adul- 

 terator's work for them. 



u S" B*^ ^likely some will negleot to obey the 

 N. B.," because they can't imagine whii 

 Would it be worth the while to put in be- 

 tween the second sentence and the third, 

 ' Honey has a troublesome tendency to ab- 

 sorb moisture ?" To be sure, one might guess 

 the why if he would meditate a little on the 

 closing sentence as it is. 



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(Dur ^zzliz(tx>\\\(x^ Sisters 



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Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Bee-Keeplng and Most Deslrabla 

 Aplapian Outnt 



Dear Miss Wilson:— I have not now even 

 a colony of bees, but hope by next spring to 

 have a nice little start in the business. I kept 

 bees for three years in a little village railway 

 town, starting with 2 colonies and incre.asing 

 to 11 at the end of the third year, and although 

 It was new work for me, and a side-issue, as 

 1 was in a little store, and one season was 

 very wet and one very dry, still I think 1 did 

 very nicely in a financial way, and became 

 very much interested in the work, but I sold 

 out ray little store and so left the town, and a 



little later I also sold my apiary. I had a very 

 nice and handy outfit. 



I wish to begin right when I start in the 

 spring, and want to ask you some questions 

 to help me out. I thought you might have a 

 little more time and patience with a woman, 

 as you are a woman yourself. So I write you, 

 instead of Dr. Miller, who is no doubt too 

 busy to sit down and write answers to my 

 many questions. Some of them may cause 

 you and the good Doctor to smile, but, then, 

 you must remember that I am still somewhat 

 of a " tenderfoot," aud I am anxious to learn 

 more of the delightful work. 



My mother has at our home 3 colonies of 



bees to which this season 1 have given some 

 attention, and it has renewed my interest in 

 the work, no doubt. Mother had a lot of old 

 comb and old wax, and she could not afford a 

 solar wax-extractor, so, as I had seen one, 

 from memory I took a box and some glass, 

 tin, black paint, etc., and made one which 

 worked nicely, and extracted the wax as nice 

 and clean as we could wish. Mother had 2 

 colonies, and one swarmed, and that gave her 

 a third, which I hived for her; however, the 

 hives, frames, etc., are not in good shape, but 

 I have done the best I could with them. 



Now for the questions: 



1. Is there any one particular hive that you 

 and Dr. Miller regard as the heat, or superior 

 to all others? If so, what is the name of it? 

 Also, what kind do you use? I suppose, of 

 course, that you are using what you regard 

 as ihe best, unless there has been put upon the 

 market a better one since you have bought a 

 supply. 



3. Kindly give me the dimensions and num- 

 ber of frames in the brood-chamber, in the 

 extracting-super, and also the size of same. 



3. I think that I will do some extracting 

 and run some for comb honey, as I did before. 

 Which would you advise me to do, extract, 

 or run for comb honey, or both? 



4. Do you run mostly for comb honey? 

 h. What size of sections do you use? 



6. May I ask how many colonies of bees you 

 keep? 



7. How do you increase— by natural swarm- 

 ing? 



8. Do you clip your queens? Do you think 

 it injures them? 



9. Do you have only the pure Italian strain? 



10. What kind of wax-extractor do you use? 

 also honey-extractor? 



11. In what direction do you face your 

 hives, and how near side by side and in rows 

 do you place them? 



12. Do you have fruit-trees, grapes, sun- 

 flowers, or anything of the kind In your bee- 

 yard? If not, what shade do you have? 



13. Do you use boards to protect your bees 

 from the sun or storm on the top and sides of 

 the hives? 



14. Do you have a tight board fence on the 

 northwest side of the yard to protect the bees 

 from the cold winds and storms? 



15. Do you have alighting-boards? 



10. Do you keep all grass and weeds down 

 around the hives? 



ir. How high is the body of your hives 

 from the ground? Flora E. Phillips. 



Winnebago Co., 111. 



1. We use the 8-frame dovetailed hive, and 

 know of nothing better, although for some 

 the 10-frame hive may be better, as there is 

 less danger of a colony running short of 

 stores in winter with the larger hive. 



2. Eight frames, ir^sxll's inches. We do 

 not use extracting supers. 



3. I could not advise; that would depend 

 entirely upon conditions. If you have made 

 a success in running for both it may be best 

 to continue that. 



4. Yes. 



5. 4'^x4i4'xl'^', although we have tried 

 others to a limited extent. 



6 The present number (Aug. 38) is 231. 



7. Mainly by nuclei. 



8. We clip them, and could never see that 

 it injured them. 



9. We breed entirely for the honey-gather- 

 ing q ualities. and most of our bees are hybrids. 



10. German wax-press. The only honey- 

 extractor we have is the old Peabody ex- 

 tractor, but it is seldom used. 



11. Some face east and some west. The 

 first two hives in the row stand as near to- 

 gether as they can without touching, then a 

 space of 3 or 4 feet, then another pair of 

 hives, and so on. Another row is generally 

 placed close up to this row, the hives stand- 

 ing back to back, making 4 hives in a group. 



12. Our apiaries are mostly shaded by 

 apple-trees. 



13. No. 



14. No, although it might be a good thing. 



15. Nothing except the projection of the 

 bottom-board— about :i inches. 



16. Not always as well as we might. 



17. The bottom-board is about 3 inches from 

 the ground. 



